Lending a voice to your killer looks

HOUSTON: For all those fascinated by makeovers, there is now surgery available to match face and figure with the voice, to both sound and look younger.
Beauty and health-care experts say that for people fascinated by extreme makeovers - from liposuction and brow lifts to botox and hair transplants - there is more on the way to make things perfect.
"Now, you can have plastic surgery, not only to firm your face and figure but also to make your voice that trembles with age sound younger," they say.
The procedure is called voice-lift and is said to smoothen out the wrinkles in a person''s voice, says Dr Leroy Young, plastic surgeon, St Louis, USA.
The surgery takes twoforms: implants can be inserted through an incision in the neck to bring the vocal cords closer together for a more youthful sound, or substances like fat or collagen can be injected to plump up the cords and restore their limberness.
So, they have a voice-lift. It seems that a voice-lift really does make you sound younger. A voice can sound old when it wobbles or trembles. Voice-lifts are nothing new in the medical field.
These operations used to be performed mainly on people with voicerobbing diseases or injuries, but one leading surgeon says more people with craggy or cracking voices are seeking this surgery.
However, people are only now beginning to realise that voice-lifts are available, says Young, who is also chairman of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons'' Emerging Trends Task Force.
People who need a good strong voice for their career may see this as a blessing as also politicians, singers, teachers, instructors and actors.
"It can benefit people who may be drawing toward the end of a singing career," Young says. "It can benefit people like politicians and teachers who need to have a strong voice that carries. I''d say caveat emptor for the professional singer, but if you''re a teacher and you don''t want to sound like Marlene Dietrich, it''s something to consider."
According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, more than 8.7 million cosmetic plastic-surgery procedures were performed in 2003.
There were no statistics on how many of those were for voices, but doctors said the number would be very small.