This article is from the WebMD Feature Archive

The wizards of beauty are working their magic, whipping up longer-lasting wrinkle fillers, fine-tuning Botox and liposuction treatments -- even debuting silicone butt implants. That's right, butt implants.

"The public seems to want this," James Wells, MD, president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, tells WebMD. He is on the clinical faculty of the University of California at Irvine and a private practice plastic surgeon in Long Beach.

Butt Implants. It's a cultural phenomenon that's moving northward. "Buttock implants are very popular in South America, where Brazilian women want to have very round, curvaceous buttocks," Wells tells WebMD. "Breasts are big here, but in Brazil, it's buttocks."

The implants have a more "solid" covering than breast implants because they must sustain weight, he says. "There's been an increasing interest from the public, so surgeons want to know more about them."

Breasts Deliver Drugs. Who knew? Silicone breast implants, because they are covered by permeable membranes, can be drug carriers -- in fact, they can act as timed-release drug carriers. Researchers are looking to include a drug in the implant that can reduce the scar that occurs around the implanted breast. "There's an early suggestion that the drug might help," Wells says.

Believe in Botox. Male or female, almost everyone wants a younger-looking face. "There are job retention issues," says Wells. "We see men in their 40s and 50s knowing they need to compete with others in their 20s, 30s. You and I both hear stories of people with equal talents, but the person who looks better gets the nod. Appearance is a big issue."

"Botox has probably been the greatest product in the last 20 years," says Seth A. Yellin, MD, chief of facial plastic surgery at Emory Healthcare. "It has an incredible safety profile -- still in my opinion the single thing I would take on a desert island to make people look better."

First used to treat crow's feet and eyebrow creases, Botox is making inroads all over the face of America. One popular use: Injecting Botox to soften lines around the mouth -- "the ones that make you look angry, even when you're not. [But] it takes an experienced plastic surgeon to get it right," he says.

Aesthetic surgeons are perfecting their technique, sharing secrets. If not done right, there's "risk of losing oral function -- you don't want to do that," Yellin adds.

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