Seniors like to "nip and tuck"

Research by the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) has found that pensioners now have the money and the motivation to go under the knife in a bid to look a few years younger. Men and women in their seventies and eighties are fuelling the boom in cosmetic surgery, according to the latest BAAPS audit of 119 of its members in private practice which found that last year 16,367 procedures were performed, compared to 10,738 in 2003.

Demand for surgery has remained stable among the younger generation but now it is the seniors who are increasingly paying for facelifts, nose jobs and other youth-enhancing operations.

Septuagenarian men who have much younger wives are paying for surgery to equalise the physical differences in age, while improved techniques mean surgery can be safe even for women in their eighties.

Breast surgery was the most popular operation, with more than 3,000 enlargements carried out in 2004, and 2,470 reduction procedures.

Eyelid surgery, nose reshaping and facelifts were also among the top five procedures and surgeons are being asked for the first time about age trends they are seeing in the people coming forward for treatment.

Despite concerns about teenagers demanding surgery as a result of pressure to live up to the look of slim models and celebrities, most surgeons said the number of teenagers and younger patients had stayed the same over the past five years, while an increase had been observed in older age groups.

Adrian Richards, a consultant surgeon who runs a clinic in London, says they are now seeing people who, 20 years ago, would not have dreamt of having cosmetic surgery. The techniques are better and safer and older people are more prepared to consider cosmetic surgery. The risks of having general anaesthetic to someone in their seventies or eighties was a consideration but often older people are fitter and healthier than someone in their forties.Mr Richards says men who have married younger wives often want to take 10 years off their face. According to surgeons while patients in their twenties and thirties want to radically change the shape of their bodies through cosmetic procedures, older people merely want to "turn the clock back a bit".

A recent report by the think-tank Demos identified the latest generation of pensioners as "the new old" who are determined to combat the ageing process by buying youthful brands, adventure holidays and cosmetic surgery.

Douglas McGeorge, president-elect of BAAPS, said: "We live in a well-off society where people now retire to start a new life. Social stigmas about cosmetic surgery are less common. My oldest facelift is 81 and the oldest set of eyes 82."