Health : Plastic Revolution : <i> Cosmetic surgery booming with patients who aren’t shy about their ‘knifestyles’</i>
Kathryn Klinger couldn’t believe what she was hearing the other day at a luncheon. “Everyone was saying that they had had their eyes done, and who had done them,” said the owner of the Georgette Klinger Salon in Beverly Hills. “It was really shocking. These women were very free about it. And they weren’t old--I’d say they were in their late 30s.”
The number of elective facial cosmetic surgeries has doubled over the last five years, according to the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. And cosmetic surgery has come a long way from the days when women smiled serenely and lied that their new face was the result of a week at the health spa.
Glad to Report
This is the age of full disclosure. Men and women proudly jut out their newly reconstructed chins and gladly report where the work was done and who did it. These days it’s not uncommon to see men and women on the street wearing a nose splint or sunglasses that barely hide bruised eyes and stitches, the residue of plastic surgery.
Fashion magazines and health publications keep a curious public informed on the latest techniques, while the trendy New York-based Details magazine allows plastic surgery veterans to spill their guts in a regular feature, “Knife-styles of the Rich and Famous.”
Meanwhile, the number of procedures performed continues to rise. According to the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, there were 477,700 surgeries done in 1984; 590,580 in 1986. The most popular was suction assisted lipectomy (up 78% from 1984), where fat is suctioned out of the body; followed by breast augmentation; eyelid lifts (blepharoplasty); nose jobs (rhinoplasty); face lifts (rhytidectomy) and tummy tucks (abdominoplasty). Men account for 12% of all plastic surgeries, most of them nose jobs.
Also available are cheek implants, chin implants (mentoplasty), forehead lifts, breast lifts (mastopexy), eyebrow lifts and surgery to correct protruding ears (otoplasty). Collagen injections and the newly revised techniques of fat grafting and fat injections (see accompanying story) are also being used to plump up wrinkles and pitted scars.
Patients are also becoming younger; the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons reports that 27% of people who have nose jobs are 21 or younger, and 34% of face-lift patients are 35 to 50.
This increase in elective cosmetic surgeries has led to more awareness and acceptance. It’s no longer a sin to be nipped and tucked and then blab about it.
Maryjo Price, a 51-year-old skin-care salon owner, is “very open” about the face lift she had two years ago. She was back at work a week after her surgery, covering up remaining bruises with makeup.
“But sometimes,” she said with a sigh, “I think, ‘Maryjo, you went and had this face lift, and here you go on telling everybody about this.’ But I haven’t kept it a secret. A lot of ladies ask me about it, and a lot of them are scared.”
Price had the surgery done the same year she became a grandmother (not merely a coincidence, she said), convinced she needed it after looking at family pictures. “I’d see in the pictures that I was looking worse. It’s one of the better things I’ve done for myself. I’d rather have this than a new car.”
Why does she think more people are talking about it? “It has to do with self-esteem,” she said. “Women have changed a lot since I’ve been in this business. They’re involved in physical fitness, so who wants an old saggy face?”
Dr. Edward Stainbrook, professor emeritus of psychiatry and behavioral science at USC’s School of Medicine, sees a link between an increased awareness of our bodies and the push for more plastic surgery. “If you look at the whole social and cultural trend over the last 30, 40 years, it’s going toward fitness and wellness. There is much less guilt about altering the body, making it as attractive as we can. To be physically well means to be physically attractive. And this affects people’s willingness to use plastic surgery.”
‘They Try to Get Ready’
He added, “There is also an awareness that one is going to spend more time as an aging person, and that builds up anxiety in a middle-aged person. So they try to get ready for the ravages of age and try to prevent the onset of changes--it’s a kind of defensive operation, in the sense that jogging is way of warding off death.”
Surgeons applaud the change in attitude among their patients. “Women are no longer chattel property,” said Los Angeles plastic surgeon Dr. Richard Ellenbogen. “There is no shame involved, and their husbands are for it, the people around them are for it. Many of my patients are sent in by friends, just like they would turn them on to a good restaurant. I’ve even heard of face-lift parties.”
Dr. John Goin, a Los Angeles plastic surgeon, said: “There used to be somewhat simplistic things that plastic surgeons thought were ‘bad motivations,’ like saving a failing marriage or wanting to become a movie star. Another one was advancement at work. Yet my wife and I did a study of 50 female face-lift patients and found that it was a positive thing for career advancement. When the patients talked with psychologists after the surgery, (the patients) were satisfied that it had done something for them.”
Bill Kelley says his face lift had a noticeable improvement on his life. “When I was in the aerospace industry, (I was working with) largely young, dynamic people. I’m quite certain that (the face lift) has aided me personally in that respect. Now that I’m in sales, there’s no question about it. I believe that I’m more readily accepted by people.”
Plastic surgery has gotten boosts over the years from celebrities who tout its merits. When former First Lady Betty Ford admitted to having a face lift in 1978, it gave thousands of women carte blanche to do the same. And when the svelte Joan Rivers had her tummy tucked last summer, even skinny women realized there were improvements that could be made.
The Nip and Tuck Award
Comedian Phyllis Diller was one of the first to come forth with tales of her nips and tucks; her biography includes a full page listing all of her repair work since 1971 (including two face lifts, two nose jobs, cheek implants and eyeliner tattoo). Since Diller, who turns 70 in July, practically owes her body to science, it’s no surprise she was given an award from the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery last year for her “courage . . . to proclaim her surgery and show her results, nationwide and worldwide.”
“My first face was nothing gradual, believe me,” Diller said in a telephone interview from New York. “It was a drastic change. But it was such a wonderful change. I was thrilled. It’s no different than getting a manicure. It’s upkeep. It does so much for your psyche. Your whole attitude toward yourself changes.”
Mr. Blackwell, the clothing designer most famous for his biting worst-dressed list, also was up-front about his facial plastic surgery. “I know that if I did it,” he said, “I had to tell everyone. I have more joy knowing that I had done something about a negative in my life than I would have if I kept absolutely quiet about it.”
He was equally candid about his subsequent surgeries, including liposuction. “A lot of people said I did it for ego reasons. I did. I could not live with looking old--not that I think old is a dirty word. But when I looked old I felt old. I had given up. I had no more fantasies, no more dreams, ambitions, no more challenges. And I found out people were saying behind my back that, well, he’s old, what does he know about today? I was no longer valid because I looked and was older. We are living in a youth generation.”
Intense publicity about the stars’ plastic surgery, however, may give the public a distorted sense of reality. Said Goin, “In many cases, many celebrities have contributed to excessive expectations of aesthetic surgery. Very often the media does not show honest pictures of the results of surgery. The photography has to be fairly scrupulous.”
Good Mental Attitude
As plastic surgery becomes more commonplace, it’s not unusual for a patient to start with one procedure and go back for several more as fears subside. Most plastic surgeons will oblige, as long as the patient has a good mental attitude and does not, for instance, believe a face lift will rejuvenate a sagging marriage.
Dr. Donald Weissman has sent many patients with unrealistic expectations out of his Sunset Boulevard office. “They’re searching for perfection,” he said. “Perfection does not exist. Plastic surgery is an enhancement of natural beauty, bringing out a more beautiful you--not creating a new you.”
Weissman doesn’t think an intense preoccupation with looks is entirely healthy. “Our society is too hung up on the physical,” said Weissman, whose patients include politicians and some of Hollywood’s top box-office draws.
“If our society was more involved with the spiritual, we’d have a better society,” he said. “We have a value system that is skewed. People spend hours in a gym when they should be spending half that time in a library. We’ve become totally preoccupied with our physical sense. That develops into a preoccupation with self, and then things around you are not of great concern to you.
“Sure,” he said, grabbing the nose of the person sitting across from him, “I could trim this for you. But if you’re a heathly person I’d say, ‘Go read a book, go worry about baby seals being clubbed to death.’ When your house is in order, it’s great to have cosmetic surgery. I don’t think cosmetic surgery puts your house in order.”
FACTS ABOUT COSMETIC SURGERY PROCEDURES IN THE U.S.
Number % Increase % done Name/Description performed 1986 over 1984 to men Suction assisted lipectomy: 99,330 78 6 Removes the excess fat from thighs, buttocks, abdomen and face. Thighs 30,810 76 3 Abdomen 23,850 75 9 Buttocks 18,570 25 3 Face 26,100 164 9 Breast augmentation 93,540 -2 0 (augmentation mammaplasty): Uses implants to enlarge breasts. Eyelid surgery (blepharo- 84,690 15 18 plasty): Removes excess skin above and below the eyes, corrects puffiness. Nose job (rhinoplasty): 83,230 17 25 Reduces nose size, reshapes bump or tip of nose. Face lift (rhytidectomy): 66,930 23 10 Removes loose skin around face and neck. Tummy tuck (abdominoplasty) 32,340 55 7 Removes excess abdominal skin, tightens underlying muscles. Breast lift (mastopexy): 17,160 6 0 Lifts sagging breasts. Forehead lift: Removes 15,900 not 10 excess skin on the forehead, available tightens remaining skin. Chin augmentation (mento- 15,330 -14 18 plasty): Removes part of chin bone or adds implant to correct receding chin. Ear surgery (otoplasty): 14,880 13 44 Corrects protruding ears.
% inpatient/ Name/Description Cost outpatient Suction assisted lipectomy: Removes the excess fat from thighs, buttocks, abdomen and face. Thighs $750-4,000 27/73 Abdomen $750-4,000 26/74 Buttocks $500-3,000 28/72 Face $500-4,000 6/94 Breast augmentation $1,800-4,000 7 / 93 (augmentation mammaplasty): Uses implants to enlarge breasts. Eyelid surgery (blepharo- $1,000-4,000 5 / 95 plasty): Removes excess skin above and below the eyes, corrects puffiness. Nose job (rhinoplasty): $1,500-6,000 30 / 70 Reduces nose size, reshapes bump or tip of nose. Face lift (rhytidectomy): $2,000-10,000 25 / 75 Removes loose skin around face and neck. Tummy tuck (abdominoplasty) $2,000-6,000 92 / 8 Removes excess abdominal skin, tightens underlying muscles. Breast lift (mastopexy): $1,500-5,000 23 / 77 Lifts sagging breasts. Forehead lift: Removes $1,000-4,000 not excess skin on the forehead, available tightens remaining skin. Chin augmentation (mento- $250-3,000 6 / 94 plasty): Removes part of chin bone or adds implant to correct receding chin. Ear surgery (otoplasty): $1,000-3,500 14 / 86 Corrects protruding ears.
In most cases, persons undergoing any of the above procedures can return to work within 10 days.
Source: American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons
