Botox Mania Part 3

Botox mania has altered the face of Hollywood. Almost everyone on the screen has a spotless and wrinkle free face. Gone are the days when someone laughed/cried and you saw the wrinkles. Gone are the days when you saw furrowed eyebrows when someone got angry on the screen. Gone are the days when it was easy to predict the age of the person. Today, everyone smiles no matter what the occasion or event and everyone looks young.

"We will look at wrinkles the way we look at cracked or discolored teeth — remnants of the past, just something to be fixed," said Dr. Nancy Etcoff, a psychologist at the Harvard Medical School and the author of "Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty" (Doubleday). "You still see young women smoking and sitting in the sun, and they can just get rid of the wrinkles.

"It's very much about having your cake and eating it too," Dr. Etcoff said. "It is as though we have given up on authenticity."

The Botox therapy has an attraction for the generation between 30-45 years. People, older than 45 generally have a few more things than wrinkles and also require body sculpturing, liposuction, face lifts and removal of fat from here and there. Nose and ear surgery are sought after by those ages 20 to 40. And women between 25 and 35 are most likely to want breast augmentation.

While women are the largest consumers of cosmetic surgery, men are now catching up and rival women in procedures involving body sculpturing and hair replacement procedures.

Today, Botox injections make up a significant proportion of all cosmetic procedures. With the lure of quick easy cash, doctors in almost every specialty are injecting Botox. There are thousands of spas all over the country, run by nurses who even perform the procedure.

To make it legal, the nurses usually get a doctor to be a pseudo director of the spa, and then proceed to massage, apply facial creams, touch up with a laser here and there and of course, a couple of jabs with a needle to erase the wrinkle. Most spas today rival the best Beverly Hills plastic surgery clinics in their offerings.