I traveled to visit with my daughter this past month, and - as usual - I had to purchase a magazine before I boarded the plane. This time I went overboard, as a new magazine was available and it wasn't cheap. But, I was intrigued with the concept behind New Beauty, as it focused on anti-aging. As a borderline Baby Boomer, I was curious as to why this topic could consume about 250 pages within a nine-inch by eleven-inch format.

This magazine covered just about every subject within the anti-aging topic, so it was well worth the $9.95 cover price. And, as you might expect, it focused mainly on plastic and cosmetic surgeries and non-invasive procedures that might help any man or woman look about a decade younger.

While I fantasized about how tooth veneers (this magazine considered any dental work as an anti-aging procedure), a tummy tuck, and a "plasma resurfacing" might alter my appearance, I wondered if there was a common theme throughout these procedures for investment possibilities. Only one company manufactures BOTOX?, so if you're interested in this product as an investment I would advise seeking answers to the questions following before you make a jump:

1. How many people use this product?
2. What is the lifespan of one treatment?
3. Can this product be used for anything other than smoothing out wrinkles?
4. What's the competition?
5. What other products does this company manufacture, and what's on the table for the future?

While I could answer those questions for you, you can find the answers easily online. Instead, I want to point you to another investment possibility, a product that is more competitive and that comes in various forms. As I studied the procedures listed in the glossary located in the back of the magazine, I realized that anesthesia was the common denominator. Without anesthesia, most of these procedures would be impossible to achieve.

Once again, you'll need to conduct your own research into this investment possibility, but I'll make this search a little easier for you by breaking down the different anesthetic methods that cosmetic or plastic surgeons might use, and I'll break those down methods even further by listing various types of anesthesia.

First, there were ten out of forty-three procedures that didn't require anesthesia, including BOTOX? injections and teeth bleaching. But, all the other procedures required some form of sedative and/or anesthesia as follows (some procedures had options, as you'll see below):

• General - 8 " Local - 7
• General or local - 1
• General or local with sedation - 6
• General or local with intravenous sedation - 7
• Regional (e.g. an epidural block) - 1
• Topical drops with or without mild oral anti-anxiety medicines (vision correction) - 1
• Local with or without sedation - 2
• Local with sedation - 2
• Topical with oral sedation - 1

What you can't tell from the above list is that some procedures require more than one visit to complete the projects. So, a patient might need general anesthesia for the first operation and then a local with sedation for the second procedure. Or, some procedures might use both a general anesthetic and a local application as well. But, the list above is very broad, as there are several different types of local and general anesthetics. Some general anesthetics include:

• Barbiturates: Hexobarbital, Methohexital, Narcobarbital, Thiopental
• Ethers: Diethyl ether, Desflurane, Enflurane, Isoflurane, Methoxyflurane, Methoxypropane, Sevoflurane, Vinyl ether
• Haloalkanes: Chloroform, Halothane, Trichloroethylene
• Opioids: Alfentanil, Anileridine, Fentanyl, Phenoperidine, Remifentanil, Sufentanil
• Others: Alfaxalone, Droperidol, Etomidate, Hydroxybutyric acid, Ketamine/Esketamine, Minaxolone, Nitrous oxide, Propanidid, Propofol, Xenon

Some local anesthetics include:

• Amino esters: Benzocaine, Chloroprocaine, Cocaine, Procaine, Tetracaine
• Amino amides: Bupivacaine, Levobupivacaine, Lidocaine, Mepivacaine, Prilocaine, Ropivacaine, Articaine, Trimecaine

I haven't touched on all the variants within these options, so as you explore each one you might find more drugs and ways to administer those drugs (gases, injections, intravenous, etc.). At this point, you may realize that you could go even deeper with this project. You can begin to investigate the companies that make the tools that professionals might use to administer anesthetics.

At this point you might ask, "But isn't cosmetic or plastic surgery a fad?" To answer, I don't think so, because the cost of these surgeries has decreased dramatically over the past decade. Additionally, non-invasive procedures are on the rise and they're dramatically less expensive than actual surgeries. These procedures use lasers and fillers similar to BOTOX? (ah-ha! Some competition!), and they don't require a consumer to go under the knife. While some of these non-invasive procedures don't require general anesthesia, the doctor might use a topical solution or a sedative to relax the patient.

Plus, many of the procedures listed in this magazine have a limited shelf life. While an eyelid lift might be done just once (at about $1,500 - $3,000), a necklift might need to be repeated in ten years (at a current cost of $3,500 - $10,000). If you want to go for a crown (dental, not monarch), you'll need two visits with an average cost of $1,000 - $4,000 per crown. Those crowns only last five to fifteen years. And, you need a local anesthetic to have this procedure done.

The plastic and cosmetic surgery business is booming. And, the stigma that was attached to body-altering procedures no longer exists. Perhaps, the reason behind this acceptance is that these procedures have become more sophisticated while - at the same time - less invasive and costly.

If it sounds as though I'm trying to convince myself that I should try to iron out my wrinkles, you might be right. After all, over 11.5 million cosmetic surgical and non-surgical procedures were performed in the United States in 2006. But, first I'm going to see how I can profit from this surge in surgeries before I become one of the many younger-looking statistics.

Until Next Week,
Linda Goin