People
Twin Tweaks - Plastic Surgeon Darrick
Antell gives identical twins new leases
on their old likeness - and a welcome lift
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When he was in training as a plastic surgeon, Darrick
Antell encountered a heart-wrenching pair of
identical twin sisters. "One had been very badly
burned in a fire, and the other one was fine," he
recalls. "I couldn't help but think how difficult
it was for them to look at each other." Antell,
who now has a private Park Avenue practice in New
York City, did all he could to repair the burned
twin's scarred countenance. But both sisters were
left with lasting damage to a prominent feature:
their twinness.
Aware that most identical twins prefer to look
alike, Antell, 47, began offering matching facelifts
last fall to twins who, due to external factors
such as accidents, smoking or sun exposure, had
lost some of their resemblance to each other. Antell
says that because identical twins — who develop
from a single fertilized egg, unlike fraternal twins,
who start life as two separately fertilized eggs
— have identical genes, they offer a rare opportunity
to study how environmental factors affect aging
in general and cosmetic surgery in particular. (Though
his original intent was to operate on just one twin
and use the other as a control, "none of them wanted
that, " he says.) Antell hopes that by monitoring
the progress of five or more sets of twins on whom
he has operated, he will be able to demonstrate
that a well-executed
facelift can hold up over a decade or longer.
"Today, good plastic surgery is that which you cannot
see," Antell says. "It's more natural."
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For identical twins, says
Antell (in his office), alikeness is "part
of their identity."
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As natural, perhaps, as the desire of 71-year-old
Ynette Sapp and Olvette Mahan to look as much alike
as they possibly can. Growing up in Norman, Okla.,
the identical twin sisters occasionally regarded
their mirror images as a burden. Adopted together
as infants and made to wear matching outfits, they
often got stuck sharing toys and later, friends,
who, says Ynette, "sometimes looked upon (each of
us) as half a person."
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"It's special, "says Olvette
Mahan (right) of looking, again, like her
identical twin Ynette Sapp (at home). "Dr.
Antell is a good guy."
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But as adults, Sapp and Mahan, who live in lookalike
homes across the street from each other in Enid,
Okla., discovered that "it's fun to look alike,"
they say in unison. Now they enjoy wearing the same
outfits. Both work as nurses at Wheatland Mental
Health Center in Enid, where they can swap shifts
with impunity. And last year, as Tweedledum and
Tweedledee at the annual twins festival in Twinsburg,
Ohio, they won a gold medal for costuming.
When Dr. Antell attending Twinsburg to recruit
subjects for his study, met Sapp and Mahan, he didn't
have to ask twice.; the sisters had long lamented
the fact that as they aged, they had come to look
less and less like döppelgangers. Among other
things, Ynette's smile "didn't curve up like it
used to, " she complains. "(Too many) hours in the
sun."
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"I'm glad we did it," says
Mehl (left, postsurgery). Adds Wharton:
"What's not to like?"
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Pre-op photos show Jane Wharton
(right) and twin Marjorie Mehl had grown
apart.
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Supported by a benefactor who, Antell says, prefers
not to be identified, the physician offers his services
free to the twins he selects for his study. (So
far only women have volunteered for the facelifts,
which would normally cost about $12,500 each.) Subjects
pay only for an anesthesiologist and their own travel
expenses. So one day last November, Sapp and Mahan
visited Antell at his Park Avenue suite. They emerged
three hours later, bandaged and bruised, but quite
pleased to be back on the road to sameness.
Antell, who lives in Greenwich, Conn., with his
wife, Elizabeth, 36, a nonpracticing physician,
and their three young children, traces his fascination
with twins back to his childhood. Richie and Ray,
identical brothers, lived next door to him in suburban
Cleveland. The passion for plastic surgery, sparked
by a mentor, overtook him when he was in dental
school, so after earning his dental degree he went
on to the Medical College of Ohio, in Toledo. Given
his interests, he explains, it was only a matter
of time before he would embark on a study of plastic
surgery on twins. "All plastic surgery has to
do with people wanting to look alike," says Antell,
who had his own eyes done at age 32. "People want
to look what they consider normal."
By
ALEC FOEGE and BOB STEWART
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