Many people still hesitate over having work done. Whether it’s cosmetic dentistry or a hair transplant, they get hung up on stiff old views and end up sacrificing their own happiness to keep others content. It’s no wonder; there’s a bizarre stigma attached to personal alteration and people talk about it in a hushed tone, as if it was some great act of fraud and deceit.

Yet, aren’t these faces that tut in disapproval the same faces that are painstakingly disguised and rebuilt with makeup? Aren’t the hands that the cover them the same hands that have been manicured and softened by lotion for countless years? Why then, is it so wrong to have any sort of procedure for cosmetic reasons, when almost everyone alters themselves in some way?

The hypocrisy is stunning, but it does have one benefit: when you realise that it’s there, you can see how ridiculous it is to dismiss beautification treatments as vain or pointless. Is it vain to restore the looks that may have been robbed from you by age or by accident? What about all those that suffered from bad advice and have pockmarked skin and rotten teeth, is it fair for them to remain that way until their dying day?

Is it pointless to feel good about yourself and the way you look? Is it pointless to enjoy life, to fix the imperfections that hold you back and drag you down? Far too many people underestimate the impact that your body image has on your everyday life, on your confidence and your ambition. More than a third of men in Britain said that they would give up a year of their lives to fix their bodily imperfections, a figure which shows that this isn’t a gender related problem, as many often assume, but a human one.

So why not do something about it? If your issue is body-weight, your friends and family will laud you for wanting to slim down and improve yourself. They should do the same if you want to have a procedure like cosmetic dentistry to fix the teeth you rotted away during your childhood, when you didn’t know any better. They should be happy that you’re taking charge of your life and doing something to improve yourself.

It’s not as these sorts of procedure are rare. Over 43 thousand adults in the UK had some form of cosmetic work done in 2011. If you want to join them it really is as simple as typing in "cosmetic dentistry in London", finding a reliable dentist and booking a consultation. What stops people is a tiny kernel of fear that nestles in their mind and sprouts up into a vile tangle of doubt and concern. As a society, we have to push past these thorny barricades and accept that we live in an age where we don’t have to play the hand that fate has dealt us. No longer are those of us that feel like ducklings reliant on magic to transform us into beautiful swans, we just need to have the courage to say: "I want to be happy!"