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Episode details

World Service,22 Oct 2014,18 mins

Cosmetic Surgery Under the Microscope

Business Daily

Available for over a year

We look at an industry that some say is spiralling out of control. From Brazil to Beijing, people are spending some $10 billion a year on cosmetic surgery, from hair and breast implants to nose jobs. Increasingly they are travelling internationally to find the best deals on what are often expensive procedures. But is shopping around always wise? How can you be sure about a doctor who is regulated under different laws, if they are regulated at all - and can you get redress and aftercare if things go wrong. We hear from one woman whose breast implant surgery went badly wrong, from a US dental surgeon who operates out of Mexico to cut costs, from an Australian cosmetic surgeon, Dr Daniel Fleming, who worries about where the industry is heading, and from Caelin King of WhatClinic.com, which promotes surgery of all kinds for would-be medical tourists. And Justin Rowlatt meets the world's leading buttock surgeon.

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