What makes them terminate their professional career?

She worked on weekends, sometimes late shifts, to save money with a determination for a double eyelid surgery before she attended the university. She was warned of the risk by her mother, who said it could be irremediable if it was not a success. She was very decisive. She could surely save NT$10,000 for the surgery in a year.

She decided to go under the knife in a famous cosmetic clinic, which she googled and many bloggers recommended for its specialty. She was accompanied by one friend without telling her mother.

Her relatives and friends admired her beauty since she was little. Her body was slim, not bony from the anorexic phrase and bosomy either. She kind of agreed what they said about her appearance and believed it might be true except the eyelids which did bother her. She believed that she would have a whole life to appreciate the joy if she could fix the eyelids for herself at the age of 18.

She was lead to an operation room. She started worrying  about what she would look like and what she could respond to her parents especially her father about what she did to herself. The doctor promised her when she first visited him that the double eyelids would look as perfect as she wished in less than one month.

A while later, lying there and staring at that nurse lining up the scare and sharp surgeon knives, she was then informed of staying alert while surgery was operating. After that, an awkward silence filled the room while waiting for the doctor to come. The ice-like cold chilled her whole bones, and her heart was racing. Her breaths were short and sharp with fear. She already regretted. 




The market of cosmetic surgery in Taiwan

In decades in Taiwan, why have those professional doctors turned down keeping on their life goal to contribute themselves to what they are supposed to do as a good doctor with their professional knowledge and experiences to help those patients who need to be taken care of? 

The doctors are desperately needed in five divisions: general medicine, general surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics & gynecology and ER.

Where are those doctors who have had more than 11-year professional training in the above divisions and tried to dedicate themselves to looking after their patients? 

There are some major reasons discussed and explained below for the unbelievable but true phenomena:

．The numbers of patients are shrinking due to decrease of child birth year after

    year.

．The rates between doctors and patients have been unbalanced for decades.

   ．The more evaluations of administration are required to do, the more pressure and

       responsibilities bear down on the doctors of those divisions.

   ．The risks facing them are health breakdown, lawsuits brought by patients, often 

      being on night shifts and on duty over national holidays.

  ．The efforts they make on their work are ignored and paid back less than those who 

      are in other divisions.

(New Society for Taiwan, 15 October 2012)

All doctors in different divisions, except the doctors of cosmetic surgery and dentists, have faced  similar problems described in the above. It is true that the doctors run their own clinics are less stressful than those who work with the national or private general hospitals. 

There are still a lot of doctors who stay where they are and make much efforts on looking after their patients in many divisions. They don't give in to temptation after money. Shouldn't we clap for what they insist on?

Why are the doctors exceptions in cosmetic surgery or dentistry?

The money collected from a patient or a case a doctor can claim on is in the control of National Health Insurance Administration Ministry of Health and Welfare. The money is partly paid by a patient and partly by this ministry, according to the detailed regulations in Taiwan.

However, there is not a rule that asks a cosmetic sergeant or a dentist to follow, regarding the huge sum of money collected from a patient with a willingly-strong will. Nothing about "HEALTH" but "BEAUTY," defined differently! How could one ask a help from the government when you want to have a face-lift to look younger or wear tooth braces  to look prettier?

 Is this taxed? 

Giving it a very close look at the income of a cosmetic sergeant, it does bring great shame on National Taxation Bureau in each city. This applies to dentistry too. Do those doctors need to claim money from National Health Insurance Administration Ministry of Health and Welfare? No! Why should they do it since every cent is paid by a pleased patient?

In fact, it is truly hard to trace out both how much a patient pay for a cosmetic treatment since it is required to pay by cash and how many patients generally appear monthly, for example, in the same clinic where there must be more than one sergeant work. 

Isn't it a mystery how much they pay taxes yearly.  

Now, you do understand that money like power, eating out the valuably essential in one's heart, always seduces one far away from what they have expected themselves to be.

 

Where could they go if they quit what they are doing? There is a promising market without restrictions by law for them to conduct yet in Taiwan.

With limited surgery training and inexperience but with a guarantee to make a fortune for sure, a doctor can be a cosmetic surgeon!!!

In Dutt’s article, it is said that Taiwan has been successful in marketing itself as a lucrative  cosmetic surgery destination and is profitably tapping the opportunities within. The most popular procedure was found to be anti-aging and wrinkle reduction surgeries. (Soma Dutta, 11 Countries with the Highest Plastic Surgery Rates in the World, Insidermonkey, May 26, 2015)

Taiwan is on the top 11 countries where many “doctors” are needed to conduct this to meet the urgent need of customers, not patients if this is categorized into “cosmetic surgery ” instead of “plastic surgery.” (Soma Dutta, 11 Countries with the Highest Plastic Surgery Rates in the World, Insidermonkey, May 26, 2015)

Talking about cosmetic surgery, it does one way or another promise a person to improve or change his/her appearance to become a beauty as he/she wishes. It is nothing about functional reasons but an attractive look.

It is beyond doubt, the controversies about the merits and demerits of cosmetic surgeries are never ceasing. However, it can’t be denied that the cosmetic surgery has been a boon to people beyond boarders.

More than decades being strongly and willingly to go under the knife has been an option for and a trend adopted by those who want to be given a new one even though the result/s might not be guaranteed. In addition to that, the cost of money is a lot but the desperation to take this chance seems unstoppable in a life time since one starts it. Truly, it is kind of addition if he/she can afford and aging is on the way. Therefore, it promises that doctors in this market won’t fail to make a profit for selling beauty.

Finally, the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced that from 2016 all the cosmetic surgeons, except plastic surgeons and general surgeons, need to have at least a year of surgery training, conduct more than ten cases and attend 8-hour seminar before operation in a cosmetic clinic (Yu-shin Chen, Hwi-jun Jang, World Magazine, December 26, 2015).

◎ It is cosmetic surgery discussed and concerned about, not plastic surgery, which specializes on account of one’s health and normality in repairing or reconstructing damaged or missing parts of one’s body, etc.