2008 — The Biggest Year Yet for Plastic Surgery!

This year is promising to be the biggest ever in terms of numbers of people having cosmetic surgery.

Dr. Kevin Light, a leading cosmetic surgeon in the Dallas area, offers advice on procedures that continue to be in demand today, and gives his predictions for the coming year.

"People are taking better care of themselves today than ever before," stated Dr. Light. "The Internet, television and other media have made plastic surgery an every day topic. People know their options, and they are demanding the best when it comes to choices and results."

Dr. Light predicts that the top trends in cosmetic surgery for this year will be:

"Mommy" Makeovers:

Because women are having children later in life, the desire to look and feel as young as possible will continue to rise. As women complete their families, they desire to return to their active lifestyle and their pre-pregnancy shape.

A mommy makeover is more than sculpting the body to improve a woman's looks; it's also about restoring her youthful personality and giving her the energy she had in the past. A mommy makeover combines two or more procedures, and is customized for the desires and the lifestyle of each woman.

Breast Augmentation:

Over the past few years, breast augmentation has gone through a variety of changes, and will continue to do so. Silicone implants have returned to the market and are safer than ever before. They give superior results and now comprise over 50% of our breast augmentation implants.

Minimal Incision Facelifts:

Facelifts will continue to grow this year as more options become available. The popularity of reality shows and lifestyle facelifts will continue to make facelifts one of the most desired procedures. The minimal incision facelift will give people the results associated with a more traditional facelift, with shorter recovery and less down time.

Non-Invasive Treatments:

Non-invasive cosmetic procedures like Juvederm, Botox and Radiesse will continue to grow as the demand for "lunchtime" procedures rises. These non-surgical procedures help hydrate your skin and replenish its natural volume. They are great for your laugh lines and smile lines, and can produce lasting results over a short period of time.

Cosmetic Surgeries — Recent Trends

The facts and figures about cosmetic surgery provide us with very thought provoking and often amusing facts. If you go through one of them you will be astonished to find the extent of monetary involvement in the sphere of cosmetic surgery. One point stands out clearly and that is people are today more concerned about their looks and how they present themselves before the world. A princely amount of $12.2 billion was what the Americans spent to discover more presentable features on the other side of the mirror. According to an ASPS survey, some 11.5 million cosmetic procedures were performed overall in the United States in 2006. There are many more interesting facts that reflect on the recent trends in the sphere of cosmetic surgery.

The most popular cosmetic surgical procedures: eyelid surgery and rhinoplasty or reshaping of nose. Since the year of 1997, the numbers of nose jobs increased by some 46% and people are often ready to travel 50 miles or more to get plastic surgery, if they do not find a satisfactory plastic surgeon nearer.

Men often hold that having a plastic surgery is a career related decision,. While women seem to be more honest to confess that they need it because they want to look younger.

For women, breast augmentation was proved to be the most popular cosmetic surgical procedure, and some 384,000 women undergone the procedure in the United States in 2006.

Men however found liposuction to be their ideal surgical procedures, with more than 53,000 men taking up the procedure last year.

However, the most interesting trend involves patients increasingly shifting reliance from surgical procedures to minimally invasive procedures. This increasing interest in the non invasive procedures has two important reasons behind them: the first relates to man’s instinctive fear of going under knife and second relates to the comparatively far lower cost of non- invasive procedures.

Among several non- surgical cosmetic procedures, both men and women seem to rely most on Botox injection. Some 2.8 million women undergone Botox procedure last year where for men, the number was 300,472.

The trend reflects on the use of other popular non surgical treatments too. Use of hyaluronic acid and other fillers to give a fuller look to the face and to reduce wrinkles has also become very common. The laser hair removal and skin resurfacing are other two non invasive procedures that have become extremely popular. And interestingly, both men and women are getting these treatments in almost equal proportion.

Another interesting trend of cosmetic surgery relates to the age factor. There was a time when, cosmetic surgery was regarded as the monopolized domain of the rich ladies having enough cash to blow off in fancy things. But today, more and more people are opting for cosmetic improvements in an early age and often their decisions are guided by their career ambition. It is mainly the non-invasive procedures like skin peel that people are opting at an early age while reserving the more complicated procedures like face lift for a riper age.

Last but not least, the studies have found out that only third of patients who undergone some form of cosmetic procedure complained of complicated side effects; 80% of them were happy with the outcome.

More Youthful Hands with Hand Rejuvenating Fat Transfer

When Luisa Moore realized a few years ago that she was nearing her 60th birthday, she decided to make some changes, aesthetically speaking. She hired a trainer. She lost 20 pounds. She got a face-lift. And by the time she hit the big milestone, she couldn't have been happier. Except for one thing — her hands didn't quite match her new-and-improved look!

"I didn't have much sun damage in my face, but I had it in my hands, and that was giving my age away," said Moore, of Marina del Rey. "So I thought, you know, after having a face-lift, if I don't get my hands done, what's the point?"

It's a common concern. In the quest to look younger longer, more and more women are finding that when it comes to looking youthful, it's not just all about a pretty face.

"After the face, hands are the second-most-visible, telltale sign of one's age," president-elect of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, said in a written statement. "Looking younger after your face-lift or eyelid surgery can conflict with aged hands that simply do not match the face.

"If your goal is to look more youthful, and you are bothered by the appearance of your hands, you may seriously want to consider hand rejuvenation. "Some people have very young faces, but their hands give them away."

In fact, according to a study published in the June issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, most people can accurately tell a person's age by viewing only their hands.

In the study, participants were given unaltered photographs of female hands and asked to estimate the women's ages. In the majority of cases, participants were able to accurately guess the age, citing prominent hand veins as the biggest clue to aging.

"As the face ages, we lose fat. We lose elasticity to the skin," Bucky said. "The same thing happens to the hands."

As it turns out, hand rejuvenation isn't all that different from facial rejuvenation. Options range from chemical peels to minimally invasive procedures including injectable fillers such as fat.

For people concerned about prominent hand veins, which can give hands an aged look, fat transfer can plump up the skin and thus diminish the appearance of bulging veins.

The actual procedure of fat harvesting and transfer is quick and easy. It is done under local anesthesia. Fat is taken from the hips, thighs, abdomen or anywhere else that stubborn unwanted fat tends to collect. Dr. Kevin Light can is very experienced in fat transfer techniques and will happily answer any questions you may have.

New, Better Understanding of Facial Aging

The longstanding idea that the entire human face ages uniformly is in need of a facelift, say researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center who have found that multiple, distinct compartments of fat in the face age at different rates.

The findings, published in a recent issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, challenge previously held theories regarding aging and may offer new ways to help turn back the clock, UT Southwestern plastic surgeons say.

"For hundreds of years, everyone has believed that the fat on the face is one confluent mass, which eventually gets weighed down by gravity, creating sagging skin," said Dr. Joel Pessa, assistant professor of plastic surgery and the study's lead author. "In our studies, however, we were surprised to find that this is not the case; the face is made up of individual fat compartments that gain and lose fat at different times and different rates as we age."

Dr. Pessa said the face resembles a three-dimensional puzzle, with fat divided into distinct units around the forehead, eyes, cheeks and mouth. Facial aging is, in part, characterized by how these separate compartments change as we grow older.

A youthful face is characterized by a smooth transition between these compartments. As people age, contour changes occur between these regions due to volume losses and gains as well as repositioning of the compartments. Eventually, this can result in sagging or hollowed skin and wrinkles.

"This is a revolutionary way of viewing facial anatomy. It not only tells us how we age, it shows us why we age the way we do, and why every part of the face, from the eyelids to the cheeks, ages differently," said Dr. Rod Rohrich, chairman of plastic surgery and senior author of the study. "This will help plastic surgeons around the world not only understand how we can better rejuvenate the face, but how people age as a physiological process."

This breakthrough could have tremendous implications in helping plastic surgeons target facial 'trouble' areas and use injectible fillers to add volume to individual sections of the face. It could also aid in developing new and improved cosmetic and reconstructive surgery techniques, Dr. Rohrich said.

"Understanding how fat is compartmentalized will allow us to be very accurate and precise in how we approach facial rejuvenation," Dr. Pessa said. "This gives us an algorithm, or scientific approach, to help ascertain what areas of the face may need extra fat to combat the aging process. It also is a major breakthrough in facial anatomy that will have major implications for future studies on aging and possibly hold clues to the study of other diseases such as obesity, diabetes and cancer."

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