The magic of plastic surgery can sculpt your body to a T and turn back the clock on the effects of aging. But in the pursuit of the perfect body, there are crucial issues folks don’t take into consideration, especially when they’re thinking of getting a little surgery in hopes of big results. It’s no secret that here at theFashionSpot, we love us some Resting Bitch Face, but for some women, the perma-frown is simply not the look. For others, the seemingly unattainable thigh gap is the object of their desire, but when it starts to feel like good old-fashioned exercise is not going to yield that coveted tiny triangle between your legs, what’s a girl to do? Some are taking matters into their own hands and running to their plastic surgeon’s office to achieve what nature simply can’t.
The grin lift, the cosmetic surgeon’s antidote to Resting Bitch Face and the thigh gap surgeries seem like minor tweaks that will give you big results. But according to New Jersey-based facial and cosmetic plastic surgeon Dr. Andrew J. Miller of Associates in Plastic Surgery, these procedures may not necessarily be the answer to your prayers.
The grin lift trend, a procedure Michigan-based plastic surgeon Dr. Anthony Youn calls a way to turn “a permanent frown upside down,” sounds like a pretty good deal for anyone trying to rid their face of that moody look, but is it worth it? According to Miller, going under the knife to treat your RBF may not be the best option. Here’s what goes down on the operating table: “To achieve the grin lift, your surgeon makes incisions along the upper line of the lip, takes out a wedge of tissue above the lip. When you close that, it pulls the corner of the lip up a little bit.”
It’s a simple procedure, but according to Miller, it can leave scarring on the sides of your mouth. “Most people heal great from that, but sometimes it can cause a scar and nobody wants a scar along their lip line. If the scar is thin, you can lose some of the natural roll that the lip has, and to me it’s not worth it to do a procedure like that that has any risk of a scar when you can do something that looks more natural. Plus, if you take out too much skin, you can look Jokerish and that’s a little strange.” Miller says that there are other noninvasive procedures, like simply getting fillers, which will correct these problems without running the risk of scarring. So, if you’re thinking of curing your RBF, you may want to consider fillers as an option.
Besides slapping a permanent smile on their faces, some women are also turning to their plastic surgeon to get the elusive thigh gap, a feature that is often achieved through the magic of Photoshop. Miller notes that younger women tend to inquire about this particular surgery, often pointing to images of fashion models as inspiration. “Models are models for a certain reason,” Miller says. “They have certain so-called ‘perfect’ aspects of their bodies which so-called ‘regular’ people don’t have. You can make the improvement, but it’s not as easy as going in, getting lipo and you’re done,” he says of the procedure. In fact, while women fill their heads with images of an IRL thigh gap to rival Beyoncé’s own on Instagram, Miller says that many aren’t aware that their dream thigh gap may not be as perfect as they think it will.
One of the biggest risks with the thigh gap surgery is sagging skin, particularly if you go under the knife at an age where your skin is lacking in elasticity. “On the inner thigh, the skin is a little bit thinner and it doesn’t always contract as well as skin around your waist or your outer hips,” Miller explains. “If you have a fair amount of fat and you try to lipo it all out, there is a possibility that your skin can sag a bit, which would not be ideal. Really, if someone is in their 20s getting [this surgery] done or early 30s, they have a better chance of getting a better result because their skin is more contractile. Once you get a bit older, or if you had a lot of fat there and the skin was stretched out a little bit, you’ve got to be very careful. You can’t go overboard trying to create this thigh gap because if you do too much, you could end up with saggy skin.”
Of course, if a little saggy skin and scarring don’t deter you from getting the body you want, keep in mind that if you gain weight, you very well could see that thigh gap close up over time. “You can remove fat and that will be gone forever, but there are fat cells that remain and they can get bigger,” Miller warns. “So if you gain weight or you have kids, those fat cells are going to get bigger.”
