Still, her transformation has piqued interest in chin surgery.

Also referred to as genioplasty or chin augmentation, chin surgery balances a person’s face by adding projection to the chin. During the surgery, a specially shaped implant — typically made of silicone rubber — is inserted in front of the jawbone.

A neck lift can also improve the look of the neck and chin area by removing or tightening fat, muscle and skin.

Non-surgical options, such as injectables, can also be used to improve the look of the chin. For instance, a concave chin could be corrected with hyaluronic acid fillers by temporarily building out the chin.

The Washington Post asked an oral and cosmetic facial surgeon’s opinion on Palin’s look, and he believes she did undergo “some procedure on her chin … It also appears as if she has had liposuction under her jaw.”

Palin said that she wouldn’t consider plastic surgery unless she got in an accident or got disfigured, but she is happy with her new look. She told US Weekly, “I am absolutely thrilled with the results. I look older, more mature, and don’t have as much of a chubby little baby face!”

According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), the top five surgical procedures for men in 2010 were nose surgery, eyelid surgery, liposuction, breast reduction and hair transplantation. For men, the surgical procedures may have special considerations that women don’t have.

Dr. Bruce Genter, a plastic surgeon who has had many male patients over the past two decades, pointed out some of these special considerations:

• Because men don’t wear makeup, their incisions are harder to hide.
• They usually have less hair — or no hair at all — to camouflage scars.
• For facelifts, sideburns have to be kept in place.
• Because men sometimes go shirtless, liposuction incisions on the body have to be small.

Men are also seeking minimally-invasive procedures as well. Former clothing model Sean Jones said that running kept his body in shape but affected his face. “If you lose weight, it goes from your face, too,” he said. “And I started having those little wrinkles.”

When his modeling agency told him to “freshen up” he got Botox injections to smooth wrinkles and a filler to plump up his cheeks and under-eye area. Botox was the top non-surgical procedure for men in 2010, according to ASPS.

Despite the increase in men undergoing plastic surgery, surgeons have observed that men tend to keep their procedures to themselves. Jones’s surgeon, Dr. Marlene Mash, said, “We have people whose spouses don’t even know they’re having anything done.”

“In the last decade we’ve seen women’s attitudes about cosmetic surgery change. Today women are not afraid to admit that they love their children, but they wish their bodies looked the way they did before their first pregnancies. And they’re not afraid to acknowledge that they may need a little help beyond a healthy diet and exercise,” said Dr. Phillip Haeck, ASPS President.

Surgeons have also noticed another trend — patients seeking a mommy makeover are younger than a decade ago.

“In the past we saw a lot of women in their 50s getting these types of procedures. But today we are seeing young mothers in their 30s coming in for procedures such as tummy tucks and breast lifts,” said Dr. Haeck. They don’t want to wait years to get their bodies back—they want their pre-baby bodies back now, said Dr. Haeck.

Plastic surgeon Allen Rosen, MD, concurs and said because women today talk more openly about cosmetic procedures, plastic surgery is more accepted than it was just ten years ago.

Considering a mommy makeover? Here are some tips from ASPS:

• Wait at least six months to a year after having your last child before undergoing mommy makeover procedures.
• Be specific about your post-baby body goals so that your plastic surgeon can recommend the best procedures for you.
• If you are trying to lose weight, do so before undergoing the procedures.

Study researcher David R. Neal, PhD, a psychology professor at the University of Southern California, said, “If you have a poker face because your facial muscles are paralyzed, you can’t read others emotions as well.”

However, even Neal admits that it’s a “fairly subtle” effect. “People are not becoming automatons. It’s just a matter of weighing whether the aesthetic and self-esteem boost outweighs any subtle impact on your ability to perceive others emotions,” he added.

In the study, women who had their facial folds treated with Restylane were able to read others’ emotional states with about 77% accuracy, while those who had Botox had 70% accuracy.

Why would Botox have this effect and not other fillers? According to Neal, evidence suggests that people use mimicry to register and label the emotional states of others, so something that limits one’s ability to reproduce another person’s expression of emotions, such as Botox — which has a paralyzing effect on facial muscles in the immediate vicinity of the injection site — would likely impair one’s ability to register or label those emotions.

Andrew Jacono, MD, a facial plastic surgeon in New York City who reviewed the study, said that the findings likely only apply to those who use excessive amounts of Botox.

“When Botox is overdone, it doesn’t look right and people aren’t perceived in the right way,” Jacono said. “The goal is to try to make sure when you get Botox, it is done in a subtle way so you can look better and maintain your ability to emote and read others.”

The first grader told Good Morning America that she didn’t like people asking about her ears, and her mother was concerned her ears would make her daughter self-conscious and shy.

They decided to get her ear surgery, which can be done in young children because their ears are about 90 percent the size of an adult’s, unlike the nose or chin, explained her surgeon, Dr. Steven Pearlman.

During ear surgery, a small incision is made behind the ear and then the cartilage and skin is removed or sculpted, and sutures are  placed to close the incisions and hold the ears in place. On children, the procedure is usually done under general anesthesia. The resulting scar is inconspicuous, and recovery from ear surgery takes about two weeks.

Samantha traveled from her home in South Dakota to New York City to undergo the surgery. After the procedure, she said it looks and feels “good.”

Her mom saw the ear pinning as more than a cosmetic procedure; she said it was a preventive way to keep Samantha from getting bullied about her appearance. According to her mom, before the surgery, Samantha’s protruding ears made her the target of hurtful questions by both children and adults.

“I don’t want her to be teased and bullied and then have her lash out and treat people the way she’s being treated,” Samantha’s mom said.

The study by Dr. Cong-Feng Wang of Meitan General Hospital in Beijing found that mammographic changes occurring after the fat transfer procedure — in which fat from other parts of the body is obtained through liposuction and transferred to the breasts — are indistinguishable from abnormalities associated with breast cancer.

Based on this “mammographic confusion,” the authors concluded that the use of fat injection for breast augmentation should be “prohibited continuously.”

Researchers looked at 48 women who underwent fat transfer, which the authors refer to as “autologous fat injection for breast augmentation.” They found eight cases (16.7 percent) with clustered microcalcifications in postoperative mammograms, and in all eight cases the microcalcifications were regarded as “highly suspicious” for breast cancer.

The abnormalities prompted surgical biopsy to remove and examine the breast area showing microcalcifications, but none of the biopsies revealed breast cancer. The calcifications appeared to be related to death of the injected fat cells.

The study’s recommendation to discontinue the procedure conflicts with a study published in the March issue of PRS journal, the official journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), which concluded that “Radiographic follow-up of breasts treated with fat grafting is not problematic and should not be a hindrance to the procedure.”

An ASPS release noted the conflicting studies and said that the results “highlight the need for caution — and for more scientific evidence on the mammographic changes occurring after fat injection.”

“It’s a toxin-free alternative to treating unwanted lines and wrinkles, similar to what is being done with Botox and Dysport,” said study co-author Francis Palmer, director of facial plastic surgery at the University of Southern California School of Medicine in Los Angeles. He added that in the early clinical trials the procedure appears to have the same clinical efficacy and safety comparable to the existing techniques.

To perform the procedure, which takes about 15 minutes using local anesthesia, doctors use small needles that deliver cold to nerves running through the forehead. The cold freezes the nerve, which interrupts the nerve signal and relaxes the muscle that causes forehead lines. The technique does not permanently damage the nerve, Palmer said.

Researchers said they are still refining the technique but that the results last about the same amount of time as Botox, which works for about three to four months. However, unlike Botox, which takes a few days to kick in, the effects of the cryotechnology are seen immediately, according to the researchers.

The current study had 31 people, all of whom had fewer wrinkles after two to eight injections, and the level of discomfort was comparable to that from Botox or fillers, Palmer said.

If this new technique is eventually approved by the FDA, it would offer consumers an alternative to a neurotoxin injection for getting rid of forehead wrinkles. Statistics from both the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery for 2010 showed that Botulinum Toxin Type A, which includes Botox and Dysport, was the number one non-surgical cosmetic procedure.

The company will eventually seek FDA approval, but it might seek approval in Europe first.

The increases may be due in part to baby boomers who want to look their best and stay competitive in the job market. Dr. Phillip Haeck, the society’s president, said the increase in facelifts is largely driven by men in their 50s and 60s.

“That’s the leading edge of the baby boomers,” he said. “These are really fit people who have paid a lot of attention to keeping their bodies in shape.” But, he said, they’re getting a “turkey neck,” which is something exercise won’t get rid of.

“This generation has paid a lot of attention to how they look, and they don’t want to grow old gracefully,” he added.

Haeck reports that he has also seen men come in for procedures because they feel pressure to look younger while looking for work. He said men have told him: “You’ve got to do something to help me because I need a job and I’m afraid I’m going to lose out because people are going to think I look too old.”

Most men who undergo breast reductions, on the other hand, are usually younger than 30, according to Haeck. “For them it’s a lot of money, but they are tired of being embarrassed by it,” he said.

By volume, nose surgery remained the number one surgical procedure for men, and Botulinum Toxin Type A (Botox, Dysport) was the top non-surgical procedure.

2010 Top Five Male Cosmetic Procedures (Surgical/Non-surgical)

1. Nose Reshaping / Botulinum Toxin Type A
2. Eyelid Surgery / Laser Hair Removal
3. Liposuction / Microdermabrasion
4. Breast Reduction in Men / Chemical Peel
5. Hair Transplantation / Soft Tissue Fillers

The study, published in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery journal, looked at health-related quality of life, as well as self-esteem and depression in patients with nasal deviation.

The study had 66 participants: 32 patients with congenital (present from birth, rather than from trauma) nasal deviation (mean age of 27.5 years) and 28 without nasal deviation (median age, 29.5 years) as a control group. Several questionnaires measured quality of life by evaluating characteristics such as general health, social functioning, mental health and self-esteem.

Results showed there were significant differences between the groups in physical functioning and general health. In addition, depression was detected in 34 percent of nasal deviation patients, compared with just 7 percent (2 people) of the control group.

The researchers concluded that nasal deviation is a scope of rhinoplasty that the plastic surgeon should be aware of, as this group has significantly worse quality of life and is more prone to depression.

Learn more about nose reshaping.

The researchers noted that “progresses in microsurgery and their adaptation to trauma surgery have contributed considerably to the increasing significance of plastic and reconstructive surgery in trauma surgery.”

The study evaluated characteristics, including age and gender, of 10,732 patients who were admitted to the outpatient clinic of Emergency Plastic Surgery in Sisli Etfal Training and Research Hospital between 2000 and 2004. Male patients outnumbered females by a ratio of 4: 1, and the mean age of all patients was 22.9 years.

The study found that the most common injuries for patients at the plastic surgery clinic were:

• Forearm and hand injuries (64%)
• Maxillofacial injuries (28%)
• Tissue defects (8%)

Most of the upper extremity injuries were due to glassware cuts (33%), and 76% of these injuries were self-inflicted trauma due to the patient punching glass during a bout of aggression! Head-and-neck injuries were most frequently caused by traffic accidents.

The researchers noted that a multidisciplinary approach in the E.R. was most critical for trauma patients, with a main team that is usually comprised of a trauma surgeon, neurosurgeon and orthopedist, but that “plastic surgeons have a significant role, particularly in the treatment of an important group of patients with critical injuries.”

The full study, “The practice of plastic surgery in emergency trauma surgery,” is accessible through Pubmed.