When Shoruk Shaheen looks in the mirror, she likes what she sees, especially the change in her face after a cosmetic procedure gaining popularity in Gaza: dimple creation surgery.
The resident of the Palestinian enclave had the procedure a month ago at a clinic in downtown Gaza City.
“If you have a beautiful smile then you are a beautiful person,” said the 26-year-old communications manager, whose eyes remained fixed on her mirror as she admired the new indentation in her left cheek.
Photo: AFP
Dimple creation surgery is performed worldwide, but has particular appeal in Gaza, thanks to its low cost and relative safety.
Expensive, riskier procedures are problematic in Gaza, a deeply impoverished territory with a weak healthcare system and under an Israeli blockade since 2007, the year Hamas militants took power.
Creating an artificial dimple is “very simple, very easy, very fast” and carries little risk, said Jalaa al-Talmas, Shaheen’s surgeon.
When performing the procedure, which takes just 10 minutes, al-Talmas said he applies local anesthetic to the cheek and mouth before making a slight incision in the zygomaticus muscle that extends from the cheekbone to the mouth.
Al-Talmas said he performs the dimple procedure for several young women per month, most of whom request it after seeing the results on a friend of a relative.
Al-Talmas said he believes the procedure is more popular among Gazans than other Arab women in the Middle East.
Gazan women became aware of it from those who had traveled to Egypt and the Gulf, doctors say.
It costs US$30 to US$45 per cheek — compared with thousands in some Western clinics.
Shaheen started with just her left cheek, but said she plans to do the other side.
In addition to being cheap, cosmetic dimple creation does not attract the snickers that a procedure like breast implants would trigger in a conservative, Islamist society.
Dimples “are not a problem,” as the procedure does not invite social stigma, Shaheen said.
At the Victoria aesthetic center, Dr Hassan Ali Aljaish said he saw no issue with a procedure that brought “a little happiness” to women living in a society replete with hardships, notably the blockade.
Aljaish said he typically receives about 30 requests a month for dimple creation.
While he said it is a growing trend, he cautioned against the impression that “the people of Gaza get [cosmetic] operations every day.”
Dimple creation and other cosmetic procedures, “may alleviate the suffering” of life in Gaza, “but we must not forget that this [suffering] exists, said Aljaish, whose practice is mostly for Palestinians needing reconstructive surgery after being injured during hostilities between Hamas and Israel.
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