Commentary

Changing faces

DWIGHT HARVEY, THE man in today's lead story, gives a new meaning to the phrase "showing the world a fresh face" as a recent surgery, not only improved his looks, but his eyesight.

Dwight, 32, whose facial skin started growing when he was three, suffers from neurofibromatosis. The skin on the right side of his face overlapped and hung a few inches below his chin.

Recently, a cosmetic and reconstructive surgeon put Harvey one step further to having a 'normal' face.

He had to suffer through blatant stares from strangers and cruel jibes from others and had to do menial work because he could no longer attend school. Now, he has a chance to make a new start.

This story should make the readers more grateful for the small things they take for granted, like having all their facial features in the way God created the first man.

So those women, and increasingly, men, who use bleach to change their skin colour and end up instead damaging their facial skin need to take a good look at Dwight's story.

This sobering article also points to the necessity of this sort of surgery. While on one hand burn victims and others with deformities benefit from this type of surgery, there are those who abuse it for personal gain.

Increasingly, generally in the United States, people seeking to improve every "imperfection," or gain movie star looks, flock to these doctors to get their noses 'fixed', their cheekbones enhanced, breast implants, liposuction and the like.

Instead they should try to strike a happy medium.