I estimated that the man who entered my consulting room was in his late 40s. He quickly got to the point and explained that he wanted a facelift, i.e. a tightening of the face. I was a bit surprised, as nine times out of ten women ask me for the procedure. The man was also quite young. I could understand the desire to some extent since his skin was relatively wrinkled. I assumed he had been a heavy smoker and he had obviously been in too much sun. Smoking and UV light cause the skin to lose elasticity and wrinkles on the neck, nose and lips become more noticeable than in non-smokers. I agreed to the procedure and performed a SMAS lift. This is the most common surgical method for a facelift and the result looks particularly natural. The procedure initially went without any complications, but the patient continued to bleed in one spot, so I had to go back into the operating room with him.
Ten days later I met him again for stitches. He casually said that he wanted another procedure: I should remove his droopy eyelids and bags under his eyes. I pricked up my ears. Even though the last operation had only been a few days ago and there had been complications, he wanted to “have something done” again. In addition, his eyes did not require any aesthetic intervention; they looked completely fine. I advised him against it, in the middle of the wound healing phase anyway, and called him in again in four weeks. After a month he showed up at my house with his eyes “done”, i.e. operated on. I was horrified.
Access to all STERN PLUS content and articles from the print magazine
ad-free
Already registered?
