The ultimate family togetherness experience actually began several years ago when married couples started asking Dr. Sevinor to do plastic surgery on them together.

“Various surgeons become known for different things,” Dr. Sevinor told CosmeticSurgery.com News. “I tend to attract many couples because I understand how nobody but a family member can relate to a person who is bothered by an overlarge nose, an overweight area of his or her body or some other bothersome feature.”

For instance, one very successful owner of a real estate firm married a size four woman. But after three children and three C-sections in ten years, the petite woman had increased to a size 14 and was changing her clothes in the dark because her stomach hung far below her belt line and her breasts had lost all their firmness and were resting on her stomach.

“Eventually, she had a tummy tuck, breast lift and breast augmentation, partly because her husband wanted the best of everything for her, including a good self-image,” Dr. Sevinor says.

The man was overjoyed when he saw the difference a surgical rejuvenation made in his wife’s confidence so he started thinking about the effect his thrice broken nose was having on his own personality.

“The man had a weak chin, was a boxer in college and his nose showed it,” Dr. Sevinor says. “He did not feel good in his own skin so he was soon having a rhinoplasty-- which also improved some breathing problems – and a chin augmentation.”

The couple took their dressings off about the same time and was just mesmerized with each other’s enhancements, the doctor says. That was ten years ago and the couple still meets with Dr. Sevinor every Christmas. Later, Oprah Winfrey invited the doctor and four other couples who had cosmetic procedures onto her show. Still later, Dr. Sevinor made the rounds at “Inside Edition,” “Sally Jesse Raphael,” “Geraldo,” “Good Morning America.”

Once the television shows were widely seen, more couples made appointments and went under Dr. Sevinor’s knife together. He says it usually starts when the wife asks for a surgical rejuvenation. The husband then sees the process is usually much smoother than he imagined so he also springs for his own enhancements.

Then, in 2004, 59-year-old Rita Whelan became a widow and thought back on the surgery she had with Dr. Sevinor four years ago. Drained by her husband’s illness and death, she made another appointment to discuss a face and neck lift and a lip augmentation.

“I was very pleased with the procedures I had before,” says Rita. “So I decided to take along my 79-year-old-mother, Grace D’Amore, because she had always talked about getting a face lift.”

Talk about the various procedures in cosmetic surgery swirled around the family. So it wasn’t very long before Rita’s sister, then 53-year-old Joann Termine, asked the doctor about liposuction. On the heels of that, Joanne’s two daughters, Erika and Danielle, made appointments to ask about the surgical rejuvenations they had in mind.

“All this goes beyond a breast augmentation or some liposuction,” Dr. Sevinor says. “Just like with husbands and wives, it’s more a case of sharing your lives together and supporting each other during a crucial time.”

Additionally, the doctor thinks it’s now more permissible to have plastic surgery which is no longer considered pure vanity. He additionally tells his patients the surgery can change the way you look at life and the way people look at you. From where Dr. Sevinor sits, he sees that his women patients have been such devoted caretakers of other family members, they are used to putting themselves last when it comes to providing something extra nice.

“But that trend is lessening,” Dr. Sevinor says. “More women, supported by husbands and other family members, are giving themselves permission to be good to themselves, too.”

After the “Fab Five” had completed their surgical enhancements, the total surgeries were:

*Grace D’Amore: face and neck lift, partial chemical peel and arm lift.

*Rita Whelan: face and neck lift and a “luscious lips” filler injection.

*Joann Termine: liposuction of the stomach hips and back.

*30-year-old Erika: breast lift and liposuction of the abdomen and hips.

*27-year-old Danielle: liposuction of the stomach and hips.

While all the women ended up feeling better about their appearances, the family matriarchs, Grace D’Amore, was telling everyone she now felt like one of T.V. Swan’s contestants and that several men in her neighborhood now notice her and ask for coffee.

“And that really makes me feel good,” says Grace.

© 2005 HealthNewsDigest.com