The Unveiling of a New Ford

Cosmetic surgery is booming among women -- and men

We've had more calls than we know what to do with," says Elizabeth Weil. "The phone has been ringing off the hook. Betty Ford has really started something." Weil, the receptionist at a Beverly Hills plastic surgery clinic, is not alone. Across the nation last week, surgeons' offices were under siege by callers who had seen the results of a notable example of cosmetic surgery, evident in before-and-after pictures of the former First Lady in their Sunday newspapers.

Indeed, the new Ford look (the work of Palm Springs Surgeon M.R. Mazaheri) was something to call about. Reported TIME Correspondent Joseph Kane, covering Betty Ford's first post-surgery public appearance at a Hollywood dinner: "The woman looks absolutely spectacular." Betty, who in recent years has battled against breast cancer and drug and alcohol addiction, was obviously pleased. Said she: "I'm 60 years old and I wanted a nice new face to go with my beautiful new life."

Betty Ford's debut is the most recent in a string of cosmetic admissions in the '70s by public figures. Wisconsin Senator William Proxmire, for one, issued a press release about his hair transplant and may have had an eyelift too. There has also been news of hair transplants for Frank Sinatra, Roy Clark and Strom Thurmond, a facelift for Jackie Gleason, face and breast architectural work for Cher, an eyelift, facelift and breast reduction for Phyllis Diller, and there is a growing national tendency to regard cosmetic surgery as a badge of sophistication, rather than of vanity.*

As a result, movie stars, TV personalities, politicians and jet-setters have been joined in the plastic surgery wards and clinics by secretaries, assembly-line workers, housewives and business executives anxious to fit into a youth-oriented society. Says Dr. Laurence LeWinn of New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center: "If we were in China, people would want to have wrinkles put in so that they could be revered citizens. Here we have the wrinkles removed."

Though most plastic surgery is performed on women, more and more men are seeking treatment, primarily facelifts, eyelifts or hair transplants. According to Dr. Richard Ellenbogen of Los Angeles, many men become receptive to the idea while accompanying their wives to appointments with plastic surgeons.

Performed under local or general anesthesia, the facelift is a delicate operation lasting three to four hours. The surgeon begins by making an uninterrupted incision that starts at the temple, runs down the front of the ear, under the earlobe and behind the ear. Whenever possible, the incision is placed above the hairline so the scar is not readily visible. The skin is then separated away or "undermined" from the underlying muscle and fat and pulled taut to eliminate folds and bags. Finally, the excess skin is trimmed away and the flap of skin is sewed back into place. In the past few years, surgeons have expanded the technique to sometimes include tightening up the muscles underneath the skin of the neck and jaw to give more striking and lasting results. If all goes well, the facelift will last for from four to eight years before noticeable sagging recurs, depending on the patient's skin tone, age, weight, eating and drinking habits and other factors.

Cosmetic surgery does not come cheap. A facelift costs upwards of $1,500 (Betty Ford's fee was about $3,200), eyelid surgery runs around $1,500. The cost is generally not covered by medical insurance (though it is tax deductible). Then too some risk is involved; some faces are changed for the worse. Warns Dr. Peter McKinney, a Chicago plastic surgeon: "If you buy a bum toaster, you can take it back. You can't take your face back."

Even the successful facelifts sometimes fall far short of the expectations of patients who want to look like Robert Redford or Sophia Loren. Says Dr. Lawrence Robbins of Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach: "We can't change what they are. Plastic surgeons are not gods." Still, for those like Betty Ford who feel the need for outer rejuvenation, aesthetic surgery can be a godsend.

* Rosalynn Carter has had plastic surgery performed on her eyelids, but whether it was for cosmetic or medical reasons has not been revealed.

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