Does Plastic Surgery Actually Make You More Attractive?

Is anti-ageing wellness the same as looking attractive? Not according to a new study, as researchers have found that even though facial plastic surgery may turn back the hands of time, it may not, alas, also boost your attractiveness.

 

For the study, which only involved 50 participants, the researchers showed the volunteers photos of 49 patients either before or after facial plastic surgery. The participants were asked to guess the age of each patient, as well as subjectively ranking their attractiveness. The results of the study revealed that while surgical intervention did indeed manage to shave a few years off the patients’ perceived ages, it did nothing to boost anyone’s overall level of attractiveness. According to study lead author Dr. Joshua Zimm, an attending surgeon at Lenox Hill Hospital and Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Institute of North Shore-LIJ Health System in New York City, the issue here is that patients’ expectations don’t match up with how the surgery will actually affect their wellbeing.

 

‘When we’re doing this kind of surgery I’m telling patients that they’ll look fresher, more energetic and less tired, and we have some data in the literature that indicates you will look younger, as we found,’ Zimm notes. ‘But clearly I cannot say that they will look more attractive.’ However, Zimm is quick to point out that the findings are based on the work of just one surgeon – maybe the 49 patients should have gone to someone else! – and there are also limitations to the design of the study. ‘This is not the final word on the subject,’ Zimm assures. ‘But certainly I think you can take away from this that if you’re looking to have aesthetic facial surgery to look younger, we’ve shown that you will. Beyond that … it is not clear that everyone will definitely look more attractive.’

 

For the study, which was published in the online edition of the journal JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery, the team of researchers focused on certain clients at a Toronto private-practice facility. Between 2006 and 2010, all of the clients had either had a face lift, neck lift, upper or lower eyelid lift, or brow-lift, and they were all between the ages of 42 and 73 years old. The researchers took facial photos – in which makeup and jewellery were forbidden – both before and six-months after the surgery. The patients were also banned from having additional cosmetic procedures (such as Botox injections or laser skin resurfacing) between the before-and-after photo sessions. The raters only ever saw a pre-surgery or a post-surgery photo of a particular patient – never both.

 

Zimm asserts that the findings do not accurately portray how your friends and relatives might react to any surgery you might have, as they will have a very clear frame of reference for assessing both age and beauty. He adds that the researchers may have created a ‘kind of subconscious attractiveness bias’ by asking the raters to assess age and attractiveness at the same time. However, he comments, ‘At the end of the day the goal is to make people happy, so we have to know what’s possible in order to determine if any particular patient is someone I can help.’

 

However, Dr. Laurie Casas, a senior clinician educator at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, who was not involved in the study, argues, ‘Certainly when I see a new patient I have to decide if what the patient is after is achievable or even realistic. And it’s a very complex process because the perception of beauty has to be evaluated by both the surgeon and the patient. The end game is that they want to look more attractive, but this study doesn’t get me anywhere with that process because it’s impossible to make any sense out of the data. It’s totally subjective, so the results have no meaning.’

Categories: Attractiveness, facial plastic, patient, Patients, plastic surgery, Research, study, surgery

Are You Considering Non-Invasive Facial Fillers?

Cosmetic surgery can seem like a big step to take in the name of anti-ageing wellness. I mean, we all want to look young and gorgeous, but are we really willing to put our wellbeing at risk and go under the knife to do it? According to the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, about 80% of board-certified facial plastic surgeons have now reported an increase in non-invasive cosmetic procedures, meaning that you can lift your cheekbones, eliminate under-eye bags and dark circles, and replicate the results of a nose job, without facing the dreaded scalpel.

 

The new non-invasive procedures all have one thing in common; replacing volume. Fredric Brandt, a New York City and Coral Gables, Florida, dermatologist and founder of Dr. Brandt Skincare, asserts, ‘Nothing makes people look more youthful than filling in volume, and as we get more and more experience with the newer injectables, it seems like we are able to achieve better results without surgery.’ Patricia Wexler, a New York City dermatologist, adds, ‘What I see most in my practice is a large amount of volume loss in the face, which tends to happen in your early 40s, and that is when you replace a surgical procedure with a non-surgical one.’

 

Fardad Forouzanpour, founder of the Beverly Hills Cosmetic Surgical Group, points out, ‘For the past few years, the trend has been more natural looking lips, [and] injectables can give lips more volume and correct lines and wrinkles that form around the mouth.’ For the most natural-looking results, Brandt believes Restylane and Perlane hyaluronic acid-based fillers to be your best bet as they provide a cumulative effect. Wexler agrees, ‘I love Restylane and Perlane for the tear troughs, cheeks, and jawline because of the volume and lift they give to the face.’

 

However, Forouzanpour notes that the more important thing to consider is your physician’s injection technique and the amount that is injected, rather than what the kind of filler is. Wexler comments, ‘If you have cracks at the corner of your mouth or above the lip line, collagen works well to replace structure in the skin. People don’t think about collagen anymore because they are so into hyaluronic acid. Although I use Restylane to add volume, I need collagen to create a border around the lip [cupid"s bow].’

 

So which fillers are the best, then? Wexler explains, ‘Doctors pick certain ones and get proficient at using them. In 2003, we had collagen — period. To do the right kind of filling now, one syringe of anything won’t be complete.’ As it stands, the AAFPRS states that there are almost 20 FDA-approved cosmetic injectable drugs on the market, so how do doctors choose their favourite filler? ‘Besides filling in volume, we need to think about surface irregularities,’ Wexler says. ‘Even the most plump face won’t be pretty if the skin isn’t in good condition.’

 

So when considering getting fillers, you first need to make sure your skin is right for it. Wexler argues, ‘If a 68-year-old woman who has never taken care of her skin and spent a lot of time in the sun comes to me, injectables won’t give her enough of an improvement if she has loose skin and sun damage. There’s a point when you have to start from a new baseline, and if the person is healthy, she would need a face-lift.’ If your skin is filler-ready, however, you need to do your homework before getting any procedure. This means checking out your doctor’s background and reputation before you get injected. Wexler warns, ‘A lot of my work is fixing other people’s work.’

Categories: Collagen, cosmetic surgery, facial plastic, fillers, Hyaluronic Acid, nbsp, Non-Invasive, skin, volume, wexler, york city