Most people have facial plastic surgery because they’re hoping to shave a decade or so off their perceived age. But a new study published in JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery has found that the average amount of “years saved” is only three – and we’re not talking dog years. 
 
 “Typically, we tend to tell patients they’ll look less tired and more refreshed and try not to overpromise and say ‘You’ll look X years younger,’ because we don’t want to create unrealistic expectations,” says Dr. A. Joshua Zimm, a Manhattan plastic surgeon and one of the coauthors. 
 
 The study, he says, was an attempt to “scientifically quantify the degree of change in someone’s age as perceived by a lay person.” 
 
 In other words, they were looking for the brutal honesty of strangers. 
 
 Toward that end, Zimm and four colleagues tracked 204 facial plastic surgery patients, all of whom had opted for primary facial surgical procedures such as facelifts, neck lifts, upper or lower blepharoplasty (eye lifts) and brow lifts at the same Toronto, Canada, plastic surgery clinic. 
 
 Out of the 204, 12 men and 37 women met the criteria for the study. These 49 subjects, who ranged in age from 42 to 73, had a series of photos taken before and after their surgery. Makeup and jewelry, which the study refers to as “confounding variables,” were not allowed in either the before or after shots. 
 
 Photos were all taken by lead author Dr. Peter Adamson, who also performed the plastic surgery, using the same standardized background, the same camera and the same type of photography techniques. 
 
 A group of 50 “raters,” primarily made up of hospital workers and lay people recruited from the community, were then asked to estimate and record the age of the patients in the before and after photographs. They were also asked to rate the patient’s attractiveness on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the top ranking (as always). 
 
 On average, raters estimated the patients’ age to be about 2.1 years younger than their chronological age before surgery and 5.2 years younger than their real age after surgery. There also was a small, “insignificant” increase in attractiveness scores in the after photos. 
 
 
 
 While the average improvement of 3.1 years isn’t earthshaking, Zimm says the study’s findings are still positive for those considering age-related plastic surgery. 
 
 “The takeaway is that patients will definitely appear younger after aging facial surgery on average,” he says. “There’s a range – the highest level was a patient who looked 9.4 years younger. I think it’s going to help with regard to communicating with patients. We can say to them you will look younger – we’ve shown it in studies.” 
 
 But three years isn’t much of a difference, points out Michigan-based plastic surgeon, Dr. Anthony Youn. 
 
 “If all I removed from my patients was three years of aging, I would have a waiting room full of unhappy patients,” he says. “Removing three years is more in the territory of spa treatments, not plastic surgery. We strive for much more than this.” 
 
 Youn also points out a study published last year that found face lifts result in a person looking on average seven years younger. 
 
 “The big question for me is why does one study show a seven-year reduction versus this one that shows only a three-year reduction?” he asks. “Studies like this are based on opinions, which can vary depending on the rater. Also, this study looked at the results of just one surgeon. If that surgeon was conservative then this could show in the results.” 
 
 Zimm agrees that additional studies with multiple surgeons pooling their results would be ideal. He also says the inconsistent findings between the two studies might have to do with the types of procedures performed. 
 
 “In our study, we had 18 patients who didn’t have face lifts but just had a brow lift or an eye lift,” he says. “You’re not going to get the same kind of results in terms of age reduction or attraction really when you’re looking at just that alone.” 
 
 A peek at the numbers seems to back this up. Patients who had the most plastic surgery – i.e., upper and lower facial rejuvenation – did score the highest marks for “years saved,” from -2.9 to 9.4 (as compared to -1.6 to 7 for those who had lower facial rejuvenation only). 
 
 Zimm also stresses the scientific nature of the work. 
 
 “This is a very honest study,” he says. “We wanted to be as scientific as possible and keep everything consistent. That’s why we chose not to have makeup and jewelry before and after. If you have a before shot with no makeup and jewelry and the after photo has makeup and jewelry, it’s going to enhance the person’s look, their attractiveness, and their youthfulness.” 
 
 The bottom line: plastic surgery will definitely make you look a little younger and a little more attractive. But if you want to look a decade younger, don’t forget the “confounding variables.” 

 A face-lift or eyelid lift may make you look slightly younger, but not any more attractive, a new study suggests. 
 
 In the research, patients who'd had facial cosmetic surgeryto correct signs of aging were rated as looking three years younger, on average, than they did before their operations. However, they were not rated as looking any more attractive. 
 
 The researchers conducted the study to try to objectively quantify improvements in attractiveness after surgery, which are often subjective and based on anecdotal reports. 
 
 "Patients come to us because they want to look younger. They want to look refreshed," said study researcher Dr. A. Joshua Zimm, of the Lenox Hill Hospital and Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat Institute of North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System. "We typically avoid telling patients, 'We're going to make you look X amount younger'" or more attractive, Zimm said. "We don’t want to create false or unrealistic expectations." [See 7 Plastic Surgery Myths Revealed]. 
 
 However, Zimm stressed that the question of increased attractiveness after plastic surgery requires further research. The new study was quite small, and a larger investigation may show a significant difference in attractiveness scores before and after surgery. And because the study focused on plastic surgery for aging, it excluded patients who'd had nose jobs or non-surgical lip or winkle injections, the researchers said. 
 
 In the study, raters recruited from the community examined photos of 49 patients ages 42 to 73 who had undergone facial cosmetic surgery. The raters were asked to guess the age of the person in the photo, and rate that person's attractiveness on a scale of 1 to 10. No rater saw both the before and after photographs of the same patient. 
 
 On average, when looking at before-surgery photos, raters estimated patients to be 2.1 years younger than their actual age. When looking at after-surgery photos, raters estimated 5.2 years younger than the actual age, meaning the surgery took about three years off of the patients' perceived age. 
 
 Most participants were given attractiveness scores between 4 and 6, and there was no difference between attractiveness scores before and after the surgery. 
 
 An earlier study found that face-lift and neck lift procedures— either by themselves or with additional eyelid surgery — take about seven years off a person's age. The new study may have found a smaller difference in perceived age before and after surgery because this research included patients who'd had less extensive surgery, such as eyelid surgery alone or a brow lift alone, the researchers said. 
 
 To be included in the new study, patients had to have photographs on file that were taken at least six months after their surgery. This may have excluded some patients who were very happy with their results and did not come back to the doctor, Zimm said. 
 
 The study is published today (Aug. 1) in the journal JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery. 
 
 Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow LiveScience @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com. 

 Importance Primary reasons why patients pursue aesthetic facial surgery are to look younger and more attractive; however, there is minimal literature about the effect of aesthetic facial surgery on perceived age and attractiveness. 
 
 Objectives To objectively and quantitatively evaluate the degree of perceived age change and improvement in attractiveness following aesthetic facial surgical procedures. 
 
 Design Prospective evaluation by independent raters of preoperative and postoperative photographs of 49 consecutive patients who underwent aesthetic facial surgery between July 4, 2006, and July 22, 2010. The photographs of these patients were presented to 50 blinded raters, each of whom was randomly assigned to 4 rater groups. Raters were asked to estimate the age of each patient in the photographs presented and to rate the patient’s attractiveness on a scale of 1 to 10. 
 
 Setting Facial plastic surgery private practice in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 
 
 Participants Patient inclusion criteria consisted of primary facial surgical procedures with a minimum 6-month follow-up period, use of standardized photographs, and no cosmetic procedures in the intervening period. Raters were chosen from the province of Ontario, randomly assigned to 1 of 4 rater groups, and blinded to the objectives of the study. 
 
 Main Outcomes and Measures The mean “years saved” (true age minus guessed age) and change in attractiveness scores after facial aesthetic surgery. 
 
 Results The mean overall years saved following aesthetic facial surgery was 3.1 years (range, −4.0 to 9.4 years). There was a small but insignificant increase in attractiveness scores in postprocedural photographs relative to preprocedural photographs (P > .54). 
 
 Conclusions and Relevance In this study, aesthetic facial surgery was effective in reducing the apparent age of patients but did not consistently improve their attractiveness. 
 
 Level of Evidence 4.
– Think plastic surgery will make you more attractive while shaving a decade off your appearance? A new study says that's bogus. Thanks to the honesty of strangers, researchers found plastic surgery makes a person look only 3.1 years younger on average, and only very slightly better looking, NBC News reports. The study looked at 49 plastic surgery patients who went in for face, neck, eye, and brow lifts at the same clinic. Strangers were then asked to rate before-and-after photos. Still, the results aren't so bad, argues one of the study's co-authors. “The takeaway is that patients will definitely appear younger after aging facial surgery on average," he says. “There’s a range—the highest level was a patient who looked 9.4 years younger." But an unimpressed Michigan plastic surgeon won't be citing the results: “Removing three years is more in the territory of spa treatments, not plastic surgery." Previous research has pegged the benefit at 7 years, and LiveScience thinks the difference might be explained by the fact that this study included people who had less extensive work done.