Beauty pageants are a serious business in Venezuela; and participants do whatever it takes to win, even undergo extreme cosmetic surgeries. Miss Venezuela 2013 first runner-up Wi May Nava has admitted that aside from the usual operations to perfect her features, she also has had a mesh fitted to her tongue so she couldn’t eat solid food.

Statistically, Venezuela is the leading country in international beauty pageants. It has the most wins in Miss World and Miss International with six wins each, tying with Brazil for winning two crowns each for Miss Earth, and has the second number of crowns (seven) for Miss Universe.

The current Miss Universe is from Venezuela. Gabriela Isler successfully took home the crown from 85 other contestants from around the world.

As part of the special “Secrets of South America: Extreme Beauty Queens” from BBC, host Billie JD Porter went inside the Miss Venezuela boot camp and discovered the extreme measures contestants take to secure a crown that would transform them from ordinary to rich and famous beauty queens.

Porter followed Nava as she progressed to the final stages of the Miss Venezuela contest. The 18-year-old beauty told the host how her family sacrificed just to put her in the pageant. They worked from “Monday to Monday” to earn enough for her operations, which included breast implants, a nose job, and teeth correction.

There’s nothing unusual about Nava’s procedures, though. Many beauty contestants in the country undergo such operations to be “perfect” for the job. However, Nava also has done something else to help her maintain her beauty queen figure.

When Porter observed that Nava was only going to eat soup for dinner, Nava explained that she had a plastic mesh put on her tongue, which she promptly showed to the host.

Apparently, the mesh makes eating solids hurt a lot that the wearer would be forced to eat liquids only.

“I’ve never heard anything like that in my life,” an astonished Porter said.

With a mesh on her tongue, Nava also admitted that she can’t kiss anyone.

Nava, who is from a poor barrio, underwent all the beauty surgeries on the suggestion of Osmel Sousa, the president of the Miss Venezuela pageant and who is called “The Czar of Beauty” for his role in producing the country’s beauty queens.

Episode 1 of BBC’s “Secrets of South America: Extreme Beauty Queens”