Channel 5's new prime-time TV programme hosted by Simona Ventura, 'Selfie, le cose cambiano', recently made its TV debut. The programme acts a bit like a dream factory for people who are in difficulty and cannot accept themselves for who they are.

We remember similar programmes in the past: from the Ugly Duckling with Amanda Lear and Marco Balestri to Bisturi with Irene Pivetti and Platinette to Come mi vorrei with Belen Rodriguez. In fact, plastic surgery is no longer a taboo subject, it is a topic that has been and continues to be addressed on a popular level, with TV. We have finally managed to get away from those clichés that wanted cosmetic surgery to be synonymous with vanity and decidedly senseless choices.

So much so that, on the day after the first episode of the programme, none other than SICPRE(Italian Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery), the oldest, most prestigious and representative association of Plastic Surgeons in Italy, intervened to emphasise the value of this branch of surgery and to highlight how it is able, as much as any other, to improve the quality of life.

Simona Ventura's show proves that plastic surgery is not synonymous with vanity. Often undergoing cosmetic surgery can help to overcome a psychological discomfort, start afresh with one's life and move on. it is therefore something that goes far beyond aesthetics, something that concerns quality of life.

In this regard, Paolo Palombo, president of SICPRE, emphasised that 'Selfie is not a plastic surgery programme, but with its stories it highlights the potential̀ of our discipline: modifying the face and body so as to give a higher qualitỳ of life to those who do not accept themselves as they are and who suffer because of this'. The stories are in fact those of people suffering discomfort, such as Vera who underwent an abdominoplasty after a twin pregnancy, or Marzia who after breastfeeding and losing many kilos felt uncomfortable with her sagging breasts.

Palombo then goes on to emphasise that plastic surgery 'contains within itself two faces, equally important and inseparable', namely the aesthetic and reconstructive sides. And SICPRE has always worked for the highest quality, information and safety, especially in aesthetic plastic surgery, which, unlike reconstructive surgery, is often approached by patients too lightly, and therefore wrongly.