(Photo: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton)Carolyn Landis, of Roslyn, receives botox treatment from Dr. Kaveh Alizadeh at the Long Island Plastic Surgical Group at the Americana Manhasset luxury shopping destination in Manhasset, New York September 30, 2010. Patients of the office will have the opportunity to schedule an Americana personal shopper on their behalf to shop for them for a fee during their appointment.
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Whoever said a senior citizen has to just sit in their rocking chair and knit all day while talking about the weather, clearly hasn’t met Marie Kolstad. At the young age of 83, she became part of the growing trend among senior citizens opting for that nip and tuck.
A new debate has hit the public forum asking if plastic surgery for seniors is a good thing - should older Americans spend money to improve their looks?
Kolstad is one of many "septuagenarians, octogenarians and even nonagenarians who are burnishing their golden years with help from the plastic surgeon," according to media reports exploding with Kolstad's news.
The vibrant senior from Santa Ana, Calif. paid $8,000 for breast implants.
While most contemporary Christian women have no qualms about wearing cosmetics or acrylic nails, fewer have seriously contemplated such invasive procedures as augmentation mammaplasty (breast enlargement), abdominoplasty (tummy tuck) or rhytidectomy (facelift).
Until recently, only movie stars and millionaires considered these surgeries necessary. But, times have changed.
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Even Christian women care about cultural trends of going to more extremes for appearances’ sake.
“(At my age) your breasts go in one direction and your brain goes in another,” she told The New York Times, “Physically, I’m in good health, and I just feel like, why not take advantage of it? My mother lived a long time, and I’m just taking it for granted that that will happen to me. And I want my children to be proud of what I look like.”
Kolstad has 12 grandchildren, 13 great grandchildren, and a full time job, all of which she seems satisfied with. However, she began thinking that her drooping looks posed a problem.
She is ready to attract a male companion telling the NYT that "a woman has to keep her image up just to be asked to dinner."
“That’s not going to happen if you don’t have a figure that these geezers are looking for.”
The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery states that in 2010, 84,685 surgery’s were performed on patients over the age of 65. This is a trend that has been steadily rising in the past several years.
Kolstad told the NYT that her doctor treats a number of patients in their senior years.
Dr. Daniel Man of Boca Raton, Fla., Kolstad's plastic surgeon, told the NYT that he is seeing increasing numbers of patients over age 70.
“These people are healthy and want to be an active part of society," he told reporters.
Kolstad, a property manager, said that it wasn’t about lifting her chest area as much as it was about lifting her self-esteem. “It was more about looking in the mirror and liking who I am,” she said.
And she likes what she sees. “I just wanted nice ones,” she admitted, apparently liking that fact she went from an A to a C.
However, many people have raised concerns about the safety of performing voluntarily invasive surgery on older patients, who may stand a greater risk of suffering from unintended physical and psychological consequences. Few studies, according to the NYT, have focused on older patients and cosmetic enhancements.
A spot report in the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery journal published in June backs up the fact that the health hazards are not significant.
"The hazards in people over age 65 getting surgery are no greater than those who are younger," the report said.
Apparently with the help of technology, 83 is the new 38.
God has provided the necessary principles in the Bible that will guide people through their personal decisions about cosmetically enhancing procedures-extreme or otherwise.
The Bible makes it clear that God is more interested in a beautiful heart than a beautiful head of curls.
"With self-esteem anchored in who you are in Christ, one can proceed forward in making wise choices about their appearance as well as other personal decisions," said Dr. Cliff Samuel, a pastor from Mobile, Ala.
"Women can know that their efforts to beautify the face and body are not attempts to gain worth and value, but simply to be the best they can be is okay I believe. As long as plastic surgery does not end up defining who the person is or driving them to overabundance or excess – then anything in moderation like that is not being disobedient."
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