A SURVEY has revealed that 41 per cent of teenage girls would go under the knife to achieve the perfect body.

Four out of ten girls who took part in the Bliss Magazine survey have already considered plastic surgery, with 92 per cent unhappy about their bodies.

And 67 per cent of them say the pressure to look as good as celebrities like Britney Spears and Swindon's Melinda Messenger are the reason they have such a negative body image.

Sam Scott is clinical manager of the The Harley Medical Group Clinic, in Bristol, which performs cosmetic surgery on patients from Swindon.

She said: "The patients we treat have to be 18-years-old or over.

"Anyone younger than that is too young to take such a big step and to take such a life changing decision.

"If an 18-year-old does come in for surgery we prefer them to be with one of their parents and if they are alone we ask them who knows they are having the surgery."

The clinic's most popular operations are breast enlargements, which it performs on 40 per cent of patients.

Sam believes that under 18-year-olds are too young to decide to have such surgery. She said: "Breast enlargements are not just a one-off operation.

"The implants only last for 12 to 15 years and there could be complications.

"The implant could be rejected or could get infected.

"Psychologically, too, the patient may find it hard to adjust to the change in their body image.

"People do have very good expectations about cosmetic surgery and sometimes they say want to look like a star.

"But there are limits to what we can do.

"People come in wanting a nose like Britney Spears but we can only make a small change.

"Also we will only make a woman's breasts two sizes larger than their natural size."

And she is urging teenage girls not to visit disreputable plastic surgeons that perform surgery on under 18-year-olds.

"It's like buying a car," she said. "You wouldn't want to drive one that you had bought from a dodgy back street dealer."

Youth co-ordinator Hazel Wykes, who works with teenage girls at the Purton Youth Group said she was surprised by the results of the Bliss survey.

She said: "I don't believe that young people look at celebrities and see them as a reflection of how they should be.

"They can be more objective about it.

"The young people I work with are certainly interested in their image and how they look.

"But I can't say they would want to have plastic surgery."

Diana Milne