Archive for the ‘Procedures’ Category

When can you time Chin Implant Surgery with Braces?

Friday, September 4th, 2009

Chin implant surgery (or chin augmentation / chin enhancement / chin reduction / jaw implant surgery / chin silicone implant surgery / chin shaping / chin reshaping) occurs at the bottom of your chin and jaw area which are not in the same vicinity as your teeth and braces.  The only concern that I would have is regarding the hygiene in your oral cavity.  With braces, you are more likely to have residue in your braces and around your teeth and the bacteria load is likely to be higher.  Because of this I would rather do the approach through the bottom of your chin where the incision can hide really well.  Otherwise, I think you can do it with having braces.  Of course, I would wait until you are adjusted to any period where tightening of the braces occur for your comfort.

thanks for reading Dr Young

Dr Young specializes in Facial Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

Can botox and fillers make you look worse after they wear off?

Friday, September 4th, 2009

People tend  to forget about how they used to look like after they get their improvement from Botox (or dysport / botulinum toxin / bo tox) and Facial Fillers (such as juvederm / restylane / radiesse / perlane / cosmoderm / artefill / sculptra / alloderm).  This is a very common occurence.  Hence when the effects wear off, people tend to think they look worse when in fact they are just returning to a previous less optimal state. In fact, botox will only help make the muscles weaker the more you do it which will essentially leave the muscle less likely to make more wrinkles. Fillers also have a possibility to make things better even after the effects are long expected to be gone.  Sometimes, fillers develop scar tissue around it which makes the fillers last longer and hence the beneficial effects last longer.  The scar tissue prevents the body from breaking it down. This is something that I have noticed in many patients.  But, back to the question, i don’t think your appearance is usually made to look worse after these temporary treatments. In general, botox can improve the appearance of dynamic wrinkles (wrinkle treatment / facial line treatment) while fillers can improve more static wrinkles by filling in loss volume.

I refined an amazing volumizing procedure called “the YoungLift”. This is an innovative technique that volumizes your face to bring out the younger and natural you without looking like you had something done. This is not a facelift and requires no incisions. Only pinpoint puncture sites are used and these heal imperceptibly. The YoungLift can be done without general anesthesia and without drains, and large bandages. You also have sometimes a lot less downtime and discomfort compared with traditional facelift procedures. I employ the very best techniques from around the world into one volumizing procedure and I use my internationally acclaimed understanding of facial beauty to create the youthful volume you once had.

Thanks for reading, Dr Young

Dr Young specializes in Facial Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

Turkey neck treatment in a person that is afraid of her history of keloids!

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

Keloids occur less in the facial area and certain ethnicities are more prone. It really depends on where you develop keloids.  Areas of high movement such as the knees, and shoulders are more likely to develop keloids.  The high part of the chest is another area that has a predilection for keloid production.  If you developed keloid in these prone areas the chances are that you develop keloids to the facial area are probably a lot less.  You are caucasian based on the pictures which leads me to believe that you are probably less likely to develop keloids in your face and neck area.  But you may be a rare case and more details about your keloid formation would help someone decide.  The options for improving your turkey neck include liposuction which will give you some mild to moderate improvement.  A formal neck lift (or necklift / platysmaplasty / lower face lift ) can entail only small incisions under your chin and behind your ear and hide very well and really improve your turkey neck (or submental fat, double chin / neck laxiy / neck bands / fatty neck).  Others have used lasers to tighten up the skin to a minimal degree.  But if you really want some results, I would do a more formal procedure and it can make a world of difference!

Thanks for reading, Dr Y

Dr Young specializes in Facial Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

Scarring and whether Photofacials / Intense Pulse Light can help the appearance.

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

More and more research is showing that scar production has a large contribution from the inflammatory component and that blood flow is a perpetuator.  Intense pulse light and photofacials (or laser scar revision)can be used to target the blood flow to the scar and hence stiffle the blood flow that is feeding the scar production.  Ultimately, this leads to less scarring and a better appearance to the scar.  Timing is important, your scar should be in the inflammatory stage where blood flow plays an important part.  If the scar is mature, the results will be less impactful.  It really depends on how your scar looks.  You may need a formal scar revision (or scar treatment / scar removal / cosmetic scar surgery / scar plastic surgery) with excision and a reclosure of the wound to improve it.

Thanks for reading, Dr Y

Dr Young specializes in Facial Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

Keloids and how to treat them

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

Keloids are a hard thing to improve through scar revisional techniques.(scar removal / scar treatment / scar revision) Invariably they always come back to some extent.  Steroid injections are helpful after excising them.  During my fellowship training in Louisiana, I had a lot of experience with Keloids / large scars / hypertrophic scars.  One thing we did there is take them out and let them heal secondarily or open without closing them and creating additional tension.  That seemed to help that population a lot of times. This is something you should ask your doctor about.  There is scientific basis to how that helps the healing.  I did some extensive research on this.

Thanks for reading, Dr Y

Dr Young specializes in Facial Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

Can you take off 1 cm all around the nose to make it look smaller and more proportionate

Thursday, September 3rd, 2009

This is a question I answered regarding the above concern:

You probably don’t need that much taken off. One cm of reduction is on the extreme side and you really probably don’t need to take that much off when you undergo rhinoplasty (or nose job / nose shaping / nose reshaping / nose cosmetic surgery / nose plastic surgery / rino plasty).  What might bring your nose into balance is lifting up the tip of your nose and placing a graft in between the eyes to offset what you are feeling is a big hump of a nose.  The only way to tell is to look at you in person or through some well taken photographs.  Your nose can be made to look like what you want to a significant degree.  Remember, nothing is magic but we, as doctors, are trying to make it looks as though it were magic.

I appreciate you reading, Dr Young!

Dr Young specializes in Facial Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

What is laser neck lift?

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009

A laser neck lift can mean a form of liposuction that has a laser attached to it that helps shrink the fat and which can lead to more tightening of the skin.  Fair results can be achieved with this technique.  It can also mean using resurfacing techniques with co2 technology that can cause tightening by creating collagen contracture in the more superficial layers of the skin.  The tightening from this can lead to even less neck tightening than the laser liposuction.  Lumenis has technology that can tighten the deeper layers of the skin through their Deep fx hand piece that directs the co2 laser to the deeper layers.  Again this is more subtle in terms of the results.  If you really want tightening of the your neck bands, turkey gobblers, double chin, loose neck skin a formal neck lift (neck lift / platysmaplasty / lower face lift / lower facelift) is the best way to do that.  This can be done with small incisions under the chin and behind the ear which can heal almost imperceptibly.

Dr Young specializes in Facial Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

When should flight attendants go back to work after an Eye lift?

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009

This is a question a patient asked of me. Here is how I answered it:

One week is about the average time it takes to get better. Healing is personal and individualized after an eyelift / blepharoplasty (eye plastic surgery / eye cosmetic surgery / eye lift) .  Everybody heals differently.  Someone can heal to a certain stage at one week while someone may take a month to get to that same point.  Bruising typically resolves by one week and same with the swelling but everyone again is different.  In terms of bruising, additional bleeding the first week is the most important.  You should be really careful of not doing anything strenous for the first week but if you want to be aggressive to getting back to work the first two days are the most important for the bleeding and oozing.  One thing to realize is that your wounds heal 60% at 6 weeks, 80% at 6 months, and 88% approximately at 2 years.  This is another way at looking at things.  Based on this the decision to return to work is really up to you.  I have has patients take a flight 2 days after a facelift.  Everybody is different is the rule!

I hope that helps.

Dr Young

Dr Young specializes in Facial Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

Blue shadows under the eyes and what are the treatments?

Monday, August 31st, 2009

This is an answer that someone had asked me recently:How do you improve the blue hue under the eye with lower eyelid surgery and what options are there?

Options include fat injection (fat transfer / fat augmentation / fat grafting),  laser resurfacing, (laser peel / Active Fx, Deep Fx, Co2 laser resurfacing), lower eyelid blepharoplasty (lower eyelift / eye lift / lower eyelid pinch). It sounds to me that you might have some volume loss under the skin of the lower eyelid which would include skin thickness, collagen and fat in the lower eyelid cheek area.  The result is that the muscles around the eye are seen more clearly under the skin to give it the blue hue that is seen.  the ways to improve this include fat injections that create a layer of tissue under the skin to block the deeper blue colors from showing throw the skin.  Laser resurfacing also can create a layer of collagen underneath the skin to also block the blue from showing through.

The other explanation is that the bulging of fat from the lower eyelid could be causing a shadow under the bulge to cause the blue discoloration. Lower eyelid blepharoplasty which can remove the fat and skin that is causing the shadow underneath.

thanks for reading, Dr Young

Dr Young specializes in Facial Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

Can fat injections be permanent? What are some options.

Monday, August 31st, 2009

Fat injections (fat transfer / fat grafting / fat augmentation) can be “permanent”. One thing to realize is that fat injections and anything in life aren’t necessarily permanent and forever.  Fat injection results can last many years if done right.  Just like the fat that you had when you were younger, they eventually went away after a while as you aged.  This same process will eventually happen to the fat that you have injected.  Over many years, the fat will get metabolized as you age but the results may last for 10 years or more.  Another option of volumizing is through facial implants.  Silicone is the most common implant that people place within the face and these implants can last essentially forever.  Facial implants (silicone implants / cheek implants / jaw implants / facial implantation / chin implants) are more of a permanent option but the drawbacks are having a foreign material placed within your face and it does require more incisions and likely recovery time than fat injections.  If you can handle the idea of putting something foreign into your face this is a great option.  Silicone implants have been placed into thousands of patients around the world and has an excellent track record for safety.  You can see more on fat injections on my website and youtube account.

I refined an amazing volumizing procedure called “the YoungLift”. This is an innovative technique that volumizes your face to bring out the younger and natural you without looking like you had something done. This is not a facelift and requires no incisions. Only pinpoint puncture sites are used and these heal imperceptibly. The YoungLift can be done without general anesthesia and without drains, and large bandages. You also have a lot less downtime and discomfort compared with traditional facelift procedures. I employ the very best techniques from around the world into one volumizing procedure and I use my internationally acclaimed understanding of facial beauty to create the youthful volume you once had.

thanks for reading Dr Young

Dr Young specializes in Facial Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington