Ageing: Like mother, like daughter

There may be some truth to the saying that all women will eventually turn into their mothers, with a US study finding daughters age and wrinkle like their mothers.

Plastic surgeons used facial imaging and 3D computer modelling to study the aging process and found that daughters' faces tend to follow their mothers in terms of sagging and volume loss, particularly around the corners of their eyes and lower eyelids.

"Studies of facial aging up to the present have largely been observational and subjective," the team from Loma Linda University Medical Centre in California said in a report published by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

"This study applies state-of-the-art facial imaging and three-dimensional computer modelling to measure changes in the aging female face."

The study, presented at an ASPS conference in Seattle at the weekend, was based on examining 10 sets of similar looking mother-daughter pairs aged from 15 to 90 to measure changes in the aging female face.

Mothers and daughter have the same skeletal and cellular make up.

Researchers Matthew Camp, Zachary Filip, Wendy Wong and Subhas Gupta, all plastic surgeons in California, found that volume loss in the lower eyelid began when women were aged in their mid-30s and continued to progress steadily through life.

They said these findings may act as a further guideline for cosmetic rejuvenation of the eye region.

Eyelid surgery is one of the most common cosmetic procedures, used to get rid of crows' feet around the eyes and sagging to make the face appear younger.

ASPA figures show that it was the fourth most popular cosmetic surgical procedure in the United States in 2008.

- Reuters