The objective is to restore a more youthful appearance and, for most people, to look better without looking significantly different. They face the dichotomy of welcoming and mentoring the younger rising executives on one hand, and being concerned about grooming and training their replacement on the other. Only a few decades ago, plastic or cosmetic surgery was seen as the indulgence of vain, aging dowagers and spoiled young coeds. Now that the Baby Boomers have past 50, however, thousands of men and women are choosing any of a dozen or so procedures to sculpt, tighten, tuck or resurface all those wrinkles, sagging jowls, frown lines and crow s feet. Perhaps not surprisingly, the most popular procedures are eyelid surgery, facelifts, liposuction and laser skin resurfacing.
People decide upon plastic or cosmetic surgery for a whole variety of personal reasons.
A face-lift, for example, might actually take five or more years off someone s appearance. But expectations about the outcome can become a minefield. If the surgical candidate believes and expects something that cannot possibly happen, they are destined to view the results as a failure, no matter how technically successful they actually are. That s why expectations are the core topic for our pre-surgery consultations. If a candidate s expectations are unreasonable, or if they want the procedure for all the wrong reasons, I am reluctant to schedule the operation.