Beauty and the career ladder
Location. Location. Location. Three words used historically to describe the real estate market are more appropriately applied to the precise area that treatment is rendered in an aesthetic medical practice, specifically, body parts. Baby Boomers competing with much younger talents for jobs are teeing up for cosmetic treatments—minimally invasive to The Works—in an effort to remain a force in the workplace
By Nancy Clark
Beauty, by its subjective nature, is in the eye of the beholder. The qualities we revere as beautiful are both about physical features as much as they are about mannerisms. Certain qualities tend to make a person appear to be more vibrant and magnetic than other less effective souls. Take for instance the eyes.
“The eyes are the first area on the face to show age,” counsels cosmetic facial surgeon Jeffrey Raval, MD FACS. The lines familiarly referred to as crow’s feet bundle up at the sides of one’s eyes like rouching on a dress used to disguise a thick tummy and hip area. Aging men and women are inclined to develop deep furrows between their brows giving them the appearance of being angry all the time…and maybe we are, damn it.
Operative thought: Getting older is one thing; looking older is an inevitable curse.
Whole industries are built around looking fresh and youthful—from cosmetics and cosmetic surgery, exercise equipment sales, health club memberships, diets and dietary counseling, to dating at an older age and now, with layoffs at an all-time high, a consideration even in employment.
Charla Krupp’s latest beauty manual, “How Not To Look Old,” has inspired droves of devotees to flock to her speaking appearances and purchase autographed copies of the book for themselves, their mothers, their girlfriends and their daughters. The book flap touts: “Because looking hip is not just about vanity anymore—it’s critical to every woman’s personal and financial survival.” Again, money talks.
When Dr. Raval first entered into practice in Denver, CO it was the new millennium…Year 2000. That long ago, the gold standard of facial makeovers was the facelift. Done right, a facelift erased 10 or more years off one’s visage. It also was the most expensive option out there.
Then came BOTOX and fillers. These minimally invasive cures (sometimes called non-invasive for the absence of downtime and suffering along with the immediately evident results) rewrote the business of cosmetic surgery. Dr. Raval was one of the first to shift the paradigm, promoting more frequent series of small non-invasive treatments as a way to forestall grander procedures like a facelift.
The good doctor had a prescient pulse on the business of beauty and the directional signals the profession was emitting. Already in practice as a facial plastic surgeon and ENT (ear, nose, throat doc to the layperson), Dr. Raval identified and purchased a laser clinic in the upscale shopping district called Cherry Creek North. His practice “north” would be the up-and-coming laser treatments to eradicate unwanted hair growth, remove tattoos and rejuvenate faces. In combination with his American Board certifications as a facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon and ENT, the combination couldn’t have been more cutting edge -- albeit not so much cutting, medically speaking. In this high-end shopping district, Dr. Raval combined two operations, Raval Facial Aesthetics and Rocky Mountain Laser Aesthetics, and now oversees the laser clinic while continuing to see his surgical patients.
“For every slightly older person out there…don’t you ever let them count us out,” comedian Joan Rivers wagged her finger at the cameras in May as she scored Donald Trump’s “Apprentice” title. Not so many years earlier, the tightly pulled Rivers proclaimed that women “should start with the face” because that’s what men looked at…then the boobs. The tummy tuck, she added, was optional, because by the time a man saw that part of a woman’s physique up close, he was besotted.
Eradicating lines around the eyes with BOTOX is something Dr. Raval does multiple times in a day on male and female patients. Blepharoplasty (upper and lower eyelid surgery) has undergone a reformation in the past decade. “Years ago, fat was removed from the upper and lower eyelid area in an effort to rejuvenate one’s eyes,” says Dr. Raval. “Now the preferred course of treatment is to remove excess fat from the upper eyelid area and rebuild the wall of muscle tissue under the lower eyelid to keep that wanted fat intact and standing firm. This surgery is most appropriate when the patient evidences bags underneath the eye. Simply removing the fat from the lower eyelid area can leave the eyes looking hollowed out and fragile rather than restored to their most healthy appearance.”
Wrinkles underneath the eye no longer require surgery to repair given the advent of filler. Dr. Raval injects filler into the creases underneath some patients’ eyes, taking years off of their appearance sans surgery. While the filler material lasts up to half a year, it’s impact is as immediate as the injections of filler Dr. Raval applies to the jowl area of aging patients filling in the jawline, restoring it to it’s original youthful fullness.
“I liken the aging of the face to a grape,” says Dr. Raval. “The fresh grape is full and firm. Over time, the grape loses its fullness and begins to resemble a raisin, wrinkled and aged. Injectable fillers allow us at least a temporary answer to looking younger. A facelift can be put off for decades when a patient opts instead for repeat minimal treatments such as fillers for this purpose.”
While some surgeons were quick to adopt fillers touted as permanent, Dr. Raval isn’t among them. “The face isn’t permanent and doesn’t stay the same. How permanent fillers will look decades down the line is yet unproven. For that reason alone, I prefer to steer clear of any injectable that’s called permanent.” Patients follow his prescribed recommendation of series of treatments lasting four to six months on average.
Another body area high on the list of aging targets are the hands, which historically gave away a woman’s age despite the work she may have had done to the rest of her body. Not so anymore, explains Dr. Raval, who is one of the surgeons injecting fillers into the backs of hands to restore the plumpness and eradicate the three-green-bean veins from protruding and the back of the hands from looking boney. Simple and painless, the treatment lasts for six months to a year just like other fillers.
Some of the demons that women and men face as they age include what is fondly called “age spots.” They appear out of nowhere on our faces and hands…discoloration of the skin that screams for remediation.
That’s where the laser treatments at Rocky Mountain Laser Aesthetics are designed to return the skin to its best possible state…nowhere near newborn skin, but legions closer, and they’ve got the measurement tools to statistically prove the effort. Called Visia, the technology is topographical mapping of the skin including comparative percentages ranking one’s skin condition against others in one’s age group.
From this, the doctor and his staff determine what course of laser treatments and other services recommended to a patient to minimize pores, smooth wrinkles and lift facial features skyward instead of their natural propensity to sag lower and lower. Raising eyebrows with artfully injected Botox and plumping up the face with fillers are relatively simple. Full-on tightening and lifting becomes more complex and usually involves surgical treatment and downtime—the time to recover being evermore precious to people concerned with getting new gainful employment in a world of layoffs.
For more on treatments available see www.ravalmd.com and www.rockymountainlaser.com.
