Some years ago, medical news made headlines that a face lift would make you look only three years younger.
Apparent age varies from patient to patient along with the number and type of rejuvenation procedures one has had.
But science has now pinned down the effect a nose job has on your apparent age. On average, one and one-half years disappear from your age, provided the nose job was good.
We know this because plastic surgery researchers at the University of Toronto used the medical records of 53 nose job patients to show their before and after pictures to another group of 50 laypersons.
(Look at some more nose job before and after pictures.)
While the age range of the rhinoplasty patients being studied ranged from 15 to 61, the average reduction in apparent age was 1.5 years. Of course, the older the patient, the more apparent were the number of years lost.
One of the hallmarks of rapid aging is the weakening of major and minor structures that support the nasal tip. Thus, given time, the tip can sag and in some cases, almost touch the lips when smiling.
Some researchers claim that any effect could be due to patients being upbeat and happy with the new nose.
While nobody ever undergoes nose surgery to look younger, cosmetically repairing a nose with a deformity or a bad injury like a fractured nose healed in the broken position is going to bring the face and profile into better balance.
The researchers wrote in an issue of the professional journal, Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery that the rejuvenating effect of rhinoplasty could now be listed as one of the benefits of having a nose job.
(Read the study of nose jobs and perceived age.)
One surprising finding was about patients with a dorsal hump on the bridges of their noses. When combined with a little cosmetic surgery to the nose tips and removal of the hump, the result in apparent age was greater than 1.5 years. In some cases, an older patient looked three and one half to four years younger.