When will the general public be able to spot LL patients?

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It's not really a matter of if but when. Once there are enough 5'5 guys with the legs of a 5'10 guy but all their original proportions people will know about this surgery and I see it becoming a meme.

The real reason most people say 'no one in real life notice proportions' is simply because only 0.1% of the population surgically lengthen their limbs cosmetically so obviously there has never been a reason to up until LL has risen in popularity. Once they are exposed to enough people who have done it the perception will change from 'that guy looks a bit weird' to 'he had LL'.

When will we reach peak LL?

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I just don't see it happening at any point in time.  In many countries it's illegal, and most orthopedic surgeons consider it unethical.  This includes the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.  The stigma it has in the medical community, I think, assures that it will stay rare.

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Yet the numbers of patients keep rising and it's been featured in mainstream news multiple times in the past decade, year upon year there is an increase in perception of LL. I'm not referring to how many surgeons perform it rather how many people are aware of LL and the increase in the number of patients.

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All it take is one willing LL patient to go out and tell his story. All it take is one curious journalist to want to write about it. Do I expect LL to become more widely known, to some degree...yes.

Do I expect the number of people who want to undergo LL increasing, sure it's very much possible, but I feel like it's still going to remain a slow linear growing pattern. Like I said 99.99% of the world population will never do this surgery, so really in terms of people going out and noticing LLers, that will remain slim to none. Another reason is that it can be hard to notice proportions in a given person; everyone is built so uniquely that I've but most given up caring about proportions when it comes to noticing others.

Whether the perception of LL is positive or negative is so nuanced it can be hard to explain. If a narrative of LL focus on how it helps short individuals (males or females) grow then it can go two fold: understanding as to why they would do it, or general mockery of such a procedure. If it also focuses on much taller individuals (regardless of region) getting LL then I feel like it would criticized as a wrongful alternative to therapy (I'm not saying I agree or disagree with this; keep in mind this is my sort of speculation). In general however, if you think about people with Achondroplasia getting LL it's a whole different beast. It would be much more understandable for them to undergo LL as it can be seen as way to function better in a taller world.

The last point is that considering what LL is, a procedure in which bones are literally broken into two, and then slowly spread apart, for LL to not be seen as "extreme" as it is, the procedure sort of has to evolve. In our current time, dealing with the pain, loss of time, and general risk of this procedure, LL isn't consumer friendly. So far the best fixes to these problems would a much stronger nail that is full weight-bearing and provides a painless (or near painless) experience. (So far the only real progress towards this would be the SYNOSTE nail currently being developed that has as supposed release schedule of 2017: remains to be seen). The other and more robust alternative would be if it wasn't so depended on mechanical tools, but on biologically sound and revolutionary methods. Like if we are able to reopen growth plates or insert growth plates into bones and let biology take the lead.

All in all I feel like LL could easily become noticeable by the general public if it ever picks up wind from a viral news story; what ever perception is given about LL would have to be argued extensively. But, I don't ever think a regular Joe who found about about LL would care to look into a crowd of people and think "...hm I wonder if that freak got LL."

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I don't think this surgery will become mainstream any time soon, the cost is too high the recovery is a concern for many people, the risks of something bad happening and the fear of people noticing you got this surgery done, think about it the price for ll is a large amount of money for the general population far more than any other cosmetic surgery. It's also illegal in many countries because of how gruesome it sounds to people, the world and economy is going down I know this is off topic but many people don't realize the world will be much different in 100 years we are running out of fossil fuels and resources while polluting this planet at an expanding rate, as soon as most of our lives are over the world and society will be changed for the worst

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Quote from: theuprising on December 08, 2015, 09:56:01 PMYet the numbers of patients keep rising and it's been featured in mainstream news multiple times in the past decade, year upon year there is an increase in perception of LL. I'm not referring to how many surgeons perform it rather how many people are aware of LL and the increase in the number of patients.

Yeah, it gets mentioned... like when Apotheosis went on 20/20 to talk about it.  There was a spike of interest on old forum that day, but then it all went away.  Until LL is no longer viewed as an extreme, rare surgery, it's not going to be on anyone's mind for very long.  It would have to be much, much more common before people would start being aware of it in their daily lives and scrutinizing people's proportions based on that awareness.

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Some guys just naturally have very long legs, like the guy on the right, so you're fine:



Sorry if that's a pic of you, MDOW 

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No, unless you do a serious amount(4 or more inches). They won't guess/know about LL but they'll mock you for being a dwarf on stilts anyway.

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LL can't go mainstream unless more doctors are willing to do the procedure. A limited number of doctors can only do so many surgery per day. Also there is the cost. Doctor surgery and hospital fees won't be going down anytime soon. If the device were free, the operation would still costs tens of thousands of dollars. Not many people have that kind of money or are willing to pay it. Then there's also very little people who are 5'5" and under. Only 5% of males are this short.

So even if everyone knew about LL, the number of LL patients should remain very little.

When I look in the mirror or walk the down the street, nobody thinks I did LL, even though I was originally 5'5"-5'6", and now with shoe lifts, I'm about 5'10-5'11". My old friends notice that I got taller, but nobody who I never met before said anything about it. When I look in the mirror, I look like a normal person.

Now, on the other hand, when I get fully nked, it's a bit obvious. Femurs are so long, but the tibias are still short. It's obvious that something is strange about it. But with the genetic diversity in people where people come from all shapes and sizes, it can be explained by genetics.

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Quote from: Penguinn on December 09, 2015, 03:53:54 AMNo, unless you do a serious amount(4 or more inches). They won't guess/know about LL but they'll mock you for being a dwarf on stilts anyway.

What do you mean by this? Is it the lack of longer arms or something else?

Quote from: DoingItForMe on December 11, 2015, 09:31:12 AMNow, on the other hand, when I get fully nked, it's a bit obvious. Femurs are so long, but the tibias are still short. It's obvious that something is strange about it. But with the genetic diversity in people where people come from all shapes and sizes, it can be explained by genetics.

Do you think if you had also gotten LL on your tibias you wouldn't look strange nked? I supposed the lack of long arms would be strange, but anything else you can think of that would look strange?