Dr. Dean Edell: When you think of cosmetic surgery, you might think it's just for those trying to look younger. But more people of all ages are using surgical solutions to solve their image problems and not everyone is doing it for vanity's sake. From silky skin --
Male Speaker: Your face is first thing that people see.
Dr. Dean Edell: To voluptuous lips.
Female Speaker: You can cover up your body, as your body ages, but your face is what you see everyday.
Dr. Dean Edell: Each year millions of Americans dig deep into their savings to fix their facial flaws.
Lisa Donofrio: Most patients realistically want to look about ten years younger.
Dr. Dean Edell: Take Mary Jane Mason after tiring a botox, she wanted a longer lasting answer to aging.
Mary Jane Mason: It makes me look younger and I feel better about myself.
Dr. Dean Edell: Instead of a facelift, dermatologist Lisa Donofrio will use Mary Jane's own fat to turn back time.
Lisa Donofrio: So, we are going to recycle you.
Dr. Dean Edell: It's a technique called fat rebalancing.
Lisa Donofrio: The major change in the aging face is loss of volume due to loss of fat. But I believe that there is also areas that have access fat, and so the face becomes relatively unbalanced.
Dr. Dean Edell: Dr. Donofrio calls these facial imbalances hills and valleys.
Lisa Donofrio: What I am seeing over here is what's a hill, and then in through here is a valley.
Dr. Dean Edell: During each surgery about a tablespoon of fat is used to turn the face's highs and lows into a gently rolling plain.
Lisa Donofrio: As you age forward, I will age you back.
Dr. Dean Edell: She says, 8 to 12 sessions can take as much as ten years off a face without major surgery.
Lisa Donofrio: And that's a big appeal to a lot of people, to look natural, to look like they used to look and not to look like they are lifted.
Dr. Dean Edell: But aging skin isn't the only reason people get medical makeovers. Rey Duclas sort help from a dermatologist because he didn't like his complexion.
Rey Duclas: I get bumps that are painful and sometimes red.
Dr. Dean Edell: Razor bumps, ingrown hairs and blotchy skins are common problems for blacks and Hispanics, especially among men.
Heather Woolery: The problem is that the hair grows and it's curly, so it grows at an angle.
Dr. Dean Edell: Laser treatment can safely treat light skin problems, but it's always been risky on darker complexions. But this special laser can treat dark skin safely, it uses a different wavelength than standard lasers.
Heather Woolery: They are able to pick up the contrast better between the hair and the skin. So, it only treats the dark hair and doesn't affect the surrounding skin.
Dr. Dean Edell: Each treatment costs about $300. Rey says it's worth it.
Rey Duclas: There wasn't much hair growing out of my face, where I was treated and because I didn't have to shave as often.
Dr. Dean Edell: But not all cosmetic treatments are done in the name of vanity. Some like Ricky Leon's are done to repair birth defects.
Juan Leon: When he started going to the school, the other boys who were telling him, your nose, your nose is dirty.
Dr. Dean Edell: Ricky was born with Conjunctival nevus and abnormality that not only affects his appearance but puts him at a higher risk for skin cancer.
Kian Samimi: And it looks like either a brown spot or a black spot and they do grow the same rate that the child grows.
To remove the defect, doctor Kian Samimi uses a technique called tissue expansion.
Kian Samimi: Tissue expansion basically is stretching of the skin.
Dr. Dean Edell: Instead of taking a skin graft from another part of the body, tissue expansion basically helps the body grow new skin near the area being repaired.
Kian Samimi: A plastic balloon to really put it simply is placed underneath the structures that you do want to stretch or expand.
Dr. Dean Edell: The balloon is gradually filled with saline to slowly stretch the skin.
Kian Samimi: Some times the process takes only two months, sometimes it takes a year.
Dr. Dean Edell: When there is enough excess, the discolored skin is removed and a new skin is pulled over the defect. The procedure helped repair Ricky's physical appearance. His father hopes it can also heal his self-esteem.
Juan Leaon: He is a very good student and he is a very good son, and we love him.
Dr. Dean Edell: Plastic facial surgery has increased 40% in the last six years, almost 90% of patients are women. But a new look doesn't guarantee happiness. If you want to change your appearance to look like somebody famous, find a better job or because someone else who wants you to, you are probably not a good candidate for surgery.
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