Fresh Faced

Putting yourself in the hands of a qualified surgeon for “a little work” requires time, money, and guts. But almost everyone who has gone down this road says it’s worth it. “Give a good surgeon two weeks, and you get back 10 years,” is a common refrain we hear from the newly made-over.

And plenty of people are taking the plunge: More than two million cosmetic surgeries were performed in the United States last year, a 4 percent increase over 2004. Big numbers and
lots of reassurances—the medical community tells us over and over that these procedures are safe and reliable—are all fine and good. But we wanted firsthand, real-world experiences,
so we searched out three plastic surgery converts and cut straight to the chase. We asked does it hurt? How much? For how long? And, most importantly, are you happy with the results?

Face Lift, Eye Lift, and Chin Implant Time: About 6 hours Cost: $16,000 Recovery: About 2 weeks Cosmetic Surgeon: Dr. Robert Hamas 8345 Walnut Hill Ln., Ste. 120 214-363-1073 www.yourlooks.com

Name: Bonnie Collier
Procedure: Face Lift, Eye Lift, and Chin Implant
 
Two years ago, Bonnie Collier needed a major mental boost. Her 52nd birthday was approaching, and the preschool teacher’s life was changing as much as her address. “I sold my large house in University Park,” she says, “and decided that, instead of buying a new car, I wanted an updated look.”

She consulted with Dr. Robert Hamas, whom she had met years ago when he operated on her former husband’s hand after a skiing accident. She liked and trusted Dr. Hamas, so he became her go-to surgeon for cosmetic and medical procedures; Collier describes herself as a “repeat customer.”

When consulted about Collier’s desire for this “updated look,” Dr. Hamas suggested a full face lift, upper and lower eyelid lift, chin implant, and dermabrasion on her upper lip surface.    

On the day of her surgery, Collier arrived at Dr. Hamas’ office at 6:30 a.m.; she vaguely recalls getting home in the early afternoon. The recuperation was not hard at all, she says. She was up and around the next day, and even went to the doctor’s office for her first post-operative check-up.

The dermabrasion on her upper lip was almost more painful than the surgeries, Collier says, but she took her medications on schedule, which all but eliminated the discomfort: “I’d been instructed to scrub the dead skin cells off the upper lip area with a wet washcloth, which I imagine could have been very uncomfortable if not for the pain pills Dr. Hamas prescribed.”

Eight days after surgery, with her surgeon’s blessing, Collier flew to her hometown of Chicago to spend Christmas with family, the first Christmas she had been away from Dallas in a long time.

She says her surgery spawned even more changes: Collier is now a Realtor with a new, positive attitude about life—and plastic surgery. “I have no regrets at all,” she says. “I would do it again in a heartbeat. In fact, I’m going to make an appointment to have some filler take care of a frown line.”
 

Cheekbone Implants and Lifts Time: About 6 hours Cost: $22,000 Recovery: Two weeks out of work, 10 days to 6 weeks for bruising and swelling, about 3 months for total recovery Cosmetic Surgeon: Dr. G. Hunt Neurohr 6120 Sherry Ln. 214-987-0585 www.neumedical.net

Name: Larry Sherrell
Procedure: Cheekbone Implants and Lifts

Just after a milestone birthday, Larry Sherrell began contemplating plastic surgery as a way to look a bit younger. “My face seemed to age faster than other people’s because of my fair, freckled skin,” says the human resources manager. But it took him almost five years to summon up the courage to schedule an appointment with Dr. G. Hunt Neurohr at his Preston Center office and surgery center.

When they did meet, Sherrell knew what he wanted. “I told him, ‘I’m in my fifties, and I think I could benefit from plastic surgery,’” he says.

At press time, three months after his surgery, Sherrell calls Dr. Neurohr a master. During the first consultation, he remembers, Dr. Neurohr drew his face as an artist would, making suggestions of what surgery could do to make him more youthful-looking. The doctor’s plan included cheekbone implants to improve Sherrell’s face shape and proportion, and lifts to tighten and smooth his skin, which had been affected by aging and scarred by acne.

Sherrell, who had saved up $15,000 for the surgery, was initially shocked when the estimate came in at $22,000. “But it was totally worth it,” he says now.

The multiple-procedure surgery took six hours. A private nurse stayed with him through the night and drove him home the following day, where his parents were waiting to care for him. He was groggy and fatigued for the next few days. But two days after surgery he was answering emails, and by the fifth day he went in to have his first stitches removed.

There was swelling, Sherrell says, which is why facial surgery as dramatic as this can be daunting, especially for someone who has never even been in a hospital. “I was a zombie for the first few days,” he says. “And at two months I was just starting to get feeling back in my face.”

Though Dr. Neurohr and his staff had warned Sherrell of this, the “dead face sensation” was disconcerting. “When you touch your face or shave and it feels like clay,” he says, “you may worry, ‘My face is dead, and maybe it’s not coming back.’”

Three months later, Sherrell, whose recovery progressed very well, regained 80 percent of his facial nerves and feeling, which he credits to the vitamins, nutrients, homeopathics, and lymphatic massage treatments Dr. Neurohr prescribed. He’s in no rush to go back under the knife again, but Sherrell does say he is both pleased and confident that he no longer looks his age, which he’ll only admit is “fiftysomething.”

Rhinoplasty Time: One-and-a-half to 2 hours Cost: About $3,500 Recovery: 1 week Cosmetic Surgeon: Dr. Gregg Anigian 8220 Walnut Hill Ln., Ste. 108 214-369-0006 www.dallasplasticsurgery.com

Name: Christina Proctor
Procedure: Rhinoplasty

Talk about your speedy recoveries: Christina Proctor headed off for fun in the sun in the Hamptons just 10 days after her rhinoplasty procedure. The 33-year-old commodity trader hadn’t been happy with her nose since she broke it while swinging upside down on a jungle gym years ago. “Every time I looked at my face, I fixated on the fact that my nose wasn’t proportional,” she says. “People said they thought it had character. I just thought of it as not being straight.”

Dr. Gregg Anigian suggested a nose that fit her face aesthetically, showing her a computer-generated “after” image. Proctor, who has had Lasik, ovarian surgery, and an ACL reconstruction, says her rhinoplasty was the easiest surgery she has ever had: “There was no nasal stuffing, no cotton, no gauze. And when I got out of bed after surgery—even with the swelling, which was minimal—I noticed immediately that I could breathe more easily than before,” she says.

Proctor’s surgery was scheduled on a Monday morning. About two hours later, a friend picked her up from Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas’ Day Surgery Center, and she spent the afternoon watching Sex in the City reruns.

By Wednesday, Proctor, who works from home, was back at her computer. “If I still worked on the trading floor, I probably would have stayed home until Thursday,” she says, “but only because I was still taking some pain medication.”

On Friday she returned to Dr. Anigian’s office to have the nose splint removed. A few days later she was on an airplane.

Proctor is extremely happy with the results. “My nose is straight,” she says. “And it fits my face.” And would she do it again? “Absolutely. In a heartbeat.”