Plastic surgeries do make you look much younger, according to a new study published in the Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery.

Researchers from the University of Toronto in Canada and the NorthShore University Health System in Evanston, Ill., aiming to come up with “an objective measure of surgical success,” asked 40 first-year medical students to view pictures of 60 patients (54 women and six men, age 45 to 72) who had an operation conducted by Dr. Peter A. Adamson.

Of the surgical patients, 22 had facelifts and neck lifts only, 17 also had surgery on their upper and lower eyelids and 21 had the first two procedures, as well as forehead lifts.

The 40 medical students were divided into four groups of 10. Each group viewed the same set of randomized patient photos — 30 pictures for each group, including photographs from before and six months after surgery — and provided estimated ages for the patients.

On average, the students estimated that the patients were 1.7 years younger than their actual chronological age before surgery and 8.9 years younger than their chronological age after surgery.

Patients who had more procedures generally looked younger, the students reported.

For patients in the first group, who had facelifts only, perceived age fell 5.7 years; in the facelift and eyelid group, it fell 7.5 years and in the group that also had forehead lifts it fell 8.4 years. (Agencies)

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