Facelift - With age, the skin loses elasticity and the effects of gravity, sun exposure, and life's stresses can be seen in the facial appearance.
The jawline becomes slack and "jowly.
" Folds appear around the neck and the skin hangs.
An incision is made in the hair area of the temple extending in front of and behind the ear.
The skin is lifted off the face and neck, the deeper muscles are tightened, and the skin redraped to a higher position.
This gives a more youthful appearance to the face.
Many times additional procedures such as a browlift, eyelid surgery, chemical peel, or laser resurfacing may be desired to obtain maximum benefits.
Eyelid surgery - (known as blepharoplasty) As people age, the eyelid skin stretches, muscles weaken and stretch, and fat accumulates around the eyes causing "bags" above and below.
In some people the excess skin of the upper eyelids can even interfere with vision.
Eyelid surgery removes excess skin and fat of both the upper and lower eyelids removing the "bags" and giving a more youthful, rested appearance.
This procedure won't remove crows feet, eliminate dark circles under the eyes or lift sagging eyebrows.
Brow Lift Browlift (also known as forehead lift) can minimize some of the visible effects of aging such as drooping eyebrows, "hooding" over the eyes, forehead furrows and frown lines.
Usually an incision is made behind the hairline, the skin and muscle are elevated and redraped in a higher position.
Depending on desires and hair type, incisions can be made along the hair line or when a minimal lift is required, the endoscope can be used through smaller incisions.
Chemical Peel -- This procedure uses chemical solutions to improve and smooth the texture of facial skin by removing the damaged outer layers.
Improvement in facial blemishes, wrinkles, and uneven skin pigmentation can be obtained in varying degrees depending on the depth of the peel.
Phenol, trichloracetic acid (TCA), and alphahydroxy acids (AHA's) give varying depths of peels and a precise formula is adjusted to meet each individual's needs.
AHA's give the mildest peels and provide smoother, brighter looking skin for younger individuals and those who can't spare the time to recover from a deeper peel.
TCA gives a medium depth peel and smoothes fine wrinkles and also treats blemishes and pigmentation problems.
Recovery time for this peel is approximately a week.
Phenol peels are much deeper and have been mostly replaced by C02 laser resurfacing.
C02 Laser Resurfacing -- Laser resurfacing uses a beam of light energy to vaporize the upper layers of damaged skin at controlled levels of penetration.
All facial resurfacing procedures (chemical peels and dermabrasion) essentially work in the same way.
First, the outer layers of skin are stripped away and as new cells form during the healing process a tighter, younger-looking skin surface appears.
This is an excellent procedure to correct the fine lines around the mouth or of the lower eyelids.
Healing time is about two weeks and the skin may remain pink for up to three months.
Dermabrasion ( What is MicroDermabrasion ) is controlled surgical scraping which softens sharp edges of surface irregularities and is used most often in treating scars from accidents and acne.
It can also be used to smooth out wrinkles, especially "lipstick lines" around the mouth.
It is sometimes used in conjunction with other procedures such as facelifts and chemical peels.
The skin takes about ten days to heal and stays pink for a few months.
Surgery of the Nose (known as rhinoplasty) can improve the shape, size and general appearance of the nose.
It can change the shape of the tip or bridge, narrow the span of the nostrils or change the angle between the nose and upper lip.
It can also relieve breathing problems.
Usually a rhinoplasty is performed through an incision placed inside the nose resulting in no visible scarring.
Occasionally an open procedure is required leaving minimal scars across the nostril area or where the nostrils meet the cheeks and lip.
Some swelling and bruising occurs around the eyes, but generally patients can return to work in about 10 - 14 days.
Ear Surgery (known as otoplasty) is generally performed to correct prominent ears by setting them back closer to the head.
Otoplasty can also be utilized to reduce the size of large ears or ear lobes.
Ears are almost fully grown by age 5.
Therefore, the earlier the surgery, the less teasing children will have to endure.
Adults also have good results with this procedure.
An incision is made in the groove behind the ear and the cartilage is reshaped to allow the ear to lay closer to the head.