THE SOUTH FLORIDA VAIN SPECIALISTS BYLINE: CAROLYN SUSMAN, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer DATE: October 19, 2004 PUBLICATION: Palm Beach Post, The (FL) EDITION: FINAL SECTION: ACCENT PAGE: 1E MEMO: Info box at end of text. So what if Self magazine has tagged the West Palm Beach-Boca Raton area the vainest in the land because of our predilection for cosmetic procedures. We can tear it off as fast as a chemical peel. "I'd like to think we're in the business of uplifting spirits," sniffs West Palm Beach Mayor Lois Frankel. (If body parts get uplifted in the process, so much the better.) "It must be the West Palm Beach thing," huffs Boca Raton Mayor Steve Abrams. Whatever the case, remember: It's your thing, and you can do what you wanna do. Even if that means getting your butt lifted or your lips plumped in the "vainest" region of the country, according to a new category in Self magazine's Fifth Annual "America's Healthiest (and Unhealthiest) Places for Women" survey in its November issue. The magazine pinned us with the V word based on the number of plastic surgeons per person listed for our area by the American Medical Association - www.ama-assn.org. We won out because "local doctors offer vacation packages for out-of-towners who want to combine a Florida vacation with implants, face lifts and more." (So doesn't that make the out-of-towners the vain ones?) Whatever. We can still hold our heads up, says Richard Rakowski, chairman and CEO of the Advanced Aesthetics Institute, headquartered in West Palm Beach, because caring about your appearance doesn't make you vain. The desire for cosmetic procedures - from breast enlargements to hair coloring - is a healthy reflection of a person who wants to look as good as he or she feels, he says. "To classify us as vain is supremely misdirected," says Rakowski, whose company encompasses Georgette Klinger, Cosmo & Company and other bastions of beauty. Humans, he says, "have an innate DNA-inscribed orientation to beauty. It's encoded into who you are. "It's not this obsessive, narcissistic thing that you do see expressed in a very small percentage of people. (That) doesn't represent society." West Palm Beach plastic surgeon Dr. Fredric Barr also considers the Self label a cheap shot. "Vain is a very bad word," Barr says. "It's very confusing to use that word. It's a misunderstanding of (plastic surgery) as superficial. If someone has good feelings about themselves, why should they not have good feelings about their appearance? "I would say to Self magazine, 'Keep the focus on your own Self.' " Oh, yes. There are people who overdo it. You know the woman, Jocelyne Wildenstein, who looks like a cat because she's had so many procedures? She's a New Yorker, and New York certainly has its share of high-end plastic surgery. (New York City, too, is the home of the largest number of plastic surgeons.) And how about Michael Jackson? He's a Californian. (Los Angeles-Long Beach comes in second.) Plus, of the nearly 8.3 million cosmetic procedures performed in 2003, according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, few are even extreme. The latest statistics from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons show Botox injections leading the list of procedures sought. Besides, says Barr and others, surgeons are alert for those with Body Dysmorphic Disorder and have begun to pull the plug when patients think surgery is the answer to emotional problems. Does that make the rest of us vain for wanting a little touch-up? What say you, Self? "We're just having a little fun with you," laughs Self's 34-year-old news director, Sara Austin. We say: Sara, watch out for those laugh lines. In a few years, you'll be sneaking down to the West Palm Beach-Boca area on "vacation." - carolyn_susman@pbpost.com rim christa - i have stats on my desk if you need to see them mburke slot with a1e vain wpb 1019 'I'd like to think we're in the business of uplifting spirits.' WEST PALM BEACH MAYOR LOIS FRANKEL NO. 1 FOR PLASTIC SURGERY? THAT'S A STRETCH! If you're going to San Francisco . . . you're going to meet some surgically enhanced people there. Among metropolitan areas with populations of over 1 million, San Franciscoedges us out, with one plastic surgeon for every 13,525 saggy, baggy, craggy residents. West Palm Beach-Boca Raton comes in second with a paltry one beauty doctor per 23,566 potential patients. Next in line:Fort Lauderdale, Newark, N.J., and Miami. New York comes in at No. 14, right behind Houston. If it's too vain here, move to Port St. Lucie West Palm Beach-Boca Raton is actually No. 12 nationwide for the greatest density of plastic surgeons. Towns with more plastic surgeons per citizenry? San Francisco; Rochester, N.Y.; Naples and Gainesville; Bridgeport and New Haven, Conn.; Springfield, Ill.; Columbia, Mo.; Savannah, Ga.; Charlottesville, Va.; and Wheeling, W.Va. At the bottom of the list:Fort Pierce-Port St. Lucie (with one plastic surgeon per 35,492 folks); Nassau-Suffolk, N.Y.; and Jackson, Tenn. So vanity, thy name is Wheeling! One nation, under the knife If you factor in the whole state, well, we clearly take pride in our appearance. Florida ranks second in plastic surgeon density, with one doctor per every 39,659 people. In first place: Washington, D.C., with one surgeon for every 26,003 puckered politicians. Next in line:Maryland, Hawaii, New York, Utah and California. The least enhanced states:Nebraska, Montana, Indiana, New Mexico, Arkansas, Maine, Oklahoma, Vermont, Iowa and Wyoming (with just 1 cosmetic surgeon per 164,594 cowboys.) Source: American Society of Plastic Surgeons Copyright (c) 2004 Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.