WeilMD

To eliminate the furrowed look of a college professor lost in thought, the most permanent solution is a forehead lift. A forehead, or brow lift, raises the skin of the forehead, smoothing the deep folds and provides you with a younger and brighter appearance. There are two basic types of forehead lift, the endoscopic lift is less invasive and produces minor scarring. The doctor uses a small camera (the endoscope) and another tool to work on the skin from behind, manipulating the muscles, and pulling the skin taut at strategic locations. The more invasive and more traditional procedure requires a long incision from ear to ear, hidden in the hairline. In this method, the entire forehead is lifted, and sutured into place after the excess skin is removed.

Another popular option for reducing lines in the forehead are Botox® injections. Botox® is a toxin extracted from the botulism virus. The toxin is injected in small doses near the wrinkled areas. The action of the toxin inhibits the enzyme in the body that causes muscles to contract, in essence paralyzing those muscles. Since the muscles cannot contract, the deeper lines of the forehead are smoothed. Botox® is not a permanent solution however, and must be refreshed every six months or so to maintain your more youthful, stress free appearance.

To find out more about treatment options to reduce furrows in your forehead area, please schedule an initial consultation with Dr. Weil today.

One of the most prominent features of your face is your forehead. Your forehead can be smooth and youthful in appearance, or furrowed and wrinkled. If yours is the latter example, there are cosmetic procedures that can turn it into the former. There are two basic types of brow lift surgery performed. In the traditional brow lift, a long incision is made from the top of one ear to the other a few inches behind the hairline. After the incision, the entire forehead is raised until the deep-set brow wrinkles are reduced and smoothed out. Excess skin is removed and the skin sutured closed. When completely healed, the scars will be hidden in the hair, once it grows back.

The less invasive endoscopic forehead lift produces smaller scars than the traditional procedure. This procedure uses five (or fewer) inch long incisions in the hairline. Using a small camera called an endoscope; the doctor can reposition the skin of the forehead from underneath the skin. Using another specialized tool, Dr. Weil can sculpt the muscle and tissue much as he does with the traditional method. The endoscopic procedure produces less scarring, but is also less effective for very deep wrinkles and folds. The endosopic procedure is also slightly less enduring, and may require a touch up after about ten years. The more traditional procedure can last much longer, and may never require any tweaking. Browplasty is commonly performed with other cosmetic procedures, such as blepharoplasty or a facelift for total facial rejuvenation. If you are interested in finding out more about this, or other cosmetic procedures, please contact Dr. Weil today to schedule an initial consultation.

The main consideration if you smoke? Stop! There are many reasons to stop smoking, but since this is a cosmetic surgery blog, I'll just touch on the aesthetic reasons. If you look at your hand, you will notice a network of blood vessels just under the skin. Aside from the prominent vein that pops out of your forehead when you get angry, there are basically no veins or arteries crisscrossing your face. Blood is delivered to your face in dense capillary systems, which are small blood vessels, the smallest allowing only one blood cell at a time to pass through. Smoking hardens and shrinks blood vessels, especially the capillaries, and restricts blood flow to your face. This is what gives smokers that leathery appearance, leading many of them to consider a facelift in the first place.

After surgery you should refrain from smoking until you are fully healed. In some cases smokers who do not allow enough time end up with dead skin because the restricted blood flow. Other things to avoid before and after undergoing a facelift are herbal supplements and products, ibuprofen, and aspirin. Discontinue vitamins weeks before and after surgery to prevent any possible negative interactions with the healing process. Prescription medications should be continued unless otherwise specified by the surgeon. It is important to discuss your full medical history, including any prescriptions you are on with Dr. Weil. If you are considering a facelift, or any other cosmetic procedure, and would like to find out more, please contact Dr. Weil today to set up an initial consultation.

As we age, the plump cherub-like cheeks we enjoyed as a kid disappear and are all too often replaced by hollow cheeks and wrinkled skin. While a facelift can help with smoothing wrinkles and sagging skin, it can't fill in the hollows and valleys that are left behind. As we age, the connective tissue under our cheeks degrades and the skin begins to sag. After a facelift, the skin over the cheeks may appear flat or unfilled. Depending on your desired outcome, your facelift procedure may include liposculpture or fat modeling. You don't want to have your new appearance ruined by hollow or asymmetrical cheeks.

Liposuction is used to remove excess fat in areas that need to be reduced, and can be transferred to other areas that need a little extra filler. Fat injections may be used to fill in areas that need it, like your cheeks. Fat makes a good filler material because it is harvested from the patient's own body and can be stored for future procedures. Because the fat belongs to the patient, there is little chance for infection and almost zero chance of being rejected by the body. To find out more how liposculpture can enhance your facelift procedure, schedule an initial consultation with Dr. Weil today.

If you are considering facelift surgery, there are a few things you can do both before and after surgery to make the operation a success.

Face it; there are times when you just want to enhance the way you look. A facelift, or rhytidectomy, might be just the thing to help improve your self-image. There are several types of facelift procedure, including traditional (deep plane lift), mid-facelift, and mini-facelift, Dr. Weil will discuss which procedure best meets your goals during the initial consultation period. Healing and recovery times depend on which type of surgery you elect to undergo and your overall health. Of course the more invasive the procedure, the longer it will take for full recovery. In most cases, you can resume light activity just a few days post operation. However, you may not want to go back to work or appear in public for some time.

Immediately after surgery, a loose bandage is applied to assist with bleeding and swelling. The next day it is replaced with an elastic wrap to be worn for the next few days following surgery. Many people take at least a week to ten days before returning to work. Full healing will take several months, but you in most cases you can return to more rigorous exercise and full activity at about four to six weeks post operation, which is when the majority of the swelling and pain subsides. Mid-facelift and mini-facelift, procedures typically have a recovery time of three days. Because of the short recovery time, these types of lift are often referred to as weekend facelifts. To speed the healing process, smoking should be avoided for several months before and after surgery.

To find out more about which facelift procedure is right for you, please contact Dr. Weil and schedule an initial consultation today.

The eyes are the most important facial feature you have; everybody looks at them and notices them. Concern about scarring and appearance of your eyes following eyelid surgery is understandable. Dr. Weil takes great care to minimize scarring. Incisions are made either on the inside of the lower eyelid or along the edge to remove excess skin and fat deposits. If external incisions are made, they are made in the natural folds of the eye so as to remain unnoticeable. Depending on your wants and needs, blepharoplasty changes the external appearance of your eye, but of course does not affect the eyeball itself.

Scarring occurs in stages typically beginning with redness and thickening of the incision line. Sometime small bumps may appear, but over time, the redness, swelling and imperfections will go away. Allow up to six months for complete healing of the scar tissue. Over time, the body will continue to work on the scar tissue so that eventually it will be completely unnoticeable. Be careful not to rub or massage the area after surgery, and avoid rubbing for a long time afterwards, as this action is usually counterproductive. The blepharoplasty procedure does not affect the shape of the eyeball in any way. After surgery, pain and swelling are typically kept under control with cold compresses and over the counter pain medications like Tylenol. To find out more about the changes you can expect after eyelid surgery, contact Dr. Weil today to schedule an initial consultation.

Blepharoplasty, also known as eye surgery, to remove sagging and hooding skin from around your eyes is meant to last a lifetime. The procedure permanently removes excess skin from around the eyes, giving you a younger, brighter appearance. Unlike other surgeries like a facelift, the eyelid problems being addressed are not relating to gravitational pull, but are more related to hereditary appearance. Once the eyelids are corrected to the desired look, they tend to stay that way.

Some eyelid surgeries can more deeply define the folds of your upper eyelid to give better definition or a more prominent fold. After several years, there are some instances where a retouch may be recommended, if the skin around your eyes re-sags or new wrinkles reappear, but repeating a full-blown blepharoplasty is seldom necessary.

Some sagging and bagging that occurs around the eyes are not due to changes in the eyelids themselves, but the skin around the eyes is being pulled down by other areas of the skin. Gravity from your cheeks may begin to pull on the lower eyelid, or a heavy brow could be pushing down from the above the eye. These issues may be better addressed with a forehead lift, facelift, or cheek augmentation. Verify with Dr. Weil whether an eyelid lift or one of these other procedures is recommended.

After the eyelid surgery, there will be some minor bruising and swelling around the eyes, and you may not realize the full effects of the procedure until several weeks later. The swelling and bruising can be minimized with prescribed post-operative care such as applying ice packs for short periods of time. Dr. Weil will prescribe pain medicine to help you rest and recover after the surgery. To find out more about blepharoplasty recovery times, please contact Dr. Weil today for an initial consultation.