No Such Thing as a “Scarless” Breast Reduction

As plastic surgery technology becomes more advanced and new techniques are developed, a number of surgical procedures are becoming less invasive, which means less scarring. Unfortunately, Los Angeles breast reduction is one procedure for which no “scarless” technique exists. However, scarring can be minimized depending on the incisions required for the method being used, careful suturing, and diligence in following all post-surgical instructions.

There are a number of different breast reduction methods and each one involves a different number of incisions and different incision placement, which means different scars. Liposuction breast reduction, for example, tends to result in the least amount of scarring because the incisions are very small and are typically made on the underside of the breast. This technique is not used very frequently, however, because it can only achieve a modest reduction and can’t lift the breast.

The anchor scar is the most common type of scar resulting from a breast reduction. With the anchor technique, incisions are made around the areola, down the midline of the breast, and across the underside of the breast. While this method produces the most prominent scarring of the reduction techniques, it also allows for the most dramatic results.

Overly large breasts can cause many problems:

• Back, neck, and shoulder pain
• Inability to participate in some physical activities
• Negative body image.

Breast reduction allows women to live healthier, more active lives, free from the physical and emotional discomfort that overly large breasts can cause. Scarring is unavoidable, but, according to what I’ve seen from my breast reduction patients, the benefits that the procedure offers make the scars a very fair trade-off.

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Posted in Breast Reduction

Facelift Plus Fat Grafting for Complete Facial Rejuvenation

One of the first places that men and women begin to see the signs of aging, stress, and fatigue is their face. Many men and women from Los Angeles choose a facelift to help combat the effects of time, but a new method that combines fat injections with facelifts may help patients achieve more complete facial rejuvenation.

A facelift is designed to correct sagging of facial skin and deeper facial tissue, but the traditional facelift procedure cannot correct the loss of facial fat that causes the hollow, sunken look that many people get as they age. That’s where a fat injection can help. A fat injection can restore youthful fullness to a patient’s face by filling out areas that have lost underlying support.

A fat injection involves taking living fat cells from the patient’s own body, carefully preparing these cells, and then re-implanting the cells in hollow areas of the face. Newer methods of increasing the percent of injected fat that survives the transfer means that the results can last much longer.

Although fat grafting can be performed without a facelift, the results are most flattering when sagging skin has been lifted and excess skin has been removed as well. Another major advantage of performing a fat injection in conjunction with a facelift is that the patient will only have to go through a single surgical procedure and recovery period.

I’d definitely recommend combining fat injections with a facelift for my facial rejuvenation patients. Of course, either procedure can be performed on its own, but the results of the combined procedure are more complete and dramatic than the results that either procedure can produce by itself.

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Posted in Facelift

Natural Is In, “Fake” Is Out

I recently appeared on The Today Show to provide commentary for a segment on the trend toward natural-looking plastic surgery in Hollywood. It’s still very common for celebrities to turn to plastic surgery to enhance their look, but moderation is in and the emphasis is on surgical results that look natural and believable. Fake, overdone breasts and lips, for example, are on their way out.

I’ve seen a similar trend among my patients in Los Angeles. With breast augmentation, for example, the majority of my patients tell me that they want to increase their breast size, but they don’t want to be overly large. The stereotype about breast augmentation patients wanting huge breasts is definitely not the reality – most of my augmentation patients simply want to look proportionate, not unnatural. “Boob jobs” are out – breast enhancement is in.

Facial rejuvenation is another area where I’m seeing a lot of emphasis on natural-looking results. It can be very obvious when a person has had too much facial plastic surgery and one of the comments I hear consistently from my patients is that they don’t want to look like they’ve “had work done.” Men and women want to correct sagging skin and reduce the appearance of wrinkles, but they don’t want their faces to look too tight or lose the ability to make natural facial expressions.

Plastic surgery is about enhancing your appearance so you look like the best version of yourself, not a completely different person. I work with each of my Los Angeles breast augmentation, facial rejuvenation, and body contouring patients to choose the procedure and technique that will deliver results that are dramatic, but still natural-looking. Hollywood is on the right track – natural is beautiful.

Tags: los angeles breast augmentation
Posted in Breast augmentation