What’s on the Menu for Lunch Today?

For some people the first signs of aging show up on the forehead, with furrowed or sagging brows.  For others it is the middle of the face that first gives away their age.  The soft tissues there are prone to volume loss, which in turn creates sagging, which can lead to lower face jowls.  These people are usually in their forties or fifties.

Cheek volume can easily be restored with fillers, such as Botox, or Botox in combination with other fillers, or even one’s own autologous fat.  Or sometimes the right solution can include cheek implants.  But for those who want to nip the problem of mid face sagging in the bud, the answer may be a partial facelift—that is, a lift that focuses only on the mid face where the signs of aging are beginning to appear, and leaves the rest for the future, when it truly becomes an issue.

For obvious reasons the mid face lift is less invasive than a full face lift.  It is concerned with repositioning the fat pads in the middle of the face so that they align with the cheeks and help to diminish both hollowness under the eyes and lines at the side of the nose and mouth.

Since the idea of a mid lift makes so much sense, you would think that it would have a long history.  In fact, it’s only come into its own in the last ten or fifteen years.  Plastic Surgery Specialists, located in the California Bay Area, is one of the leading surgical teams to adapt it.  They define the mid face as the triangle that begins at the inner corners of the eyes and stretches to the outer corners of the mouth.  They have amassed a number of mid lift success stories, taking men and women who were on the verge of showing real signs of aging back in time to a biological juncture when they didn’t have to worry about it.  Mid lift patients are a happy bunch, as you might imagine!

Not only do mid lifters look great, but the actual procedure is very fast, sometimes only an hour.  In fact, some people have taken to calling it the “lunch-time lift.”  Of course you wouldn’t really want to run back to work right after a mid lift procedure.  But the point the moniker makes is that the mid lift is less complicated, with less risk of problems or scarring because it requires fewer, and shorter, incisions.  And recovery time is also significantly less.  So three cheers for the lunch-time lift.  Definitely well worth missing your favorite sandwich and le soup du jour!

A Penny For Your Thoughts?

Sagging brows and vertical and/or horizontal lines on the forehead not only make people look older, but they can also make them look like they are experiencing anxiety, disappointment or even pain.  At the very least, they can give their bearers a contemplative aspect, so that they appear to be brooding even when they are in the best of spirits.  People are usually in their forties or fifties when they first notice furrows appearing in their brows.  But sometimes younger people in their twenties and thirties find themselves the recipients of genes that result in early-onset forehead wrinkles too.  No wonder brow lifts are getting more and more popular every year.

Lifting the brow not only reduces lines and creases that appear on the forehead and between the eyebrows, but it also improves the “lateral hoods,” the excess skin that hangs over the outside corner of the eyes as the brow begins to sag.  And it can even help to eliminate any creasing that appears on the bridge of the nose.  In essence, brow lifts provide for a more youthful appearance for the upper portion of the face.  Since the upper portion is generally where the signs of aging first manifest, a brow lift may be just the thing to keep many people looking youthful for yet a number of years.  Or, if there are other signs of aging besides what’s going on with the brow, patients may also want to consider eyelid surgery, a neck lift, a brow lift as part of a face lift or one of many skin rejuvenation techniques.

The great thing about a brow lift is that it not only tightens the loose skin of the forehead but it actually makes adjustments to the underlying muscles that caused the skin to loosen in the first place.  Once the connective tissue is refastened, it begins to heal in its new tighter, more youthful position.  A much younger looking face is the result.  And this result can be quite long lasting.  It’s as if the patient’s biological clock has been set back, and now the aging process at the upper portion of the face has to begin all over again.  And don’t worry about the brow being lifted too high, so that you have to go around looking surprised for the foreseeable future.  That might have been a risk in days gone by; today’s technology (wielded in the hands of experienced plastic surgeons) means better and more natural-looking results than ever.

If you think that you may be a candidate for a brow lift, give yourself the mirror test.  Use your thumbs and forefingers to lift the skin above your brows.  If that gentle uplift makes you look less tired and more youthful, then the next step is to set up an appointment with an experienced plastic surgery team that has access to the Vectra 3-D Imager and see what the brow lift will look like on your very own image.  Brow lift patients are a happy bunch, and while they may be just as ruminative as the next person, you won’t catch them brooding—unless they actually are.

Hats Off to Plastic Surgeons!

All over the world people express themselves through their personal appearance.  Our choices in makeup, jewelry, clothing, hair color and style are our way of letting strangers know a little bit about who we are.  They help us to say something about our belief system, and they assist us in attracting like-minded individuals.  Some external expressions may be more extreme than others.  There are tribal people in South America, for instance, who paint anacondas on their faces, and even stick bamboo twigs into their facial skin to recreate the look of the whiskers of the animals they most revere.  Other indigenous people force large disks into their earlobes, forever changing the natural orientation of their ears.  But you don’t have to go deep into the jungle to witness extraordinary self expression.  Body art is extremely common these days.  Lots of people sport tattoos, some all over their bodies, and what patch of skin has not been pierced and bejeweled by someone?

The desire to look on the outside the way we feel on the inside is absolutely part of the human condition.  And the work plastic surgeons do to help accommodate this desire deserves every bit of the acclaim it receives.  Plastic surgery has the power to rebuild lives, from the outside in.  It has the power to boost our self confidence.  Not only can it keep us looking younger longer, but it can generate life-changing outcomes for people who were born with abnormalities.  Birthmarks, warts and growths can be removed through plastic surgery, and so can scars left from severe childhood acne.  Cleft lips and other disfigurements can be corrected, and so can Gynecomastia, the abnormal development of large mammary glands in males.  People who have undergone bariatric surgery for obesity can have reconstructive surgery to eliminate loose skin.  A body that won’t bounce back after motherhood can be just as psychologically debilitating for one person as a birth defect or a burn scar may be for another.  There is no end to the good work plastic surgeons can do with the technology available to them in the 21^st century.

The line between adornment and correction is a blur, and no one ought to have to suffer from the belief that they should learn to live with whatever physical aspects they happen to have—whether they were born with them or incurred them along the way.  A face lift for a middle age executive whose job requires her to impress clients daily is no more important than a facelift for a housewife who takes pride in how she looks when she meets with her book club.  The only one who knows how you feel about how you look is you.  If the right makeup, jewelry and clothing are not making the cut, you have other options.  Getting real can sometimes mean going deep, asking yourself what you are willing to do for yourself, how far you are willing to go to level the playing field, so that you make just as good a first impression as anyone else.

There are no judges here deciding who should and who should not.  The technology to change the way we look didn’t used to be available and now it is.  It’s as simple as that.  Vectra 3D Imaging takes the surprise out of procedure outcomes.  Lasers are quickly becoming to this day and age what sunscreen was to the mid 1900s.  But let us not forget that all these incredible tools are only as effective as the plastic surgeons who wield them.  And the best plastic surgeons are not only skilled and experienced by also empathic.  They know how to listen, and they know how to help.

The Year of the Implant

If, like so many others, you have made up your mind that 2012 will be the year that you undergo breast augmentation, then the question you are probably juggling is, saline or silicone?

Saline of course is salt water, and in the case of breast implants, it is a sterile solution of salt water enclosed in a silicone shell.  The shell for the silicone implant is virtually the same, but instead of saline, it is filled with a gel, also made from silicone.  Silicone is a synthetic compound that is used in a great many modern-day products, including soaps, chewing gum, antiperspirants, contact lenses and baby bottle nipples…to name just a very few.

Silicone implants have traveled a bit of a rocky road, but if you have heard recent rumors about a rash of implant ruptures, it’s important that you understand that they have taken place primarily in some European countries, where faulty implant production was limited to a particular manufacturer.  In fact, silicone implants have paid their dues.  Since they first began to be used in the U.S. in the 1960s, they have undergone nonstop refinement, for purposes of fine tuning the technology, as well as improving safety measures.

That does not mean that there are never instances of leakage.  Although rare, both saline and silicone implants can leak as a result of damage during implantation or trauma to the chest area.  Or they can simply wear out over time.  But newer implants pose less of a threat than ever before, and some implants even have a double shell, to further ensure safety.  Leakage in a saline implant will eventually result in a change in the size and shape of the breast.  The saline itself is absorbed by the body and does not cause any health risks.  By virtue of its viscous nature, leaking silicone is less likely to escape from the shell or at least from the pocket created for its placement.  Because a silicone leak can be difficult to determine, many women opt to have periodical MRI or ultrasound screenings.  But even if some silicone does escape, there are no long term health problems associated with such an event—though there can be some discomfort.  In both cases, new implants can be inserted in the same surgery in which the old ones are removed.  But again, ruptures and leaks are rare.

Saline and silicone-filled implants are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for both breast augmentation and breast reconstruction.  Except in cases where implants are being used for reconstructive surgery, the FDA has approved saline implants for women 18 and over and silicone implants for women 22 and over.  The age restrictions are to ensure that young women give their breast tissue a chance to reach maturity.

Both saline and silicone implants come in a great variety of sizes and even in different shapes.  You will hear some women say that they prefer silicone implants because they feel and act like real breast tissue (which is to say they have the spring of a natural breast.)  Others like the fact that the silicone implant is already filled when it is inserted, whereas the saline implant generally gets filled with saline solution during the augmentation procedure.  The women who prefer saline point out that saline quantity can be adjusted over time; it can be expanded as the skin around the new implant stretches to accommodate it; or it can be reduced for women who don’t like the firmer feel of the saline implant.  However, a highly experienced surgeon will be able to fill saline implants in such a way that the most natural consistency possible is afforded to the patient.  Also, in many instances implants can be placed behind the chest muscle, so that real breast tissue is at the forefront and springiness is not an issue.  The saline implant often requires a smaller incision, though a skilled physician will be able to manipulate even a pre-filled saline implant or silicone implant in such a way as to fit it into the smallest incision possible.  The secret, as always, comes down to finding the best possible plastic surgeons for the job.

One thing to know is that drooping or sagging breasts are not corrected by implants.  In fact, increasing breast volume can make drooping or sagging worse.  If you are interested in increasing volume as well as correcting slump, you will want to combine a breast lift with augmentation.

Millions of women worldwide have undergone breast augmentation for a variety of reasons over the years.  Some want to enhance their proportions.  Others want their outer characteristics to better reflect who they know themselves to be on the inside.  Others want to seize the opportunity to set back the clock.  The psychological value of breast augmentation cannot be underestimated.  If it’s right for you, you are not alone, and this is the year to do it.

The Results Are In… And The Eyes Have It!

Whether or not the eyes are truly the windows to the soul may be debatable, but it’s easy enough to see how the proverb gained its fame.  When we are first introduced to a person, we look into their eyes to establish a connection.  When we have something to say to someone, it is their eyes that we focus on while we are talking.  The more earnest our message, the more we attempt to hold the link.  It is the eyes we study when we are trying to comprehend someone’s motivation or their sincerity in a matter.  We can never really know what is going on in someone else’s head, but we trust the eyes to provide at least some semblance of revelation.  And we trust our own eyes to reinforce our verbal convictions.

Unfortunately, some of the signs of aging—the force of gravity, the loss of elasticity—as well as, in some cases, hereditary factors and sun damage, can draw attention away from all this communication that emanates from the eyes.  Hooded or drooping lids above the eyes or puffiness below them can blur the message that we are trying to get across.  Instead of heralding our emotions, they can appear to herald fatigue or sadness that we don’t necessarily feel.  They can obscure the sparkle that conveys our core energy level.  And in addition to making us look older, severely sagging skin around the eyes can even impair peripheral vision.  No wonder eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty) is one of the most popular cosmetic procedures available today.

Blepharoplasty repairs droopy eyelids and/or the baggy/puffy skin under the eyes by removing or repositioning fat deposits and then removing excess skin and any stretched out muscle so as to improve the contour of the eyes.  It is a procedure that can often be done on an outpatient basis, and the results are very long lasting.

Work on eyelids is usually performed with a local anesthetic.  Plastic shields, similar to contact lenses, can be used to protect the eyes during surgery.  The incision guidelines for upper eyelid procedures are drawn to follow the natural fold of the eyelid, thereby ensuring that any scarring will be inconspicuous.  Once the fat and excess skin have been removed (sometimes along with a small strip of muscle), the surgeon will close the incision with absorbable or non-absorbable sutures.

Lower eyelid blepharoplasty works virtually the same way: Fat deposits are either removed or repositioned, and excess skin and possibly muscle are removed.  However, in lower lid surgery, incisions can be on the outside or inside of the eyelid.  In the case of the latter, the lower lid is pulled away from the skin and fat deposits are removed through a very tiny incision in the conjunctiva.  This is appropriate for people who have little or no excess skin in the area.  Sutures may not even be necessary.

It is worth noting that not everyone is a candidate for eyelid surgery.  People who may be at risk are those who suffer from glaucoma, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and more.  Your risk factors can be determined during a consultation with your plastic surgeon.  Once you know you are a candidate, there are other considerations.  While many people are happy enough with blepharoplasty, others may opt to have face lifts at the same time.  They can choose from a range of lifting procedures, from traditional lifts to a revolutionary, minimally invasive and exceedingly popular procedure called the QuickLift™.  Others who undergo blepharoplasties may opt to have Botox injections to soften lines on the forehead.  And still others may decide to have their brows lifted, especially if sagging brows have contributed to the sagging around the eyes in the first place.

The sky’s the limit when it comes to the possibilities of cosmetic surgeries that can be administered to improve one’s appearance.  Surgical teams such as Marin’s Plastic Surgery Specialists have perfected the ability to achieve results that look absolutely natural and truly offer recipients the priceless gift of self-confidence.  Twenty-twelve is an election year.  Be sure to cast a vote for you!

Breast Augmentation: Simpler Than You’d Think…Once You’ve Done The Thinking

There has never been a better time to consider breast augmentation.  Like all other facets of cosmetic surgery, the technology has been advancing by leaps and bounds in recent years.  Just think, at the beginning of the 20th century, physicians were creating breast implant fillers with things like glass balls, ground rubber and ox cartilage!  By the middle of the 20th century, silicone injections were being used…right up until physicians discovered they were causing women’s breasts to become lumpy and often infected.  In wasn’t until the mid 1960s that plastic surgeons developed the first silicone breast prostheses, and now, after several generations of touch-and-go manifestations, and along with the emergence of the saline-filled prostheses, it is safe to say breast implant science has finally come into its own.

The Natrelle™ Collection, for instance, offers over 140 implant choices.  You are practically guaranteed to find one that is right for you.  And you don’t have to feel like a kid in a candy store because of all the options either.  If you’ve done your homework, you already know that you will want to find a plastic surgery team that possesses the VECTRA® 3D Imager.  The VECTRA® 3D allows you and your doctors to see in advance how various implants will look on your particular body.

In fact, breast augmentation has become so straightforward that the only real difficulty may be deciding exactly what look you want to achieve.  There are two basic shapes: A “round” implant configuration is more prominent and provides a higher ridge and deeper cleavage.  A “teardrop” configuration provides a more gradual slope.  You may want to put in some time looking at “before and after” pictures to get a feel for the possibilities.

Once you’ve determined the shape you like, there is volume to consider.  While you may have always dreamed of going really big, if you are petite to begin with, you may want to reconsider.  Again, here’s where the magic of the VECTRA® 3D comes into play.  So go big, on the computer screen, and see what that will look like.  Do you look a bit top heavy?  Or maybe not.  Remember, implants are a lifestyle choice.  Are you very athletic?  Do you want to achieve a natural look?  Or are you contemplating something a bit more rebellious?  And of course your doctor will want to make recommendations based on your particular skin and tissue type and how much extra weight you can reasonably add.

Next on the list of considerations is whether you want to use silicone or saline implants.  They both have their pros and cons, and again, your doctor will be able to advise you based on your particular needs.  Generally speaking, silicone feels more like real breast tissue, and thus more natural.  Because it is pre-filled, however, it may require a slightly larger incision.  Saline implants have a silicone shell that is filled with a salt water solution after the implant has been inserted.

Based on your implant choice, your doctor will help you to determine whether your implant will go under your breast tissue or under your chest muscle.  And that choice will in turn help to determine which of the three common insertion points should be used.  The choices, generally, are inframammary (along the crease under the breast where it meets the chest), transaxillary (through the natural folds of the armpit), and periareolar (along the outline of the areola.)  All three locations are inconspicuous.

While these choices may render planning for breast augmentation somewhat time consuming, the procedure itself generally takes less than two hours, and most likely you will be on your way home an hour after it’s over!  A few days at home with minimal physical activity are recommended.  And after that—well, it’s time to jump back into your normal routine, but now with the confidence that comes from knowing that you look just the way you wanted to.

When Mistakes Give Birth to Magic…

Back in 1946 a radar engineer neglected to remove a candy bar from his pocket while testing a new kind of magnetic ray.  When the chocolate literally “cooked” all over his clothing, a light bulb went off in his head, and ultimately the microwave oven was born of his error.  Likewise, Charles Goodyear, who had spent years trying to figure out how to make rubber more adaptable to cold temperatures, had his breakthrough when he accidentally dropped a glob onto a hot stove and it “vulcanized.”  And most people know the story of the disgruntled restaurant customer who kept sending the cook back to the kitchen, complaining that his French fries were too darn thick.  The cook got so frustrated that he finally smashed the fries down to the thickness of paper and browned them to a crisp.  The customer, to his surprise, was delighted, and the potato chip had its inception.

It’s exciting to know that mistakes can be the source of compelling inventions.  The universe is charged with possibility, and sometimes we tap into it because we’ve been on the right trail all along, and other times we just bump up against it without even trying.  Our favorite story here is about how an ophthalmologist in the early 1990s using Botulinum Toxin A to cure a patient’s blinking disorder began to notice that the patient’s frown lines were disappearing; the patient was looking younger and younger.  Boom!  Botox!  Another happy accident!

Botox works by weakening the muscles into which it is injected.  The process causes wrinkles to be reduced, sometimes dramatically.  Frown lines, horizontal forehead lines, crow’s feet and laugh lines can all be diminished.  Because Botox is fast, painless, relatively inexpensive and has the success rate you would expect from a modern day fountain of youth, millions of Americans have opted to use it since its FDA approval (for wrinkles) in 2002.  More advanced techniques since then make it a viable solution for work on the chin and neck as well.

And as if generating a youthful appearance were not enough, Botox also offers a cure for hyperhidrosis: excessive sweating.  Previously, hyperhidrosis had the power not only to ruin the clothes of those who suffered from it but often to prevent them from having the confidence to get involved in social situations.  Since 2004, when the FDA gave the okay for Botox to be injected into sweat glands, Botox has been helping these people too.

And there are other uses for Botox: It has been approved for some neurological movement disorders, some central nervous system disorders, vocal cord dysfunction, and, recently, for some types of migraine.  It’s no wonder that it has come be thought of as a miracle cure—with as many applications as vulcanized rubber!

But herein lies the problem.  Back when Botox first became available, a lot of people shied away from it because it is a known fact that it is a toxin extracted from the same bacteria that causes botulism.  As time passed, though, people saw how well it worked, and they came to understand that Botox is diluted thousands of times and seldom has harmful effects—as long as it’s handled properly.  Now the pendulum has swung in the other direction.  The misgivings about Botox have all but vanished, to the point where some people have come to disregard the “as long as it’s handled properly” proviso.  You can get Botox injections at the mall now, at spas and even at Botox parties.  Even some gyms offer it!  And to make matters worse, there are Botox-look-alike products out there too.  In fact, there are so many scams that the FDA has compiled a list of them on their website.

If you are considering using Botox, please consult a plastic surgeon or other experienced and skilled skincare doctor.  The person who injects Botox into your face should have a comprehensive knowledge of anatomy, of the muscles and tissues that lie beneath the wrinkles you hope to eliminate.  Cosmetic intervention is an art that requires both technique and medical expertise.  The person who injects Botox into your face should be able to recommend other measures, such as combining Botox with Restylane or Juvederm to create what is sometimes referred to as a liquid lift, so as to ensure you get the results you want.  The person who administers your injections should know that Botox must be used within a certain amount of time after it is opened and diluted.  They should be familiar with your health history and know what medications you may be taking.  They should know what to do if you should have a reaction afterward…and that doesn’t mean within the next ten minutes.  Some possible complications—including problems swallowing, speaking, and/or breathing—can appear weeks later.

So yes, Botox is up there with rubber and the microwave and the potato chip on the long list of highly marketable items brought about almost by magic.  It’s a great product and it has a very bright future.  Just keep in mind that real magic is never in the wand but in the hand of the magician who wields it.

Personal Growth—A Step At A Time

Personal growth doesn’t generally happen by itself.  It requires taking the bull by the horns, trying new things, expanding the scope of your experiences.  That doesn’t mean you have to go out and get your pilot’s license or book a climbing trip in Nepal, necessarily.  The potential for growth is there in any new experience.  Joining a stimulating book club or a French immersion class can be just as rewarding as lifting the nose of your Cessna at the end of the runway.

Besides accruing the kinds of experiences that have meaning for you, you can achieve personal growth by taking charge of your appearance.  There is almost nothing as empowering as putting yourself in the body that best defines who you are on the inside.  Dieting, exercising and maintaining good health habits are the beginning of the journey, and for some people, they may be enough.  But other people are prone to tummy flab, or loose skin, or uneven skin tone…. Or they have reached the age where gravity has begun to work against them in earnest.  Or, they are simply not happy with some aspect of a particular feature or features.

If you are one of the many people who has considered making changes to your appearance as a component of your personal growth campaign, here are some basic steps to take.

Define your goals and research methods for achieving them: Are your thighs too big for the rest of your body?  Easy.  You will want to look into liposuction.  But if you are seeking to soften your laugh lines or get rid of those frown lines on your forehead, you are going to have to do some research.

Continual advances in cosmetic technologies mean that you have more options than ever.  Should you consider facial fillers such as Botox or laser work?  Or should you go all out and get a facelift?  Or will a quick and easy fat transfer, using your very own fat, do the job?  The key here is not to rush.  There are some great websites out there that put lots of information at your fingertips, including, in some cases, super informative 3D presentations that walk and talk you through various procedures!

Once you’ve begun to educate yourself about your options, you will want to generate a list of questions and add to it every time you think of something new.  Your list should include concerns about how your personal health history will impact any procedure you might decide to have.  It should also include questions about the procedures themselves.  How long do they take?  Do they require anesthesia?  What, if any, are the risks?  How long until a patient can resume normal activities?  And of course you will want to create questions for the medical teams you interview too.  Ask about their certifications and experience, what they consider to be their specialties, and what kind of post-procedure follow-up they provide.  And do they offer payment options?

Once you’ve identified your objective, done some research and begun to make a list of questions, it’s time to start looking for the medical team that is right for you.  Most doctors feature patient before-and-after pictures on their websites, and these can be very valuable in helping you determine what kind of results a medical team is likely to be able to achieve.  But even better is making an appointment with a plastic surgery team that possesses a Vectra 3D Imager and having your own before-and-after images generated BEFORE you commit to any procedure.  That’s the magic of the Vectra 3D.  Using special software, the patient is able to view the prospective results from all angles, bringing the patient/doctor consultation to a whole new level.

Once you’ve opened the door to personal growth you are likely to find there is no stopping you.  It’s a thrill to know that living life to its fullest can be as simple as defining your goals and taking the steps to achieve them.

Hello Down There…

Don’t you wish there was a way to communicate with the collagen that lies just below the surface of your skin?  Collagen is the human version of Super Glue, connecting and supporting tissue throughout the body.  When collagen and elastin and subcutaneous fat are all working together at their highest levels, they keep the skin looking firm, supple and strong (and hence youthful).  But as we get older, collagen production begins to slump, and as a result, the skin thins and weakens, leading to wrinkles, folds and sagging.  Wouldn’t it be great to be able to tell your collagen to hang on just a little longer?  And at what age should you begin to be concerned?

For those of us who spent our youth lolling in the sun without adequate protection, the collagen breakdown is likely to happen sooner rather than later.  The dermis, which is the middle layer of skin in between the epidermis (outer layer) and the fatty tissue, is home to the greatest number of collagen fibers, and is the layer that suffers most when the skin is exposed to ultraviolet radiation.  Too much sun damage can actually cause collagen cells to weaken so much that they refuse to regenerate and do their job of protecting the fatty tissue beneath them.

If you are still in your 20s or 30s and are protecting from the sun now, you may think that you have plenty of time before you need to give a thought to the signs of aging.  But consider this: According to MedicineNet.com and other sources, over 80 percent of adult skin aging is the result of time spent in the sun as a teen.  In other words, you may have already had too much exposure, from back in the days when you were still peddling your bike around the neighborhood.  Your collagen fibers may not be on strike yet, but it is likely that they are meeting about it and that already your skin has less resilience than it used to.

The time to act is now, before the evidence comes to the surface.  There are some wonderful products out there, and the best ones are prescription-strength and can be purchased from doctors and other skincare professionals.  But as important as the products themselves may be the opportunity to establish a relationship early on with doctors who can continuously evaluate the ever-changing health of your skin.  This way you’ll have support in place whenever you need it.

It is generally when we are in our 40s that the effects of exposure to the sun, as well as normal aging, really begin to become evident.  By now the collagen is definitely breaking down and some early age spots may have begun to appear.  Without the collagen to hold things together, there may be some loss of underlying fat, which can lead to fine wrinkles as well as hollowing of the cheeks and around the eye sockets.  It can also cause loosening of skin on the neck.

But fear not, because this is where technology steps in to help you battle the passage of time.  You may want to consider laser skin resurfacing, which can peel away the epidermis (eliminating fine lines and forcing healthy new skin cells to form) and also penetrate the dermis to get to the collagen cells dwelling there.  In addition to helping to eliminate the signs of both normal and environment-caused aging, laser resurfacing can actually stimulate stubborn collagen cells to go back to work again.  Liquid lift options, which can include a variety of facial fillers—everything from Botox to fillers made with your very own fat—can also help by minimizing wrinkles and adding fullness to your face.

If you are in your 50s and 60s, in addition to dealing with lazy collagen cells, your hormones may be packing up and leaving town.  Your blood circulation may not be as robust as it once was.  This is a great time to consider a QuickLift, which can take ten years off your appearance with minimal recovery time and lasting results.  Or, you may even want to explore the benefits of a traditional facelift.  New technologies, such as the Vectra 3D Imager, have rendered the results of the traditional lift more predictable than ever before.

If you’ve been seeing skincare professionals all along, you will be in much better shape than those who wait until they are in their 70s or 80s to make their first appointment.  But even then, it’s not too late.  We all age at different rates, so the right time for a particular procedure for one person will not be the right time for another.

This we know: Talking to your collagen is not likely to have much of an effect on how your skin behaves.  But talking to skincare doctors early on can make all the difference in the world.  Aging gracefully can be as easy as acknowledging that, like it or not, all skin ages, and making an appointment to ask for guidance from the pros.

Back To School Can Mean New Beginnings For Moms As Well As Kids

The moment a child is born, a mother also comes into existence.  Her other labels may come and go, but “motherhood” is a permanent state, no matter how old the kiddies are.  And there used to be a time when it was a conspicuous state as well, with stretched tummies and lax breasts being its most discernible indicators.  But times have changed, and the physical mutations that a woman’s body undergoes in becoming a mother don’t have to be permanent any longer.  Thanks to modern medicine and the revolutionary technologies that support it, every woman has the opportunity not only to get her body back into its pre-maternal shape, but even, should she so desire, to take her body a step beyond.

The procedure is called the Mommy Makeover, and the doctors at San Francisco’s Plastic Surgery Specialists have become celebrated for the part they have played in making it one of the most popular cosmetic surgical procedures being performed today.  Basically the Mommy Makeover provides each woman with an array of surgical options, depending on her individual needs.  These can include breast lifts and/or augmentation, tummy tucks and liposuction.  Older moms may also want to include facial rejuvenation in their makeover package.

There are several advantages to having these various procedures performed all at the same time, under the agency of the Mommy Makeover.  First, it is cost effective to do so; in essence, you are paying for one multi-faceted procedure scheduled to occur in one place and time rather than two or three separate surgeries scheduled at various times.  Second, and more importantly, the healing/recovery period (generally two to three weeks) is far shorter than would be the collective recovery time for procedures done separately.  And third, the Mommy Makeover gives the patient and her doctors the opportunity to regard the body as a whole.  For example, one question might be, If the tummy tuck reduces the waistline by x number of inches, what size/shape breast implants will best complement the new waist contours?  The Mommy Makeover is a dynamic, creative undertaking, and the finished product can truly be a work of art.

But in spite of the lighthearted moniker, the Mommy Makeover is also a serious procedure and it requires serious consideration.  Because of its complexity, one would want a surgeon who is an expert in all of the individual procedures and who has also had many opportunities to perform them together at the same time.  Many of the best surgeons specializing in this field find it makes sense to double up, with two surgeons executing one makeover project, which, again, can cut the surgery time in half, making it even safer for the patient.  And it helps to have a support team on their staff who have experience in dealing with multi-faceted surgical procedures.  Also, plastic surgery teams that have access to VECTRA® 3D Imagers can actually allow patients to view the results before the makeover even takes place.

Back-to-school is a time of new beginnings for the kids: new clothes, new friends, new things to learn…  There’s no reason why it shouldn’t offer new beginnings for moms too.  Whether you are a young mom who has just put her youngest on the school bus for the first time, or an older mom whose kids are off to college but who has never stopped dreaming about the body she once had, now is a great time to consult with the plastic surgery team of your choice to see if you may be a good Mommy Makeover candidate.  Parenting expends a lot of energy and requires a lot of sacrifice.  A Mommy Makeover is an opportunity to turn inward and see what changes you would like to make for yourself.  A positive self image can be the precursor for taking on a string of other exciting challenges.  And women who have had Mommy Makeovers are so happy with their new bodies that they generally have no problem committing to healthy eating and exercise regimes that will keep them looking and feeling great for many years to come.