Le Thi Ngoc, a 29-year-old teacher from Phu Tho Province, recently consulted doctors at the 108 Hospital in Ha Noi about a breast-enhancement surgery. She told a newspaper: “I stopped breastfeeding my second child a year ago. I want a breast lift surgery to become as beautiful as other women.” More and more people are going under the knife for cosmetic purposes in Viet Nam, sparking a boom in demand for plastic surgery. “The number of young customers having plastic surgery has doubled from a few years ago,” said Dr. Nguyen Huy Tho, head of the 108 Hospital’s plastic surgery department. Tho has done breast-lift surgeries for 176 women in the past five years, including for 10 women aged 25, and 109 others between 25 and 35.
Around 18 percent of them had never had a child before the surgery,
he said, adding that his patients varied from small traders to students to civil servants.
Dr. Tran Thiet Son, head of the Plastic Surgery Ward at the Saint Paul Hospital in Ha Noi, said 30 percent of patients bring along a photo of a movie star and ask doctors to make them look like their idol.
There was a 25-year-old woman who was pretty but not satisfied with her appearance. She brought along a picture of Kim Tae Hee and asked for surgeries in four places on her face to make her look like the South Korean movie star.
Many other hospitals in Ha Noi as well as in Sai Gon have reported an increase in cosmetic surgeries in the past few years. Cho Ray Hospital in Sai Gon performs an average of 1,000 a year, mostly fat removal and procedures on eyelids, noses, and breasts.
Dr. Le Hanh, head of its plastic surgery department, estimated that around 100,000 people have cosmetic surgeries in the city every year. Before 1975, the Vietnamese plastic surgery industry was a leader in the region, attracting many clients from other countries, he said. After 1975, the industry slowed down until making a weak comeback in the 1990s, he said.
It was only after 2000 that the industry developed quickly following an increase in demand.
Many public and private hospitals have since set up plastic surgery wards. “Even a district-level public facility like Phu Nhuan Hospital now offers plastic surgery,” he said. The boom led to the establishment of the Sai Gon Plastic Surgery Association in 2007, and two years later, the Pham Ngoc Thach Medical University and Sai Gon Medicine and Pharmacy University set up plastic surgery faculties. Hanh said: “Not many universities abroad have plastic surgery faculties. At Sai Gon universities, students are trained in all kinds of plastic surgeries and intern at hospitals.” Many beauty salons have registered to offer cosmetic surgeries. Others act as agents for clinics and hospitals offering them, while many others perform surgeries illegally. Plastic surgeons advise people to be prudent while choosing where to get their surgery done.
A good plastic surgery clinic with a skilled doctor always informs patients about all the risks and possible complications from the surgery,
a plastic surgeon, who wished to remain anonymous, said.
People should be informed about the surgeon and relevant risks because no surgery is 100 percent safe
An investigation by Tuoi Tre newspaper found that a majority of people choose to have cosmetic surgery at a facility they came to know through advertisements. Many clinics make false advertisements, exaggerating their capability or claiming to be legal, the newspaper said.
A cosmetic surgery clinic on Le Hong Phong Street in Sai Gon’s District 10 often claims to “perfectly fix plastic surgery mistakes [by others]” and offers “lifetime insurance” for its own surgeries. Another clinic on Thu Khoa Huan Street in District 1 claims to be the “first and sole clinic in Viet Nam” to have the technology to remove fat through laser surgery.
Many other clinics in Ha Noi and Sai Gon also make similar dubious claims though many well-known surgeons warn that no one can guarantee that a plastic surgery will turn out exactly as expected or that there will be no complications.
