This is almost a philosophical question.
We do not yet exist in the age of complete regenesis. NO doubt such an era will occur where human beings will be physically plastic and mutable. That is, there will be procedures in plastic surgery to change anything at will. New eyes, different hair, skin etc. all will be synthesized in labs, samples taken from your own tissue and grown and then grafted or implanted into you.
But right now, how much is really alterable? Certainly the payoff for many of us of simply moving our lower jaw forward or a recessed maxilla can create wonders for one's appearance. But true beauty, I wonder, is this at all within our grasp?
Sometimes I feel fatalistic about this question and think it's impossible. But then my will says, anything is possible for a willing mind. Somewhere there is a solution to every problem and w must find it! I've seen remarkable, remarkable improvements and transformations through plastic surgery. But that holy grail of actual beauty. Can an ungly duckling be transformed into a swan? No. As things stand now, I do not believe it's truly possible. But that doesn't mean I'm gonna let it stop me from giving my best f**king shot.
You are - we are - the most screwed up generation in the HISTORY OF HUMANITY. Go anywhere in the past 5,000 years of written human history - from Ancient Babylonia and Egypt through to your grandparents' (or even parents') generation, the pressure to look good was not there. Beauty has been recognized since always, but there was little to NONE at all pressure for the average man or even woman to look good (depending on the era and the place). Actually, in the centuries past, being poor and beautiful put you in real risk and history is replete with tragic examples of mostly women (but also many men) who were beautiful but did not had the social class, skills or even intelligence to manage that asset to their advantage and often ended up tragically (abducted, raped, taken advantage of, even murdered). I read a history book on this subject full with examples.
Now, go anywhere in the future - the chances are the pressure to look good is here to stay and grow, but so is the science and technology to transform those who were born less fortunate.
This is the ONLY times in history where little is possible in terms of changing, but the pressure to look good is enormous almost anywhere you go in the free world. There is no place to hide.
To answer your question - you can change a lot to the point even your parents would have a hard time recognizing you. But will it be for the better? My answer is PROBABLY, if not MOST LIKELY no. The science and technology are simply not there to TRANSFORM someone. To improve, yes. To transform - I don't think so.
PS can 'transform' someone into good looking only if they have a good basis to start from. In which case it is not a transformation but improvement from a good starting position. In that case the trouble of even multiple surgeries may be worth it. But this requires YEARS of careful planning and execution and lots, lots of LUCK (here comes the unpredictability of it all) and also a lot of patience, MONEY and resilience (think of the need for revisions - even multiple ones). Even with a good basis, things can go awfully wrong. Think about my example with the butcher Mommaerts. I didn't have a point of reference that he was a butcher when I had my surgery with him. Let's say you pick up your surgeon based on a thorough research and impeccable reputation, as I did when I picked him. Can you be sure that behind the 10 great examples he showed you there aren't another 10 unfortunate outcomes who reconciled with their destiny and live their lives somewhere miserable? No, you can't. As it turns out with Mommaerts, dozens of people reached out to me and shared their stories of them being butchered by him.
So, you have to take a leap of faith. And that's where things can go terribly wrong - it is a CHANCE we are talking about. As in the laws of probability and randomness. Once again I underline my point - the science and technology for a guaranteed good outcome are not there. Not to speak about the skills and work ethics of your surgeon, about which you can only make an educated guess at best, no matter how much f**king research you do. So, all you can do is minimize the risk as much as you think you can - but the fact is that risk is never minimal, even if you are in very good hands. It's still a pretty damn BIG risk. Only you can decide if you are going to take it. Even if things do not go wrong, how much of an improvement one can objectively expect? I don't know, that's something to consider on a case by case basis, but the general answer is not much.
So, I sympathize with you - being born at any other time in the history or future would have been better from this point of view. Even the babies born now will have so much more scientific and technological opportunities to change the way they look and defy their DNA to a great extent. Of course, provided that they can afford it.
