One of the gals I play bridge with decided to have a few facial proceduresbecause her grandchildren kept asking her if she were angry.

“I would tell them I’m not angry, this is just the way I look. The last time they asked this I thought I had better take care of this.”

Carolyn is 63 and works part time as a conference organizer for large organizations. This fall she had three facial procedures: blepharoplasty (an eyelid lift), full-face laser resurfacing, and fat injections.

“Now my grandchildren say I look happy all the time.”

Carolyn is among the growing trend across the county of patients 55 and older who now make up one-quarter of the more than 12 million cosmetic procedures performed in the U.S. (American Society of Plastic Surgeons, ASPS). Despite the poor economy that number is up slightly from last year and patients ages 40 to 54 accounted for 47 percent of all procedures done.

Obviously today’s seniors are more health conscious and like many of us, they look in the mirror and even though they feel younger, they still look older. When senior men and women feel good physically it makes sense that they focus cosmetic procedures on their face. Look at these figures for 2008: those 55 and older had 48% of all blepharoplasties, 43% of all laser skin resurfacing, and 66% of all facelifts performed in the U.S. last year.

The eyelift removes excess skin and fatty tissue and reduces bags and wrinkles. The CO2 laser skin resurfacing, using a computer generated laser to vaporize skin layers and cause thermal damage is the next most popular procedure. The laser process results in tighter skin and has a positive effect on lines and wrinkles and pigmentation.  Both treatments are performed in a hospital under general anesthetic and recovery takes a couple of weeks. The eye lift costs around $6000 and the laser procedure close to $7000 including hospital costs.

I haven’t seen the results yet because she is now babysitting her grandchildren in another state. But I did talk to her and she sounds so very happy.

Do you have any plans for any facial procedures? Will you share your reason why you made that choice? I think we all need to be better informed and not make such hasty judgments.

To your success at healthy aging,

Ruthan Brodsky