iSurgeon: App Lets You Shop for Cosmetic Doctors on Phone
That smart phone isn’t just for Sudoku and weather forecasts anymore…
Check your e-mail, Facebook account and text messages? Duh. Get the play-by-play of your favorite MLB team? Sure. Find a decent Mexican restaurant in your neighborhood before your date tonight? Easy.
Get answers to questions about that hair transplant or liposuction you’ve been considering? According to smart phone applications like iSurgeon and The Plastic Surgery Channel, the answer is yes!
It seems that—for anywhere from free to $1.99—you can submit questions to board-certified plastic surgeons, search for qualified doctors by zip code, view video commentary by doctors and play games that allow you to see what you’d look like with, say, a nose job—all with the tap of a screen. For example, the free Plastic Surgery Channel app let’s you read surgeon profiles, map doctors’ office locations, and view recent Q&A sessions between other plastic surgery inquirers and board-certified surgeons.
If you’re willing to fork up $1.99, you can see what you would look like with plastic surgery, and be the doctor too with iSurgeon, created by Dr. Michael Salzhauer, who is also the author of a children’s book about cosmetic surgery called “My Beautiful Mommy.”
The “game mode” replicates common procedures like tummy tucks and butt lifts, and the “advanced surgery mode” allows you to snap photos of yourself (or your friends) and upload them to the “operating room,” where you can try your hand at a makeover. Then, if you’re brave enough, you can e-mail your friends or post the pictures on your social networking site, all in the name of research, of course.
Other applications will act as your personal secretary, offering up appointment schedulers and stashing your doctors’ information, as well as any medications you’re taking or medical allergies the surgeons should be aware of.
If you need a dose of reality before taking the plastic plunge, check out The Plastic Show: Before and After Plastic Surgery for, you guessed it, before and after surgery photos and to learn about the serious condition known as body dysmorphic disorder.
You can tap, tap, tap your way toward a sculpted body, but remember to follow the American Society of Plastic Surgeons’ advice and find a doctor with more than six years of surgical training and experience, no matter if you find him or her on your iPhone or in the good old-fashioned Yellow Pages.
For more information, visit the iTunes App Store.