Plastic surgery is on the rise in the U.S.; however, not until recently, the success of these procedures has not been quantified.
A new study from the University of Toronto reported that on average facial plastic surgery makes patients look up to nine years younger than their chronological age. This study represents the most recent study to put a number on the years that could be “recovered” through plastic surgery.
In the study, researcher enrolled 61 subjects, who were between the ages of 45- and 72-years-old and who had undergone cosmetic facial surgeries. The 61 subjects were then divided into three groups: those who had face and neck lifts (22 subjects), those who had face and neck lifts and eyelid work (17 subjects), and those who had eyelid work and face, neck, and forehead lifts (22 subjects). Then 40 volunteer medical students were asked to guess the ages of the subjects before and after procedures, based off patient photographs.
From the medical students’ age estimations, subjects’ ages were estimated to be 1.7 years younger than their actual age before surgery, and 8.9 years younger than their actual age after surgery. Between the three plastic surgery groups, the estimated ages were different. For face and neck lifts, on average the estimated age after surgery was 5.7 years younger than their actual age. For face and neck lifts with eyelid work, the estimated ages after surgery was 7.5 years younger than their actual age. For face, neck, and forehead lifts with eyelid work, the estimated age after surgeries was 8.5 years younger than their actual age.
The age estimations did range between individual patients, but there were trends of certain subjects being rated consistently older or younger than actual age.
As a result, the study found that the more procedures a subject undergoes, the greater the difference between the actual and the estimated ages. Subjects, who underwent more than three procedures, had slightly higher estimated ages before surgery, and after surgery, their estimated ages were 8.21 years younger, on average.
Medical students were used to estimate the ages of the subjects before and after surgeries because their estimations were thought to be the most unbiased. There is a fragile balance between the plastic surgeon and the subject undergoing surgery because the subject typically comes to the surgeon with a particular vision in mind on how they want to look, thus the subject’s age estimates for themselves were not recorded. An outsider’s view on age was needed to estimate ages of the subjects to capture unbiased data, representing the best barometers of success after facial plastic surgery.
This study was published in the Archives of Plastic Surgery.
In the U.S., plastic surgery is becoming more popular. In 2005, over 10 million cosmetic procedures, including surgeries, Botox injections, and laser hair removal, were performed in the U.S. This represents a 11 percent increase from 2004, and a shocking 38 percent increase from 2000, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
The top most popular procedures in 2005, include liposuction (totaling 323,605), nose reshaping (totaling 298,413), breast augmentation (totaling 291,350), eyelid surgery (totaling 230,697), and tummy tucks (totaling 134, 746).
