Dallasites are finding they can look as good as they feel with surgery

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Dallasites are finding they can look as good as they feel with surgery

The quest for good looks has reached beyond beauty salons, cosmetic counters, health clubs and jogging tracks. Now, what people cannot cover with paint and powder or lose by starvation and sweat, they are changing through plastic surgery.
Once thought the exclusive privilege of models, dowagers and starlets, plastic surgery is more acceptable, available and affordable than ever before. In Dallas, thousands of people are undergoing operations to smooth their noses, enlarge their breasts, trim their tummies —all in an effort to look younger, healthier and more attractive.
Plastic surgeons say that their clientele is getting younger and a larger percentage of it is male. And older people who work longer and lead more active lifestyles than in the past are undergoing surgery to preserve their looks.
“Younger people are trying to highlight what they have. Older people are trying to preserve what they had,” says plastic surgeon Vasdev Rai, chairman of the plastic surgery division at Medical City Hospital.


Office manager chose lipectomy in battle of bulge

She was about to turn 40. For a year she had tried to fight a bulging tummy and hips through rigorous exercise and diet. But no matter how much she sweat or how little she ate, she could not slim down below a size 10.
“I thought: I’ve spent all this time and energy and money, and I haven’t gotten anywhere,” says Lynn, the office manager of a North Dallas doctor who did not wish to be fully identified.
Last summer, Lynn saw a magazine advertisement for plastic surgeon Vasdev Rai and decided to ask him about
lipectomy, a surgical procedure to reduce body fat.
During day surgery in October, she had about one and a half quarts of fat removed from her abdomen and hips through suction-assisted lipectomy, a form of plastic surgery that removes localized collections of excess fat.
She immediately lost one and a half to
two inches on her abdomen and hips and trimmed down from a size 10 to a size 8.
“I fell a lot better about how I look,” she says. “I have a lot of clothes that fit better. Before the surgery, I didn’t think they looked good on me.”

Lynn, who had several plastic surgery operations for medical purposes, says that she had no fears about the fat-reduction operation. And she says she’ll choose plastic surgery again.
“No question about it. When I’m 49 and a half, I’ll get a face lift,” she says.
Lynn is representative of many patients who have chosen cosmetic plastic surgical procedures at earlier ages than in the past. “In the past 15 years, people have begun
take better care of themselves. They care more about how they look after they’re 40.”
She opted for the surgery to enhance the way she already took care of herself. She has a low-calorie, health-conscious diet. (“I haven’t bought a box of salt in 10 years,” she says.) She quit smoking. She participates in aerobics classes four times a
week, jogs periodically and walks four miles a day.
“If there’s something that can be changed about yourself — whether it’s physical or emotional — my philosophy is,
change it. Why live with something you hate for 60 years?”

— Connie Pvyzant