Plastic Surgery Not for Everyone

July 2 -- Years of sun exposure, pale skin, and a genetic predisposition to wrinkling might be just the factors that would lead someone to endure the risks and costs of a face-lift. But at 30 years old?

Plastic surgeon Dr. David Rapaport of New York had just such a patient, a young woman whose face, he explains, "was aging in an unfavorable way."

The majority of patients wouldn't undergo such plastic surgery until they're 40 and 50 years old, so encountering 30-year-olds who require face-lifts is unusual, despite what experts agree are wide differences in the manner in which individuals age.

Says Rapaport of his patient, "You need to look at each individual's physiology, and the best thing for her was a face-lift. There are very few people that need face-lifts in their 30s."

But on ABC's Good Morning America, Dr. Pamela Lipkin says that in her New York City practice, she is seeing more and more women in their 30s looking for a little nip and tuck.

"Collagen to fill out the wrinkles, fat injection to fill out a furrow," says Lipkin, "but at the end of the day, what they are really doing is filling out looseness. … And the best results come when you don't puff out the looseness, you get rid of it."

Rapaport, however, believes it all depends on the individual. "You age the way you age. There are plenty of people in their 60s that don't need a face-lift, while others age more prematurely."

Quick Fix

The trend among 30-somethings, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, are "quick fixes," minimally-invasive procedures to delay the onset of aging, such as Botox injections, chemical peels and micro-dermabrasion.

"Patients in their 30s are usually good candidates for more non-invasive maintenance treatments," says Dr. Greg Brahnam, director of plastic surgery at St. Louis University School of Medicine

"It is not uncommon to perform an eyelid tucks in this age group, as the excessive upper lid skin can have a significant hereditary component that drives patients to want something done sooner than the changes that occur in the neck and chin."