FDA Approved, Ultherapy…the Non-Invasive Facelift
For the patient looking for facial rejuvenation, there are many options available. A consultation with a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon that specializes in facial procedures is recommended to help you sort through the many choices.
There are surgical and non-surgical procedures, depending on the patient’s goals, lifestyle, and budget. For the older patient who needs muscle and skin tightening the surgical modern facelift will give the most dramatic and lasting results. However, there are many patients that wish a more affordable and subtle improvement, without downtime for recovery.
Ultherapy is the only FDA approved treatment using ultrasonic waves, tightening and firming the skin from the inside out. The ultrasound goes deep into the layers of skin, and heats the targeted tissue which then triggers new collagen growth. The new collagen lifts and tightens sagging and loose skin.
With Ultherapy, there are no incisions, scars, anesthesia and no down time for recovery. The procedure lasts about 60 minutes. Due to the building of new collagen, the results are gradual, over a 2 to 3 month period.
Since there is not any surgery involved, the cost for treatment is much less than a standard facelift procedure. Savings for Ultherapy over traditional facelift surgery would be in operating room fees, prescription medications, lab tests, recovery, and anesthesia.
Ultherapy of Marin patients love the gradual improvement so that no one knows anything has been done. Further patients claim that their skin has a “healthy” glow, as the new collagen forms.
Dr. Delgado tells his patients that Ultherapy will not replace the modern facelift; older patients usually need more tightening of the muscles and skin than Ultherapy can provide. However, Ultherapy is an excellent treatment for the younger patient that has mild to moderate skin laxity. Results normally will last for 1 to 3 years, at which time another treatment may be done or the patient may opt at this time for a regular facelift procedure.
Share Tweet Read MoreNose Jobs for Teens: What Makes Sense?
By Nose surgery has been popular with both men and women for decades. It’s also sought after by teens; in fact, according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, nearly 10,000 patients 18 years or younger undergo nose jobs in the U. S. each year.
If you’re the parent of a teen who’s interested in rhinoplasty, you have a lot to think about. Plastic surgery is a big step—do nose jobs for teens really make sense? Does your son or daughter have appropriate goals in mind? What’s the right age for teen rhinoplasty?
The Benefits of Teen Nose Jobs
For mature teens with large or misshapen noses, rhinoplasty can be life changing. Given the extent to which some kids
suffer bullying and ridicule in today’s society, a nose job can help a teen gain self-confidence at this formative time. Rhinoplasty can enable the right young patient move forward with more important aspects of life than worrying about their appearance.
Of course if your teen suffers an injury to their nose, rhinoplasty may be a must. Whether the motivation is to improve form or function, as a parent you can rest assured that a skilled, experienced plastic surgeon will deliver natural looking results.
When to Raise the Red Flag
Not every person is a good candidate for plastic surgery—the same holds true for teenagers. Rhinoplasty may be an option for those who are not seeking to change their looks dramatically but to refine and reshape their nose to fit the rest of their features.
If your son or daughter is interested in a nose job in order to look like a celebrity or erase traces of their ethnicity, counsel them to wait. Remind them that this is a time of life when it’s especially easy to get caught up in fads or ideas about what’s cool at the moment. And while you can change your mind when it comes to clothing and hairstyles, you want to avoid regrets when it comes to cosmetic surgery.
Some people, teens included, suffer from a condition called body dysmorphic disorder, or BDD. If your teen shows signs of being obsessed with their appearance and feels significant distress over a flaw that seems minor or non-existent, consider counseling.
The Right Age for Teen Rhinoplasty
When you and your son or daughter agree that nose surgery is a reasonable option, the bottom line question then becomes, what’s the right age for a teen to get a nose job?
In terms of physical development, the right age is when a youngster is close to being fully grown. For girls, the minimum age for a nose job is usually 15-16. For boys, 16-17 years old is about the right age for rhinoplasty.
It’s important to gauge your teenager’s level of emotional maturity as well. In addition to having the right expectations for results, your teen should demonstrate that they understand all aspects of the procedure, be eager to follow post surgical instructions carefully and be prepared that he or she may still have to handle comments from others who may notice the change.
Don’t worry that you have to make this journey alone. That same skilled, experienced plastic surgeon who will deliver great results will walk you and your teen through the factors to consider and help you—not push you—to the right decisions.
Share Tweet Read More4 Essentials for the Best Mommy Makeover Results
By The miracle of motherhood changes just about everything about a woman’s life. However, along with the joy that children bring comes a range of physical changes that are often harder for mothers to feel as positive about. Including some essential procedures as part of your mommy makeover can help restore the sexier, more youthful look that defined your figure before the impact of pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding.
1. Combining a Breast Lift with Implants
It’s tempting for many women to think of breast implants as a one-stop solution to “deflated” or droopy breasts. However, breast implants alone can’t always achieve the perky, uplifted look women want. In women with significant ptosis (sagging) due to fluctuations in weight, years of nursing or simply gravity’s toll, combining a breast lift with implants may be the perfect way to create a curvaceous look to the bust line.
While breast implants can restore lost volume, they cannot improve the placement of breasts on the chest wall, especially if ptosis is a significant issue. Combining the two procedures—a breast lift plus implants—may help create superior outcomes. For women who are dissatisfied with a change in placement in their breasts as well as a loss in volume, adding a breast lift along with breast implants to your mommy makeover may be the perfect solution.
2. Including Lipo with a Tummy Tuck
On its own, liposuction can play an important role in a mommy makeover, but incorporating lipo at the same time as a tummy tuck can take body contouring one step further. While a tummy tuck can achieve impressive tightening of loose skin and muscles on the stomach when performed as a solo surgery, lipo can provide the finishing touch of more refined contours.
By pairing these two procedures, the C.L.A.S.S. drain-free tummy tuck can deliver a beautiful and natural look, avoiding the “too flat” artificial appearance that can sometimes occur in other tummy tucks. Since the C.L.A.S.S. approach also requires no surgical drains, your mommy makeover recovery can be made that much more comfortable.
3. Adding Appropriate Med Spa Treatments
While not traditionally included on the list of components that comprise a mommy makeover, adding a few appropriate med spa treatments can further enhance your overall results by putting a more youthful finishing touch on your head-to-toe transformation. These noninvasive and nonsurgical add-on treatments rejuvenate your complexion for smoother, firmer, clearer skin and diminished wrinkles.
Mothers hoping to make a total transformation by taking years off their appearance (and sometimes looking better than they did before they ever had children) may benefit from complementary medical spa treatments such as BOTOX® Cosmetic, injectable fillers such as Restylane® or medical-grade skin care treatments.
4. Choosing an Excellent Surgeon
Beyond asking the right questions at your consultation or deciding on the ideal treatments to achieve the look you desire, choosing a well-qualified board certified plastic surgeon is the single best way to achieve the best mommy makeover results.
Knowing the best way to combine procedures in a treatment approach that’s designed to truly bring out the best in your body requires the extensive experience of a surgeon who regularly performs mommy makeovers. Your surgeon choice is by far the most essential part of getting the most outstanding outcomes in the safest possible manner, so be sure to make the selection of a qualified plastic surgeon your number one priority.
Share Tweet Read MoreSteroids and Bodybuilding
Men who compete in professional sports and/or bodybuilding have been known to use steroids. Steroids increase muscle growth for the bodybuilder and for the athlete steroids can enhance their performance.
Steroids were legal until 1990 when Congress placed steroids into schedule 3 of the controlled substance act, which puts them in the same category as cocaine, heroin and LSD. Unless anabolic steroids are being used for a medical condition and prescribed by a doctor, they are now illegal to use.
Steroids can come in several different forms, from injections, pills, and even topically in the form of a gel or cream. However, it is a very potent drug with many possible side effects, including but not limited to: mood swings, impotence, infertility, heart attacks, increases of the bad cholesterol and liver cancer. For additional side effects, click here to see an article in WebMD.
The side effect that Dr. Delgado frequently sees in his gynecomastia practice is the development of male breasts.
Aromatization is a process where anabolic steroids convert into estrogen-like compounds. This conversion changes the balance between estrogen and testosterone in the male. The result may be the development of breast tissue, and the testes may reduce production of testosterone.
Once breast tissue has formed, even if the steroid is discontinued, the breast tissue will remain and only can be removed by male breast reduction surgery.
Dr. Delgado states that not all men who take steroids will develop man boobs, but it is not possible to predict who will. It appears that young men who already have some development of adolescent gynecomastia may be more prone.
Share Tweet Read MoreBreast Implants + Breast Lifts: Are They Really Better Together?
When it comes to combining a breast lift with breast implants, there’s much debate surrounding whether or not the two procedures should be performed simultaneously or separately in order to get the best results. Luckily, there’s new information available to help women decide whether a single operation or staged procedures is the best way to achieve the most beautiful breast enhancement results.
Benefits of a Combined Procedure
A recent study has shown that combining breast augmentation with a breast lift presents no additional risks of complications than when the two procedures are performed separately. From the patient’s perspective, performing the two procedures concurrently offers the opportunity to avoid the risks, extra expense and additional recovery time associated with having multiple surgeries. For these reasons, the overwhelming majority of women prefer to have a one-stage procedure, and there’s now clinical evidence to support this comprehensive approach.
The study also noted that successfully performing a breast lift and implant augmentation simultaneously does require advanced technical skill on behalf of the surgeon. So, for women planning to have both procedures at once, the importance of choosing a highly qualified, board certified plastic surgeon who has extensive experience in performing both of these procedures (together as well as separately) cannot be overstated.
Are Both Procedures Really Necessary?
Many women who desire breast implants but have some degree of ptosis, or sagging, automatically assume that a breast lift is absolutely necessary, although that’s not always the case. Mild ptosis can be successfully improved with breast implants alone. In these situations, the focus of the augmentation would be on using implants to restore upper pole fullness, which in turn can create a lifted look to the breasts without actually performing a lift.
For the right patients, correcting mild sagging with volume from implants offers the benefits of less
scarring and a more affordable surgery. However, if your nipples are located very low on the breasts
near the inframammary fold, you will likely not be able to achieve satisfactory results with just implants. A breast lift combined with implants can give you added volume as well as correct any sagging to improve the location of the breasts.
The Limitations of Implants
If you happen to fall in the category of women who have unfavorable nipple location or whose sagging cannot be appropriately addressed solely with implants, a breast lift, or mastopexy, can bring out the best in your breast augmentation. Patients with significant droopiness who attempt to avoid a breast lift will likely be frustrated in the long run by the additional sagging that will probably occur when implants introduce more weight into a breast pocket that needs to be lifted and corrected.
If your surgeon has determined that a breast lift could best help you achieve your goals, you may be concerned about the additional incisions, and therefore scarring, a lift will require. However, keep in mind that the additional sagging that is likely to occur over time is generally not worth avoiding the
scars, which typically blend and fade over time. The significant majority of women feel that the superior
result that’s seen when the two procedures are combined is well worth any additional incisions that are necessary. In the end, properly addressing all the concerns about your breasts, including size and placement, will yield a more beautiful result and better overall improvement.
Remove Fine Lines of the Décolleté with Ultherapy
Dr. Miguel Delgado has made available to his patients the best treatment he could find for a non-invasive procedure for skin tightening. Ultherapy was cleared by the FDA as the first non-invasive treatment to improve wrinkles and lines of the neck and face, and now the décolleté. Most women once past age 40, start noticing fine lines and wrinkles in the chest area, which is a very obvious sign of aging.
Various factors can contribute to the aging of the décolleté. The worst offender is sun damage. The ultra-violet rays in sunlight will thin the skin, and it loses some of its elasticity and collagen resulting in fine lines and wrinkles. The skin on the chest is more vulnerable for sun damage than the face; due to the fact the chest skin is thinner.
Another factor that causes décolleté fine lines is when a woman sleeps on her side. The weight of the breasts causes them to fall together with the result of “sleep wrinkles.” Additionally, push-up bras when worn for many hours can contribute to the problem.
Now with the Ultherapy treatment for the chest, the collagen will be stimulated gradually, smoothing out wrinkles. The treatment is only about 30 minutes, and results will be evident in about 3 months. One treatment and no downtime!
Dr. Delgado warns his patients to take good care of their skin, face, neck and chest, and be sure to use sunscreen.
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