Fullness In, Tautness Out In Face Surgery

"Stretched" Look Giving Way To Plumper One In Battle To Keep Looking Young

More and more, aesthetic surgeons and dermatologists are seeking to attain a full, plump, juicy appearance for patients trying to keep their faces looking as young as possible, as opposed to the taut look, with skin pulled extra-tight, that we're all so used to seeing, New York magazine reports.

Classic cosmetic facial surgery used to involve procedures such as lifts and tucks, which tightened the face.

One obvious example, points out CBS News correspondent CBS News correspondent Michelle Guilen, is comedian Joan Rivers -- who even pokes fun at the work she's had done.

Gielan says adding volume to the face with surgery or injectable fillers is becoming popular now.

"I think celebrities now are sculpting their faces more with fillers to give them that more attractive, youthful appearance that they had when they were younger," observes Dr. Fredric Brandt, a cosmetic dermatologist.

On The Early Show Thursday, plastic surgeon Dr. Darrick Antell agreed, telling co-anchor Harry Smith, "Today, we realize that volume is an important component. It's not just about lifting. A two-pronged approach is the best way to do it. We combine fillers with a lifting procedure.

"Fillers will help replace volume. They're often a good thing to do early on. We've seen a 14 percent increase in facelifts in the last year. That's huge. Fourteen percent."

He showed Smith a composite photo of a cosmetic surgery "patient" as an example that, "It's more about fullness. She has full cheeks. She looks juicy, if I were to pick one term."

Antell noted, "We want to maintain their identity. I think plastic surgery should whisper and not scream. That's really what it's about. You want to look better, not different."

Interestingly, Antell said, "One of the most common filler we use is fat injections -- your own fat. You can't be allergic to it. There are also some off-the-shelf products available as an office procedure with virtually no down time or recovery."

What Makes Us Perceive a Face as Beautiful?

Psychologists and anthropologists have long tried to nail down what makes us perceive one face as beautiful and another not. There are theories about the math of it, the "Golden Ratio"-how, if you take careful measurements of the lines and triangles formed by a beautiful face, they will add up to the same proportions first noted by the Greeks to be aesthetically pleasing. More recently, a scientist named Michael Cunningham took it upon himself to study the faces of 50 women, half of whom were finalists in an international beauty pageant. In "Measuring the Physical in Physical Attractiveness" (italics mine), he wrote that the width of an eye, if it is to be part of a beautiful face, should be precisely three-tenths the width of the face, and the chin ought to be just one-fifth the height of the face, while the total area of the nose had better be less than 5 percent of the total area of the face!

In the end, the science of beauty seems to point to a few general parameters: We tend to like large eyes, high cheekbones, a small nose, a large smile, and a small chin. What the scientific literature doesn't mention is that we like it all to be as young as possible. This wasn't always the case. The Gibson Girl ideal of the early twentieth century, writes Daniel Delis Hill in Advertising to the American Woman, had the features of a mature, fully formed woman: "heavy lidded eyes accented with thick lashes; fine, high eyebrows, pronounced cheekbones and firm jawlines." In the forties and fifties, the most successful models of the day-Dovima, Lisa Fonssagrives, Suzy Parker-were elegant, haughty, aristocratic, especially when photographed by Irving Penn or Richard Avedon. The sixties and seventies brought a sea change that created a younger beauty ideal, but the aesthetic was more casual than adolescent.

But in the last ten years, perhaps with the coming of Britney Spears, the age of the ideal has dropped precipitously. Now both fashion and celebrity magazines are filled with images of teenagers-whether they're Eastern European models or tanned California reality stars. Their faces are plump and dewy and flushed with youth. As thin as their bodies are, they still haven't entirely shed the baby fat in their faces. This, it seems, is what women in their forties and fifties are now after: baby fat.

It's impossible to pinpoint exactly when or how a new aesthetic is born, but it seems clear that once we became obsessed with the baby face of the teenage girl, the world of dermatology came up with more and better ways for us to achieve the plumpness of youth. We've moved way beyond simply injecting bovine collagen into our lips. Today there's a dizzying nanotechnological world of hyaluronic acid and collagen fillers-Zyplast, Cosmoderm, Perlane, Juvéderm, Evolence, Sculptra-each with a different "bead" size targeted to fill every wrinkle on the face (microscopic for the lines around the eyes, heavier gauge for a cheek or nasolabial fold). With these tools, a woman can dramatically alter her face without going anywhere near a surgeon's office. All that's required are twice-a-year injection appointments with an aesthetic surgeon.

The "New" Plastic Surgery: It’s All About Fat

All Americans are rich by global standards. Even the poorest among us live well compared to many other countries and 90% of human history. But some of us are certainly richer than others and, how do you showcase it? If you are a man, you buy a beautiful woman. If you are a woman, well, beauty is power.

Previously, women used possessions like luxury cars, clothing and the ubiquitous "it bag" to show that not only could they sport expensively maintained manicures, but that they had loads of money to spend on seasonally expendable items. But this was not a perfect solution. You have to leave the car parked somewhere and even the cleverest vanity plate can't fix that. Despite tattooing brand logos and names over every conceivable surface, clothing is easily imitated and quickly discarded. Even the gorgeous Birkin bag making the rounds this season gets set on the floor in restrooms.

So what is the solution? Cosmetic surgery, naturally. Your face is your calling card but even the most Sophia Loren among us can't escape aging. New York Magazine's cover story, "The New New Face" by Johnathan van Meter, is all about maintaining your best status symbol. The word on the street now is not "tight" a la Joan Rivers, but "plumped" like a... baby. Because babies are powerful.

As "The New New Face" explains, the face lift has transformed over the past decade. It used to be about pulling and tightening but now is all about - fat. In describing the adolescent ideal pursued by today's plastic surgery client, the mag says, "As thin as teen's bodies are, they still haven't entirely shed the baby fat in their faces. This is what women in their forties and fifties are now after: baby fat." Babies certainly do look young! And they have oodles of fat. Now, while doing liposuction, we can save the fat instead of throwing it away.

Waste not, want not! How very American!

Injections of Vitamin C Slash Cancer Growth

Researchers at the National Institute of Health noted the phenomenon in brain, ovarian and pancreatic cancers, according to findings published in the August 5th issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. High doses of vitamin C injections reduced the size of tumors and slowed cancerous growths by about 50 percent in laboratory mice, according to US research.

"Researchers discovered that high concentrations of ascorbate had anticancer effects in 75 percent of cancer cell lines tested, while sparing normal cells," the report said. "The researchers traced ascorbate's anti-cancer effect to the formation of hydrogen peroxide in the extracellular fluid surrounding the tumors. Normal cells were unaffected," it said. Injections were necessary because the body regulates vitamin C when ingested so that higher doses cannot be attained.

"When you eat foods containing more than 200 milligrams of vitamin C a day -- for example, two oranges and a serving of broccoli -- your body prevents blood levels of ascorbate from exceeding a narrow range," said Mark Levine, the study's lead author and chief of the Molecular and Clinical Nutrition Section of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

Scientists "injected ascorbate into the veins or abdominal cavities of rodents with aggressive brain, ovarian, and pancreatic tumors," the report said, delivering "up to four grams per kilogram of body weight daily." By injecting mice with 43 cancer and five normal cell lines, "the researchers discovered that high concentrations of ascorbate had anticancer effects in 75 percent of cancer cell lines tested, while sparing normal cells." Scientists involved with the study also pointed to evidence that "these high ascorbate concentrations could be achieved in people."

"In immune-deficient mice with rapidly spreading ovarian, pancreatic, and glioblastoma (brain) tumors ... the ascorbate injections reduced tumor growth and weight by 41 to 53 percent." The researchers concluded that the findings "provide the first firm basis for advancing pharmacologic ascorbate in cancer treatment in humans." Vitamin C was considered as a possible treatment for cancer three decades ago, but subsequent studies showed oral doses provided no benefit.

TIFM has administered IV Vit C since opening 15 years ago and has long followed the teaching of Dr Linus Pauling regarding the many benefits of Vit C in the body. It helps with:

• Colds
• Allergies
• Allows for more rapid recovery from surgery-several IV’s given weeks before and after surgery often cuts healing time in half and tremendously reduces bruising
• Recently several cancer oriented physicians are sending us their patients for ultra high doses of Vit C
• Helps detox the body from chemicals

This is the easiest IV you will ever receive while listening to music on your headset, reading a book or simply taking a nap.

Please call ASAP for more information!!

Major Confusion on How to Do Breast Checks

Breast self-exams have long been recommended as a simple way for women to keep track of anything unusual in their breasts. Now, after studies have found that such exams do not reduce breast cancer death rates, and actually increase the rate of unnecessary biopsies, many experts are recommending a more relaxed approach known as “breast awareness.”

Breast awareness is really self-explanatory. It means women should regularly check their breasts for changes, but can do so in a way that feels natural for them. In other words, you don’t have to do it on the same day each month, or using any particular pattern.

Simply be aware of what’s normal for you so you can recognize anything out of the ordinary.

What should you keep an eye out for?

• A new lump or hard knot found in your breast or armpit.
• Dimpling, puckering or indention in your breast or nipple.
• Change in the size, shape or symmetry of your breast.
• Swelling or thickening of the breast.
• Redness or scaliness of the nipple or breast skin.
• Nipple discharge, especially any that is bloody, clear and sticky, dark or occurs without squeezing your nipple.
• Changes in your nipple, such as tenderness, pain, turning or drawing inward, or pointing in a new direction.
• Any suspicious changes in your breasts.
  

Aside from breast self-exams, the other mainstay in the U.S. medical system is the mammogram. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends women get a mammogram every year or two after age 40.

The benefits of mammograms are highly controversial, while the risks are well established. Numerous studies have found that:

• Widespread screening is unjustified.
• Many false positives can lead to expensive repeat screenings and can sometimes result in unnecessary invasive procedures including biopsies and surgeries. Biopsies are being found to be not as safe as previously thought.
• Fear of just thinking about breast cancer can lead to other illnesses in your body; meaning a false positive mammogram, an unnecessary biopsy can be very damaging to your health.
• We all have heard of the unnecessary mastectomies that have occurred from false positives.
• Mammograms expose your body to radiation that can be 1,000 times greater than that from a chest x-ray, which poses risks of cancer. Mammography also compresses your breasts tightly, and often painfully, which could lead to a lethal spread of cancerous cells, should they exist.

Safe screening methods do exist but you’re not likely to hear about them from your general practitioner as they are afraid of being sued by a woman who develops breast cancer and wasn’t told to get a mammogram. This attitude is dangerous to your health!

Thermographic breast screening is brilliantly simple. It measures the radiation of infrared heat from your body and translates this information into anatomical images. Your normal blood circulation is under the control of your autonomic nervous system, which governs your body functions.

To screen for breast cancer, in a rather cool room, we can see your autonomic nervous system reduce the amount of blood going to your breast, as a temperature-regulating measure. However, the pool of blood and primitive blood vessels that cancer cells create is not under autonomic control and is unaffected by the cool air. It will therefore stand out clearly on the thermographic image as a "hot spot."

Thermography uses no mechanical pressure or ionizing radiation, and can detect signs of breast cancer years earlier than either mammography or a physical exam.

Mammography cannot detect a tumor until after it has been growing for years and reaches a certain size. Thermography is able to detect the possibility of breast cancer much earlier, because it can image the early stages of angiogenesis (the formation of a direct supply of blood to cancer cells, which is a necessary step before they can grow into tumors of size).This combined with our knowledge of the various causes of disorders in the breast, such as a bad tooth, can detect any disorders earlier than mammogram and get at the underlying causes that can be corrected.

Please call us for an appointment on the newest high definition camera and quit playing the scare game.

Fat and the New Face

One look at the recent examples of celebrity makeovers and one thing becomes very apparent. Their faces didn’t seem pulled tight in that typical face-lift way; they seemed pushed out. Women have been availing themselves of new faces since the dawn of plastic surgery, but suddenly it seemed that there was a better new face to be had. There is a New New Face, very different from the old one. Demi Moore, Michelle Pfeiffer, Liz Hurley, Naomi Campbell, Stephanie Seymour. They all have it. There is a noticeable aesthetic shift happening in the face, and that it’s dovetailing with quantum leaps in aesthetic surgery.

Through extreme fitness and calorie restriction (and maybe a little lipo), women have figured out how to tame their aging bodies for longer than ever. You see them everywhere in New York City: forty- and fifty-somethings who look better than a 25 year old in a fitted little dress or a tight pair of jeans. But this level of fitness has created a new problem to which the New New Face is the solution—gauntness. Past a certain age, it’s either your fanny or your face. In other words, if your body is fierce (from yoga, Pilates, and the treadmill), your face will have no fat on it either. It was only a matter of time before a certain segment of the female population would figure out how to have it both ways, even if it means working out two hours a day and then paying someone to volumize their faces, as they say in the dermatology business. And they look, well, if not exactly young, then attractive in a different way. A yoga body plus the New New Face may not be a fountain of youth, but it’s a fountain of indeterminate age!!

Sizing Up Breast Implants – How to Make the Right Choice

Thousands of women pursue breast augmentation procedures each year to improve their body image, enhance their figure and achieve their ideal chest size. The initial consultation with an aesthetic surgeon provides a realistic perspective on what to expect from breast implants and breast augmentation, and choosing the right size is a part of this process.

If you’re considering breast implant surgery or other breast enhancement procedures, here’s how to choose the right size so that the implants are in perfect proportion to the rest of your body:

1. Have your breasts measured by a professional. Many women do not know the real size of their breasts, and are often wearing the wrong size bra as a result. Having your breasts measured either through a bra fitting or at your surgeon’s office can help you make an accurate assessment of your breasts and learn your real size.


2. Take a before picture. Taking inventory of your body before any type of cosmetic treatment is an essential part of the process, and this can help you get a realistic look at your proportions and natural figure. An aesthetic surgeon can then take your picture and mark it up with your proposed breast implant size; some surgeons also offer virtual makeover computer programs in the office, which can help you visualize your future body with ease.


3. Put on a sizer. Breast sizers are ‘false implants’ that can be inserted into the bra. These can help you visualize the implants with your regular clothes, so you can get a preview of your new look before any type of surgery.


4. Consider the impact on your skin. Most women who pursue breast augmentation 2 - 3 cup sizes larger than their natural size will experience extensive stretching of the skin. This stretching can cause extensive stretch marks, which do not disappear naturally after the treatment. Laser skin resurfacing techniques can help to reduce the appearance of stretch marks and scarring after breast augmentation surgery, so a few treatments during the recovery phases may help you improve the texture and tone of your skin after the procedure. If you want to reduce the risk of stretch marks, choosing a breast size that is only ½ cup or 1 cup larger than your original size may be a better choice.


5. Get a second opinion. After you’ve uploaded your photo to a 3D simulation program or taken before and after pictures with and without the sizer, you may want a second opinion on your selection. Meeting with a close friend or family member to discuss the proposed change can help you determine if you are being realistic with your goals of breast augmentation.

Choosing the right size of implants for your breast augmentation procedure can be challenging, and you’ll need time to discuss and review different options available with your surgeon.