LAUSR

Dear Editor, Dr. Mark B. Constantian’s text, Childhood Abuse, Body Shame, and Addictive Plastic Surgery: The Face of Trauma [1], is about the psychopathology of the body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), especially among rhinoplasty patients. This attempt is a frontier book about the physiological aspect of rhinoplasty. This topic is a bleeding wound of plastic surgery, and Dr. Constantian bites the bullet for our community. We need more discussion about the physiological aspect of rhinoplasty, and this book gives us superb knowledge about the mysterious part of rhinoplasty. Normally, learning to manage unhappy patients is left to the destiny of the surgeons and they must find a way to deal with these challenging situations. This patient group consults aesthetic surgeons to have an operation related to their image rather than consulting a psychiatrist about their complaints. Thus, the incidence of this disorder among society is 2%, while its frequency among the plastic surgery patient group is between 7 and 25% [1]. So, this number is pretty much reasonable to get attention to this underestimated disorder of plastic surgery. Dr. Constantian’s book has 319 pages, 10 chapters, 1116 references, 6 drawings, 19 tables and 9 pictures. As understood from the count of the references, this unique book researched BDD deeply. He not only investigates the plastic surgery literature but also analyses the mental health literature and social norms. He reveals the close relationship between BDD and childhood abuse, body shame and addiction. Thus, it is really important for the surgeon to understand what she/he is up against and why it is so challenging to deal with these patients. The book starts with the reasons why Dr. Constantian started to investigate this physiological problem and continues with perfectly enlightening literature findings and explores all the aspects of this disorder including its treatment and avoidance. He definitely brings a more understandable explanation for BBD with his detailed observations of these patients and his searching skills. Moreover, Dr. Constantian points out the patients who can seem excellent surgical candidates at the beginning but then develop BDD postoperatively. Thus, he shows how one can recognize this situation with his amazing stories is included in the book, which definitely increase the readability of the book. I applaud Dr. Constantian for contributing a book to the plastic surgery literature that is unique in design and thought. His ability to combine experience and knowledge into a remarkable representation that accurately covers BDD, which is arguably the most difficult situation of all cosmetic surgical procedures, is an outstanding achievement. I strongly recommend this book to avoid unhappy patients which is a challenging reality even for the best surgeons because there is nothing more overwhelming than an unhappy patient after a successful surgery. & Süleyman Taş [email protected]