WIRED Staff

Give the Gift that Says 'You Need a New Face Already'

The Baltimore Sun examines a new trend: people are giving plastic-surgery gift certificates to their loved ones. Worst-case scenario: "Oh honey, you shouldn’t have…suggested that I’m not pretty enough for you. We’re through, you jerk!" That doesn’t happen very often, apparently. A woman who received a $7,000 gift certificate from her husband is quoted as […]

The Baltimore Sun examines a new trend: people are giving plastic-surgery gift certificates to their loved ones.

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Worst-case scenario: "Oh honey, you shouldn't have...suggested that I'm not pretty enough for you. We're through, you jerk!"

That doesn't happen very often, apparently. A woman who received a $7,000 gift certificate from her husband is quoted as saying she was surprised -- by how much it was for.

Although vouchers might be a recent phenomenon, plastic surgery as agift is not. "The marketing of it is new, but the reality of it isold," [a surgeon said].

A 2005 survey by the American Academy of Facial Plastic andReconstructive Surgery found that 40 percent of cosmetic surgeons had apatient who received a surgical procedure as a gift. Women typicallyreceive the gift from their husbands or mothers, doctors said.

New face of gift card [Balmer Sun]