More Men Having Plastic Surgery | by Larry Keller

cosmetic surgery for men

Posted on Sun, Nov 11, 2012

Time was when any self-respecting man equated plastic surgery with being a fop, a dandy. Times have changed. Magazines like Men’s Health bulge with articles and ads advising guys on how to look, smell and feel better. And nowadays, hundreds of thousands of men get sliced, peeled and injected every year. Their theme song could well be “Skin Tight.”

“Men want to stay competitive,” says Dr. David Broadway of the Broadway Center for Plastic Surgery in Lone Tree and Cherry Creek North. “In this tough economy, some of them are trying to get back in the job market. Some want to protect their jobs. Some just want to look and feel better.”

Dr. Jennifer Emmett at the Center for Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery in Englewood, agrees. “I think as the economy has gone through this recession, more men have come in for facial rejuvenation.” And, she adds, “I hear them saying they want their outside to match how they feel inside.”

Men underwent more than 750,000 cosmetic procedures in 2010, according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. That’s an 88 percent jump since 1997. Men accounted for 8 percent of all cosmetic procedures done last year. The top five surgical procedures for men were liposuction, rhinoplasty (nose reshaping), eyelid surgery, breast reduction and cosmetic ear surgery. Botox and Dysport injections to reduce wrinkles were overwhelmingly the most popular non-surgical procedures.

Men used to mostly get their noses reshaped – usually because of an injury or a breathing problem, Broadway recalls. “Today they’re coming in for more purely cosmetic surgery. I definitely think men are more accepting of … the variety of procedures they’re willing to get. Lately, I’ve been having a lot of couples come in.”

A common liposuction procedure that Broadway does on men is removal of fat from their necks so that a double chin can go solo again. Emmett says a lot of men at her office get liposuction on their mid-sections because they hate their love handles.

As men age, they sometimes “commonly get what are called man boobs,” Broadway says. Some have fat tissue accumulate in the chest, while with others it’s firmer, glandular tissue. Either way, it hardly presents a chiseled image, so some men opt to have it surgically removed, he says.

The ideal candidate for male breast reduction surgery – called gynecomastia – is not obese. “You don’t want to make someone look asymmetrical,” Emmett says.

At least a bulging belly or flabby chest can be partially concealed by a guy’s shirt. Not so an aging face. As we grow older, facial bones grow softer and flatter, and “fat paths” disappear. The result: A hollow, drawn look around the eyes and cheeks, and sagging lines from the nostrils to the mouth. Many men, Emmett says, are getting “facial fillers” injected to plump up their mug.

Men also are increasingly interested in skin care treatments, such as Retin-A to repair sun damage and restore collagen, Emmett says. “Skin care is huge for men,” she says. Discomfort, however, is not.

“I think women inherently are very strong,” Broadway says. “Men complain a bit more. Men don’t tolerate local anesthesia as much as women do.”

Men also tend to be more discreet than women, Emmett says. Women may be eager to tell each other about a procedure they had done, but men aren’t likely to share such details with their friends.

“I think men are not looking for dramatic, drastic change,” Emmett says. “They’re definitely worried about looking overdone. They want a subtle effect.”

 

 

 

 

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