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What do patients think about 2011's most popular cosmetic procedures?

Take a look at the RealSelf Worth It Ratings for the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery's top 5 surgical and non-surgical procedures of 2011:

A hot topic of 2011 was people -- particularly men -- going under the knife to be more competitive in the job market.

We polled our community to find out if they agreed that being more attractive would help their career. Take a look:

It's not uncommon to hear someone say, "I wish I looked like (insert celebrity name here)."  In fact, using celebrity features as a reference happens quite often in a plastic surgeon's office. Potential patients will say they want Kim Kardashian's curves or Angelina Jolie's lips.  So, Marie Claire Australia took it upon themselves to put together a composite photo of the most requested celebrity facial features.    

The result?  A somewhat younger looking Faith Hill with Taylor Swift's hair...  Well, that's what I saw when I looked at it.

“I don’t love my freckles,” said actress Julianne Moore in an interview with Allure magazine. The four-time Oscar nominee even wrote a children’s book, Freckleface Strawberry, about being picked on as a kid for her appearance. Now 51, Moore still resents her freckles, admitting, “I’d really rather not have them, but there’s nothing I can do about them.” Au contraire! Here are four ways to reduce the appearance of freckles:

As more and more people turn to non-invasive cosmetic procedures to boost their appearance, the number of those who look to obtain these products without a doctor is increasing in an effort to cut costs.

It doesn’t take much searching to find what sellers claim are fillers and prescription drugs available online. Unfortunately, that same attitude that led your dad to think he could build a porch by himself is also inspiring people to take cosmetic procedures into their own hands… and the results can end up just as disastrous.

"When you walk into a room, your lips should not enter the room before the rest of your body," says facial plastic surgeon Dr. Michael Persky.

That may be how French actress Emmanuelle Beart (photo right) feels. She's the latest celebrity to speak out about lip enhancement regrets. "Trout pout" is probably not a phrase anyone thought would describe the former Mission Impossible beauty, but that's the headline of her story making media rounds this week.

After much anticipation, the FDA has finally approved the original “Gummy Bear Breast Implant.” Silimed brand implants are now the only FDA approved, form-stable, highly cohesive gel implant. This makes Silimed (and their distributor, Sientra) the first company to compete with Allergan and Mentor since silicone was re-approved for use in 2006.

What does that mean to the consumer?

Botox competitor Xeomin and the dermal filler Radiesse will be largely unavailable for cosmetic purposes for the next 10 months. Their makers, Merz Pharmaceuticals and Merz Aesthtics (Merz), have been hit with an injunction by Allergan, the maker of Botox.

If you’ve had Xeomin or Radiesse, don’t freak out. It’s not about faulty products -- just faulty business.

Celebs were quite chatty about their opinions regarding anti-aging injectables this week.

First, Cate Blanchett gave her opinion on why younger women should stop:  “I’m not sitting on a soapbox telling women what they should and shouldn’t do. I just know what works for me. I’d just be too frightened about what it means long-term.  Looking at women in their 20s doing this stuff [injectable fillers], in the end all you see is the work." 

How many times have you been in doctor’s office and prefaced a question with “This may be a stupid question, but...”? If it’s health-related, most likely your doc will assure you it’s a valid query. But the truth is, when you have a limited amount of consultation time, there are questions that can waste it.

Plastic surgeon Dr. Jason Pozer shared three things with us that he wishes patients wouldn’t ask in a consultation:

In case you've missed the news, curves are back in. Just last year we saw a 39% increase in searches for butt augmentation on RealSelf.

Not everyone is ready to go under the knife to get Kim Kardashian kurves, however. Doctors agree that there's no effective non-surgical way to permanently boost your butt, so butt pads are starting to line the shelves of lingerie departments for women that want to boost their behind.

Butt -- how do they look? Style blogger and daredevil Lindsey Ferrier tested one of the most-marketed pads so the rest of us don't have to. See what Lindsey, and passersby, thought of the Booty Pop:

It's no secret that Botox helps to remove facial wrinkles and stop excess sweating, but not everyone knows else that the multipurpose toxin can actually do much more. Here are five other uses for Botox you might not be familiar with:

1. Eliminating Neck Lines

Poor Jennifer Aniston.  Apparently having a new movie, a long-running syndicated TV show and a handsome movie star boyfriend does not keep her immune from the short-term pitfalls of a laser peel.

She recently appeared on Conan to discuss her movie, Wanderlust,  but the subject matter quickly turned to her face.  The actress credited her glowing appearance to the laser technique which she originally started doing to remove sun spots.  She went on to chat candidly about the very volatile after-effects (which usually include everything from redness to swelling to skin peeling for most).

Dental veneers have had a bad rap since starlet Hilary Duff stepped out in 2005 with a set so large they were called "giant horse teeth" by more than few media people.

But appropriately sized veneers can completely transform a smile for the better. These photos are proof of why 6/10 people think veneers are Worth It:

When Reloxin, aka Dysport, was awaiting FDA approval, there was much speculation about how it would compete with Botox in the market of injectables aimed at smoothing fine lines and wrinkles. The debate spanned from which product lasts longer to which product works faster and costs less.

Do you ever look at yourself on a video chat and think “That’s what I look like?” Apparently this issue causes enough concern among mobile phone video-chatterers for one plastic surgeon to dub his neck lift technique the “FaceTime Facelift.”

Plastic surgeon Dr. Robert Sigal says his “FaceTime Facelift” differs from a traditional neck lift because of the incision placement. He told RealSelf that “Most lifting procedures involve a cut under the chin. Generally the expression is that doesn’t really matter, because no one but your lover or your dog will see it, and neither will care. That’s not true with FaceTime, because it does show that [area].” (For the non-iPhone users out there, FaceTime is Apple’s video chat app.)

Have you seen the best beauty product commercial EVER?

It's "the next revolution in beauty," and if you can afford it, you can look flawless. In fact, the results are "so dramatic, they're almost unreal...istic." Get ready to smile...

With just three more days until the Oscars, one front-runner has already shared her post-Oscar gift to herself - plastic surgery.  We start this week's Round-Up with an award-winning nip/tuck admission - how very "un-Hollywood."

Have you ever considered laser hair removal for that area you HATE to shave? What stopped you from doing it? Perhaps it was the thought of feeling “rubber bands popping on your skin” over and over. Or that it costs roughly $1700 for one of possibly six or more needed treatments.

Pain and cost aside, over 2/3 of RealSelf reviewers say laser hair removal is Worth It. If you’ve been toying with the idea of finishing off your follicles, check out this informative video from Project Beauty. You get a peek at what the process entails, and you can hear a first person description of the pain and results.

If your surgeon wanted to pray before operating on you, how would you feel?

RealSelf member PJsLiLBritches said “I absolutely loved the fact that just before my procedure they prayed with me!” While another spiritual member said they were “slightly uncomfortable that my doctor feels like he needed to ask God to help him with the surgery.”

Here’s what some of the RealSelf doctors had to say about prayer in the OR:

“Almost every website I visit, the pictures are the exactly the same; someone is getting a bump shaved off of their bridge ... aren't more doctors anxious to become experienced in African American rhinoplasty?” asks RealSelf member College Girl in Houston.

College Girl touches on a problem that anyone of an ethnic minority may face: finding before and after photos that look like them.

As it turns out, even for doctors whose practices are in predominately African American communities, only about 10% of the before and after images on their websites feature black patients.

South Korea may have the second highest number of cosmetic procedures per person in the world (Hungary is #1), but there's a growing opposition happening in the heart of their so-called "beauty belt."

Are red carpet beauty secrets worth your pretty pennies, or are they best left to the stars who can afford to drop mega-dollars on debatable results? Thanks to the thousands of people on RealSelf who are sharing what was worth it for them, you don't have to rely on the Hollywood and advertising hype.

Here's a look at what the RealSelf community thinks about 5 of the most popular Red Carpet medi-beauty treatments:

What's making our hearts swell today?

You. We've been receiving many kind words from our community, and wanted to share them with all of you who make RealSelf what it is.

Our mission is to provide the most trusted community for making confident choices, and the heart-warming comments below tell us that we are on the right path. Virtual group hug!

Butt augmentations are the fastest growing trend in plastic surgery. RealSelf searches for butt augs increased a whopping 39% in the past year, a bigger leap than for any other procedure. But while the media focus is on women who are searching for information on rounder rumps, we've found some gentlemen who are curious about the procedure, too.

But how would a Brazilian Butt Lift look on a man?

Winter is a very popular time to get plastic surgery, particularly breast augmentations. If your lady friend is one of the roughly 25,000* women a month who got breast implants recently, here are some gift ideas to highlight and help her new figure.

And ladies, whether you have a S.O. or not, these are great ideas for “new me” gifts too. :)

How best to treat protruding veins or broken capillaries?  Get an appointment with a vascular expert and plunk down $800, on average.

If you want to treat unsightly veins from the comfort of your home, you're out of luck. Treatment requires a doctor office visit for lasering, injections of sclerosing agents, or a combination. Your only other alternative is to camouflage the veins with makeup or clothing. Our doctor community at RealSelf offers number of tips for vein removal.

Superb vein treatments before and after results may inspire you to make the investment in going vein free.  Here are 5 amazing vein removal results:

It's been almost one week since the big game and people are still buzzing about that half-time show.  But, there were a few other stories that piqued our interest this week too. Most notably Joan Rivers being her unabashed self once again. Here's the buzz:

When you get breast implants, a tummy tuck, a facelift, or other invasive surgeries on the front of your body, you typically are told to sleep on your back in a "recliner" position for at least two weeks or longer. What they don't tell you in the post-op instructions is that you may need to keep some breath mints on the bedside table -- apparently back sleeping can worsen your morning breath.

Cosmetic procedures are still a "whisper topic" for many. That’s why we were so thrilled that Jane Fonda, often considered one of Hollywood’s most beautiful women, told the world that she’s had some work done.

The 74-year-old Oscar winner and fitness guru wants to be open about the fact that she removed the bags under her eyes and excess skin around her neck, and according to the rising number of reviews on RealSelf, she's not alone. 

The disturbing segment of Fonda's interview on The Rosie Show was when she stated "I'm not proud of it all --  I wish that I had not in some ways. I mean I do feel better, but I wish I was braver. I always swore that I would give a cultural face to aging -- so I'm not that brave."