Two Weeks before the Big Day: Cosmetic Procedures

Consumer brief: Usually, plastic surgeons want to see patients six months before a wedding so they can allow for proper healing. But when time runs short, a cosmetic or plastic surgeon still has quite a few options on hand that can produce 75% of what a facelift offers without incisions, anesthesia or down time for recovery.

It’s always the pictures.

Before a wedding, almost everybody involved starts thinking about how they will look in the pictures. Consequently, all type of diets suddenly become very popular while others start closely examining the reflections in their mirrors, wondering if cosmetic or plastic surgery may be worthwhile. According to experts, people who’ve had in the back of their minds getting some form of plastic or cosmetic rejuvenation, a wedding ceremony often serves as something known to the profession as a “trigger event.” It pushes them off the fence and into a surgeon’s office.

P.S. (who asked her full name to be withheld) had also been thinking about some rejuvenation surgery before her November 6, 2004 church wedding in Atlanta, Georgia. At 38, P.S. felt that some of the bloom was off her rose; in particular, she did not like the furrows and lines that ran from her nose to the corner of her mouth. Moreover, her own mirror revealed a few more wrinkles than she would like on her forehead and around her mouth when she smiled. So P.S., an Atlanta business development professional, started researching cosmetic procedures.

“I actually started researching plastic surgeons many months before the wedding,” P.S. says. “I felt I was too young for a full facelift but I was worried about some recent pictures of myself. It was apparent that time was marching on.”

And, like for all of us, that march was seemingly taking place across our faces. Nonetheless, the pictures of her wedding, some of which were to be taken in bright sunlight, could be held and viewed for many generations.

“And I’m vain enough for that to be very important to me,” she says.

She continued researching cosmetic and plastic surgeons on the Internet and, one day, heard an Atlanta-area plastic surgeon, Pradeep Sinha, M.D., giving an interview, explaining how a laser procedure known as Thermage works to tighten and reduce loose or flabby facial skin by using a radio-frequency device to heat the skin's collagen. The fibrous protein builds up as a result, making skin look smoother and tighter. Maximum results take a few months, but there's no cutting, no downtime and no recovery period, during which time you may look as if you were mugged.

P.S. had Thermage treatments along the mid-section of her face, along the jowls and under her chin to tighten loose skin.

And then she started researching plastic and cosmetic rejuvenation procedures a bit more. She wanted to rid herself of those pesky wrinkles, furrows and a few scar depressions in her facial skin. But she researched so much, she found she only had two weeks before the wedding.

With only 14 days in which to have, and recover from, cosmetic rejuvenations, P.S. opted for about half the available procedures which do not require incisions, anesthesia or down time to recover and heal.

In yet another appointment, she had Restalyn, a so-called “injectable” that plumps up lips and then three sessions of Botox to smooth out the facial wrinkling. Finally, she had injections of CosmoPlast, a substance that boosts the body’s natural collagen to smooth worry and laugh lines, wrinkles and crow’s feet.

“I had a few chicken pox scars on my face that CosmoPlast filled out nicely,” she says.

It may seem like P.S. put off her pre-wedding cosmetic surgery, but she is actually part of one of the largest trends now sweeping cosmetic surgery. More and more patients are receiving non-invasive cosmetic surgery procedures in short appointments, often during their noon lunch break. Between 2002 and 2003, (the most recent years for which statistics are available) there was a 64 percent increase in the number of minimally invasive procedures performed by members of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Tops in that category was Botox, with more than 2.8 million doses of the wrinkle-eraser. Also on the increase are soft-tissue fillers, which plump up a wrinkle or depressed scar.

Frequently referred to as “No-knife” or “lunchtime” cosmetic surgery, those patients spend less time and money at each session, suffer less down time away from work while returning to the surgeon more often for additional procedures.

CosmoPlast and Restylane for instance, only last three to six months while Botox injections also do their wrinkle smoothing work for only about three months.

But when P.S. was finished with her no-knife plastic surgery procedures, she felt like she looked younger and more refreshed.

The wedding to her engineer husband was witnessed by about 150 onlookers at an Atlanta area Catholic Church. Friends and relatives noticed that she seemed to glow more than usual.

“Most asked right away if I had lost weight and I got a big kick from that,” she says. “My idea of good plastic surgery is when people notice something pleasantly different about you but can not quite put their fingers on what the exact enhancement has been.”

Before and after patient photos courtesy of Pradeep Sinha, M.D., the Atlanta Institute for Facial Aesthetic Surgery. For more information, go to: http://www.facialaestheticsurgery.com/

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