facelift

How Does Fat Transfer Work?

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fat-injectionHere at Atlanta Plastic Surgery, we believe strongly in providing our patients with as many options as possible to achieve the aesthetic results that they desire. This means performing a wide variety of cosmetic procedures and surgical techniques to help find the desired match for each individual patient. One such technique that has seen a steady rise in popularity over the last decade is the use of fat transfer injections.

Fat transfer injections are performed to help add volume to areas all over the body. Over time, it’s natural for certain parts of a person’s figure and face to lose volume and take on a “sunken” or flattened appearance. Fat transfer can help rejuvenate these areas to provide a more full, youthful, and healthy look. Although this procedure is very in-demand, we still receive plenty of questions from our patients about how exactly it works. That’s why our expert plastic surgeons have taken some time to answer that very question.

The fat transfer procedure begins by removing fat from the patient’s body using liposuction. In order to be a good candidate, the patient must have enough fat in a treatable area to be safely removed. Once the fat is removed, we then filter and purify it to make sure that it is safe and usable for fat transfer. Finally, we are able to safely inject the purified fat back into a different area of the body to help plump the skin and fight off visible signs of aging.

Fat transfer is a remarkably versatile procedure that can address aesthetic issues all over the body. It can be used on its own or to help accentuate and polish the results of other facial procedures including a facelift. For some people, fat transfer can provide a natural alternative to facial filler injections. Fat transfer can be used as a way to provide a modest increase in breast size or to help women who experience breast asymmetry. Many patients have heard of a Brazilian butt lift but may not know this form of buttock augmentation uses fat transfer to achieve the desired aesthetic result.

With such an emphasis being put on subtle, natural-looking cosmetic results these days, it’s no wonder why fat transfer continues to rise in popularity. If you are curious about fat transfer and would like to learn more, we invite you to contact Atlanta Plastic Surgery to schedule a plastic surgery consultation at one of our Atlanta, Alpharetta, Midtown, Cumming, or Canton area locations. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter for additional plastic surgery tips, news, photos, and much more.

Plastic Surgery Results: Long-Lasting but Not Forever

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One of the most common misconceptions about plastic surgery among prospective patients is that the results of their surgery will last forever. Unfortunately, this is not the case. While it’s certainly true that in many cases, the results achieved from undergoing a cosmetic surgery procedure can last for years, forever is simply not a realistic expectation. Proper post-surgical care and a healthy lifestyle can help extend the best-possible results for many patients. But even in these cases, natural changes that the body experiences over time can alter the results of a cosmetic procedure.

female-face-marked-for-surgeryThis doesn’t necessarily mean that the patient has done anything wrong. Over time, it’s only natural to experience sagging skin, wrinkles, sun damage, and other aesthetic imperfections that are part of the aging process. Additionally, weight fluctuation can alter the results of body contouring procedures like liposuction or tummy tuck surgery. To help our patients get a better idea of what they can expect going into their surgery, our experienced plastic surgeons have provided some facts on a few our most commonly performed cosmetic procedures and the results patients can anticipate:

Facelift:

Facelift surgery is intended to rejuvenate the face and give it a fresher appearance by surgically removing excess skin around the cheeks, jowls, and neck, while retightening the remaining skin and underlying tissue. Facelift results are meant to be long-lasting, but certain factors including the patient’s skin elasticity, sun exposure, and the natural aging process can influence their facelift results over time.

Breast Augmentation:

Breast augmentation can be an excellent way to help women who wish to increase the size and volume of their breasts. However, the breast implants used during a breast augmentation procedure are not intended to last forever. On average, breast implants typically last about 10 years. However, this can be longer in many cases. Over time, breast implants can begin to move and shift within the body, which may eventually cause them to wear down.

Liposuction:

Liposuction can help patients who have small areas of excess fat that cannot be removed with diet and exercise alone. During the procedure, fat cells are removed from the body using a device called a cannula. Although some patients believe that undergoing liposuction means that they will no longer have to exercise or maintain a healthy diet to retain their physique, this is not true. We advise our liposuction patients to reach their goal weight before their procedure and maintain a healthy diet and exercise routine following their surgery to maximize the results of their liposuction.

It’s important to emphasize that when a cosmetic procedure is performed by a skilled, experienced plastic surgeon like the experts here at Atlanta Plastic Surgery, the results are often quite long-lasting. However, patients should always know what to expect in advance and not get their hopes up for results that will last a lifetime. For more information on the cosmetic and reconstructive procedures that we perform, please contact Atlanta Plastic Surgery at one of our Atlanta area locations today. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter, for more plastic surgery tips, photos, and updates.

Top 5 Most Popular Facial Plastic Surgery Procedures

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At Atlanta Plastic Surgery, we understand how challenging it can be to decide on a plastic surgery procedure. Many patients use the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS)’s yearly plastic surgery statistics to help compare their options in several areas, including (but not limited to) facial procedures. To help our readers and potential patients weigh their options for facial plastic surgery, we’re discussing the top five most popular facial plastic surgery procedures, complete with brief summaries of what they entail:

rhinoplasty, facelift, brow lift, neck lift, blepharoplastyRhinoplasty

According to the most recent statistics from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (2018), rhinoplasty is currently the most popular single facial procedure in the United States. This shouldn’t come as a big surprise, as the “nose job” has been one of the most well-known plastic surgery procedures for a long time. Furthermore, many people who have a >rhinoplasty do so for both aesthetic and functional purposes. That is, nose surgery can improve the appearance of the nose and restore proper breathing function for many patients.

Eyelid surgery

Close behind rhinoplasty, in terms of popularity in the United States, is eyelid surgery. Also known as blepharoplasty, eyelid surgery can treat loose or sagging folds in the upper eyelids, drooping eyelids, fatty deposits that can make the eyes appear puffy, bags under the eyes, excess skin, and fine wrinkles. Like rhinoplasty, blepharoplasty can improve both appearance and functionality. This is because the issues that eyelid surgery aims to treat can interfere with one’s vision in some cases, in addition to affecting one’s appearance.

Facelift

The facelift may be the first thing that comes to mind when you think about facial plastic surgery. A variety of factors can make a facelift a desirable procedure, including loss of facial fat, thinning of the skin, loss of skin elasticity in the face, and fat concentrating toward the bottom of the face. These issues can lead to extra skin and fat in the face’s lower region, loose skin hanging around the jawline, and/or an unhealthy, gaunt look in the cheeks. By creating incisions near the ears and gently pulling back the facial skin, as well as repositioning and tightening underlying facial tissue, your plastic surgeon can resolve many of these aesthetic problems as expressed in the lower third of the face. He or she may also use fat transfer techniques to inject your natural fat into the cheeks, restoring a youthful, healthy-looking plumpness to your look.

Neck lift

While a facelift can correct some minor aesthetic issues in the jawline, a neck lift may be more appropriate for patients whose main issue is loose, sagging skin in the jaw and neck area. Combined with gravity, aging, genetics, and/or weight loss in the face, loss of skin elasticity can lead to loose skin that sags just below the chin or banding of the neck muscles. This is sometimes referred to as jowls or a “turkey neck.” A neck lift is ideal for patients who still like the appearance of their face but have issues with their look below the chin.

Brow lift

The fifth most popular facial plastic surgery procedure is currently the brow lift. Like the neck lift, this procedure is sometimes thought of as an extension of a traditional facelift. This procedure can correct wrinkles and fine lines in the forehead and between the eyes, in addition to subtly providing lift to the eyelids by repositioning the brow. One of the main things that people love about this procedure is its ability to make the patient appear more alert, and thus, more youthful and energetic.

If you’re interested in a facial procedure or any of the many plastic surgery procedures we perform, please >contact one of our Atlanta Plastic Surgery offices to schedule a consultation today. In addition to discussing your prospective procedure, we can go over our available financing options for plastic surgery with you. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest plastic surgery news and updates.

What Makes People Look Older?

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Most likely, one of the first things that comes to mind when you think about plastic surgery is its ability to make people look younger. There’s no stopping the passage of time, and sooner or later, we all start showing signs that we’re getting older. This can manifest in several ways, but the most apparent are probably the changes that occur in the face. Fortunately, there are targeted cosmetic techniques, both surgical and nonsurgical, that are designed to remedy the main signs of facial aging.

aging, facelift, fat transfer, botox, skin resurfacingAs we age, many of us experience a loss in facial volume that often gives the face a gaunt, unhealthy look. This is because, over time, the skin tends to produce less and less of the biological mechanisms that keep it taut, plump, and youthful (namely, collagen and hyaluronic acid). Furthermore, the upper portions of the face tend to lose fat, while the lower portions tend to gain fat—almost as if gravity is redistributing our facial fat downward. The resulting sunken-in look is one of the tell-tale signs of older age, as well as a common issue that brings people into Atlanta Plastic Surgery.

Effective nonsurgical ways of addressing this issue include facial fillers, such as Juvéderm® and Restylane®. These products fill in sunken areas and can lessen the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines. For more severe cases of facial-volume loss, a facelift that utilizes fat transfer, or fat grafting, can be extremely effective. This technique uses liposuction to remove fat from one part of the body, which is then purified and relocated to increase volume elsewhere. People rarely consider that adding fat to their face might make them look better, but fat is a major component of a youthful, healthy-looking face.

Another tendency that makes people look older is the gradual loss of skin elasticity. Older skin has less elastin (one of the main proteins that give the skin its elasticity) than younger skin, making it decreasingly able to snap back into place when it’s stretched. As gravity steadily pulls the skin downward, the result is often loose or sagging skin around the neck and/or jawline. The loss of skin elasticity also causes wrinkles to form in certain areas of the face, especially those that move frequently (such as the brows and around the eyes).

In addition to helping with loss of facial volume, facial fillers can also help minimize wrinkles and fine lines. Additionally, Botox® is one of the most well-known and effective nonsurgical ways to delay imperfections on the upper third of the face caused by expression lines/constant motion. A Botox® injection relaxes muscles in the face for 3-4 months. More pronounced or advanced cases of facial wrinkles can be addressed with a surgical facelift or neck lift, in which one of our surgeons tightens the facial muscles, repositions facial tissue, and removes excess, sagging skin. This provides a more permanent and extensive solution that gives the entire face a more youthful and invigorated look.

In addition to the loss of facial volume and skin elasticity, signs of aging may be caused by the accumulation of environmental damage to the skin’s surface. Factors such as extended sun exposure and atmospheric irritants can cause the skin to appear dry, cracked, and discolored over time. Skin that’s damaged in these ways can often be revitalized through nonsurgical means such as a chemical peel or Sciton® laser skin resurfacing.

These are only some of the main causes and solutions to facial aging. To determine which procedure is right for you, contact one of our Atlanta Plastic Surgery locations to schedule a consultation today. Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest plastic surgery news and updates.

Today’s Beauty Trends Favor More Natural Looking Results

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If there is one thing that has always been true of health and beauty trends, it is that they are constantly changing.  In the more than fifty years that Atlanta Plastic Surgery, P.C. has been a premier cosmetic and reconstructive plastic surgery center in the Southeast, we have seen attitudes towards plastic surgery change a great deal.  Decades ago, the trend was towards more dramatic plastic surgery procedures and the results tended to be easily noticeable.  Today, however, both men and women have come to favor more subtle, targeted techniques that leave doubt in the mind of the observer whether anything was done at all.  This is true whether patients are interested in facial rejuvenation or in more significant body contouring procedures.

Today’s Beauty Trends Favor More Natural Looking Results

Subtle Facial Rejuvenation: It’s all in the Eyes!

For many years, the classic facelift was the Cadillac of facial rejuvenation procedures.  By removing excess, sagging skin, repositioning fat deposits, and lifting underlying facial muscles, a facelift can give the entire face a more youthful appearance.  However, not all parts of the face age at the same rate, so sometimes less comprehensive procedures that are specifically designed to address only certain areas of the face can achieve more natural looking results.  One of the most effective of these procedures is a blepharoplasty, or eyelid surgery.  This technique exclusively addresses excess, sagging skin and tiny fat deposits in the upper and lower eyelids.  The amount of tissue involved is very small, so recovery after a blepharoplasty is quicker and easier than after a full facelift.  Because the eyes are generally the focal point of any social interaction, the procedure gives the entire face a noticeably younger look.

Breast Augmentation and Enhancement: Less is more!

Although breast augmentation surgery, or a traditional “boob job” as it is more commonly known, is still the most frequently performed cosmetic plastic surgery, other methods for improving the size or the appearance of the breasts have become popular as well.  For example, breast lift procedures, which remove excess skin and reposition tissue to alleviate sagging and give the breasts a more youthful appearance without increasing their size, have become increasingly popular in recent years.  Recent trends in breast augmentation also suggest that women are opting for more natural looking options, like tear-drop shaped breast implants or even fat transfer breast augmentation techniques that increase the size of the breasts but still leave them looking natural.

New advancements in plastic surgery techniques and technology mean that today’s patients have more options than ever before.  If you are interested in learning more about any of the various cosmetic plastic surgery procedures that our board certified plastic surgeons perform, please contact one of our Atlanta Plastic Surgery locations.  During a full consultation we will discuss your specific areas of concern and arrive at an approach that is customized for your individual needs.  Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ to get all the latest plastic surgery news.

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