Time "delves the parallels in beauty's brow," wrote Shakespeare. Today he could wryly add, "So plastic surgeons to your very wish will bow." Over the years, the cosmetic wizards have conjured many escapes from the ravages of age, from chemical peels to skin abrasion to surgical lifts. Now they are wielding a new magic wand: syringes filled with collagen. Injections of the whitish gel smooth away time-worn creases as well as acne and surgical scars. And at a relatively affordable price: treatments run $300 to $1,500, about a third of the price of a typical face-lift.
Since 1981, when the Food...