Nov 5, 2009 11:40 pm US/Eastern
CBS 2 HD Presents: Painful Cost Of Looking Good
If Fashion Is Your Thing But Your Body Is Having A Hard Time Adapting, There's A Cosmetic Surgery For That, Too
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
There are women who swear by their sky-high stilettos, love their glistening jewels and can't do without their oversize bags.
But there can be a painful cost to looking good.
In a never ending quest to look good, women face the very real danger of becoming victims of fashion.
Mariela Lucas, a former Miss Dominican Republic, knows this all too well. A staple of her of wardrobe is high heels.
"This was just painful. This was the type of shoe I would only wear for five minutes," Lucas said.
The pain was severe, but the shoes were important to her look, so she went to see a podiatrist. He surgically reshaped her toes and removed her bunions so she could more easily fit into pageant -- and just plain fabulous – shoes.
"We did a whole makeover on my feet," Lucas said. "I have to make sure it has heels, it makes me feel elegant feel classy. It's not me if I don't walk with at least 3 inches."
Enter Dr. Oliver Zong.
"We call them designer feet to fit into the designer shoes," said Dr. Oliver Zong. "We did some structural changes. We shortened some toes and made her feet more narrow so they fit in some of her shoes."
Designer shoes weren't the problem for Natalia Chedalina. It was her fashionable, but heavy and oversized bag that caused her injury.
"I was working in the financial district downtown, running from client to client. Laptop, presentations, you name it. My back was really sore," Chedalina said.
The X-rays told the story. There was graphic evidence of damage caused by carrying her heavy bag on one shoulder.
"You can see the right side is lifted a little bit," Dr. Andrew Black said. "That's why it's important if you're doing that switch off so you don't get one side like that."
The doctor told Chedalina she also had some minor nerve damage and disc degeneration.
"He told me to redistribute the weight, put some in here so now I have all my casuals in here and my laptop in here but at least it gives me a balance, so I'm not totally lopsided as I used to be," she said.
Yvonne Turner is getting surgery for the second time. Her heavy dangling earrings have ripped through her ear lobes again, another significant injury in the name of beauty.
"What did some damage is something like this. You really feel the tear happening to you and for whatever reason you continue to wear the earrings and it happened," Turner said.
"It is fixable but it is fixable through surgery," cosmetic surgeon Dr. Brian Glatt said.
And it has cost her more than just an injury. This procedure is not covered by insurance.
"She has continued to wear heavy earrings, unfortunately, and suffered the consequences of the earring pulling back through," Dr. Glatt said.
Turner is donating them to charity.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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