Cosmetic surgery subtracts years, doesn't add beauty

ISLAMABAD: A face-lift or eyelid lift may make you look slightly younger, but not any more attractive, a new study suggests.

In the research, patients who'd had facial cosmetic surgeryto correct signs of aging were rated as looking three years younger, on average, than they did before their operations. However, they were not rated as looking any more attractive.

The researchers conducted the study to try to objectively quantify improvements in attractiveness after surgery, which are often subjective and based on anecdotal reports.

"Patients come to us because they want to look younger. They want to look refreshed," said study researcher Dr. A. Joshua Zimm, of the Lenox Hill Hospital and Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat Institute of North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System.

However, Zimm stressed that the question of increased attractiveness after plastic surgery requires further research said the study published in the journal JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery.

The new study was quite small, and a larger investigation may show asignificant difference in attractiveness scores before and after surgery. And because the study focused on plastic surgery for aging, it excluded patients who'd had nose jobs or non-surgical lip or winkle injections, the researchers said.

In the study, patients had to have photographs on file that were taken at least six months after their surgery. This may have excluded some patients who were very happy with their results and did not come back to the doctor, Zimm said.