South Korean seniors get taste for plastic surgery, Gangnam style

SEOUL — Gangnam, the district of Seoul mentioned in South Korean pop star Psy’s 2012 hit song Gangnam Style, has some of the capital city’s most modern avenues. A concrete jungle with tall buildings full of entertainment and food outlets, its pavements are always brimming with youth.

While many streets in Seoul have similar sights, one thing makes Gangnam stand out – almost every building in the district has a sign advertising a plastic surgery clinic.

Among the hundreds of plastic surgery clinics in the neighbourhood, NAMU Beauty Medical Group is one of the bigger operators. The clinic has four stories of consultation and surgical procedure rooms.

Pictures of young women with tall, straight noses and big, round eyes line the walls. But among the women in the reception room on the second floor, some are a little older.

Women – and men – over the age of 65 have become regular patients of this clinic and similar ones across the country.

In 2018, South Korea’s senior population – citizens aged 65 and above – represented more than 14 per cent of the population. That makes the country officially an “ageing society”, according to the United Nations’ definition.

The governmental office of Statistics Korea has predicted the senior population will make up 41 per cent of the population by 2060. The East Asian country has faced slowing population growth for decades due to low birth and marriage rates.

Dr Kwak In-soo, NAMU’s head surgeon, says the age range of patients coming to his clinic has increased over the years. “About 15 per cent of my personal patients are 65 and over, while 30 per cent are over 50, I would say.”

Facelifts are the most common procedures for senior patients, as facial skin loses its vitality with age and begins to sag.

After many years of indecision, Ms Kim Pil-sung, 65, visited NAMU to lift the skin around her eyes and mouth. It was a tough decision for Ms Kim – who has high blood pressure and diabetes – because her daughter, the head of consultation at the clinic, advised her not to go under the knife.

“Even if we examine her medical records, X-rays and blood pressure levels, I am still worried about the possibility of something going wrong due to complications with her multiple medical conditions,” says Dr Lee Yoo-na, Ms Kim’s daughter, who finally agreed to invite her mother to the clinic last year.

Dr Lee says her mother’s desire for plastic surgery increased when her parents moved to Jeju Island, a popular holiday spot, after her father’s retirement.

“My mother would spend a lot of time at her church with other women her age, and she told me that most of them had some type of procedure done to their face,” says Dr Lee. “I even agree; I think about eight out of 10 women over the age of 50 have gone under the knife at one point, nowadays.”

HEALTH CONCERNS

Dr Kwon Sung-il, the vice-president of the Korean Association of Plastic Surgeons, also runs his clinic, IDEA Plastic Surgery, in Gangnam. He says more than 70 per cent of his personal patients are seniors, as he specialises in anti-ageing procedures such as facelifts. While patients in this age group have become regular customers at the clinic, Dr Kwon says he is still quite cautious when consulting them.

“Patients who take medication for high blood pressure or other health concerns need to stop taking medication for at least a week if they want to go ahead with procedures at our clinic,” explains Dr Kwon. “But if their health does not allow such a break from medication, we cannot carry out the procedure.”

Age is sometimes a barrier.

At NAMU, the clinic examines carefully the medical conditions of its patients, since older patients are required to undergo more health tests.

“Sometimes, our senior patients discover an illness or complication that they didn’t know about during our pre-procedure medical check-ups,” says Dr Kwak. “Some patients cannot continue with the procedures because of this; but, if the patient has enough willpower, they can clear their medical complications at a normal hospital and come back to our clinic to continue with their desired procedure.”

Even after a successful procedure, a senior patient will have to deal with more after-effects compared to a young patient.

“This is a picture of my mother’s face a week after her facial procedure, but you can clearly see that the big blue and black bruises still take up a lot of space,” explains NAMU’s Dr Lee.

She says a day of recovery after surgery for patients in her mother’s age group feels like 10 days. “My mother said she would never go under the knife again.”

THE ELDERLY, YOUNG AND OLD

In 2005, Dr Lee Hosun started the Korea Elderly Counselling Centre as she felt not enough attention was being given to the fastest growing demographic in the country.

“Due to the fact that South Korea’s population is ageing the fastest in the world, the definition and nature of elders was changing so quickly that it made it difficult to identify how to help this group of people,” says Dr Lee, a professor of Christian counselling and welfare at Soongshil Cyber University.

“There’s also the fact that this group is multilayered, so while some seniors identify themselves as elders, other senior-aged individuals don’t identify with this ageing group.”

Increased life expectancies mean a generational divide has opened up between seniors, separating those aged between 65 and 80 and those aged 80 to 100.

“The younger group, also called the baby boomers, were born a little before the 1950 Korean war, so they didn’t have to face the ravages of civil war,” says Dr Lee. “And they were the first generation to benefit from a national education, culture and economic advantages of capitalism during the speedy acceleration of the country’s development.”

Freedom to choose what one desires in one’s own life and having this attitude seems to distinguish the two sub-groups.

“Since they are used to developing and fine-tuning their life, they have a hard time accepting that they are prone to becoming lethargic in their lives,” explains Dr Lee.

“I think this period is a renaissance for seniors in our country, who are saying that they can change their lives according to their tastes as they did when they were in their youth.”

At Unjeong Happy Centre in Paju, a city about an hour away from Seoul, its community service centre provides programmes for its 5,200 senior members on a daily basis like a university. It even has a freshmen orientation every month for seniors who want to do something useful with their free time.

“It even applies to my mother, but the current elderly generation has only known how to work during their lives,” says Kim Se-yoon, the director of Senior Welfare Centre at Unjeong Happy Centre. “A lot of these seniors want to start learning something that they have always wanted to learn.”

Classes for dance, languages and yoga begin in the morning and end in the late afternoon. At one session, many of the senior members attending a traditional Korean dance class were dressed up in shiny dresses or full suits, chatting among themselves like college students.

Since seniors are living longer, they also tend to work longer, especially in South Korea. The country has the highest employment rate among nations in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development for people 70-74 years old and is second only to Iceland in employment rates for seniors aged 65-69.

“One has to have enough money and a good enough body to undergo these surgical procedures,” says Lee Ho-sun, the founder of Korea Elderly Counselling Centre. “So, a senior who satisfies both categories is looked upon highly.”

Plastic surgery has become a normal practice among Koreans who are graduating high school, preparing to apply for jobs or making enough money to visit a clinic. But, as to whether this trend among seniors will continue, Lee is not so sure.

“If plastic surgery is the trend now, I think future generations will adopt a surgery of the mind when they become the seniors of the population,” Lee says. “This means that they will naturally accept their physical ageing and realise that a young life is not limited to the physical body but is also related to a person’s social contribution.” SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST