Why Do Some Types of Plastic Surgery Look Fake?

People will often ask where the word ‘plastic’ comes from in the term plastic surgery. The word derives from the Greek work “plastikos” meaning to mold or shape. The interest in the word’s derivation is often because to lay people many types of plastic surgery looks plastic or fake. This is one of the biggest fears that prospective plastic surgery patients have when they think about facial rejuvenation and cosmetic surgery procedures.

Examples of obvious plastic surgery are not reserved for people who can’t access or afford better results. In fact, what is most troubling to many people considering plastic surgery is that we often see famous celebrities who we would expect can access and afford the best plastic surgery doctors, with some of the most obvious and “plastic-appearing” plastic surgery.

Why does this happen?

Since the majority of aging-related facial changes are due to gravity’s effects on the soft tissue, the best way to reverse these changes is to lift up what has fallen. If you need to lift something that has fallen, you need to be able to pull on a strong sturdy layer. So, the mechanism that all facelifting procedures used for years by plastic surgeons was to pull on the skin layer of the face to lift all of the drooping soft tissue that contributed to our aging look. The more lift needed or desired, the tighter the skin or top layer would be. In addition, the change in tone or tightness on the skin also produced the classic ‘windswept’ look. Since there was no point in our life that the surface or skin layer of our face was tight, a tight face is noticed as being unnatural or plastic-appearing, and is associated with plastic surgery.

In the past, surface treatments such as facial peels also could create a plastic or tight look, but for different reasons. Deep peels, dermabrasion or even laser procedures remove loose or superficially wrinkled skin by burning off the surface skin layers so that the underlying layers of the dermis become tighter or less wrinkled. Similar to any burn that can occur due to an accident, a deep peel leaves the skin tighter appearing but also thinner with less color and texture, which is also often associated with an unnatural or plastic look. Unfortunately, since peels or dermabrasion do not approach gravity’s effects, the face will then just look tight on the surface but still be droopy.

Today, the most recent additions to facial rejuvenation cosmetic procedures are facial injections such as fillers and botox, which are producing noticeable unnatural or plastic-appearing results when used too aggressively. When we are aging, because gravity has stretched out our face, the illusion is that we have lost fat or volume. When the face is overfilled with fillers, such as Restylane, Perlane or fat, the face or the lips start to appear overfilled and look taught, producing a plastic appearance. Botox paralyzes muscles; when overused, the lack of facial movement produces a mask like appearance again interpreted as plastic or fake.

The good news is that looking fake or plastic is never the necessary outcome when plastic surgery procedures are well done and cosmetic surgery tools are used appropriately. Today, facelifts can be done completely secretly because newer deep-plane techniques do not tighten the skin layer for any reason. Deeper layers of skin, which do not show through the surface, are now used, producing a better, longer-lasting result and does not require the plastic surgery doctor to make the skin tighter in order to achieve the desired facial rejuvenation result.

As more plastic surgeons and their patients become familiar with deep-plane-based facelifting techniques, the need to mask or camouflage a droopy face by over-injecting with fillers, fat or botox will be avoided, and the days of aggressive peels that burn the skin but don’t address gravity changes will be a thing of the past.

Today, an educated cosmetic surgery consumer can restore their appearance without ever looking like they had a procedure!