New Wrinkle Treatment -- Plexiglas
CBS News Correspondent Bobbi Harley reports there's a new wrinkle in the search for eternal youth.
From the warm sands of Miami's South Beach to the yoga studios in Beverly Hills, Americans' addiction to agelessness is about to get another dose of medication: A world without wrinkles -- permanently.
48-year-old Janice Dickinson believes hers are gone -- forever.
"It's just a better way of walking around re-touched!" she said.
The former supermodel traveled three weeks ago to Tijuana, Mexico for injections of artecoll, which will be marketed as Artefill. It's close to FDA approval and could break into the seven billion dollar cosmetic surgery industry, toppling temporary line smoothers like Botox and collagen, even though it's more expensive.
Artecoll is cow collagen laced with tiny plastic micro-beads. It's inserted under the skin's surface to plump out wrinkles.
"The person's own collagen will be deposited around the micro-beads and that will give you the long term correction of the wrinkle," said Dr. Mariano Busso, a dermatologist who participated in the FDA study.
Those micro-beads are basically the same material as plexiglas. While it's been used for decades in dental implants, not everyone's convinced it should be a permanent wrinkle remover.
"You have a product that is permanent. It's going to be in people's faces forever, but they only studied it for a year," said Diana Zuckerman of the National Center for Policy Research for Women and Families.
And the study didn't include African-Americans, whose skin, experts say, tends to scar more easily. Also, a small percentage of those tested developed lumps and bumps --- and those were permanent too.
But 42-year-old Ana Alvarado has no complaints three years after artecoll injections filled in her laugh lines.
"If you could delay the process -- looking younger -- why not? I would go for it, would you?" she said.
For the millions still reaching, the fountain of youth may just be filled with plexiglas.