Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Saturday Morning News

"Weekend House Call"

Aired November 08, 2003 - 08:31   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THOMAS ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And keep it close, everybody. Weekend House Call with Elizabeth Cohen starts right now.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning and welcome to Weekend House Call.

We're talking about looking younger any way you can, from cosmetic surgery to botox, nearly seven million Americans headed to a plastic surgeon's office in 2002, all in the pursuit of the fountain of youth.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN (voice-over): Quick, think of the typical person who gets a face lift. Probably you thought of the classic stereotype often portrayed in the movies -- white, female, rich, spoiled, very Beverly Hills.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM PARAMOUNT PICTURES)

GOLDIE HAWN: Well, what do you call that and these? What are these? Huh?

DANNY DE VITO: You're 45. You know, if I give you one more face lift, you're going to be able to blink your lips.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: Well, you and Hollywood are wrong. Look at the people who showed up in a mall in Atlanta to learn more about botox.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have smile lines that drive me crazy and every year they drive me more crazy.

COHEN: There were black people, white people, lots of men, and as for rich, the average salary of someone getting a face lift today is around $30,000 to $40,000. And this would be the epitome, an anti- aging mega store in a strip mall.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have a seat right here, honey.

COHEN: It's an anti-aging boutique and they're springing up all over the country. Customers come in for all sorts of treatments to look younger, including botox and another kind of shot called fillers that fill in the wrinkles, and Microdermabrasion, which basically sands your skin, and photo facials, which the aging center claims tighten the skin. In just an hour and a half, 34-year-old Liz Kerry (ph) had three procedures, a Microdermabrasion, a photo facial and some botox.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's going to be $450 for today.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN: Now, 34 may seem young for these cosmetic fixes, but according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the majority of cosmetic patients are only 35 to 50 years old. Nearly three million men and women in that age group got some work done last year. The most popular surgical procedures were liposuction and breast augmentation, followed by eyelid surgery, breast reduction and nose reshaping.

We want to hear your questions about looking younger longer so you can call us at 1-800-807-2620. Or you can e-mail us at housecall@cnn.com.

To help answer your questions, we've got Dr. Marc Yune with us. Dr. Yune is a plastic surgeon here in the Atlanta area and a spokesman for the American Academy of Facial, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

Let's get started. A lot of people have questions for Dr. Yune, a lot of e-mails.

The first e-mail is from Susan in Texas, who writes, "I've been told that cosmetic procedures done in your 30s such as reducing a sagging chin, are less invasive and more effective than waiting until one's 50s. Is that true?" What do you think, Dr. Yune?

DR. MARC YUNE, PLASTIC SURGEON: Well, that's an excellent question. More younger people are coming toward plastic surgery because it's been proven to be safer with modern techniques and predictability. So really it has to do with -- it's a subjective call. A patient coming to me in her 30s who's very satisfied with the results, I probably shouldn't do that much work. But if they want an improvement, you're getting depreciated earlier in that point of life. And the skin's elasticity is better. So what you do tends to last longer.

COHEN: If you start doing little things in your 30s, will that save you the big face lift when you're 60?

YUNE: Not necessarily, but it helps you make, look, it helps make you look better earlier, again. So you get to appreciate minor aesthetic enhancements. The thing it does do is it avoids that sort of drastic change of going from having had no work done to a lift with other ancillary procedures so.

COHEN: Well, we have a phone call now from Donna in Florida.

Donna, go ahead with your question for Dr. Yune.

DONNA: Yes, Dr. Yune, my question this morning is that I'm very, very fair and I notice that any kind of cuts or anything on my skin, the redness stays for a very, very long time, sometimes up to a year depending on how severe it is. And I'm wondering if I do something even as minimally invasive as Dermabrasion or even botox, anything that pierces the skin, what should I expect? I'm a little nervous about doing this.

YUNE: That's an excellent question, Donna. Let me ask you, after the pinkness lasts for a year, does it go away or do you develop a thickened scar?

DONNA: Actually, I can then develop a thickened scar.

YUNE: You do develop a thickening to the scar?

DONNA: Yes. It's not severe, but there is a slight thickening.

YUNE: Have you had any treatments for it?

DONNA: No, I haven't.

YUNE: OK. There is a handful of individuals -- it's rare in a fair skinned individual to develop hypertrophic or thickening to scars and that can be treated. There are typical methods to treat that with steroid taping, steroid injections. But that is your immune system's response to an injury. So that's an excellent point and you do need to be very cautious. When we do resurfacing techniques or surgical techniques, we always want to find out an individual's scarring history.

So you need to bring that up to whoever you speak with about your concerns. They may not want to offer any elective procedures.

COHEN: We have an e-mail now from Sunny in Massachusetts, who wants to know, "I'm in my mid-50s and have a couple of deep smile lines. Unfortunately, those lines make me appear to look older. Is there a way to minimize those lines without plastic surgery?"

That's a question I know I've heard all the time, Dr. Yune. People might not want to go under the knife. They want to try something else.

YUNE: And that's the hottest trend in plastic surgery today, to do minimal, no down time procedures. So, in order to address that issue, there -- that's probably the hottest research topic now in cosmetic medicine and that's injectable fillers. Injectable fillers are taking a product and actually injecting it to fill out or decrease, just like she was describing with the smile lines. So what that's doing, in essence, is making you look more youthful or just taking away a shadow effect, a saddened appearance, what have you.

Injectable fillers are numerous nowadays. Not all of them are FDA approved yet. So we do have a handful of safe materials. And then we also have some permanent implants. I actually brought one along with me today because what ends up happening is for those who are very conservative, they'll start with an injection, collagen, there are human forms of collagen. They all are typically non- permanent. But it gives them a chance to sort of try it on, if you will.

And then what happens is if they elect to have permanent correction, we can use implants. So this is what I brought along today, Elizabeth, to show you. This is a soft -- it's a synthetic form of polytetrafluoroethylene, the same compound that's used in Gortex, but it's made much more soft now and spongy so...

COHEN: So that would go under the skin, for example, right here...

YUNE: It does. It goes...

COHEN: ... to get rid of that line?

YUNE: ... under the folds so that you push the fold out and it gives sort of a deepened look, a little bit of aging and it's also used for thinning of the lips. So that's the, this is the material here. And it is sort of like they call that a permanent collagen.

COHEN: Well, we'll be talking about more of these approaches to looking younger and we'll be talking about whether or not they work and whether or not they save -- whether or not they're safe and not just in the doctor's office, but also at the cosmetic counter. What's on the horizon when it comes to fighting those wrinkles and where do you have to go to get it?

We'll answer those questions and more. Give us a call at 1-800- 807-2620. Or e-mail us at housecall@cnn.com.

But first, let's check our Daily Dose health quiz.

What is the most popular cosmetic procedure for people ages 35 to 64? That answer when we come back.

Stay with us.

COMMERCIAL

COHEN: Checking the Daily Dose health quiz, we asked, "What is the most popular cosmetic procedure for people ages 35 to 64?"

And the answer is, well, I bet a lot of you knew it, botox injections. Nearly 900,000 patients in that age group got the treatment last year.

Welcome back.

We're talking about our battle against aging. And as you just saw in our quiz, the weapon of choice in fighting that battle is botox. It tops the list of non-surgical procedures people chose last year, followed by Microdermabrasion and collagen injections. Next on the list, laser hair removal and chemical peels.

Our guest today is plastic surgeon Dr. Marc Yune.

Dr. Yune, before the break, we were talking about the lines around your mouth.

YUNE: Right.

COHEN: And, actually, before we get to that, we are actually going to go to some breaking news out of Baghdad.

There is a press conference going on there now.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired November 8, 2003 - 08:31   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THOMAS ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: And keep it close, everybody. Weekend House Call with Elizabeth Cohen starts right now.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning and welcome to Weekend House Call.

We're talking about looking younger any way you can, from cosmetic surgery to botox, nearly seven million Americans headed to a plastic surgeon's office in 2002, all in the pursuit of the fountain of youth.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN (voice-over): Quick, think of the typical person who gets a face lift. Probably you thought of the classic stereotype often portrayed in the movies -- white, female, rich, spoiled, very Beverly Hills.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM PARAMOUNT PICTURES)

GOLDIE HAWN: Well, what do you call that and these? What are these? Huh?

DANNY DE VITO: You're 45. You know, if I give you one more face lift, you're going to be able to blink your lips.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: Well, you and Hollywood are wrong. Look at the people who showed up in a mall in Atlanta to learn more about botox.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have smile lines that drive me crazy and every year they drive me more crazy.

COHEN: There were black people, white people, lots of men, and as for rich, the average salary of someone getting a face lift today is around $30,000 to $40,000. And this would be the epitome, an anti- aging mega store in a strip mall.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have a seat right here, honey.

COHEN: It's an anti-aging boutique and they're springing up all over the country. Customers come in for all sorts of treatments to look younger, including botox and another kind of shot called fillers that fill in the wrinkles, and Microdermabrasion, which basically sands your skin, and photo facials, which the aging center claims tighten the skin. In just an hour and a half, 34-year-old Liz Kerry (ph) had three procedures, a Microdermabrasion, a photo facial and some botox.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's going to be $450 for today.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN: Now, 34 may seem young for these cosmetic fixes, but according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the majority of cosmetic patients are only 35 to 50 years old. Nearly three million men and women in that age group got some work done last year. The most popular surgical procedures were liposuction and breast augmentation, followed by eyelid surgery, breast reduction and nose reshaping.

We want to hear your questions about looking younger longer so you can call us at 1-800-807-2620. Or you can e-mail us at housecall@cnn.com.

To help answer your questions, we've got Dr. Marc Yune with us. Dr. Yune is a plastic surgeon here in the Atlanta area and a spokesman for the American Academy of Facial, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

Let's get started. A lot of people have questions for Dr. Yune, a lot of e-mails.

The first e-mail is from Susan in Texas, who writes, "I've been told that cosmetic procedures done in your 30s such as reducing a sagging chin, are less invasive and more effective than waiting until one's 50s. Is that true?" What do you think, Dr. Yune?

DR. MARC YUNE, PLASTIC SURGEON: Well, that's an excellent question. More younger people are coming toward plastic surgery because it's been proven to be safer with modern techniques and predictability. So really it has to do with -- it's a subjective call. A patient coming to me in her 30s who's very satisfied with the results, I probably shouldn't do that much work. But if they want an improvement, you're getting depreciated earlier in that point of life. And the skin's elasticity is better. So what you do tends to last longer.

COHEN: If you start doing little things in your 30s, will that save you the big face lift when you're 60?

YUNE: Not necessarily, but it helps you make, look, it helps make you look better earlier, again. So you get to appreciate minor aesthetic enhancements. The thing it does do is it avoids that sort of drastic change of going from having had no work done to a lift with other ancillary procedures so.

COHEN: Well, we have a phone call now from Donna in Florida.

Donna, go ahead with your question for Dr. Yune.

DONNA: Yes, Dr. Yune, my question this morning is that I'm very, very fair and I notice that any kind of cuts or anything on my skin, the redness stays for a very, very long time, sometimes up to a year depending on how severe it is. And I'm wondering if I do something even as minimally invasive as Dermabrasion or even botox, anything that pierces the skin, what should I expect? I'm a little nervous about doing this.

YUNE: That's an excellent question, Donna. Let me ask you, after the pinkness lasts for a year, does it go away or do you develop a thickened scar?

DONNA: Actually, I can then develop a thickened scar.

YUNE: You do develop a thickening to the scar?

DONNA: Yes. It's not severe, but there is a slight thickening.

YUNE: Have you had any treatments for it?

DONNA: No, I haven't.

YUNE: OK. There is a handful of individuals -- it's rare in a fair skinned individual to develop hypertrophic or thickening to scars and that can be treated. There are typical methods to treat that with steroid taping, steroid injections. But that is your immune system's response to an injury. So that's an excellent point and you do need to be very cautious. When we do resurfacing techniques or surgical techniques, we always want to find out an individual's scarring history.

So you need to bring that up to whoever you speak with about your concerns. They may not want to offer any elective procedures.

COHEN: We have an e-mail now from Sunny in Massachusetts, who wants to know, "I'm in my mid-50s and have a couple of deep smile lines. Unfortunately, those lines make me appear to look older. Is there a way to minimize those lines without plastic surgery?"

That's a question I know I've heard all the time, Dr. Yune. People might not want to go under the knife. They want to try something else.

YUNE: And that's the hottest trend in plastic surgery today, to do minimal, no down time procedures. So, in order to address that issue, there -- that's probably the hottest research topic now in cosmetic medicine and that's injectable fillers. Injectable fillers are taking a product and actually injecting it to fill out or decrease, just like she was describing with the smile lines. So what that's doing, in essence, is making you look more youthful or just taking away a shadow effect, a saddened appearance, what have you.

Injectable fillers are numerous nowadays. Not all of them are FDA approved yet. So we do have a handful of safe materials. And then we also have some permanent implants. I actually brought one along with me today because what ends up happening is for those who are very conservative, they'll start with an injection, collagen, there are human forms of collagen. They all are typically non- permanent. But it gives them a chance to sort of try it on, if you will.

And then what happens is if they elect to have permanent correction, we can use implants. So this is what I brought along today, Elizabeth, to show you. This is a soft -- it's a synthetic form of polytetrafluoroethylene, the same compound that's used in Gortex, but it's made much more soft now and spongy so...

COHEN: So that would go under the skin, for example, right here...

YUNE: It does. It goes...

COHEN: ... to get rid of that line?

YUNE: ... under the folds so that you push the fold out and it gives sort of a deepened look, a little bit of aging and it's also used for thinning of the lips. So that's the, this is the material here. And it is sort of like they call that a permanent collagen.

COHEN: Well, we'll be talking about more of these approaches to looking younger and we'll be talking about whether or not they work and whether or not they save -- whether or not they're safe and not just in the doctor's office, but also at the cosmetic counter. What's on the horizon when it comes to fighting those wrinkles and where do you have to go to get it?

We'll answer those questions and more. Give us a call at 1-800- 807-2620. Or e-mail us at housecall@cnn.com.

But first, let's check our Daily Dose health quiz.

What is the most popular cosmetic procedure for people ages 35 to 64? That answer when we come back.

Stay with us.

COMMERCIAL

COHEN: Checking the Daily Dose health quiz, we asked, "What is the most popular cosmetic procedure for people ages 35 to 64?"

And the answer is, well, I bet a lot of you knew it, botox injections. Nearly 900,000 patients in that age group got the treatment last year.

Welcome back.

We're talking about our battle against aging. And as you just saw in our quiz, the weapon of choice in fighting that battle is botox. It tops the list of non-surgical procedures people chose last year, followed by Microdermabrasion and collagen injections. Next on the list, laser hair removal and chemical peels.

Our guest today is plastic surgeon Dr. Marc Yune.

Dr. Yune, before the break, we were talking about the lines around your mouth.

YUNE: Right.

COHEN: And, actually, before we get to that, we are actually going to go to some breaking news out of Baghdad.

There is a press conference going on there now.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com