Looking for a New You

A number of procedures — ranging from facial peels to injections that plump up the skin — can give you a younger, fresher look.

BY HARRY JACKSON JR.
September 20, 2004
Copyright (2004) St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Republished with permission from the Post-Dispatch
http://STLtoday.com

Julie Ziegler, a reimbursement analyst with St. Louis University School of Medicine, said she liked her appearance - most of the time. The one exception were hollows that had formed beneath her eyes over the years.

No one, including her husband, claimed to see them. But she noticed, and that was enough. In the back of her mind, she recalled her mother's surgery years earlier to improve the appearance of her eyes. When the medical school asked for volunteers to try a product called Radiesse that would fill in the hollows, Ziegler volunteered.

Dr. L. "Mike" Nayak, director of facial plastic and cosmetic surgery for the medical school, injected the cosmetic filler beneath her eyes.

The filler worked, although Ziegler wouldn't speculate on how much age it took off her 38 years. "It wasn't a drastic change," she said, "just enough that I noticed it, and I was pleased with the results. It just improved my eyes."

And it was quick. "He injected me at 3 o'clock and I was at a wedding that evening," she said.

Quick, nonsurgical improvements in appearance are rising in popularity for a number of reasons. Since Botox became an alternative to facelifts, more people are choosing less drastic measures to remove wrinkles, sags and flaws, especially in the face. The frequency seems to be increasing. suspiciously as baby boomers - who once used youth and young ideas as a cry of solidarity-see 50 and 60 rushing toward them.

From 2002 to 2003, Botox treatments increased by 153 percent - a total of more than 887,000 procedures, says the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. That figure doesn't include procedures by dermatologists.

As a group, minimally invasive cosmetic procedures rose 64 percent from 2002 to 2003. Those include collagen injections, microdermabrasion, laser treatments, hair removal and others that can be done in a doctor's office with visible results instantly or within a few days. The society of plastic surgeons says 2.87 million treatments were reported in 2003 in the United States.

Personal Best

Dr. Timothy R Jones, medical director of Genesis Cosmetic Surgery and Medical Spa in Creve Coeur, says most people who come into his office simply. want to change a flaw or a facial feature . that has bothered them for years, often flaws that result from aging. Jones sees cosmetic treatments as no different than braces on children's teeth or people dying their hair to hide the gray.

"Look at John Edwards and how much (of his charisma) has to do with his smile," Jones said of the Democratic candidate for-president. "It goes back to what society expects and how we (use) looks as a way of judging people and what's important."

Minor procedures perk up a face

Katheryn Kuhn, associate professor of sociology at St Louis University, says the preoccupation with appearance is less a fear of age and more that baby boomers are rewriting what it means to be older.

"Baby boomers are beginning to confront the fact that they are no longer what they consider to be young," she said. "They're the generation that said don't trust anyone over 30; now they're getting close to 60."

As baby boomers age, they're changing the stereotypes of what it means to get older, she said. With health advances, emphasis on physical fitness, good diets, and medicine, 60 isn't what it used to be.

That can be a good thing, Kuhn said. "Stereotypes are always wrong; we talk about the elderly, which we equate with infirm, dependent, sick, all these things that aren't true for the majority," she said. "We don't talk about society's elders, and that would mean wise folk, wisdom, guidance.

Kuhn said there's no such thing as a cultural script for each age. "The scripts are changing for everybody," she said. "Nobody would think, 'Why don't you act your race? - at least not out loud. They wouldn't say, 'Act your height, act your disability.' There's no such thing as acting your age. You make the role yourself."

Nayak's experience backs up Kuhn's comments. The real stereotype is that people seek out cosmetic surgeons in order to look younger. Instead, he says, a 50-year-old almost never walks in asking to look 30: "A 50-year-old will ask to look like a better 50-year-old." 'There are times you can take a nice-looking person and make them look terrific," he added.

He says he turns away people who have unrealistic expectations; for example, someone who wants to cure a psychological problem b5 getting plastic surgery.

"An ideal candidate is the 35-year-old well-adjusted mother who has a happy family, happy life doesn't like her nose," Nayak said She has it in her head that when people look at her all they see i; her nose. It's the kind of thing that inhibits her from being as social a: she'd like to be; it's the thing that makes her feel self-conscious.

"If it's something you're self-con scions about, it can make a difference."