Turn Back the Clock
All sorts of products promise to trim away years-without using a knife
Sunscreen, check. Laser treatment, check. Botox, check. Wrinkle filler, check. Cancel face-lift for another few years, check check.
Turning back the clock has long been done with a knife, followed by a lengthy, painful, and not-so-pretty recovery. But these days, a growing number of women are taking the nonsurgical route to rejuvenation--free of scars, long roads back, and that pulled, plastic look. And there have never been so many products and procedures aimed at helping them, including new types of tissue fillers that plump up wrinkles and firm the skin, gentler lasers that erase sun damage and redness, and a growing array of skin treatments and lotions to keep skin looking tighter and healthier. "One by one, these procedures can make a difference," says Peter Fodor, a board-certified plastic surgeon and past president of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. "But together they can produce a result that is more than the sum of its parts, and can push back the need for a face-lift."
That's what one Chicago lawyer had in mind last year when she bought herself a 50th-birthday present of Botox and Restylane injections to smooth out her deep lines and wrinkles and a series of laser treatments to reverse years of sun damage. "I didn't want to look done, or anyone to know I'd had anything done," said Mary, who asked that her last name not be used. "I just wanted to look better without having surgery."
She's in good company. Some 78 million baby boomers are approaching retirement age, and many of them have no intention of looking the part. The prospect of such a mother lode has created a feeding frenzy among doctors and pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies looking to cash in on a market where nearly 80 percent of cosmetic procedures are now nonsurgical. Obstetricians are now hawking wrinkle remedies; dentists are doing Botox injections.
For many, the youth quest begins in the drugstore aisles or at the department store makeup counter, where there are a dizzying array of antiaging lotions, potions, serums, and creams. Consumers spent $6.4 billion on antiaging skin products last year, an increase of 21 percent from the previous year, according to market research firm Packaged Facts.
Known as cosmeceuticals, these products do not require the approval of the Food and Drug Administration, and therefore their claims are not backed up by rigorous scientific testing. But many of them, such as Olay's top-selling Regenerist and Total Effects lines, include ingredients that dermatologists recognize to be effective in helping to keep skin healthy and reduce the appearance of aging. These ingredients include peptides, which can inhibit certain muscle movements that cause wrinkles; retinoids, which promote collagen production; glycolic acids, which smooth out skin tone; and antioxidants, which help offset sun damage.
Many over-the-counter products also improve appearance simply by hydrating the face. Since results are hard to substantiate, dermatologists suggest that patients use the product they feel works for them. And they shouldn't be fooled by cost or fancy packaging. "Price has no correlation to efficacy," says Mark Mandell-Brown, a Cincinnati plastic surgeon, noting that many drugstore products have the same ingredients as their fancier department store counterparts, but at much lower prices.
advertisement
