By Jill Alphonso

A FRIEND of mine recently displayed her near-perfect new teeth to me.

Grinning wide, she told me she'd just got her entire top row of chopers capped.

"I'll have to replace them in five years," she said. "But it's worth it."

She waggled - or thought she waggled - her unmoving eyebrows at me. Her forehead and eyebrow area were newly Botoxed too, to avoid wrinkles. She was then 29.

Lately, I indulged in a moment of fantasy when I heard about Macrolane, the latest filler made of hyaluronic acid - a substance found in your body - commonly used to enhance breasts by about a cup size.

How appealing, I thought. I'm of a very, very modest cup size. Macrolane, an injectable, is inviting since it isn't invasive and takes around an hour to get done at a plastic surgeon's office. The recovery period is also just around two weeks.

But the fact is that, fantasies aside, I would never go for it. I believe I would think less of myself if I did go for the procedure.

Ultimately, I find vanity unattractive - and that's including in myself. Too many people equate personal validation with how the opposite sex responds to them - and therefore how they look.

Yet to obsess over looks is, in my opinion, a waste of energy that could be utilised more constructively.

Personally, I spent years discovering, through diet and exercise, how to keep within what I consider an optimum weight.

And I'm happy to say that I love my body now - flaws and all.

Given the chance to swop with say, model Gisele Bundchen, I wouldn't take it.

The process of leaving that obsession behind has left me free to pursue excellence in other activities, like my job and my yoga practice - things that leave me feeling much more fulfilled than thinking about, say, my bra size.

I'm by no means saying that you shouldn't go for a procedure if that's what you want. I'm a big believer in the power of choice.

I also applaud the advances made within the field of aesthetics - it's important to learn how to help victims of disfigurement or accidents reclaim normality.

All I'm saying is that it's perhaps possible to figure out what it takes in order for you to look the way you want - or to get as close to it as possible - and to come to terms (and perhaps actually like) the rest of it.

Besides, who knows what you could accomplish when that obsessive energy is put towards something else.

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