Plastic Surgery Gives Younger Appearance to Aging Face

Aesthetic facial plastic surgery results in a reduction in perceived age, with the effect more substantial for those who undergo multiple procedures, according to a study published online Feb. 20 in the Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery.

Nitin Chauhan, M.D., of the University of Toronto, and colleagues evaluated the degree of perceived age change in 60 randomly selected patients aged 45 to 72 who underwent aesthetic facial plastic surgery. Raters were presented with photographs and asked to estimate the patients' ages. The patient population was divided into three groups: face- and neck-lift (group 1); face- and neck-lift and upper and lower blepharoplasty (group 2); and face- and neck-lift, upper and lower blepharoplasty, and forehead-lift (group 3).

The researchers found that, on average, patients' ages were estimated at about 1.7 years younger than their chronological age before surgery and 8.9 years younger after surgery. The effect was most dramatic for group 3, and less substantial for group 1.

"Our data demonstrate a significant and consistent reduction in perceived age after aesthetic facial surgery," the authors write. "This effect is made more substantial when the number of surgical procedures is increased, an effect unrelated to the preoperative age of a patient and unaffected by other variables that we investigated."

One of the authors disclosed financial ties to Allergan Canada.

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For more information on nonsurgical approaches for treatment of facial aging, see the articles "Aesthetic Brow-lifts: Review of Contemporary Nonsurgical and Surgical Approaches" and "Lasers and Light Sources to Activate Fibroblasts."