How Much Younger Will Cosmetic Surgery Make Me (Appear)?

A collaboration between Canadian and American research teams has put an exact figure on how much younger cosmetic surgery can make you look.

Youth in the eye of the beholder, and in the hands of a surgeon

An LA Times article has reported on research that ‘proves’ that youth, not beauty, is in the eye of the beholder and that cosmetic surgery puts it there.

This survey is the work of researchers from the University of Toronto and the North Shore University Health System, who asked 40 first year students to study pictures of 60 cosmetic surgery patients (54 women and 6 men) aged 45 to 72 and estimate their ages.

The 60 patients had undergone at least one of a number of facial procedures around six months prior to the survey. 22 had facelifts and necklifts only, 17 had also undergone surgery on their eyelids, and 21 had undergone forehead lifts as well.

Their goal? To measure 'surgical success'!

The researchers’ manifesto explains that cosmetic surgery clinics trade using language that
“tend[s] to use the terms more youthful and more refreshed, but precise quantification of these attributes has remained elusive.”
Their goal? To produce “an objective measure of surgical success” that everyone can agree on.

The results are in

The results show that on average the pictures of cosmetic surgery patients appeared 8.9 years younger than their chronological age. Interestingly on pictures taken before cosmetic surgery estimations were 1.7 years younger.

In general, patients who had undergone more procedures looked younger:
Facelifts and necklifts only: 5.7 years younger,
Facelifts, necklifts and eyelids: 7.5 years younger,
Facelifts, necklifts, eyelids and forehead lifts: 8.4 years younger.

What does this mean?

“Our results show a modest but significant reduction in perceived age after aesthetic facial surgery,”
Wrote the boffins.
“Although motivations for aesthetic surgery may vary, a prevailing concept includes the desire to achieve a more youthful appearance while maintaining one’s unique attributes and identifying characteristics. Given these expectations, a mean 7.2 year reduction in perceived age is indeed consistent with this goal.”

The researchers raise a good point about the nature of cosmetic surgery, namely that the goal is to appear youthful but essentially keep one’s individuality.

That’s a nice detail to remember – that cosmetic surgery is not about society looking the same but about improving our individuality in order to stand out in a more agreeable way.

Yes but what does this really mean?

It means that Joan Rivers (78) can be a 71.7 year old spring chicken again!