More middle school students are undergoing cosmetic surgery this summer vacation. But such procedures are extremely inadvisable, experts said, because these youngsters are still growing, the local Nanfang Daily reported yesterday.

Young adults undergoing surgery to improve their looks in July, when they have more time to recover, was double that of a few months ago, the newspaper reported.

"Dozens of school children have come daily to our hospital since the beginning of July," Chen Jianfei, a doctor at the Guangdong Armed Police Hospital plastic surgery center said. "The youngest case I have seen is a 13-year-old girl."

Only a small proportion of young adults he has seen are congenitally malformed, Chen said. They generally request cosmetic procedures, such as blepharoplasty (double eyelids), breast enlargements, and liposuction.

Newly graduated junior middle or high school students change their looks to give them confidence when entering new schools.

A young woman surnamed Hong said she thinks better looks will help her to be more socially competitive.

Meanwhile, more men, including school-boys, are having cosmetic surgery than before.

The Guangzhou Modern Hospital plastic surgery center said that about 20 percent of people undergoing procedures there are men, compared with five percent a few years ago.

"We do not recommend cosmetic surgery to people under 16 years old," Wang Shusheng, a senior doctor at the first affiliated hospital of Guangzhou Medical College plastic surgery center, told China Daily.

Wang said that as young people are still in the course of development, physical aspects of them that have been transformed by plastic surgery are likely to change again when they get older.

"Youngsters need to adjust their aesthetic concept," Tu Minxia, an expert on youth problems, said.

Tu believes that beauty is not just apparent in a person's appearance, and that confidence and accomplishments are what make them truly attractive.

(China Daily July 23, 2008)