By Dr. Simon Ourian

Many stars in Hollywood, in their constant pursuit of perfection against gravity and age seem to be aging backwards. Fresher features, unfurrowed brows, restored, juicier contours: this clearly isn’t your mother’s facelift.

As a doctor with a cosmetic practice in Beverly Hills, I’m often asked by my patients, “At what age should I have a facelift?” And of course I never have a specific answer as everyone ages differently. Nevertheless, what’s absolutely true and encouraging for those beginning the process of graceful and restorative aging, is that today, a more surgical and traditional lift can be put off for years by performing what we’ve dubbed at Epione the “One Hour Facelift.”

Rather than the conventional nip and tuck which entails weeks of recovery and can often result in the face looking (unnaturally) pulled, we inject the face with fillers, Botox and refine and correct the skin with minimally invasive Coolaser treatments. Volume is restored to the face, wrinkles are relaxed, sun damage is erased and skin is tightened; in short, a more youthful face is ready for the world in a fraction of the time and cost.

I have a number of tools at my disposal to replenish what’s been lost and to greatly reduce the signs of aging with minimal downtime. Lasers are brilliant in their ability to resurface the skin and remove sun damage, Coolaser treatments can dramatically change the skin, shaving years off of one’s appearance.

Botox has been in ample use (and sometimes abuse) as an age-defying medical tool for more than a couple of decades now. At Epione, our use of Botox is more sparing and in artful combination with our other treatments. I believe in injecting it so that a patient’s face appears more youthful, has total movement and looks as though they’ve come from a vacation, not from a wax museum. Many of my patients wisely come in with some trepidation, saying, “My friend can’t move her face and it’s always so shiny. Please don’t make me look like that”, a request I’m more than happy to oblige.

Rounding out the program are fillers such as Restylane, Juvéderm Injectable Gel, and Radiesse which greatly restore volume to the face. We can restore hollowed-out or sunken areas below the eyes, making a huge difference in one’s appearance. The use of intricately placed micro-droplets of dermal fillers may seem time-consuming and tedious, but I find the soft and smooth results are well worth it.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating over-plumping the skin, which can create what some call “moon face”, but rather bringing back volume that’s been lost in the aging process. After our Epione treatments, patients leave the office looking younger, healthy and relaxed, but not in that overly relaxed, airbrushed Hollywood way.

There is nothing I enjoy more than having a patient tell me their friends think they look great but are saying, “Looks like you’re sleeping well these days.” When they’ve asked if you’ve done something then you know too much has been done. My philosophy is about restoring faces that make subtle statements, not beg for questions.

Simon Ourian, M.D, Cosmetic Surgeon
Medical Director
Epione Beverly Hills