The plastic surgeon community might want to send a big commission over to the major television networks. First these guys got us to spend an hour staring in our bathroom mirrors after every episode of "Melrose Place," wondering why we didn't have perfect noses like Heather Locklear. Now, they're airing reality plastic surgery programming like "Extreme Makeover," "Dr. 90210," and "The Swan." And according to a Yahoo! News HealthDay article, it's all drumming up some serious interest in cosmetic surgery.

A Yale study published in the July issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery found that television viewers who watched reality programs based on plastic surgery were more informed about and drawn to the procedures than those who did not watch.

"The more they watched the shows, the more interested" they were, said the study's senior author, plastic surgeon Dr. John Persing.

Forty-two individuals-mostly women, with an average age of 36-seeking cosmetic surgery for the first time were grouped according to their viewing habits and then surveyed. The article reports that "overall, four out of every five patients said TV had influenced them to seek out cosmetic surgery. Nearly a third said they felt that the shows had 'very much' or 'moderately' influenced their views on plastic surgery." According to the study, the findings "lend strong support to the idea that plastic surgery reality television shows influence both the expectations and choices of potential cosmetic surgery patients."

But those expectations may not be realistic. Dr. Persing notes that reality shows-which often feature the doctor's home life, a big happy celebration at the end, and somewhat speedy or glossed-over recoveries-don't necessarily reflect real life.

Stuart Fischoff, a senior editor at the Journal of Media Psychology, seconds that opinion. "People who watch a lot of these plastic surgery shows are going to come in with a set of expectations. And they may be unrealistic. People who watch crime shows or medical shows think they have more information on how that works. They may or may not be accurate."

Bottom line: Enjoy all the back-to-back episodes of "Dr. 90210" you want, and don't feel guilty about weeping like a baby at the end of "Extreme Makeover" (it happens to the best of us). Just be sure that if you do decide to take the plastic surgery plunge, you discuss the procedure and your expectations with your surgeon at length. After all, they call them "Hollywood endings" for a reason.