Is Cosmetic Surgery ever a Viable Solution to Ageing?

Created on 27th September 2009

An article in yesterday's Observer Woman magazine has once again raised the old debate about anti-aging cosmetic surgery.

In the pro-plastic surgery corner, Alice Hart-Davis - the magazine's beauty journalist - argues that many cosmetic surgeons do brilliant work in reversing or slowing down the signs of aging. She says that hardly anyone has a problem with making tweaks to their appearance - such as dying grey hairs or applying feature-enhancing make up - so why should we feel awkward about take this one step further and having plastic surgery?

In the article, Hart-Davis says: 'If you have a nose that you've always hated, or a face that doesn't match the age you feel inside, why not do something about it? Since when was making the best of yourself such a sin?'

Arguing the case against her in beauty director of Grazia magazine, Annabel Jones. She argues that, thanks to advances in cosmetic surgery procedures and techniques, it is possible to look younger with a range of treatments ranging from Botox to a full face lift. 

However, she goes on to say that while she admits these procedures can make you look younger, she's not so sure if they make you look better.  

In the Observer Woman piece she states: 'You only have to take a look at the emerging tribe of pillow-face celebrities to see that once you start, there's no going back. Salons are reporting rising numbers of women coming in for muscle tightening facials after their post Botox faces have started melting.'

Cosmetic surgery is, of course, a matter of personal choice. And while most people who worry about the signs of ageing will take care to address their personal grooming and look after themselves with a good diet and exercise, for some that simply isn't enough and plastic surgery is the only route to actually preventing and in some cases reversing wrinkles and other signs of ageing. 

Alice Hart-Davis sums up the debate by saying: 'It's a slippery slope on which everyone will have their own stopping point, though for many of us that point comes nearer the end marked "surgery", as our faces start to age and furrow and collapse. Where do you draw the line?'