Face
A BEAUTIFUL FACE
Every woman is beautiful, but life stresses can cause signs of aging, lines, wrinkles, and folds in the face and neck can make you look tired, angry, and unapproachable. This is not how aging gracefully was supposed to go. A little help with cosmetic surgery and non surgical procedures help improve your looks and feel more confident.
EYELID SURGERY
Blepharoplasty or Cosmetic Eyelid Surgery is a combination of surgical procedures designed to give a more youthful appearance to the eyes. The eyes are the windows to the soul and the first facial feature seen by others in daily encounters. Puffy or baggy eyelids give a person a tired or concerned look. Some individuals come from families where puffy eyes are inherited, thus they are not the result of age or sun damage. These individuals are often candidates for surgery in their twenties or thirties, whereas, others are candidates for this type of surgery in their thirties or forties. The procedure, however, is performed in all age groups, even as young as the teenage years for certain deformities.
FACE/NECK LIFT
Face Lifting or Rhytidectomy has been popular since the late 1800's. Rhytidectomy is designed to improve the appearance of the lower two thirds of the face and the neck area by tightening skin, which has lost its elasticity with age, fat loss and sun damage. In addition, the modern facelift tightens the foundation of the face called the SMAS, which represents the second layer of the face that envelops the muscles of facial expression. In some face/neck lifts, the platysma muscle, the muscle which contributes to the appearance of the "turkey gobbler" neck is also tightened through a small incision hidden in the crease under the chin. And finally, face / neck lifts are frequently combined with facial liposuction in some individuals to rid them of unattractive localized fat deposits or with forehead lifts and cosmetic eyelid surgery if upper facial aging is significant.
MINI LIFT
Sometimes the amount of face and neck aging does not call for a full face and neck lift. In these cases a mini face lift is a good option for the patient, either alone or in combination with other procedures. The mini face lift has the advantage in the appropriate patient of having a rapid recovery, and may be peformed under local anesthesia and minor oral sedation. In fact the patient pictured below is only four days after her surgery.Although the mini face lift is usually reserved for younger patients it is sometimes offered to patients who have already had a previous lift or who have aged well for their chronologic age. In my practice a 91 year old requested this as her procedure of choice for her third face lift!
RHINOPLASTY
Rhinoplasty has been practiced for many years as a method to reshape noses with large humps, deformed tips or disfigurements as a result of traumatic injuries. Septoplasty or reshaping of the internal dividing wall of the nose is often combined with rhinoplasty to improve breathing. Since the nose is the central feature of the face, an unattractive nose may detract from desirable facial features by being out of proportion, thus drawing others attention away from the eyes during normal conversation. A normal appearing nose should blend in with other facial features, as well as, compliment the cheekbones and chin.
EAR SURGERY
Ear deformities, which cause protuberance or sticking-out-of-the ears, are commonly corrected with cosmetic ear reshaping or otoplasty in childhood years or in adults. A child may experience teasing by his or her schoolmates around the age of five when they enter kindergarten. Ear deformities may be corrected as early as age five, but surgery is sometimes delayed until the child is a little older and more inclined to accept the idea of the surgical procedure.The procedure is aimed at reshaping the rim of the ear to curl it back toward the head into its normal position and shape. In addition, the bowl of the ear is often reshaped to aid in placing the ear closer to the side of the head.
These procedures are normally performed through a single incision hidden in the fold behind the ear. The procedure is performed under oral sedation and local anesthesia. The usual recovery time is two to three days to return to normal daily activities and three to six weeks to return to strenuous physical activities. Post op discomfort is usually minimal.
SCAR REVISION
Traumatic or surgical scars occasionally require touch ups due to poor closure at the time of injury or due to unpredictable healing. Scar revision represents a series of procedures, which are designed to improve the final appearance of the scar.Z-plasty, W-plasty and Broken Line scar revisions are performed to turn a straight-line scar, which may cast a shadow which accentuates the scar into an irregular line that is difficult to see. Dermabrasion or skin sanding is sometimes utilized to help fade raised scars into the surrounding flat tissue. Please see a discussion of this technique on this website.
Once a scar is revised, it will take six to twelve months to see its final appearance after all the wound healing changes take place. Keloid scars are unusual scars, which result from an individuals overactive response to injury such as lacerations or surgical wounds. These scars require special techniques for revision and usually require reexcision coupled with injections of steroids or medication which slows the abnormal healing. Most scar revisions may be performed under local anesthesia and are frequently covered to some extent by health insurance plans.
