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Everyone nowadays is looking for the magic bullet," says plastic surgeon Thomas Vecchione, who practices in the Hillcrest area. Call it what you will — magic bullet or fountain of youth — more and more of Vecchione's patients want a quick fix for wrinkles and fine facial lines. "The big thing in the last few years is skin care," he says. "The fruity peels and the acid peels which burn off the first few layers of skin."
Taking exfoliation to an even higher level are crystal peels, oxygenation treatments and laser peels, the latter literally vaporizing years off your skin. Some of this renewed interest in skin treatments — which are quicker and easier than face-lifts — is their availability and affordability. Even though baby boomers en masse are entering their 50s, wrinkles, sagging jowls and drooping eyebrows come as a surprise to them.
"All of a sudden I was 48 and I didn’t feel 48," says Cynthia (who declined to give her last name), a face-lift patient of Dr. Vecchione's. "I had been through a lot in the last 10 years and I just felt that it had taken a toll. I looked tired all the time and was becoming really conscious of my jowling."
So Cynthia, a media relations executive, treated herself to a face-lift a few months ago. "I don’t feel I necessarily look younger now," she says, "But then I look at the friends I went to school with and think, wow, they look so old."
Amy Steinmetz, owner and president of International Skin Care Centre Inc. in Hillcrest, says requests for skin peels are way up. Chemical peels typically involve the application of acid to burn away several layers of skin, she says, ridding the patient of light scarring, fine lines and wrinkles. But since Steinmetz acquired her state-of-the-art microdermabrader, crystal peels are now the rage in her practice.
"This piece of equipment sprays a fine jet of corundum crystals, a ground mineral, onto the face, neck or chest, and when the crystals hit the surface they loosen up the dead skin cells, which are immediately sucked into a bottle. It’s uncomfortable, but not like a chemical peel, which hurts like the dickens," she says.
Steinmetz, who has been in business since 1991, says the majority of her clients are baby boomers, although she sees everyone from teenagers with acne to the elderly. Depending on how much wrinkling a patient wants removed, Steinmetz usually arranges for a series of peels so that the effects will be long-lasting.
She also provides an oxygenation treatment called Echo 2, named after a piece of equipment that sprays pure oxygen over skin pre-treated with liquid vitamins and minerals. "The oxygen blows over the face and turns the liquid into a gas, which is absorbed into the skin. The oxygen also attaches to your skin cells and puffs them up, giving them a very nice texture," she says.
Also in vogue is electronic muscle stimulation, which uses a very low electric current on the skin, removing deep lines by lifting them up. "I’ve been doing it for the fine lines around my mouth and they are almost gone now," says Steinmetz.
EMS treatments run between $75 to $100 per treatment and at least three sessions are recommended. A crystal peel for the face alone is $150 at International Skin Care Centre, $225 for face, neck and chest; oxygenation treatments are $125 for the first session and $95 after that.
A Snip Here And There
But Vecchione says sooner or later, patients realize the only way to really get rid of wrinkles is to have a face-lift or an eyebrow lift. A face-lift involves removing a portion of the skin and tightening the hanging tissue underneath. "Or you can get an eyebrow lift, which gets rid of brow lines and lifts up sagging eyebrows, making you look more relaxed," he says.
The bulk of face-lift patients are women between 40 and 60 years old, but Vecchione says recently he's been seeing more male patients. "Plastic surgery isn’t hidden anymore; it’s much more acceptable. And men, like women, want to look good for as long as they can." Also popular is liposuction under the chin and neck area, and in more traditional spots, like the hip, abdomen and thigh, where fatty tissue is sucked out through a small hole.
Plastic surgeon Michael Roark says a large portion of his patients are seeking liposuction and breast enlargement, as they have been for years. "Especially since the scare over silicon settled down, it’s been the baseline of this practice."
He's also seeing younger patients — in their 30s and 40s — coming in for skin rejuvenation procedures like laser peels, and for tightening around their necks and lower eyelids. "There has been a real evolution in our concept about facial rejuvenation," says Roark. "Now we think about recontouring one's face and restoring volume in various areas, rather than just pulling and lifting" as in a traditional face-lift. Recontouring a face can include cheekbone augmentation, where a silicone implant is inserted into the face, giving cheekbones a fuller look.
And Roark says he, too, is seeing more male patients. "Classically men comprised maybe 8 percent of a cosmetic surgery practice, but over the last five years it’s become 15 to 20 percent. The top three procedures for men are eyelid lifts, liposuction (jowl, neck and love handles) and nose jobs." Prices vary depending on each patient but run from about $2,000 for liposuction to $6,500 for breast enlargement.
Now A Nice Smile
A beautiful face wouldn't be much without teeth. Linda K. Lee, a dentist who specializes in cosmetic dentistry, says the most commonly requested cosmetic treatment is teeth whitening. Lee says a bleaching agent is applied to the tooth and exposed to a special light which activates the agent.
"It’s very effective and takes about two hours in the office. You can get up to four shades lighter," she says. The price for either in-office or take-home whitening treatments varies, depending on how badly teeth are stained. The mainstay of Lee's practice is "reinventing smiles," she says. "Technology's biggest impact in dentistry is on the cosmetic side. Nowadays we can give patients superior restorations with better, longer lasting materials."
Many of Lee's middle-aged patients avoid braces — once the only way to straighten and beautify a crooked smile — by using porcelain veneers and reshaping teeth. "Veneers allow me to straighten out the teeth by shaving away some of the tooth structure and providing a lifelike cover. People are always amazed at how well they look afterwards," she says.
Silver fillings and crowns with metal are routinely replaced with tooth-colored fillings and porcelain crowns. "We try to stay away from metal whenever possible," says Lee. "Advances in basic science have produced tooth-colored materials that are as durable as metal."
Her patients — like many of those who seek out plastic surgery — range in age from their 30s to 50s and have higher dental IQs than in the past, often requesting specific services. Tired of old fillings and teeth stains, Lee's patients are educated consumers of cosmetic services. Still, their demands are pretty straightforward. "For the most part," she says, "they just want a better smile."
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