Baker, the spokesman for the American Society of Plastic Surgery, said fat grafting — originally developed for patients who had lost facial fat due to HIV drugs — is now an established treatment to restore volume in the face, along with dermal fillers.

“The concept behind that is to restore volume that some patients lose as they get older,” Baker said. “Sometimes it helps to avoid face-lifting until they get further along in aging.”

But he cautions that stem cell injections, while not harmful, are as yet scientifically unproven, so it’s too early to know the benefits.

Also new on the market is Ulthera, which uses ultrasounds waves to tighten skin.

“Ulthera is really the newest and greatest thing, and not than many doctors have it,” said Dr. Leslie Baumann, chief executive of the Baumann Cosmetic and Research Institute in Miami Beach. Baumann writes a column for Tropical Life.

Her office has handled more than 600 patients, and the procedure has produced positive results in 90 percent of the cases, she said.

Ulthera, which is FDA approved for tightening the jowls of the face, works by using two different beams of ultrasound waves. The two beams come together, and the friction of the beams causes heat, which makes the collagen shrink, she said. The procedure doesn’t diminish the amount of collagen, it just makes the collagen shorter. Collagen is like a net, and if you shorten the fibers in the net, it tightens it.

“Collagen is like a spring — like a helix, and whenever you heat it, it shortens the length of the collagen,” she said, “which causes tightening of the skin.”

It takes three months to see the results, and the tightening is permanent, she said.

More new youth-enhancing procedures are on the horizon during the next few years, said Baumann.

“There are all kinds of great things coming,” she said, if the new injectables, lights and lasers are approved.

In the meantime, whichever procedure you choose, doctors advise doing some research first.

“It’s an art, so you have to find a doctor that is an artist,” Baumann said. “When you see someone with big lips or big cheeks, ask who their doctor is — and then don’t go to that doctor.”