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Prime Minister's face lift sparks plastic surgery boom

Plastic surgeons in Italy say business is booming after Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi admitted having a face lift.

Professor Giulio Basoccu, a plastic surgery specialist from the La Sapienza University in Rome, said most of the new customers were men.

"Since Berlusconi admitted at Christmas that he had had 'a small lift around the eyes' the number of people asking for cosmetic surgery in Italy has increased by 30%," he said.

"Until recently facelifts were not popular in Italy, a country where breast enlargements have been about the only popular form of plastic surgery."

And the increase in requests for surgery since the Italian leader's admission had been most noticeable in men.

"Nowadays men are also indulging their vanity. A man who is fully committed both socially and professionally undergoes plastic surgery in order to keep in step with what is culturally and aesthetically accepted," said Basoccu.

He added that the age of people looking for facial improvement had also lowered.

"A few years ago it was mainly 50-year-olds who came to us for help. Now 35 to 40-year-olds want cosmetic surgery. And our younger patients are mostly men."

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