Parents Avoid Telling Adult Children About Plastic Surgery Decisions, 2007-12-03
In a reversal of roles, experts say that approximately 25% of parents contemplating plastic surgery do not tell their adult children they are planning to have the work done.
More than 11 million such procedures were performed in 2006 with statistics suggesting that aging baby boomers will drive those numbers up in coming years.
In 2007 the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery conducted a study indicating that of Americans age 65 and older, 20% would consider undergoing some form of cosmetic work.
In 2006, an estimated 22,718 face lifts were performed with 16.4% of those on patients 65 and older with the 51 to 64 age bracket accounting for 61.5% of the surgeries.
Regardless of the age of the children, professionals do not advocate trying to fool them. Younger children will be scared if their parent comes home bandaged and swollen and older kids are apt to be angry and resentful when they realize they've not been a part of what they may regard as a significant threat to their parents' health.
Children in their 20s and 30s appear to have the most adverse reaction to the potential risk of a cosmetic procedure while older children, who are themselves beginning to see the effects of aging, tend to be more supportive.
Much of the concern adult children now have about their parents undergoing cosmetic works stems from the death of Donda West, 58-year-old mother of singer Kanye West, who died of complications from a tummy tuck and breast reduction in November 2007.
