50 Isn't Fatal: How Plastic Surgery Adds Decades of Youth and Beauty

1
00:00:00,700 --> 00:00:04,670
Welcome to another episode of
Park Avenue Plastic Surgery Class,

2
00:00:04,970 --> 00:00:08,510
the podcast where we explore controversies
and breaking issues in plastic

3
00:00:08,511 --> 00:00:10,350
surgery. I'm your co-host Doreen Wu.

4
00:00:10,351 --> 00:00:15,310
I'm excited to be here with Dr. Lawrence
Bass Park Avenue plastic surgeon,

5
00:00:15,990 --> 00:00:17,590
educator, and technology innovator.

6
00:00:17,890 --> 00:00:20,870
The title of today's
episode is 50 Isn't Fatal:

7
00:00:20,920 --> 00:00:24,670
How Plastic Surgery Adds
Decades of Youth and Beauty

8
00:00:27,180 --> 00:00:27,830
50,

9
00:00:27,830 --> 00:00:32,290
or the big 5-0 has always been a
watershed period in aging and beauty,

10
00:00:32,970 --> 00:00:36,330
a point beyond which people looked
like older adults what's changed.

11
00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:40,690
Well before in the old days. So to speak,

12
00:00:40,740 --> 00:00:45,370
everything was surgery and
everything was surgery to

13
00:00:45,560 --> 00:00:47,690
restore. Um,

14
00:00:48,350 --> 00:00:51,050
at least when it came to aging changes,

15
00:00:52,230 --> 00:00:57,210
and what we have now is a whole
range of surgical and especially

16
00:00:57,330 --> 00:01:01,930
non-surgical treatments that
are designed to prevent and

17
00:01:02,290 --> 00:01:07,170
maintain the face, not just
to restore our aging changes.

18
00:01:07,670 --> 00:01:12,570
So that just completely changes the
playing field when you have to wait for

19
00:01:12,571 --> 00:01:15,730
everything to fall apart, and
then try to pull it back up.

20
00:01:16,030 --> 00:01:20,650
That's a very different
process than taking

21
00:01:20,680 --> 00:01:25,570
someone who still looks young
and maintaining their appearance.

22
00:01:25,910 --> 00:01:29,090
And when you stop and think about
it, that's really the ideal.

23
00:01:29,630 --> 00:01:34,530
We don't want you to look old and then
suddenly have work done on Friday and

24
00:01:34,531 --> 00:01:37,010
go back Monday morning,
looking 20 years younger,

25
00:01:37,710 --> 00:01:40,570
we want you to just keep looking young,

26
00:01:41,440 --> 00:01:45,450
like your own beautiful self
for as long as possible.

27
00:01:46,480 --> 00:01:48,500
You said that before it was all surgery,

28
00:01:48,970 --> 00:01:50,700
what was the typical course in the past?

29
00:01:52,170 --> 00:01:53,730
So when I first went into practice,

30
00:01:54,090 --> 00:01:57,490
which is between 25 and 30 years ago,

31
00:01:58,930 --> 00:02:03,290
typical facelift age for
many folks was 50 years old.

32
00:02:04,130 --> 00:02:05,890
And that 50, you know, in the old days,

33
00:02:06,170 --> 00:02:09,610
the saying was "50's over the hill,"
because you're more than halfway through

34
00:02:09,850 --> 00:02:13,010
your reasonable lifespan at 50 years. Uh,

35
00:02:13,290 --> 00:02:16,930
so you've passed the hill and
you're on the slide downward.

36
00:02:18,130 --> 00:02:22,530
And that was often an age where
people took stock and said, okay,

37
00:02:23,090 --> 00:02:26,490
I'm going to get the facelift
and clear everything up.

38
00:02:28,970 --> 00:02:32,730
Because of all of the prevention
and maintenance treatments,

39
00:02:33,410 --> 00:02:35,250
all of the nonsurgical options,

40
00:02:36,810 --> 00:02:38,810
we can now push off that period.

41
00:02:39,410 --> 00:02:43,090
And a more typical facelift age in 2022

42
00:02:44,650 --> 00:02:49,130
is 60 years old, or even somewhere
in the sixties, you know,

43
00:02:49,330 --> 00:02:51,050
up to say 65 years old.

44
00:02:51,630 --> 00:02:55,850
And that's a much more typical age and
we've talked about these statistics a few

45
00:02:55,851 --> 00:02:58,330
times on the podcast, but just

46
00:03:00,180 --> 00:03:04,080
as a bird's eye view of what's
going on, that's the big change.

47
00:03:04,980 --> 00:03:07,360
What's the approach now
with these new options.

48
00:03:08,220 --> 00:03:10,920
Now it's really about a program, uh,

49
00:03:11,070 --> 00:03:15,920
employing a few of the most needed
options at the right time for

50
00:03:15,921 --> 00:03:20,000
each individual based on what's
happening with their face and,

51
00:03:20,001 --> 00:03:24,040
and their aging changes. So we
don't want to do everything.

52
00:03:24,041 --> 00:03:28,760
We don't want this to be a full-time
job, but it is a process. And again,

53
00:03:28,761 --> 00:03:33,080
I've said this on the podcast before
beauty is a process. It's not an event.

54
00:03:34,340 --> 00:03:38,720
And so by doing a few
judicious things along the way,

55
00:03:39,300 --> 00:03:43,960
we can actually get a big delay in
the need to pull a trigger on a big

56
00:03:44,070 --> 00:03:45,400
item, like a facelift.

57
00:03:46,450 --> 00:03:48,460
Yeah, that's a, that's a
great way of putting it,

58
00:03:48,600 --> 00:03:53,380
having this multifaceted program with
various treatment modalities and different

59
00:03:53,381 --> 00:03:55,780
procedures. Speaking of modalities,

60
00:03:56,080 --> 00:03:58,420
can you tell us about some
of these new approaches?

61
00:03:59,810 --> 00:04:04,650
So what you need to use or
incorporate in your beauty

62
00:04:05,050 --> 00:04:08,010
plan is a little different
at different ages. Uh,

63
00:04:08,370 --> 00:04:13,210
it's more or less oriented
towards prevention and then

64
00:04:13,570 --> 00:04:18,370
some maintenance of small things
that you've restored so that you

65
00:04:18,610 --> 00:04:23,130
don't have to circle back
and restore again until it's

66
00:04:23,650 --> 00:04:24,483
absolutely necessary.

67
00:04:25,690 --> 00:04:29,410
So the starting place for all of
this is going to be skin products,

68
00:04:29,730 --> 00:04:33,570
and this is what almost everybody
should be using on their skin,

69
00:04:34,850 --> 00:04:37,770
starting in their twenties,
certainly in their thirties,

70
00:04:38,930 --> 00:04:43,250
just to protect the skin and to help
keep the skin healthy and youthful.

71
00:04:44,170 --> 00:04:48,970
So that's going to make a big difference
early in the game, as you go forward.

72
00:04:50,010 --> 00:04:52,610
And a little bigger
intervention is necessary.

73
00:04:53,450 --> 00:04:58,290
You're starting to work more now with
your plastic surgeon in the office

74
00:04:59,210 --> 00:05:03,010
and their team receiving
skincare. That's more medical,

75
00:05:04,090 --> 00:05:08,970
including chemical peels and
various energy-based treatments.

76
00:05:09,690 --> 00:05:14,650
And then working up to injectable
fillers and neuromodulators like

77
00:05:15,250 --> 00:05:17,930
Botox, Dysport, Jeaveau, Xeomin.

78
00:05:19,460 --> 00:05:21,280
So what is the big message now,

79
00:05:21,510 --> 00:05:26,440
because I'm always hearing about the next
best thing or some important aesthetic

80
00:05:26,441 --> 00:05:29,600
problem in TV commercials
and magazine articles?

81
00:05:30,390 --> 00:05:31,480
Well, of course, you know,

82
00:05:31,481 --> 00:05:35,880
these things are really advertisements
where they're discussing a particular

83
00:05:36,210 --> 00:05:40,760
technology or modality and
trying to showcase what,

84
00:05:40,830 --> 00:05:44,200
what it's good for or
what it's doing. That's,

85
00:05:44,580 --> 00:05:49,480
that's a step forward and in
advance and those things are

86
00:05:49,490 --> 00:05:50,800
great. Uh,

87
00:05:50,980 --> 00:05:55,640
but the important thing to realize is
that the messaging for those kind of

88
00:05:55,641 --> 00:06:00,120
things is all coming from big companies,
they're promoting their products.

89
00:06:00,580 --> 00:06:03,760
And they're trying to
target that messaging at,

90
00:06:03,980 --> 00:06:07,200
at the optimum demographic,
the right age group,

91
00:06:07,620 --> 00:06:09,080
the right circumstances,

92
00:06:10,370 --> 00:06:13,960
those individuals who are
consuming their product,

93
00:06:14,100 --> 00:06:16,800
or they perceive are going
to consume their product,

94
00:06:16,900 --> 00:06:19,080
or who would get the most benefit from it.

95
00:06:20,260 --> 00:06:25,040
And you can see it in the TV commercials
and magazine ads with the models that

96
00:06:25,041 --> 00:06:29,040
they use to represent,
uh, the target audience.

97
00:06:29,180 --> 00:06:31,760
And if you look like that target audience,

98
00:06:32,670 --> 00:06:35,360
then that's great, but

99
00:06:37,090 --> 00:06:38,380
it's not for everybody.

100
00:06:39,660 --> 00:06:43,120
Yes. I've definitely seen that.
So how does that affect things?

101
00:06:44,150 --> 00:06:45,760
Well, everyone looks at that message,

102
00:06:46,340 --> 00:06:49,400
not just the people who look
like the models in the ad,

103
00:06:49,860 --> 00:06:51,520
but people who are younger than that,

104
00:06:51,521 --> 00:06:56,240
people who are decades older
than that sweet spot demographic

105
00:06:56,820 --> 00:07:01,560
are looking at the message all
age groups and all kinds of skin

106
00:07:01,570 --> 00:07:02,403
types.

107
00:07:02,980 --> 00:07:06,600
And there may be a role for
these treatments for everybody,

108
00:07:06,660 --> 00:07:11,480
but it may not be a mainstream
treatment for where you are in the

109
00:07:11,680 --> 00:07:16,280
aging process. In other words, you may
not be that sweet spot demographic.

110
00:07:16,380 --> 00:07:18,880
So it doesn't mean the
technology is not useful,

111
00:07:19,020 --> 00:07:20,800
or you shouldn't consider getting it,

112
00:07:21,460 --> 00:07:25,200
but you listen to the message and
you think they're talking to you,

113
00:07:25,550 --> 00:07:28,320
this is the main thing you should
be worrying about or doing.

114
00:07:29,300 --> 00:07:33,880
And that may not be correct
either because you're not that

115
00:07:33,881 --> 00:07:38,040
mainstream demographic for the product.
You're 40 years older than that.

116
00:07:38,041 --> 00:07:41,400
If you're 75 and they're
targeting a 35 year old,

117
00:07:42,010 --> 00:07:47,000
which is a typical demographic for
a lot of aesthetic technologies that

118
00:07:47,001 --> 00:07:49,760
you see advertised, then you know,

119
00:07:49,761 --> 00:07:52,120
that message is really
not intended for you.

120
00:07:52,220 --> 00:07:56,680
The other thing is that what you're
looking at may not be a feature

121
00:07:56,940 --> 00:08:00,120
that's critically
important to you. You know,

122
00:08:00,121 --> 00:08:03,880
they may be talking about
your elevens or, uh,

123
00:08:04,100 --> 00:08:08,960
or your bunny lines or some other feature
on your face, and you may say, "oh,

124
00:08:08,990 --> 00:08:13,160
that doesn't really bother me." So
if it doesn't really bother you,

125
00:08:13,161 --> 00:08:17,640
the technology that fixes it is not
very important for you as an individual.

126
00:08:18,460 --> 00:08:23,440
So it's taking the general knowledge
about aesthetic technologies and trying to

127
00:08:23,470 --> 00:08:28,360
distill it into your
individual needs based on

128
00:08:28,361 --> 00:08:33,080
your concerns, aesthetically, and based
on where you are in the aging process.

129
00:08:34,360 --> 00:08:39,310
Which leads me to wonder with this
constant influx of messaging and

130
00:08:39,420 --> 00:08:42,590
advertisement, how do I
decide, how do I get started?

131
00:08:43,420 --> 00:08:44,253
Well, you know,

132
00:08:44,430 --> 00:08:48,630
reading about things on the internet
and reading in magazines and talking to

133
00:08:48,830 --> 00:08:49,950
your friends is,

134
00:08:50,230 --> 00:08:53,950
is a good way to gather
information and gather questions,

135
00:08:54,750 --> 00:08:56,600
but that's only the start.

136
00:08:57,080 --> 00:09:02,080
And of course the real planning
ideally is done in conjunction with

137
00:09:02,320 --> 00:09:03,360
your aesthetic provider.

138
00:09:04,120 --> 00:09:09,120
You get an experienced plastic surgeon
who has a broad range of modalities.

139
00:09:09,800 --> 00:09:13,480
They have surgical modalities and
they have non-surgical modalities.

140
00:09:13,920 --> 00:09:15,600
So whatever is a good fit for you,

141
00:09:17,040 --> 00:09:19,080
either based on where you
are in the aging process,

142
00:09:19,640 --> 00:09:24,280
or based on your personal preferences, uh,

143
00:09:24,880 --> 00:09:27,880
they're able to offer you
the appropriate option.

144
00:09:28,640 --> 00:09:33,320
And then you intersect your
knowledge and your aesthetic goals

145
00:09:34,600 --> 00:09:36,520
with that provider's experience

146
00:09:38,160 --> 00:09:39,640
so that they can advise you,

147
00:09:40,280 --> 00:09:44,760
that's a big part of what you're
paying for when you seek the care of a

148
00:09:45,560 --> 00:09:47,680
physician, is that professional,

149
00:09:47,680 --> 00:09:51,480
great knowledge that they've
spent decades acquiring.

150
00:09:51,860 --> 00:09:56,120
So take advantage of that and let them
share that with you to help you plan

151
00:09:56,650 --> 00:09:59,360
where you should go. And then from there,

152
00:09:59,830 --> 00:10:02,200
ideally if you find
someone who's a good fit,

153
00:10:02,620 --> 00:10:07,320
you try to stick with that
provider and you and the plastic

154
00:10:07,350 --> 00:10:12,000
surgeon watch together your
response to treatments and

155
00:10:12,060 --> 00:10:15,520
adjust your, your beauty plan as you age,

156
00:10:15,940 --> 00:10:18,720
or based on what works and what doesn't,

157
00:10:18,750 --> 00:10:23,040
what agrees with your skin and what
doesn't. And you only change things.

158
00:10:23,041 --> 00:10:26,720
Once you get a good plan, when something
stops working, you've aged some,

159
00:10:26,721 --> 00:10:29,520
and you need to go to
another level of treatment.

160
00:10:30,250 --> 00:10:33,400
Right. And what kind of
program should I start with?

161
00:10:33,730 --> 00:10:34,840
Where does it go from there?

162
00:10:35,590 --> 00:10:38,400
Well, you know, there are all
kinds of different things. And,

163
00:10:38,460 --> 00:10:43,320
and of course it depends on how old
you are, what your skin is like,

164
00:10:44,040 --> 00:10:46,520
uh, and how you fared
in the aging process.

165
00:10:47,840 --> 00:10:49,120
So early on,

166
00:10:49,680 --> 00:10:54,280
you're looking for good medicated skin
products that are going to help support,

167
00:10:54,800 --> 00:10:58,560
not just protect the skin, which,
which any good quality product will,

168
00:10:59,320 --> 00:11:04,120
but the medicated skin products will
actually modulate the biology of the skin

169
00:11:04,520 --> 00:11:09,000
in a favorable way, getting it to
behave more youthful or overcoming

170
00:11:11,240 --> 00:11:14,840
some problem, pigment, redness, something
else that's going on in the skin.

171
00:11:15,360 --> 00:11:17,080
So that's always a starting place,

172
00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:22,120
but you pick a small selection
of treatments that you space out

173
00:11:23,360 --> 00:11:25,400
appropriately across a
year, so that it's not a,

174
00:11:25,680 --> 00:11:30,160
an overwhelming project so that the
skin is always getting a little care and

175
00:11:30,560 --> 00:11:33,600
maintenance. And it's very much like
what we do with our teeth. You know,

176
00:11:33,601 --> 00:11:35,600
we all know we've gotta brush our teeth,

177
00:11:35,601 --> 00:11:38,120
or we're not going to keep
our teeth for very long,

178
00:11:38,620 --> 00:11:43,560
but we also need to periodically
see the hygienist and let them pick

179
00:11:43,561 --> 00:11:48,440
up whatever built up and let the
dentist give a check up on the teeth

180
00:11:48,460 --> 00:11:53,040
and gums, and maybe fix a few things
if, if something is starting to,

181
00:11:53,100 --> 00:11:56,240
to get in trouble. So
the same kind of process,

182
00:11:57,090 --> 00:12:00,240
which needs to be customized
for where you are,

183
00:12:00,670 --> 00:12:05,040
your stage of aging is, is
critical to the approach here.

184
00:12:06,340 --> 00:12:10,390
Well, I, for one, am happy to know that
I have many options at my fingertips,

185
00:12:10,391 --> 00:12:12,310
and won't have to look worn out at 50.

186
00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:15,150
Thank you to our listeners
for joining us today,

187
00:12:15,151 --> 00:12:18,910
to hear this discussion about the array
of treatments being used to treat aging

188
00:12:18,950 --> 00:12:23,270
concerns. I hope you found this episode
as informative and interesting as I did.

189
00:12:24,010 --> 00:12:27,310
If you think of other exciting
developments in plastic
surgery that you would

190
00:12:27,311 --> 00:12:31,590
like us to discuss in upcoming episodes,
please reach out by email or Instagram.

191
00:12:31,920 --> 00:12:35,140
We'll see you next
time. This is Doreen Wu.

192
00:12:35,141 --> 00:12:38,900
Thanking you for joining Dr. Bass and
me for this discussion of how plastic

193
00:12:38,901 --> 00:12:43,820
surgery has given us many ways to ensure
that turning 50 is most definitely not

194
00:12:43,910 --> 00:12:46,540
fatal. Be sure to tune in next time.

195
00:12:46,541 --> 00:12:48,340
And don't forget to
subscribe to our podcast,

196
00:12:48,840 --> 00:12:52,180
to stay up-to-date with all of the
exciting content that is coming your way.

197
00:12:53,270 --> 00:12:57,460
Thank you for joining us in this episode
of the Park Avenue Plastic Surgery

198
00:12:57,590 --> 00:13:02,140
Class podcast with Dr. Lawrence
Bass Park Avenue plastic surgeon,

199
00:13:02,940 --> 00:13:04,820
educator, and technology innovator.

200
00:13:05,120 --> 00:13:07,580
The commentary in this
podcast represents opinion.

201
00:13:07,770 --> 00:13:10,140
This podcast does not
present medical advice,

202
00:13:10,400 --> 00:13:14,620
but rather general information about
plastic surgery that does not necessarily

203
00:13:14,680 --> 00:13:17,780
relate to the specific conditions
of any individual patient.

204
00:13:18,160 --> 00:13:22,900
No doctor-patient relationship
is established by listening
to or participating

205
00:13:23,040 --> 00:13:23,873
in this podcast,

206
00:13:24,090 --> 00:13:28,060
consult your physician to advise you
about your individual healthcare.

207
00:13:28,320 --> 00:13:29,660
If you enjoyed this episode,

208
00:13:29,840 --> 00:13:34,220
please share it with your friends and
be sure to subscribe to our podcast on

209
00:13:34,221 --> 00:13:38,060
Apple Podcasts, Google, Spotify, Stitcher,

210
00:13:38,400 --> 00:13:40,660
or wherever you listen to podcasts.