celebrity plastic surgery : Changing the new you

On any given day in Hollywood you can throw a stick and hit 10 people who've had something "done."

Be it a nose job, boob job or something injected, it's de rigueur for Tinseltown's elite to enhance their already above-average attributes.

So accustomed are we to the ups and downs of celebrity surgical interventions that guessing which star had what procedure has become a sort of sport — Ashlee Simpson's nose job is the latest to join the roster.

We've become armchair experts, weighing in with the tabloids on who's had too much — can Nicole even act with so little expression in her face? And who's gone too far — Star Jones anyone?

The notion of second-guessing, "Oh, gosh, don't Ms Starlet's breasts look bigger or is it just a push-up bra like her public relations flack says it is?" seems downright old-fashioned. It's amazing any star would bother denying they nipped, tucked, botoxed or enlarged.

But it isn't just for the rich and famous. Chances are someone you know has had a little work done. (If you can't tell, then they had a skilled surgeon.) The latest statistics compiled by Medicard Finance Inc., a company that offers financial assistance for medical procedures

But getting back to those too much too far cases, one wonders that if Dirty Dancing star Jennifer Grey had to accept career ruination because her nose job made her beautiful but unrecognizable, what would the rest of us average Josephine's do if we hated what the surgeon did to us?

"For any given procedure, be it in the face, liposuction or augmentation, there is potential that things don't heal the way it was envisioned and a revision surgery will be necessary," says Dr. Ali Adibfar, a Toronto surgeon whose résumé includes dentistry and oral surgery as well as plastic surgery.

Dr. Steve Mulholland, a Toronto cosmetic surgeon frequently seen on television administering the latest youth-defying technique, says, "A well-trained surgeon can fix up their own complications. The only downside is a delay in the patients `look good time.'"

by KIM IZZO