Dear Miki:

My daughter is a senior in high school and just announced to her father and me what she wants for graduation - larger breasts! We are stunned. Our beautiful, popular daughter with a 3.7 GPA wants to fill out a sweater!

It’s not that I condemn plastic surgery. Quite the contrary, I had a large nose when I was growing up, and I still remember how I felt when the kids called me “Honker."

At 16, my parents paid for rhinoplasty. It changed my life in so many wonderful ways that boosted my self-esteem. I will always thank my parents for helping me feel beautiful inside and out.

Unfortunately, my daughter inherited my nose. My husband and I are willing to pay for rhinoplasty, but we weren’t prepared for her to want breast augmentation instead. For the life of me, I can’t understand why “Lisa” says her nose is just fine as it is.

This sudden focus on breasts makes me think it all has to do with the boy she’s dating. He’s well mannered but never misses an opportunity to look in our hall mirror.

“Lisa” has a nicely proportioned figure, and clothes look fabulous on her. However, all her girlfriends are better endowed, and she says she’s self-conscious about it.

My husband and I want our daughter to have all the advantages in life. How can we get her to see that having a rhinoplasty would serve her better?

Nose Best

* * *

Dear N. B.:

Well you could make her look in the hall mirror and point out how huge her nose looks to you and tell her she can’t accomplish anything in life unless she sings like Barbara Streisand. I trust you won’t – your daughter likes her nose.

Teens want to fit in with peers and identify with our culturally determined stereotypes blasted in multi media. It’s become a trend for girls to request breast augmentations for a high school graduation gift.

Although the FDA approved saline-filled breast implants only for women 18 and older, there are no legal restrictions on the procedure. The FDA also concluded that approximately 40% of augmentation patients have at least one serious complication within three years after getting saline implants.

Here’s more scary stuff for you and your husband. Breast augmentation presents a high complications rate often requiring surgery within five to 10 years. Your precious daughter would probably need more surgery while in her 20s, 30s or possibly every decade after that.

Are you willing to foot the ongoing bill? How about help her sweat out mammogram results when implants might obscure a breast tumor? When she becomes a mother, how would you feel if she couldn’t produce enough milk to breastfeed? Did you know that breast implant surgery sometimes causes infections leading to toxic shock syndrome, amputation or death?

According to a National Institutes of Health study, the part of the brain that restrains risky behavior and thinking skills is not fully developed until the age of 25.

Don’t act like a boob, Mom, say no to breast augmentation and don’t project your sculptured nose where it doesn’t belong!

Miki Garcia can be reached at askmikigarcia@yahoo.com.