People are living longer and feel younger than the image they see in the mirror. this is when everyone starts to think about cosmetic surgery. People visiting a plastic surgeon today are much younger than they were years ago. People are coming in who are in their 30’s where years ago it might have been their 50’s. as an added benefit the younger you are the better you heal and this means you get the best effects from Cosmetic Facial Surgery Chicago.
In spite of the fact that we are unique individuals our face ages in a predictable way. Most people start seeing the aging effect at age 30. the skin starts to become loose and sags. We lose structural support of collagen and elastin. the surface of the skin looks older and discolorations begin to form. the quality of the skin suffers.
Many muscles of the face have attachments to the skin. With repeated contraction this causes wrinkles. these wrinkles can be improved with Botox Chicago, or with skin fillers. the surgical solution a brow lift is a skin tightening operation that reduces the effect of the corrugator muscles.
Other change you see with aging is loss of volume in the face. Checking bone density is important because calcium may not be absorbing properly and the body might be pulling calcium from the facial boney framework, fillers can also help. With advancing age sometimes there starts to form extra upper eyelid skin. this can be corrected surgically and is a very common procedure. Upper lid Blepharoplasty is the name of the procedure. sometimes there are also bags below the eye and lower lid Blepharoplasty is performed as well.
A sagging forehead may cause the brows to drop and give an angry look. this is corrected using a brow lift. Brow lifts can be done by and endoscopic approach or a coronal approach. Standard face lifts have given way to less invasion mini lifts or S-lifts. If done correctly a mini lift or s-lift will heal so rapidly many patients are wearing a pony tail by week 4.
Correcting facial volume is important.
Safe inject-able fillers are used to address the volume loss and with new blunt microcannulas they can be administered without bruising.
More cosmetic surgery is performed now because the techniques are better and the anesthesia is safer. there is also a growing increase in acceptance of these procedures. Cosmetic surgery now is something to tell friends about not hide as in the past. Facial cosmetic surgery is superficial with low blood loss and you are not confined after surgery. Anyone who does not have a serious medical condition can have cosmetic surgery. Patients are noticing they need cosmetic surgery to “stay in the game at work”. Waiters and waitresses, servers, bartenders and dancers find there tips greatly increase after plastic surgery. for many people plastic surgery is a legitimate business expense.
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One of the most common complications with breast implant surgery is the occurrence of capsular contraction. After surgery, the body creates a capsule or sack of tissue around the breast implants. this is actually a normal healing process and safety measure conducted by the body. The body is programmed to contain and encapsulate any large foreign object to prevent it from doing damage to the system. this can be bad news for implants though as the capsule tends to contract or shrink over time, putting pressure on them and potentially causing them to burst. A frequently recommended but also greatly contested means of preventing capsular contraction is massage of the breast implants.
The guiding philosophy behind implant massage is that stretching and rubbing the tissue around the implant will keep the scar capsule soft and pliable, instead of stiff and restrictive. some doctors also believe that massaging the breasts will contribute to more natural looking and feeling implants as well as less post-surgery pain.
Massage therapy is generally only recommended for those with smooth implants, not with textured. Textured breast implants were actually designed to reduce the risk of contracture of the scar capsule, although in reality the rate of capsular contraction is roughly the same as smooth ones. still, textured seem to face a bigger chance of failing if massaged.
With smooth breast implants, there are two separate types of massage that many doctors advise. The first is displacement and the second is compression. Displacement massage (also referred to as quadrant exercises) means moving the implants around within the capsule in order to stretch out the sack and make it softer. this requires shifting the implant side to side and up and down and holding it in place for several seconds at a time.
Some doctors prefer the compression massage technique however, because patients often practice displacement after breast augmentation ineffectively. instead of moving the implant around within the scar sack to stretch it out, they unwittingly simply move the implant and the capsule around within the breast. Compression technique also involves exerting moderate to strong pressure to push down on different parts of the breast implants to make them bulge out in other places, which stretches out the capsule.
As the opinions of doctor’s vary, so does the timetable for massage. some will advise patients to begin massaging several hours after the breast augmentation, while others recommend waiting a week. For the next several weeks, patients are often counseled to massage three or four times per day and then once a day forever thereafter.
As mentioned however, some doctors do not prescribe massage therapy at all to their patients and in fact there are other methods of avoiding and dealing with capsular contracture. there is some evidence that certain implant-related drugs containing vitamin-E taken before and after the surgery have been effective in reducing the risk of contracture. If contracture does occur, patients can undergo a capsulectomy to remove the offending capsule. this has proven to be the best way to keep contracture from happening again.
Although massage is not the only way to treat and prevent capsular contracture, when done correctly it may be a good method of keeping the implants soft and natural, making the breast implant surgery satisfying and worthwhile.
A scar can be an unsightly mark to have on your body. it can greatly alter your appearance. even if it is not too offensive, it can have a negative psychological effect on a person.
Do you have a scar on body that you would like to get rid of? well, there is now a simple plastic surgery procedure that can improve a scar’s appearance. it is called z-plasty and it is used to accomplish scar revision, by changing the direction of a scar, breaking the line of a scar, or lengthening a scar to decrease contraction. These techniques are basically meant to realign a scar, and in so doing make it less visible and less unsightly.
Z-plasty is not effective on all kinds of scars. it is usually performed on scars that are linear and tight. Scars that are more complex, such as burn scars, hypertrophic or keloid scars, will require a different type of plastic surgery treatment, such as dermabrasion or other scar revision techniques.
Even though it is a plastic surgery procedure, z-plasty is often covered by medical insurance in cases where the scar was due to an injury or a surgery that was covered by insurance.
Z-plasty is a simple surgical procedure and it is usually not painful. In the procedure, you will first receive regional or local anesthetic. Then the plastic surgeon will make incisions creating two triangular flaps of skin, of equal size, that are then transposed. by transposing the flaps, the plastic surgeon is altering the direction of the original scar. the scar can be lengthened up to 75 percent and realigned in direction by up to 90 degrees, but those are only theoretical limits. In practice, the degree of reorientation tends to be smaller. the plastic surgeon will complete the z-plasty by suturing the flaps. the patient needs to return to have the sutures removed in 1 or 2 weeks.
If you are considering z-plasty surgery, ask to see before and after pictures of a similar type of scar, so you know what results you can expect.
Our body goes through a lot every day. Starting with waking up early in the morning, whatever we do, be it working out, going to work, hanging out with buddies or eating, it is our body that goes through it all. one of the basics that one can do to stay healthy is go for regular check-ups. That way one would always be aware of what not to do. as the saying goes, Prevention is better than cure.
Breast implants need specific care and maintenance after surgery. It is best for the patient to visit their surgeons from time to time to keep healthy. After breast implant surgery regular check-ups is a necessity as the implant tends to grow weaker with the passage of time. But the conditions vary with different patients. if a patient along with looking great feels good about her implants then she need not go to the surgeon every now and then.
Methods of taking care after breast implant surgery
Capsular Contraction:
A common side-effect of breast implant is Capsular Contraction. It’s a kind of body reaction to a foreign or unknown object. if we accidentally hurt ourselves by overstepping a sharp object then our body immediately begins to enclose the foreign object by creating a capsule of fibrous tissues to protect the body from the foreign object. The body tends to react in the same way when breast implant is medically implanted in the body. Capsular Contraction happens when the fibrous tissue begins to contract and tighten. The contraction may be extreme with pain and distortion or may be minor and unnoticeable. to reduce the risk of Capsular Contraction surgeons sometimes suggest some breast implant massages.
Exercises after surgery:
Certain exercises like pocket quadrant exercises or implant massage compressions are not suggested by every surgeon. one must take prior guidance from a certified surgeon before proceeding with exercises. The patient must wait a week after surgery before starting with the exercises, or till they do not suffer any pain while performing the exercises or as their surgeon instructs them to.
Proper Bra selection:
Wearing a proper fitted bra will hold the weight of the bosoms better. hence this would save the risks of suffering synmastia.
When undergoing a dental treatment, a high amount of bacteria is likely to enter the lesions and infect the area around the breast implant. Medications prior to dental work should be consulted with the surgeon.
Several months after the surgery the incision lines fade away and are almost invisible. to avoid dark pigmentation one should avoid direct exposure of the incisions under the sunlight for minimum six months.
Breast X-rays or mammograms should be done before and after breast implant surgery. This enables the concerned patient to compare and understand if there is any complication after the surgery. Although one has to re-operate a breast implant in time, yet through proper maintenance one may extend the time limit for re-operation.
Like all structures on the body, things change with age, gravity, and the general wear and tear of life. nowhere is this more apparent than on the female abdomen. Puberty, pregnancy, and weight change all play potential havoc with the smooth flat abdomen that most women have in youth. Pregnancy is the biggest culprit here, stretching the skin through expansion and contraction and leaving scars from c-sections.
The c-section scar shrinks and pulls in, creating a lower abdominal bulge as the loose skin ends up overhanging the scar. Often stretch marks extend upward from the scar and around the bellybutton as well. Unfortunately, no amount of dieting and exercise will shrink this skin excess and many women can attest to that observation. Abdominoplasty, otherwise known as a tummy tuck, will get rid of this problem but a traditional or full tummy tuck may be a bigger procedure than many women desire to undergo. The long hip to hip scar from a full tummy tuck may not be justified given the smaller amount of skin overhang that exists. Also, full tummy tucks result in belly button scars as the old belly button is brought back up through a new skini location. despite my best efforts at making belly button scars, I find most of them to be somewhat visible and not completely normal in appearance.
Another option is a smaller tummy tuck version, which I call the Bikini Line Tummy Tuck. With this approach, the length of the resulting scar is shorter but, more importantly, it stays very low. (hence the name Bikini Line) It stays low because the amount of skin removed is less and the cut out is below the belly button level. The placement of the initial incision is quite low and the amount of skin removed does not usually allow the scar to be pulled up higher during skin closure. (as occurs in a full tummy tuck) in addition, no scar results around the belly button since as it is repositioned lower from underneath the skin before the final skin closure.
While many women, due to the size of their abdominal excess, are not good candidates for the Bikini Line Tummy Tuck, about half of the female patients that I see are. if the women is not overweight with a small lower abdominal pooch, with or without a c-section scar, she may be an ideal candidate. a scar that fits inside the bikini line but still allows a flat abdomen and a scarless belly button is the result.
According to many health experts, belly fat is the biggest complaint women have about their bodies. As a result, interest in finding ways to lose that belly fat when exercise and diet programs have failed them motovates many women to consider non-surgical reduction procedures toward achieving a slimmer and more flattering waistline.
Televised health shows and news segments have picked up on this interest and subsequently aired brief info-pieces that barely go skin deep in explaining how belly fat reduction procedures work and what women really need to know before deciding on a procedure.
The following is a list of 3 popular belly fat reduction procedures and what some experts have to say about the procedures and their results.
Belly Fat Reduction Procedure #1: Thermage
According to will Richardson, MD a dermatology specialist who owns Natura Dermatology & Cosmetics, Thermage is a cosmetic procedure that uses radiofrequency energy to create heat energy in the dermis of the skin to create a focal area of thermal injury. the thermal energy causes immediate collagen contraction in the skin that results in a tighter surface profile. In addition, Thermage also causes collagen remodeling via the skin’s fibroblast cells.
Dr. Michael Escobedo of the Escobedo Esthetics Body Sculpting & Skin Center concurs with Dr. Richardson and states that he “…has used Thermage laser for many years and that Thermage does nothing for shrinking fat cells or improving the appearance of cellulite,” but rather, that it is used to create more collagen and tighten the skin.
Online descriptions of the procedure note that the patient generally has to be prepped with pain medication before treatment begins because of pain and soreness associated with the intensity of the radiofrequency energy used. In some reviews by patients who have used Thermage, one of their primary complaints is the amount of pain they experienced. One woman described it as being like having lit cigarette butts put out on her skin while the Thermage device was applied.
Mauro Romita, MD, P.C.—a specialist in Aesthetic and Reconstructive Plastic Surgery with skinMDny™ —says that the use of Thermage and other related radiofrequency therapies is problematical because there are a lot of questions in the industry over just how much effective radiofrequency energy can be applied to the dermis without burning it and causing thermal injury below the skin.
“Data shows that you need to get around 40 degrees centigrade (104 degrees F) to create any sort of collagen denaturing, and at 42 degrees centigrade (108 degrees F) you get a thermal burn…and you can rarely heat skin up to 40 degrees without creating damage to the surface,” says Dr. Romita.
With respect to the effectiveness of Thermage, patient reviews are mixed. While some patients claim that they did see a positive result months following the treatment and were satisfied, others stated that the results were not what they expected and felt that they had paid too much for what they got.
“The effects of Thermage are very subtle. every time I’ve seen them presented at a plastic surgery meeting it’s very hard to tell the ‘before’ from the ‘after’,” says Dr. Romita. Dr. Romita explains that from a cost effectiveness standpoint, that Thermage is not a choice he would recommend.
Thermage ranges from $2000 to $5000 depending on the facility that provides the service. One patient review expressed dissatisfaction with a lower-priced service, but found it worthwhile after a second treatment at a higher-priced facility.
Belly Fat Reduction Procedure #2: VelaShape
The mechanism behind the VelaShape procedure as explained by Dr. Richardson is a three pronged attack against belly fat using a combination of mechanical suction, radiofrequency (RF) and infrared (IR) energies that reportedly cause the fat cells to become smaller by stimulating an increase in their metabolism rate.
The procedure is described as an athletic or “deep tissue” massage where the patient will feel some pulling on the skin as the clinician maneuvers a pulsed vacuum device over the skin. the patient will also experience a warming sensation as the heat from the RF and IR energies work on the fat cells beneath the skin’s surface—but should be relatively painless.
“If VelaShape gives any effect at all on cellulite, it’s because of the vacuum massage capabilities,” says Dr. Romita. He explains that the real benefit from the vacuum massage is it physically stretches the tissues below the skin and as a result stimulates new collagen production to repair the stretched collagen. In addition he states that the massage also increases circulation and causes a decrease in the volume of the fat cells by increasing lymphatic drainage. “The mechanical deep tissue massage of these machines…that’s where the effects come from,” he says.
When asked about the effectiveness of the IR energy Dr. Romita said, “I don’t think that there is any data showing any meaningful effects by the infrared energy on the fat cells.”
Patient reviews of the VelaShape procedure reveal for the most part that either the patient totally loves it or hates it—not much between. Apparently for those who were dissatisfied with the procedure it did nothing for them. For those who were favorable toward their reviews, the primary benefit for belly fat was that it significantly reduced the cellulite appearance and gave their belly skin a flatter, smoother look.
Belly Fat Reduction Procedure #3: LipoSonix
LipoSonix is a relatively new procedure that Dr. Richardson says is currently a hot area of study due to the ability to focus high intensity ultrasound energy at specific levels in the tissues. He says that the procedure is proven by multiple studies that demonstrate that the ultrasound energy damages and destroys the fat, which is then eaten up by macrophages from the immune system in response to the treatment. He suggests, however, that a related procedure called “CoolSculpting” uses the same principles with cooling techniques that results in a more comfortable experience and no need for anesthesia.
The chief benefit advertised online and on TV is that LipoSonix destroys excess fat at depths of an inch or more without doing any damage to the skin’s upper layer and that one treatment for one hour can reduce your circumference around your belly up to one inch or more.
Dr. Romita states that the procedure can work in removing some fat from the body, but that it is also a painful and expensive process. He believes that over time that this technology and ones using cooling techniques to freeze the fat cells will eventually show effectiveness.
“But what you need to remember when you use these techniques that destroys the fat cells, that there’s one problem that no one cares to address, and that is—what happens to the fat?” Dr. Romita cautions.
Dr. Romita expands on this by pointing out that when you destroy fat cells, you are breaking fat cells down into their components that have to go somewhere in the body and be metabolized. Some of the more worrisome components are environmental toxins and radicals that reside in fat cells. therefore, when someone is having a LipoSonix treatment and a significant amount of fat cells are being destroyed, the concern then is whether this places the patient at risk of suffering from a metabolic toxicity problem from all the toxins released at high levels in the circulation following the treatment.
“They’ve done research in Korea where they have found some metabolic toxicity associated with these treatments— that’s why liposuction is so safe, because it sucks everything out,” says Dr. Romita.
Dr. Romita says that if you want to lose a little weight overall and are willing to spend thousands of dollars for these types of non-invasive treatments, that they may work for some people, but when it comes to significant fat reduction around the abdomen, on the hips, etc., that liposuction is recommended and is very safe.
Patient reviews of the LipoSonix procedure were overwhelmingly positive. almost all patients who had had LipoSonix reported that they did see a marked improvement in belly fat reduction and were pleased with the results. Another point that they all seemed to be in agreement on was the need for pain meds to deal with the pain during the procedure. Interestingly, when a popular health TV show performed a live LipoSonix treatment onstage, there was no mention made of the patient being prepped with pain medication; and, when asked how the treatment felt, the participant smiled and said “Only a little tingling.”
“Only a little tingling,” is one of the take-home points to having experts weigh-in with their opinions on non-surgical, cutting-edge belly fat reduction procedures as discussed above. too often, advertisements of the procedures focus on the promise of what a patient might look like afterward, but not what they will have to go through both physically and economically. furthermore, many websites promoting non-surgical cosmetic procedures state that they are “FDA Approved,” which is a stretch (or intentional lie) from the true FDA designation of being “FDA Cleared.”
“There’s a big difference between FDA approval of a prescription medication and something “cleared” by the FDA,” says Dr. Romita.
Dr. Richardson concurs with Dr. Romita and explains that the difference between the two designations is this: the actual terminology published in numerous advertisements is not used correctly when the consumer takes the time to review the facts. FDA-approved means that the medical device has been researched and found to be safe and effective in the current form. FDA-cleared, rather, only implies that a medical device has been allowed to come to market to the consumer because the company identified medical devices that were previously shown to be safe and effective, not the actual device in the advertisement itself.
In summary, non-surgical, cutting-edge belly fat reduction procedures can work for some patients, but the consensus is that when they do, that the results are minimal and are costly and in some cases painful. Recommendations by experts is that if you want to lose a few pounds then your best bet is to get a nutritionist to help you with a meal plan, take up exercising and give yourself time to get results. However, when faced with problem areas that just won’t go away no matter what you do, then it’s time do your research, learn as much as you can about the options available, and although liposuction is an old method that is invasive—it is proven safer and more effective over the latest non-surgical belly fat reducing procedures advertised today.
A scar may be ugly to have a mark on his body. you can dramatically change your appearance. Even if it is too offensive, you may have a negative psychological effect on a person.
do you have a scar on the body you want to get rid of? Well, now there is a simple plastic surgery procedure that can improve the appearance of a scar. Called z-plasty and used for scar revision, change the direction of a scar, cutting the line of a scar, orlengthening contraction reduction of scarring. these techniques are primarily designed to realign a scar, and thereby make it less visible and less ugly.
Z-plasty is not effective in all types of scars. Usually takes place in the scars that are linear and tight. the scars that are more complex, such as burn scars, hypertrophic scars or keloids, be another type of plastic surgery treatment, such as dermabrasion or other scar revision techniques.
Even ifa plastic surgery procedure, Z-plasty is often covered by health insurance in cases where the scar is due to an injury or surgery that was covered by insurance.
Z-plasty is a simple surgical procedure and is not usually painful. in the procedure, the first regional or local anesthesia. Then the surgeon cuts will create two triangular flaps of skin, of equal size, which are then incorporated. in transposition of the fins, a plastic surgeonchange the direction of the original scar. the scar can be extended up to 75 percent and adjusted in the direction of a maximum of 90 degrees, but these are the only theoretical limits. in practice, the degree of change tends to be lower. the plastic surgeon complete the fragments of Z-plasty suture. the patient must return to remove the sutures in 1 or 2 weeks.
if you are considering plastic surgery z, ask to see photos before and after the same type ofscar, if you know what results to expect.
