FACE TIME: Young women (and men) have no shortage of options these days to make theirs optimum
By Nancy Clark

If you think it’s a matter of time before you’re destined to want to turn back the years, think again. Today’s younger-somethings (in their 20’s and 30’s) are proactively invested in keeping their youthful good looks intact...years before natural atrophy kicks in. Some are choosing to improve upon nature...even if they have been blessed with good genes. Others are focused on fixing the flaws in their appearance that remain entirely unnoticeable to others.

Clearly, media has something to do with it. Where once cosmetic surgery was something older women did on the sly (decades ago one Denver grande dame was known to have confided that her “refreshed” appearance was the result of recovering from a rickshaw accident while traveling in the Orient when really she’d had a facelift), cosmetic improvements in 2005 have come into the mainstream. We’ve watched as ugly ducklings are televised being made over into swans head to toe. We regularly see before and after shots of patients who’ve undergone treatments in trendy magazine and newspaper ads. We talk about treatments over lunch as casually as if we’re ordering salad dressing on the side.

Younger women and men are seeking perfection in their appearance like never before—for reasons that are not so much deep-seated feelings of physical inadequacy, but rather because they can. First because a plethora of options in cosmetic treatments (non-invasive to true surgery) are available to them, and second because their cash-flowing careers afford them life’s little (and big) luxuries that their parents didn’t have the earning power to begin to consider. It’s not unusual for a young executive to deem a cosmetic improvement as just one more necessary step toward his/her career advancement.

It’s all about new generation priorities and generally it starts top-down—with the head, face and teeth.

Curiously, candidates for cosmetic makeovers are less concerned with cost or discomfort than they are about the down time required in different procedures. “Everybody’s busy. They want things done efficiently. Our patients’ top priorities are time and convenience,” says Dr. Robert Couchman, cosmetic dentist. As well, his patients seeking smile makeovers tend to be highly career oriented. “They want to take care of their dental issues just like they do their wardrobe when moving up the corporate ladder, While many patients see Couchman for tooth whitening (a one-hour technology called “Zoom!™”), others seek whole-smile makeovers including veneers and crowns taking an average of 3 to 4 weeks. Over his 30 years in practice, Couchman has watched the evolution of technology change dentistry altogether. “We can actually improve upon nature today, making veneers that are more lifelike and more natural than original teeth.”

More than one-third of the patients Dr. Robert Brewka, orthodontist, sees at his Cherry Creek North office are what he terms “the Lofters”—urban dwellers who want straight teeth. “They want to go for it. They want to bloom. And a good smile will help a person bloom in all directions,” says Brewka, a Premiere Invisalign Provider, one of the alpha-orthos affiliated with Invisalign (in the top 10 worldwide). Brewka uses a series of clear aligners to correct the beauty and bite of patients. Imperceptible to others, these aligners work like traditional braces to move the teeth into perfect position, correcting even the caved dental arches that lead toward crooked bottom teeth. The process can take a year or more, depending on the amount of correction needed, and requires no downtime. Plus it skirts the embarrassment of being called “metal mouth” altogether.

Dr. Jeffrey Raval is the only American board certified facial plastic surgeon in Colorado who is a National Botox® trainer. Increasingly, younger people are coming in to consult with him regarding Botox® to ease frown lines and injectable products like Sculptra™ to create fuller lips. Most patients, says Raval, start to notice the signs of aging around their eyes where wrinkles and puffiness tend to make them look tired. Some opt for upper and lower blepherplasty surgery to remove the fat above and below their eyelids. But young patients are candidates for Botox® to manage other aspects of their overall appearance as well: injected into the armpits it stops undue perspiration and into the palms of hands it stops sweaty palms, a turn-off for young execs working their way up the career ladder in a hand-shaking culture.

Dr. Richard Asarch, dermatologist and creator of the DermaSpa skincare line is seeing increased numbers of patients use his anti-aging product line even before they cross over into their ‘30s. One patent that’d been using the line for just over a month went home during the holidays to inquiring minds who wanted to know if she’d “had something done.” Her parents couldn’t get over the dramatic change in her skin. Hairy backs or un-hairy heads are two male concerns. Laser hair removal achieves a permanent reduction in back hair (it depending on the density to begin with) and patients experience only a little redness at the time of each treatment in the series. Balding has always been an issue, but the options today are improved. Where once only surgery (hair plugs) was a consideration, now men can take oral prescription medications. They may not make hair growth occur, but they do prevent the loss of hair in the future.

“The paradigms have shifted,” confirms Asarch. “Younger people are much wiser today about understanding that prevention is possible with the treatments now available. Earlier use of these preventative measures, for example Botox® to eliminate further development of frown lines, can ward off the need for future surgery.”