Should children have plastic surgery?

I recently read that a New York plastic surgeon would ask his younger patients (children & teens) to draw a picture of how they see themselves.  

This self portrait may be revealing to a child’s self-image – a view into his or her world.  

Many times young children will be brought into my Fort Myers plastic surgery practice for ear surgery, ie. their ears protrude too much.  In these cases I will ask the parents to leave the room and ask the child how they feel about their ears.  

In other words, am I doing the surgery for the child and their self esteem – their image or their parents?  It is important to make this distinction.  Many times a physical deformity can be damaging to a child’s self esteem.  

I remember when I was in high school and had to wear glasses.  Wow!  What a shock – what an eye opener – no pun intended.  I was now 4 eyes.  Pretty devastating to one’s ego and self esteem.  

A child becomes the brunt of jokes, ridicule or as we like to now call it now, a victim of bullying.  In many cases surgery can go a long way to helping correct not only the physical problem but, more important, the child’s psyche or self esteem.