‘Ozempic Face' becomes a real concern for plastic surgeons

The useful part

Pamela Brownlee, a double board-certified plastic surgeon in Frisco, says she is seeing an entirely new type of patient walk through her door. I see these people with incredible weight loss, whether it's weight that they couldn't lose after pregnancy or stubborn weight that they gained in a time of turmoil in their life, but now they're having incredible weight loss. So you lose this weight, suddenly your face feels much older," Brownlee said.

How it works

• Brownlee says many of these patients never intended to have any cosmetic work done at all.
• Brownlee's experience lines up closely with new industry research.
• "They never even thought about surgery, never wanted surgery, they just wanted to lose the weight, and now they feel so old," she said.
• Fat grafting, a procedure used to restore lost facial volume, grew 50% for a second straight year.
• One in four surgeons surveyed expects GLP-1 use to keep driving demand for nonsurgical treatments in particular.

Details worth keeping

Millions of Americans are losing significant weight on GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy, but for a growing number of patients, that weight loss is coming with a side effect they never anticipated: a face that suddenly looks years older. "These drugs are creating this whole new type of patient. What you don't realize is that with that weight loss comes sagging skin.