Facial Implants Placement

Facial implants are used to shape the face and provide facial fullness in important areas that contribute to the overall appearance of the face. Unlike facial fillers, which are used to provide temporary remedies of transient soft-tissue effects, facial are used in areas where permanent alteration of the face is desired. Most often, this is related to the less changeable aspects of facial appearance, the bone structure and shape.

There are three main areas where facial implants are used to augment the bone:

• Cheeks--high cheekbones are one of the most commonly cited features of an attractive face. If your cheekbones are low, facial implants can make them higher. In addition, facial implants can be used to widen the face, which is most important for men, whose upper face should be wider than the lower face.
• Chin--the size and shape of your chin is crucial to your profile. If your nose appears too large, sometimes it requires rhinoplasty, but other times a small or receding chin is to blame, and a chin implant can permanently improve the appearance of your face.
• Jawbone--a soft jawline can make you appear fat because your neck blends into your face with little or no transition, as it does in people who are overweight. Sometimes, this weak jawline is the result of excess fat pockets, and can be addressed with facial liposuction. Other times, it is the result of sagging jowls, and can be rectified with a facelift. Sometimes, however, your jawbone is sized, shaped, or placed such that no amount of lifting or lipo can rectify it. Instead, you need to improve the size and shape of the jawbone to make your face well-defined and handsome. In these cases, an implant is placed on the jawbone near the back.

Facial implants are a permanent solution to significant cosmetic defects. If you are looking for a permanent improvement in the appearance of your face, contact Face Beautiful Plastic and Cosmetic Surgery, serving La Jolla, California.

Is Botox Really Safe?

The short answer is yes. Many people worry about Botox injections. After all, Botox is botulinum toxin A, which is responsible for the deadly food poisoning known as botulism. Remember, however, that almonds contain cyanide. In fact, it's what gives them their flavor. But does fear of the deadly poison drive you to eat a Mounds even when you feel like a nut? No, because the dosage is so low that you could not possible eat enough almonds to die of cyanide poisoning.

In similar fashion, the dosages of toxin in Botox are very small. And they are localized in the injection site where they only work to correct the shape of specific muscles.

But what about the 16 people killed by Botox I saw on the news? News media are always looking for the best angle to tell a story, and it often leads to a distortion of the facts. First, the reported deaths are only suspected to be related to botulinum toxin A injections. Second, the majority of the deaths were in cases where botulinum toxin A was being used to treat spasms associated with cerebral palsy or other neurological conditions. These people received much higher dosages than used in cosmetic treatments. Of the 16 purported deaths, only one was suspected of being connected to cosmetic Botox. Finally, since it won FDA approval in 2000, Botox cosmetic has been used in nearly 20 million procedures, making the likelihood of death by Botox very very small.

Is Botox really safe? Botox is 200 times safer than having a dog, 2000 times safer than bathtubs, and almost a million times safer than driving in, riding in, or walking near an automobile.

To learn more about the risks and benefits of Botox injections, contact Face Beautiful Plastic and Cosmetic Surgery, serving Escondido, California.

Introducing New Facelift Techniques

At Face Beautiful, we recognized the value of a small-incision facelift very early. We saw the promise of a procedure that gave good results but only required very small incisions (leading to small, easily-concealed scars), and short healing times. Having considered all the available options, we came to prefer the S-lift technique, and began practicing them about a decade ago.

The S-lift had only one problem: its results were not sufficiently long-lasting. Several years ago, we began a program of research to determine what combination of techniques might yield the longevity of a full facelift (7-10 years), with the small incisions and short healing times of the S-lift and other similar small incision facelift techniques.

Now we are proud to introduce our two innovative new facelift techniques, the Face Beautiful Signature facelift (FaBS Lift) and the Face Beautiful Extended Signature facelift (FaBES Lift), which combine the best features of a number of different small-incision facelift techniques. To learn more about these brand-new procedures, please consult our page on Small Incision Facelifts or contact us today to set up your initial consultation.

Benefits of Injectables

Injectable treatments are by far the most popular cosmetic procedures being practiced today, about twenty times more popular than the most popular surgical cosmetic procedure, liposuction.

Why are these procedures so popular? The benefits are clear:

• Procedures are quick (15-30 mins)
• Procedures are nearly painless
• Injectables have a low incidence of side effects
• Injectables require no downtime: you can have the procedure done on your lunch hour and return to work
• Injectables work well within their limits
• The treatments are relatively inexpensive

Together, these benefits have allowed injectables like Botox and Juvéderm, Perlane, and Radiesse to change the face of plastic surgery.

In addition, many injectables have unique benefits. Botox, for example, corrects wrinkles caused by the habitual contraction of brow muscles, and over time the use of Botox can re-train the muscles so that less treatments are required to maintain your youthful appearance. Similarly injectable fillers like Juvéderm and Perlane can not only nourish the skin but also encourage the body to produce its own fillers.

To learn more about the benefits of injectable treatments, please contact us at Face Beautiful today to set up an initial consultation.

Dangers of Plastic Surgery Overseas

For people seeking to have cosmetic surgery done, it seems idyllic to escape to some proverbial Arcadia where the pressures of society are momentarily relaxed and one can heal amidst the eternal Spring with the frolicking sheep to the sound of shepherd swains. Okay, perhaps no-one imagines it quite that way, but the truth of the matter is that all visions of getting a better cosmetic surgery experience by traveling overseas are just as false. At best, the surgery will be the same as the one you get in the United States, and at worst you could suffer from additional complications for which you will find you have no support.

Even relatively minor surgeries like an S-Lift are still surgeries, and carry with them significant risk, and more major surgeries such as a full facelift or a rhinoplasty require a doctor possessed of significant skill or training to achieve successful results without complications.

It may seem that the costs of getting surgery overseas are so much cheaper than in the United States that it is worth the risk, but remember: "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch." The additional costs you pay in the United States all feed into supporting a medical infrastructure, including the training and certification of your doctor, increased hygiene and infection prevention, and the availability of emergency facilities in the event you do suffer complications.

Can eyelid surgery improve your vision?

The short answer is, yes, although the degree to which it will help depends on the individual case. Whenever your eyelids are hanging down over your eyes, they impair your vision, even though you may not notice it. Our visual field is a composite constructed by the mind, and we are never aware of its many gaps, not the center of the visual field which is fabricated, and certainly not the areas of our peripheral vision that are constricted by drooping eyelids. If you have drooping eyelids, you will experience an improvement in your visual field following an eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty). It is possible that the change will be immediately noticeable, especially in situations that require you to respond quickly to unexpected circumstances at the edge of your visual field, such as driving and sports. If you suffer from drooping eyelids, call or email Face Beautiful today to schedule your initial consultation and learn how blepharoplasty can help you look younger and see better.

What are the long term effects of Injectables?

Injectable treatments are constantly growing in popularity. Last year, the number of hyaluronic acid injections administered in the United States grew by 60%, and Botox injections have grown by 420 % since 2000. Injectable treatments are popular because they are minimally invasive, quick, have little side effects and essentially no downtime, and provide good results in making people look younger. Injectable treatments have only one drawback: they are sadly temporary. A person who receives Botox or Restylane injections, for example, will likely need a follow-up treatment in about six months to continue to receive the same aesthetic benefits. But are there any long-term effects of injectable treatments?

Research suggests that there is. Botox treats facial wrinkles by blocking the treated muscles from receiving signals to contract. Since the constant contraction of facial muscles that creates deep wrinkles is a result of habitual contraction, Botox has the ability to recondition muscles over time, so that the types of wrinkles treated by Botox gradually diminish, making the treatment less and less necessary.

Recently, research has implied that there may also be permanent effects from hyaluronic acid fillers such as Restylane and Juvéderm. It seems that skin areas treated with these fillers use the hyaluronic acid they digest to enrich themselves, so that in addition to the temporary filler effect, these compounds have a permanent effect in improved skin health.
So, even though these compounds are essentially short-term treatments, they do have long-lasting, and positive, effects.