Here’s Dr Zacharia’s advice…
Some treatments need to be done at a specific time. For others, there is no ideal age – it’s more of a question of anatomy and genetics.
Image is of Dr. Zacharia’s patient
For rhinoplasty, a cosmetic procedure to reshape the nose, the reason why there is an age restriction of 18 is because there is a growth plate present at the junction of the bone and cartilage. Disturbance of this can make the nose grow to look like you are a professional boxer, called a saddle deformity. Under extreme circumstances, I may consider rhinoplasty with a patient earlier but only with parental permission and if the nose is extremely out of proportion to the face.
Image is of Dr. Zacharia’s patient
The cosmetic procedure which is known as Otoplasty (ear pinning), on the other hand, can be done at any age as ears are more or less fully grown at a young age.
Face-lifts usually depend on the anatomy of your face, not age. I’ve performed a face-lift on a 35 -year–old patient as she had an incredible amount of excess skin which made her look really old and tired. As you get older and decide to go down the path of cosmetic surgery, it’s best to go with a deep plane face lift (which is the method I use) as you are not separating the skin and tissue, which takes longer to heal.
Botox can be done at any age, especially when you start to notice more prominent lines on your face. Some suggest starting before this in order to actually prevent lines to form but you need to be careful as this can result in muscle loss. The places that you will find fine lines are around the eyes, the ‘elevens’ (lines between your brows) or worry lines across your forehead.
Fillers can also be done at any age, and is used to harmonise contours of the facial features. It’s also a great non-surgical way of adding definition to undefined areas, such as the nose, cheeks and chin. Fillers can also be used to manage volume loss due to the ageing process, illness, excess weightless, or thick skin which needs extra support to maintain the structural change.
