A CHRISTMAS WISH TO BE YOUNG
By Nancy Clark

One of the great traditions of this holiday time of year is to watch old home movies and sift through family photographs. There's Dad, lugging the tree into the house. Here's one of Mom setting the turkey on the dining table, and, oh man, look at that, she's wearing one of those aprons like Donna Reed. Check this out, it's Aunt Mim on Christmas morning before she combed her hair. Look at this one of the girls in their matching red flannel pajamas.

The older we get, the closer we hold the photographs to our eyes. And then we begin to see the differences, subtle changes it seemed, that is, until contrasted with pictures decade to decade. It's in the looking back that we see all too inevitably what's ahead. Genetically, that is.

“I need emergency Botox after the Thanksgiving I had. Check out my new frown lines,” one woman is overheard saying to another at lunch. Besides being a festive holiday time of year, end of year is when many people use the funds they've accrued in their health care Flex Benefit Spending Accounts for medical treatment not covered by insurance. Others give the gift of youthfulness to themselves.

Dr.Jeffrey Raval of Faces First makes a point of not traveling during the holidays simply because of the number of patients who want treatment before Dec. 31 of any year. A facial cosmetic surgeon, Dr. Raval's reputation is that of being the “Nose Guy” in Denver, performing outstanding rhinoplasty and rhinoiplasty revisions, and even more difficult procedure because of the complication of scar tissue.

Dr. Raval was most recently named the Division Head for ENT at Swedish Hospital. He earned his bachelor's in biology from the University of Michigan in Ann Harbor, and received his medical doctorate with distinction from the same school. He did his residency and internship at the Department of Otolaryngology at Washington University Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, his fellowship in facial plastic and reconstructive surgery in the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Miami in Florida, and is board certified by the American Board of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery.

He earned the third highest score in the country on his Facial Plastics Board exam. He joined Faces First, with officies at Harvard Park Medical Center and in Lone Tree, and splits his time between the two officies and the two practices – Ear, Nose & Throat; and a cosmetic surgery center including all services from facial plastics to an aesthetician.

That's where the possibility comes in. Although treatment is equally available to men and women, Dr. Raval's caseload is generally 80 percent women, and 20 percent men. While the typical rhinoplasty patient is a woman in her 20s and 30s, the breakdown of other cosmetic procedures spans the decades.

Patients in their twenties through their fifties are seeking Botox and collagen injections. In fact, it's something many are doing earlier to delay the inevitable wrinkling process. (Botox injections numb the muscle tissue underlying the skin, disabling the muscle from being able to twist into a wrinkle.)

Patients turn to eyelid surgery (to eliminate the droop and puffiness where once there was definition) and forehead lifts (to elevate the brow back to its original position) in their late thirties through fifties. And those in their mid-fifties to older tend to opt for facelifts.

Patients of every age are taking advantage of CO2 laser skin resurfacing to eliminate fine lines and wrinkles, regaining the freshness of their skin's appearance that was lost over time and through sun exposure. Then there are microdermabrasion and laser treatments to eliminate age spots.

The results are strikingly apparent in the before and after photographs Dr. Raval has taken of his patients. The message is that there's an innovative new treatment to handle almost any wish. Recovery, too, is greatly enhanced using less invasive methods of surgery.

The bruising for eyelid surgery only lasts 10 to 14 days. The tenderness from a brow lift is also gone within that same time frame.

Some of the laser treatments allow patients to leave Dr. Raval's office and head right back to work. Botox is something that can be accomplished on a lunch hour and no one even knows. And Dr. Raval offers a 10 percent discount on the first treatment and free touch-ups two weeks after treatment.

Face it: Maybe it's worth whispering something suggestive into Santa's ear.