SINGAPORE - Most people considering plastic surgery to change their looks and their lives, do so with little regard for the consequences if something were to go wrong. They are so preoccupied with achieving the desired result that they do not register or remember what complications have been discussed. They have the notion that plastic surgery is incredible transformative magic that works all the time and that nothing untoward would happen to them.

As plastic surgeons, we are duty-bound, as part of the process of obtaining informed consent, to tell patients of the potential complications that could occur, for which they then have to sign and acknowledge that this has been discussed.