Turning Back Time

WHEN IT COMES to my looks, I’ve learned to manage my expectations. I’ve got a great personality, or so I keep telling myself. After a half century’s wear and tear, my face could be worse. But could it be better?

Cue Dr. Anna Petropoulos, medical director of the New England Facial and Cosmetic Surgery Center and a double-board certified plastic surgeon who has pioneered and perfected restorative aesthetic techniques. If she can’t improve matters, no one can.

I am sitting comfortably, semi-reclined in a chair at the Center for Classic Beauty, her stylish white marble and black granite offices on Commonwealth Ave.nue, regarding myself in a large hand mirror. It’s time for a reckoning.

“Together, let’s examine your face, starting at the top of your head,” she says. We discuss the three very visible lateral lines running across my forehead, and the trench-like vertical crease between the eyebrows.

“These lines are caused by these muscles,” she says, indicating a point over my brow. That and five decades of scowling, I think. Maybe author George Orwell—always a stickler for the unvarnished truth—was right when he wrote that by 50, we all have the face we deserve.

“Your eyelids drop a millimeter every year,” Dr. Petropoulos explains. She pushes the skin down over my furrowed brows to demonstrate the cruel effects of time. My eyelids hood, my already-deep set eyes get beadier, crow’s feet splay out. I look mean and suspicious. Get off my lawn, kids!

“Now watch,” she says, pulling the skin back toward my hairline. My eyes look larger and brighter. I not only look younger, I look more awake, more aware, more…employable.

“How about your skin texture?” Only slightly magnified, my skin conjures up satellite images of ancient Martian riverbeds, hatched and scored.

I admit I’m also bothered by the small vertical lines above my upper lip, unwanted souvenirs of aggressive chain-smoking on European vacations in the late 80s. It was cool back then, but so were leg warmers. Then there’s the parenthetic nasolabial lines, and the nascent jowls, which form as cheek pads migrate downward. The jowls, says the good doctor, can drop three millimeters every year. Fantastic.

I put down the mirror. I want refurbishing. “What would you do with my face?” I ask her.

‘I have a few ideas,” she says, smiling.

THE BOTOX ANGEL

This is why patients flock to her.

Dr. Petropoulos has been assessing and rejuvenating faces and bodies for over 25 years and can match the person to the ideal procedure in less time than it takes you or I to switch on the ring light for a Zoom call.

Plastic surgery is a highly competitive, fast-moving field, and there are many doctors and estheticians vying for patients in what can be a very lucrative business. Choosing a surgeon can be daunting. Most people get referrals from friends or scan online patient reviews. These are fine criteria, but there are other factors to weigh.

Dr. Petropoulos’s list of awards and accolades is long and impressive. Her academic credentials are impeccable—Harvard-trained, she writes for peer-reviewed medical journals and frequently travels across the world to lecture. What’s more, Dr. Petropoulos is one of the few physicians who has been nationally recognized for her artistic skill.

Many plastic surgeons describe what they do as a combination of medicine and artistry. Dr. Petropoulos is a National Education Faculty member who trains other plastic surgeons in noninvasive rejuvenation procedures using neuromodulators, biostimulators, fillers, and energy-based devices. Her team puts it more succinctly: They call her the Botox Angel.

The Center for Classic Beauty owns over 20 different aesthetic energy-based devices, which allows Dr. Petropoulos to create a highly customized plan for every patient. This is important, since some places may only have one or two machines (they’re seriously expensive). It’s better to have options.

Though a surgeon, Dr. Petropoulos strongly prefers to begin with a noninvasive approach. These days, there’s a lot that can be accomplished without going under the knife. She is adamant about preserving a natural look. For me, she recommends Botox as a baseline and Morpheus8, a radio-frequency microneedling treatment, for skin tightening.

FACE FORWARD

Botox, a neurotoxin that relaxes muscles, has been around a while now, having been FDA-approved for treating forehead lines back in 2002. It works, though you need to reup your dose every three to six months, or the lines creep back.

Before Dr. Petropoulos administers the injections, she explains the effect each shot will have on the adjacent area. She is quick, precise and gentle, and I barely feel the needle. Though they say Botox three days to fully blossom, I see results immediately, like a soft filter on a photograph.

Morpheus8 is the big daddy of microneedling treatments and was introduced to the market in summer of 2002. Several sessions can mimic the effects of a minor face lift by tightening and smoothing the skin (clinicians recommend 3 to 4 treatments). Online before-and-after photo galleries show noticeable improvements: Undereye circles are brighter, skin is clearer, and patients look substantially refreshed, the way people look when they’re standing in especially flattering light. The way Martha Stewart and Angela Bassett look all the time.

Collagen and elastin are responsible for supple, smooth skin. Our stock of these proteins plummets as we age, and by our 60s, it’s pretty much depleted. Morpheus8 employs a device to stamp thin needles full of radio-frequency energy into your skin, creating a controlled, temporary thermal injury that stimulates collagen and elastin growth. After multiple initial treatments and one annual treatment thereafter, you can maintain your glow. I’m told it’s best to start by your early 40s. At my age, I’m on the brink of collagen extinction. Almost, but not quite, too late.

On the day of the procedure, Dr. Petropoulos’s team greets me like an old friend. Jeanine Oteri, a master medical esthetician and laser technician with over 22 years of experience, will provide my treatment. She and other staff members have undergone several Morpheus8 sessions and regular Botox treatments. They are all over 45 but look significantly younger, at least by a decade. Their skin is flawless, clear, and firm. They have a clean, natural European-style beauty that seems effortless, but surely isn’t. Their down-to-earth friendliness is wholly American.

Jeanine has performed thousands of Morpheus8 treatments—several a day since 2020. Her deep experience is comforting; this procedure requires someone knowledgeable behind the hot needle wand. She shows me the machine and explains the process.

To manage discomfort, a numbing cream is applied to my face and neck, and I’m allowed to take hits of low strength nitrous oxide (laughing gas), which only lasts for the duration, so I can still drive myself home.

Once I’m sufficiently numbed, which takes about 30 minutes, Jeanine begins using the wand in small stamping motions, beginning with my neck. The first stamp is intense, but not particularly painful, and from there, I grow acclimated to the sensation. Jeanine alternates between pleasant chat and explaining the finer aspects of the procedure, but I’m a bit too loopy from the gas to focus. With each stamp, the device makes a little boop sound like the Whole Foods price scanner. I wonder how I’m going to afford all these groceries.

The whole treatment takes less than an hour. Afterward, my face is red, and feels hot and tight, like I have a mild sunburn. Jeanine walks me through the aftercare kit, which includes a superb firming cream made from rich shea butter, and explains that by tomorrow, the redness will fade, and in two days, will hardly be visible.

THE RESULTS

The timeline plays out exactly as she predicts. A few hours later, the tightness dissipates. At the end of day two, I go out to dinner. On day three, I’m back to normal.

While results certainly vary from person to person and the full effect takes several weeks, I found that even a single treatment made a difference. Small pits and scars from long ago are shallower, pores are tighter. Since Morpheus8, I find I’m using less foundation. My skin has a new radiance I don’t want to mask.

Getting any sort of aesthetic treatment isn’t a lifestyle choice for everyone, and it’s not cheap, but the results are impressive. Some of my friends tsked about vanity and giving in to a narcissistic culture. I texted them my before and after photos. They texted back immediately, wanting to know where they can get it done. As for me, I have already signed up for my next treatment.

BY CLAIRE VAIL