From the Corner Office: September 2026
When asked by Oprah Winfrey in 2003 if she had had some “tucks and pulls,” Dolly Parton answered honestly and without shame. With her inimitable charm, she responded “Yes I have and I’ll have some more when I need them.” In another televised interview Dolly was asked if she had plastic surgery, expecting her to be embarrassed. She gave the best answer: “I have had a few things done through the years, but I am not ashamed of that at all. I think it’s wonderful that we have great doctors and I think God works through all people, especially talented, gifted people.” Dolly, with this honest and beautiful sentiment, captures what I believe about my work: medicine and artistry can be gifts, and using those gifts thoughtfully can help people feel more comfortable, confident, and fully themselves.
Plastic surgery is often discussed in extremes: either as a superficial indulgence driven by vanity or as something that should remain hidden behind a carefully constructed fiction of “natural” beauty. Both views miss the more complicated truth. Facial aesthetic surgery can be an intensely personal decision, capable of producing meaningful emotional and psychological benefits when pursued thoughtfully, realistically, and for the right reasons. As facial plastic surgery becomes increasingly visible, society would benefit from replacing judgment and secrecy with a more honest conversation about why people choose it, what they experience, and what it can and cannot accomplish.
A recent New York Times essay by Molly Jong-Fast, prompted by her own facelift, illustrates why this conversation matters. The old feminist critique of cosmetic surgery often framed aesthetic alteration as capitulation to an oppressive societal beauty standard. Yet that argument can itself become prescriptive, telling women that accepting their appearance is empowering while simultaneously suggesting that choosing to change it is a failure of independence. Jong-Fast’s experience complicates that binary. Her decision and subsequent article about her experience focuses on autonomy, aging, identity, and the desire for her outward appearance to correspond more closely with how she perceives her inner self.
A New York Times publication of personal facial surgery accounts on August 7 makes this point even more vividly. A young woman who had a rhinoplasty and neck lift and older woman and a middle-aged man who had deep plane facelifts, describe their elective facial cosmetic surgery for remarkably different reasons, yet each speaks to a desire for greater congruence between appearance and identity. Their stories are valuable precisely because they resist a single explanation for cosmetic surgery and their openness about their experience is both informative and insightful.
Facial aesthetic surgery is particularly consequential because the face is not merely another part of the body. It is central to identity, communication, memory, social interaction, and the way we recognize ourselves in the mirror. A successful facelift, rhinoplasty, eyelid procedure, or other facial intervention is therefore not simply an alteration of tissue. At its best, it is an exercise in proportion, restraint, and artistic judgment. The goal is not necessarily to create a different person, but to help someone feel more at home in the face they present to the world.
After 30 years devoted to facial aesthetic surgery, I have come to believe that the most meaningful work begins with listening. Every patient has a different history, identity, culture, and relationship with aging. Men and women may have different aesthetic priorities, and beauty standards can vary considerably among ethnicities, cultures, and generations. My responsibility is not to impose a particular definition of beauty, but to understand the individual and use my surgical experience, artistic judgment, and technical skill to create a result that respects that person’s identity. I believe the finest aesthetic surgery should be subtle, natural, and individualized. It should enhance rather than erase.
That philosophy is shared by the team at Marietta Facial Plastic Surgery, Laser & Aesthetics Center. We understand that choosing facial aesthetic surgery can be an emotional decision as well as a medical one. Patients deserve to be heard, respected, informed, and cared for throughout the process.
None of this means that aesthetic surgery is without risks, limitations, expense, recovery, or difficult emotional considerations. Honest discourse requires acknowledging those realities alongside the benefits. Nor should surgery be presented as a universal solution to insecurity or dissatisfaction. But recognizing these cautions should not require dismissing the genuine happiness, confidence, and renewed sense of self that many patients experience.
Indeed, perhaps the greatest social benefit of openness is that it allows people to discuss those experiences without shame. If someone has surgery and feels better afterward, that experience deserves neither exaggeration nor embarrassment. Likewise, someone who chooses not to have surgery should not be judged. A mature culture can accommodate both choices.
As facial plastic surgery becomes more common, secrecy becomes increasingly unnecessary. The opportunity before us is not to decide whether plastic surgery is inherently good or bad, but to develop a more sophisticated understanding of why people choose it. An honest conversation recognizes that beauty, aging, identity, autonomy, and self-confidence are deeply intertwined.
If you would like to learn more about what facial aesthetic surgical procedures may be appropriate for you, as well as non-surgical facial rejuvenation and nasal reshaping options, I encourage you to schedule a personalized consultation with me. 770-425-7575.
Thank you for trusting us to keep you looking naturally more beautiful.
Seth A. Yellin, MD, FACS
Founder & Director, Marietta Facial Plastic Surgery, Laser & Aesthetics Center
The patient below shared with me how much her new youthful, vibrant look has meant to her. When I recently saw her for her 6 week follow-up, she said to me “You really are the face guy!” I loved that compliment but I particularly loved hearing her sentiments about what her Injecta-Lift and Deep plane facelift meant to her. (with permission)
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