How old do you have to be to have corrective or cosmetic surgery?

Question

How old do you have to be to have corrective or cosmetic surgery?

Answer 1

Marie has a good answer.

If you mean how old do you have to be to CONSENT to such surgery, it's 18.  Otherwise, your parent or guardian has to sign the consent form.

The youngest patients I've cared for having cosmetic procedures are little kids having their ears pinned back.  They're often 4-5 yrs old.

I wouldn't consider cleft lip and palate repairs cosmetic.  That's reconstructive.  We do those in babies.

Answer 2

Any age.  It depends on what the surgery is and how necessary it is.

Corrective surgery for things like cleft palate can even be done in utero--prior to birth.  It's not common, but it can be done.  Corrective surgery for things like heart problems often cannot wait, although there are some problems that need to be handled with separate surgeries over the course of several years as the child grows.  That can be the case for other kinds of corrective surgery as well--sometimes it can't all be done at once.  

For things that are purely cosmetic and will not affect growth or development, it is more usual to wait for a number of reasons--sometimes because you get a better or more reliable result if growth is complete, or just because the risks of surgery are less with older children and adolescents than with infants.

Answer 3

Well if your blood panels and any additional tests come back alright, that's what matters most. There are many people young and old that have corrective and or cosmetic surgeries. It does depend on age sometimes depending on what you want done.