Study Shows Plastic Surgery Can Really Result to Younger Appearance

Plastic surgery can make individuals look younger—and that is a fact.  While cosmetic surgeons have the tendency to use the term “more youthful,” a recent study published in the Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery has suggested that on average, patients had a 7.2-year reduction in perceived age.

While most previous studies depend on the patient-reported satisfaction in assessing the success of cosmetic plastic surgery, the researchers from the University of Toronto and the NorthShore University Healthy System focused on the opinion of third party individuals.

The study involved 60 patients—54 women and six men aged between 45 and 72—who had received facial rejuvenation procedures in the form of facelift, necklift, forehead lift, and eyelid lift.

The before-and-after pictures of patients were then evaluated by 40 medical students who were divided into four groups.  Then they were asked to view the same set of randomized photos and provide estimated ages for each patient.

On average, the med students estimated that the plastic surgery patients were 8.9 years younger than their chronological age following the procedure.  In general, those who had more procedures achieved the most reduction in perceived age.

For instance, patients who had forehead lift, eyelid lift, and facelift all at the same time reduced their perceived age by 8.4 on average. 

For patients who had facelift only, the perceived age reduction was 5.7 years; and for individuals who had facelift and eyelid lift at the same time, it fell by 7.5 years.  

In a statement, the researchers said the “results show a modest to significant reduction in perceived age after aesthetic facia lsurgery.”

With the findings, Dr. Tarick Smaili, who was not involved in the study, said he was not surprised.

“Some studies have already proven that aesthetic facial surgery really do wonders, although the focus was more on the patient satisfaction.  But still, I commend the researchers from using an objective way to measure the surgical success and that is by assigning third party individuals to assess the result rather than by asking the patients themselves,” Smaili said.

Aside from facelift and other traditional forms of facial rejuvenation surgeries, rhinoplasty or more commonly referred to as nose job has also been found to make the patients look younger.

In a separate study, patients who had rhinoplasty on average looked 1.5 years younger than their perceived age after the procedure. 

Meanwhile, the age of the patients at the time of surgery had a very small effect on the age reduction.