Old age causes wrinkles but wrinkles are also caused by damage caused by the sun and pollution. Human collagen can be injected into your face just under the area where the wrinkles are to help reduce the appearance of these fine lines.

CosmoDerm™ collagen injections may be a good option for you if you have crow's feet around the eyes or are seeing small vertical lines above the upper lip.
 
CosmoPlast™ is another collagen treatment option if you have deep wrinkles between brows or smile lines around mouth.  It can also help fix severe acne scars.
 
CosmoDerm™ and CosmoPlast™ are basically human collagen injections that are injected beneath the skin in areas where the filler is needed. There is little or no discomfort because the injection contains lidocaine that will numb the skin. CosmoDerm™ and CosmoPlast™ don't crate any redness or swelling and so patients can immediately return to their day to day activities. CosmoDerm™ and CosmoPlast™ effects last up to six months.

The benefits of using CosmoDerm™ and CosmoPlast™ are that they are both created from purified human collagen. This means that patients don't have to wait for a skin allergy test. Patients can also combine CosmoDerm™ and CosmoPlast™ with other facial procedures such as Botox.

There are no real side effects of using CosmoDerm™ and CosmoPlast™ but it is important that patients consult with a board certified cosmetic surgeon who can discuss all the benefits and risks of using CosmoDerm™ and CosmoPlast™.
 
CosmoDerm™ and CosmoPlast™  are great alternatives to plastic surgery. So if you aren't ready for a face lift or an eyebrow lift, you may wish to check out CosmoDerm™ and CosmoPlast™.

Contact us today to make an appointment and to determine if CosmoDerm™ and CosmoPlast™ are for you.

If you are considering fillers to treat scars or reduce wrinkles on your face, we offer a dermal filler called Restylane. Restylane is a cosmetic dermal filler that is used to make the skin look fuller to correct wrinkles. Restylane can be used to add volume to your face to fix laugh lines, lines around the nose, lipstick lines, and the area around the mouth that extends to the jawline.
 
Restylane treatment may result in redness and swelling around the treated area. This redness and swelling may last for up to seven or 10 days. It is recommended that immediately after Restylane treatment outdoor activities until the swelling and redness disappears.
 
Restylane delivers longer lasting results than other treatments and may last up up to six months. Restylane is not recommended for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding.

Contact our office today to schedule an appointment to evaluate if Restylane may be right for you.

In addition to breast augmentation surgery, another frequently done surgery is breast reduction surgery. According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, and in 2009, more than a hundred thousand women went through breast reduction surgery.  The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery states that, in females who are under the age of 20, this is the second most popular surgery, the most popular being nose jobs or rhinoplasty.
 
Breast reduction is done primarily to help women with their self-esteem as well but also to help with physical discomfort that is caused from the weight of larger than normal breasts. Most women with non-proportionately large breasts suffer from backaches, neck cramps and other fatigue caused by the heavy weight of the breasts. A lot of them suffer from low self-esteem resulting from being teased mercilessly about the size of their breasts.
 
A breast reduction surgery requires general anesthesia and can result in significant scar tissue. The surgery lasts longer than breast augmentation surgeries and can often be more complicated too. Surgeons will normally remove fat and glandular tissue to remove most of the bulk as well excess skin.
 
Breast reduction surgery is a big step for young women and should be thoroughly discussed with a board certified cosmetic surgeon. Contact our office for a consultation today.

The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery published a study that shows that in 2009 breast augmentation was the most popular cosmetic surgery in the U.S.  After breast surgery, the other procedures that make the top five list are liposuction, eyelid surgery, nose jobs and tummy tucks.
 
Women get breast augmentation done to improve the size or shape of their breast or in many cases for medical reasons to reconstruct it after illness, accident, or surgery. Depending on the patient, different plastic surgeons will use different techniques to meet the patient’s goals. Each procedure would have to be customized to achieve the result that the patient wants.
 
An initial consult with a plastic surgeon would result in a discussion around the type of an implant that should be used and where it needs to be placed. Choices can be saline-filled or silicone gel.
 
Most implants in the United States are either saline solution fillings or using silicone gels. Although silicone gels were banned in the 1990’s, after extensive studies that proved their safety, the ban was lifted in 2006.
So what are the benefits of using silicone gel implants over saline fillings and vice versa?
First, Silicone gel filled breasts feel softer and more natural when compared to saline-filled implant which are firmer. Silicone gel implant surgery is more expensive than saline-filled implants. Saline filled implants can be done through smaller incisions because they are filled after being implanted versus silicone gels which are filled and then implanted.
 
Breast augmentation can result in enhanced patient confidence and self-esteem. But a through due-diligence with an experienced AND board-certified Plastic Surgeon is the number one thing we recommend if you are considering breast augmentation surgery.
 

Continuing our blog on laser treatments offered by us, here's a look of the rest of them:

Laser Genesis: This skin rejuvenation treatment helps improve the overall texture of your skin. It helps educe fine-line wrinkles, large pores, and scars. Laser Genesis may also stimulate growth of new collagen. We recommend a treatment every 4 weeks for 4 to 6 weeks. 

Titan
This is also a skin rejuvenation treatment where the focus is on improving overall skin tightness. This procedure can be performed on all skin types. This treatment also stimulates new collagen growth. We recommend two treatments separated by four to six weeks.
 
Pearl
This is an ablative skin resurfacing procedure which improves fine-lines, wrinkles, and uneven textured and sun damaged skin. Patients are given a topical anesthetic and we recommend 1 to 2 treatments spaced out over a four week period. This procedure does have a 4-5 day down-time when the skin peels off to expose new healthy skin from below.

Non-invasive skin resurfacing treatments are safe but you should always visit an experienced practitioner when getting these procedures done. Contact our office to schedule your appointment today and walk away with beautiful, healthy skin that will make you look younger.

We offer many laser procedures to correct skin and hair problems. Here is a brief look at our various laser procedures:

• Hair Removal: Using our ProWave 770 or CoolGlide laser, we re able to do hair removal procedures that are really effective in removing hair from various parts of your body. The procedure requires a topical anesthetic and at an average, we recommend six treatments over an eight week period. The procedure is non-invasive and patients feel minor discomfort.
   
• Vascular Lesions: Our CoolGlide laser can remove vascular lesions including spider veins, angiomas, etc. This also requires topical anesthetic and we recommend a total of three treatments spread out over six to eight weeks.  This procedure does not treat varicose veins.
  
  
• Lime Light: This is a skin rejuvenation procedure to improve the overall skin tone. This treatment helps reduce age spots, pigmentation, and small vascular vessels present in the skin. We recommend three or four treatments spread-out over a six week period.

More about our laser procedures in the next blog. Contact our office today to make an appointment and get started on skin that is clear, new, and free of wrinkles and age spots.

Continuing the discussion on an earlier blog post about Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD), a recent study finds that "only two percent of procedures actually reduced the severity of BDD". The study published in the Annals of Plastic Surgery was done on 300 individuals who suffered from BDD. The study found that even after receiving surgical or non-surgical treatments, almost all participants continued to have BDD symptoms and some even developed new symptoms.

The study also reported that nearly 65% of surveyed cosmetic surgeons reported that they continued treating BDD patients but that only one percent of the patients treated had improvements in their BDD symptoms.

The study showed that the most common requested surgical treatments were for rhinoplasty and breast augmentation. The most common non-surgical treatments were for collagen injections and microdermabrasion treatment for the skin. The study also found that more than a third of the patients underwent procedures over and over again.
 
Bottom line: The study's authors conclude that there is a need to further investigate BDD and that physicians need to be aware that BDD patients can be effectively treated with psychiatric treatments for BDD.

BDD as mentioned in the earlier blog is a psychiatric disorder where patients are preoccupied with an imaginary or slight defect in their own appearance to the extent that they may get stressed over it and seek multiple treatments to keep correcting the same defects over and over again.

The International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS) has published their a survey of of plastic surgery procedures to coincide with their 20th annual congress held this week in San Fransisco.

The ISAPS Survey finds the following top 25 countries where the most surgical and non-surgical cosmetic procedures were performed in 2009.

No surprise to find that the US was number one followed by China, Brazil, India, and Mexico to round up the top five countries for cosmetic procedures. Now that's the interesting part, emerging countries like China and India making it in the top five.

Here's the complete list of the top 25 countries found in the survey by ISAPS:

1. United States
2. China
3. Brazil
4. India
5. Mexico
6. Japan
7. South Korea
8. Germany
9. Turkey
10. Spain
11. Argentina
12. Russia
13. Italy
14. France
15. Canada
16. Taiwan
17. United Kingdom
18. Colombia
19. Greece
20. Thailand
21. Australia
22. Venezuela
23. Saudi Arabia
24. Netherlands
25. Portugal

 
Also, the ISAPS Global Survey finds that liposuction was one of the highest performed procedures, followed by breast augmentation. Upper eyelid lifts, nose restructurings, and tummy tucks made up the rest of the top five performed cosmetic surgery procedures.

Botox was the leading non-surgical procedure in demand.

Interesting information eh?

Microdermabrasion is a non-invasive treatment which helps smoothen out your skin and helps reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles. Microdermabrasion also helps reduce the appearance of acne, age spots, and pigmentation.

When you undergo Microdermabrasion, your skin is treated through a series of medical grade crystals which are massaged over your skin with a handheld device. The device basically is swept over the skin in a smooth movement. As the crystals move over the skin, the upper layer of your skin is removed to reveal fresh new skin which is below.

The new skin cells are soft and smooth when compared to the dying skin cells that were present before the Microdermabrasion treatment. Essentially Microdermabrasion is really a more intensive kind of exfoliation. Microdermabrasion helps reduce wrinkles and fine lines by stimulating the epidermis. This results in the promotion of new collagen, which helps thicken the dermis and aids anti-aging.

Microdermabrasion can be done on all skin types and on patients of all ages. Microdermabrasion requires no real recovery time and the results are immediate. It's a perfect beauty regiment before a major event or function. People suffering from acne and skin spots can see an immediate improvement of their skin from undergoing regular Microdermabrasion treatments.

Check out our Microdermabrasion treatment options by clicking here. Contact our office to make an appointment today!

Botox is a popular drug made from a toxin which is produced by a bacteria know as Clostridium botulinum. Botox is used in cosmetic procedures to remove wrinkles, crows feet, and forehead lines from the face.
 
The way Botox injections work is that it weakens or paralyzes certain muscles so that they won't contract. It can also bock certain nerves. This leads to diminishing of your facial wrinkles.The effect of Botox can last for three or four months. There are many side effects from the use of Botox including headache, upset stomach, and flu like symptoms. Botox should not be used during pregnancy or while breast feeding.
 
The most common signs of aging are wrinkles and wrinkles can be formed through smiling, squinting, and any facial movement that is repeated.
 
Botox treatments can be combined with procedures such as chemical peels, microdermabrasionelp, and dermal fills which can help further diminsh the effects of aging by the reduction or prevention of new wrinkles and lines on the face.