As we age, our face changes. Skin loses its elasticity. Skin begins to bunch in several locations. Muscular bands become more apparent. A facelift can help restore the look of your youth by selectively canceling out those features which signify age. The cheeks are elevated, folds are flattened, jowls tightened, the neck is re-draped, and excess skin is removed. Your appearance is not replaced, but a younger appearance is restored.
There are several variations of facelifts. Skin-only facelifts were popular many years ago and are still used in select situations. Intermediate depth facelifts achieve their lift at deeper levels. Deep plane facelifts strive to achieve these changes just above the bones of the face. The incisions are made just in front of the ear and wrap around the back of the ear and hide within the hairline. The anatomy of the face is defined. Muscles and connective tissues are tightened, excess skin is re-draped and removed. The next day, dressings are removed. Sutures are removed over a period of days as you heal. The amount of swelling that you may get is variable, but you can resume most normal activities within a week and should show very few signs of your procedure by three weeks.
Eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty) is designed to remove excess skin and muscle from the upper and lower eyelids. The procedure can correct drooping upper lids, that tend to sag with time, and the puffy bags below the eyes. The procedure usually takes about 45 minutes and can be performed in the office using local anesthesia. Stitches can be removed after three or four days. Blepharoplasty can be done as a single procedure, or in conjunction with other facial surgery such as a facelift or a browlift.
The nose is the most prominent feature of the human face. For many people, it is simply a part of their good looks and rarely merits a second thought. For countless others, the nose is an almost constant source of embarrassment. Today, however, plastic surgery can correct a multitude of faults. Rhinoplasty can shorten, tilt up, build up or straighten. Rhinoplasty can make the most prominent feature on your face a permanent source of pride. It can give you a whole new appearance and a new outlook on life.
Rhinoplasty is one of the oldest operations in plastic surgery. Often this procedure can be combined with functional improvement of the nasal airway through correction of abnormal internal nasal structures.
Rhinoplasties are individualized to meet the patient's needs and expectations. All rhinoplasties are performed through predominantly internal incisions and usually include an improvement of the nasal tip, straightening of the dorsum and adjustment of the bony nasal skeleton. These procedures may be performed as an open procedure with a small externally visible incision through the columella (base of nose) or may be performed as a closed procedure where all of the incisions are hidden. Different advantages exist in either approach. The choice is usually left to the discretion of your plastic surgeon.
Frown lines above our noses and in the middle of your forehead will give you an unwanted older appearance. Under stress and as we age, we tend to make faces that encourage the creases, giving us the serious, unhappy look. A brow lift eliminates these lines and is one of the only procedures that allows a plastic surgeon to access the hard to reach muscles that cause furrow lines.
Chemical peel uses a chemical solution to improve and smooth the texture of the facial skin by removing its damaged outer layers. It is helpful for those individuals with facial blemishes, wrinkles and uneven skin pigmentation. Phenol, trichloroacetic acid (TCA) and alphahydroxy acids (AHAs) are used for this purpose. The precise formula used may be adjusted to meet each patient's needs.
Also known as "laser peel," laser skin resurfacing usually takes less than 1.5 hours (sometimes just a few minutes) depending on the size of the area being treated. The procedure uses a carbon dioxide (CO2) laser beam which vaporizes the upper layers of damaged skin at controlled levels of penetration.
The procedure removes areas of damaged or wrinkled skin often caused by prolonged sun exposure. Laser resurfacing can minimize the appearance of fine lines around the mouth and the eyes and is also effective in treating facial scars and skin areas with uneven pigmentation.
Collagen is a protein found in the second layer of skin known as the dermis (the first layer is called the epidermis). It is injected under the dermis layer to added fullness to areas of the face such as the lips, cheeks and forehead.
Botox is a protein that weakens muscles that wrinkle the skin. It is injected under the skin into areas surrounding the eyes, forehead and mouth to reduce "worry lines", "crow's feet" and "frown lines". The procedure is quick and usually done in an examination room.
Dermabrasion and dermaplaning help to "refinish" the skin's top layers through a method of controlled surgical scraping. The treatments soften the sharp edges of surface irregularities, giving the skin a smoother appearance. Dermabrasion is most often used to improve the look of facial skin left scarred by accidents or previous surgery, or to smooth out fine facial wrinkles, such as those around the mouth. It may also be used to remove the pre-cancerous growths called keratoses. Dermaplaning is commonly used to treat deep acne scars. Both dermabrasion and dermaplaning can be performed on small areas of skin or on the entire face. They can be used alone, or in conjunction with other procedures such as facelift, scar removal or revision, or chemical peel.
Ear surgery, or otoplasty, is usually done to set prominent ears back closer to the head or to reduce the size of large ears.