New research from the University of Toronto has shown that facial cosmetic surgery can shave nine years off your appearance. And the more plastic procedures that a patient has had, in general the greater the number of years between perceived and real age.

Researchers showed 40 medical students before and after photos of 60 cosmetic surgery patients. In each photo, the students were asked to estimate the ages of the patients. Each of the patients had undergone between one and three cosmetic surgery procedures:

• 22 had a face and neck lift
• 17 had a face and neck lift and upper and lower blepharoplasty (eyelid lift)
• 21 had a face and neck lift, upper and lower blepharoplasty, and a forehead lift.

The patients who had had more procedures had ‘lost’ more in age than those who had just had the one procedure – Those who had undergone one procedure looked an average of 5.7 years younger; those who had had two operations appeared 7.5 years younger; those who had had three operations looked 8.4 years younger.

You can read the full results of the research online from the Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery.