Older people happier with plastic surgery

PALO ALTO, Calif., May 19 (UPI) -- Older patients and those treated for depression may be more likely than others to be satisfied with the results of plastic surgery, U.S. researchers said.

Dr. Jill L. Hessler of Premier Plastic Surgery in Palo Alto, Calif., and colleagues surveyed 51 patients at a facial cosmetic surgery center from 2007 to 2008.

Study participants completed a demographic questionnaire, a test to evaluate optimism and pessimism and a surgical outcomes survey for their procedure. Four to six months later, they again completed the optimism/pessimism and surgical outcomes assessments.

Patients older than age 53 were more satisfied with their surgical results than younger patients. Also, those currently treated for depression were more satisfied than those who were not being treated for depression.

"The ability to preoperatively identify patient characteristics -- psychological, social or demographic -- that might impact the subjective perception of surgical outcome and predict dissatisfaction with facial plastic surgery could be highly useful to surgeons," the study authors said in a statement.

The findings are published in the Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery.