A CLINIC in Melksham is expanding its range of cosmetic treatments to keep up with demand. Charley Morgan finds out what treatments are on offer in your lunch-hour and how cosmetic surgery is no longer reserved for the top London clinics.

IF you thought cosmetic surgery in your lunch-hour was only available in big city centres think again, because it is on offer at a clinic in a west Wiltshire town.

Snowberry Lane Clinic in the Spa Medical Centre, Melksham, is now offering a host of different treatments which can be done quickly, easily and relatively pain free, with the patient often able to go home the same day.

One of the latest procedures to be introduced is called blepharoplasty eye surgery that does not involve a single scalpel, overnight stay or in most cases, any pain relief.

Dr Rupert Gabriel, 45, who runs the centre, explained: "Blepharoplasty involves using a radio frequency to improve hooded upper eyelids and baggy lower eyelids, and is done under local anaesthetic and light sedation.

"The recovery period is usually very quick. Patients can go home the same day, and there is often no need for pain relief. If there is it is usually only paracetamol."

The blepharoplasty clinic is run once a month by a visiting consultant surgeon, Dr Tariq Amin, from London, who is a specialist in eye surgery and trained at London's Moorfields Eye Hospital. Treatment will set you back £2,500-£3,800. Blepharoplasty is one of the top three plastic surgery procedures requested by people in the UK and works with a wire being inserted into the skin, which then emits a radio frequency.

Excess skin and fat are removed from the eyelids by the surgeon through the incisions in the skin. The Snowberry Lane Clinic also provides Sculptura a £450-a-go liquid injected into the face to plump up wrinkles and lines, similar to Botox.

Dr Gabriel said: "As we get older we tend to lose the fat in our upper face and become jowly' but this injection can take years off."

Dr Gabriel runs his general practice from the same premises as the cosmetic clinic with his wife Ann, 46, who is a nurse, and has been offering cosmetic treatments for two-and-a-half years.

He said he is one of the first semi-rural practices in the country to offer such treatments. Dr Gabriel said: "We strive to make available the latest treatments for local people. "We aim to get people looking better but more naturally and use a combination of treatments to achieve this."

A snoring clinic is also run at the centre, with a visiting ear, nose and throat surgeon who can make up to an 80 per cent improvement in the symptoms of patients. Under local anaesthetic a probe is passed under the surface lining at the back of the throat which also emits a radio frequency to tighten the throat permanently, and the patient can go home the same day. The treatment costs £850.

Dr Gabriel said: "We offer hospital care out of hospital and that is reassuring for people to know they are getting the level of care they would get in hospital." The centre also performs micro laser skin peels, a £75 treatment which is gentler than using chemicals.

The treatment only results in a few days of redness, as well as the removal of minor lesions and moles. The centre plans to offer a new laser treatment from Italy for fat removal, which claims to cause less bruising than liposuction.

Dr Gabriel said: "Because we are a healthcare facility we see health and beauty as a whole person issue and we also advise people on nutrition and skin care too."