On face value — why the Botched doctors love Keeping Up With The Kardashians star Kylie Jenner

They fix plastic surgeries gone wrong, now one Botched doctor spills the beans on why Kylie Jenner ‘moves the needle’ when it comes to influencing teens to get injected, writes Holly Byrnes.

When Forbes put Kylie Jenner on the famed financial magazine’s cover this year, critics of Keeping Up With The Kardashians still managed to scoff at the surprise news the now 21-year-old could have the kind of influence to make her a billionaire.

Ask Botched star and LA plastic surgeon to the stars, Dr Terry Dubrow about the youngest member of E! network’s reality TV royal family and he has no doubt about her value and impact in the world of cosmetics and artificial aesthetics today.

With a personal Instagram following of 110 million people, before you add her company, Kylie Cosmetics reach of 16.4 million followers, as well as the 25.6 million fans who track her on Twitter, her influence is undeniable.

While her big half-sister, Kim Kardashian-West has made her fame and fortune from being bootylicious, Jenner junior first made her mark when her lips became noticeably larger.

It was 2016 when her model sister, Kendall was taking the world’s catwalks by storm, leaving her sibling to find her niche — launching a $29 lip kit that promised to plump up your pout; without the pain or expense of the fillers she could regularly afford.

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Beauty queen … Forbes magazine estimated Jenner’s wealth at more than $900 million. Picture: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images

But the birth of her first child, daughter Stormi, seems to have prompted Jenner to ease off on the injectables — a move applauded by Dr Dubrow, who tells TV Guide of his concerns for young women her age going under the knife and needle.

“The good news with Kylie Jenner is she’s now going a little bit more natural,” he says. “She stopped putting lip fillers in and she’s putting it on Instagram which makes me very happy, because Kylie Jenner, more than any other celebrity, will move the needle in plastic surgery and a lot of other areas as well. When she does something, everybody wants to do it.”

Her less-is-more approach, he argues, has had a follow-on effect with other stars as well as her young, easily-influenced audience.

“There seems to be a slight celebrity trend towards maybe doing less plastic surgery, or if you do it, not talking about it again. I think it went from ‘never discuss it’ to ‘discuss just a few things,’ to maybe they’re not really wanting to talk about it,” Dr Dubrow explains.

Which begs the question, has the Botched doctor had work done himself?

“Are you kidding? I’ve had everything done,” he says, laughing.

“I’ve had the freezing of my [belly] fat, Botox, fillers. I’m a plastic surgeon, you know, I’m a kid in a candy store.”

The 60-year-old medical veteran, showcasing his expertise and experience alongside Dr Paul Nassif on season five of Botched — fixing cases where other surgeons have failed — even turns the needle on himself.

Sharp … Botched doctors Terry Dubrow and Dr. Paul Nassif star in season five of the hit E! reality series. Picture: Brian Bowen Smith/E!

“I do my own Botox,” he says, before pointing to the only spot on his frozen forehead which wrinkles slightly and explaining “I need some, I missed an area last weekend, can you tell?”

“I don’t do my own filler because that right/left thing in the mirror is too hard to figure out. But I’m way less into plastic surgery than I used to be: number one, because I’m the Botched doctor, so I’m rightfully afraid of it; and number two, let’s face it, I may be on TV but I’ve got a face for radio,” he jokes.

Speaking more seriously, Dr Dubrow measures his appreciation of Jenner’s impact, with concern over the “disturbing” influence of social media on vulnerable teens.

“Because of social media you’re looking at your picture a lot more and so you’re becoming much more obsessed with any ‘imperfections’ you may have on your face. That’s putting young people in plastic surgeons’ offices at a younger age. And plastic surgeons, unfortunately, are becoming more accepting of doing operations that they formerly would never have done on young people. For example, it’s not okay for me, in my opinion, for someone to do filler on anyone younger than 18, but some plastic surgeons are okay with it.

And now plastic surgeons are getting okay with breast augmentations on 16-year-olds, or liposuction on 15-year-olds. I am not okay with that, particularly when you’re growing and you’re not necessarily at an age to make a good decision for yourself. That’s been a disturbing trend,” he stresses.

Improvements in technology means non-invasive procedures are the future.

“The big trend coming along in plastic surgery is the ability to tighten skin and remove fat without actually cutting. In other words, applying energy devices like radio frequency or ultrasonic energy or laser energy which causes a tightening effect on the skin, or a reduction in the fatty accumulation in parts of your body which will have much less side effects, that will not invade the skin,” he says.

“I promise you, 100 years from now, plastic surgery will not exist as we know it today. We will no be making cuts or sewing people anymore. And I’ll be dead in 100 years, so I won’t need the work,” he laughs.

* Keeping Up With The Kardashians, 2.30pm/7pm, Monday, E!
* Botched Season 5 returns 7pm, Thursday December 13, E!