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Obagi for Dark Skin May Help Women of Color
Women of color often have trouble finding an ideal skin care routine, according to a poll released by Obagi, a leading maker of professional-grade skincare products.
The poll, which was completed by 1,000 women of varying ethnicities, from African American to Middle Eastern, Asian and Hispanic, found that nearly half of the women shared one concern: pigmentation. This may include issues with hyperpigmentation, dark spots or a generally uneven skin tone.
More startling yet, is the finding that nearly a majority of the women polled said they have difficulty finding skincare products that meet their expectations. Almost half of the women polled said their current skin care routine does not fill their needs.
In some cases, that issue may be linked to finding matching colors for makeup items like foundation or cover-up. Nude, a common color found in the drugstore aisle, will often match the skin tone of women with a more fair complexion. This issue of what constitutes a “nude” shade is a hot topic for the fashion industry, as well, as discussed by the Associated Press.
One clear positive coming out of the poll was the fact that most women asked said they wore a daily sunscreen with an SPF of at least 15, which may be component in products made by Obagi for dark skin. This is good news for the women as it will help ward off sun damage and early signs of aging.
Obagi for Dark Skin and Other Treatments
If you already struggle with photodamaged skin, however, all hope is not lost. In fact, on top of products by Obagi for dark skin, treatments in your plastic surgeon’s office can reverse these issues and an improved skin care regimen can protect it from further damage.
A common way to reduce pigmentation issues is with non-surgical treatments. A chemical peel comes in varying strengths and removes the damaged surface skin cells, smoothing out your skin’s appearance. Dermabrasion or microdermabrasion work in a similar way and may be done with a course of treatments.
For ongoing protection, you should ask your plastic surgeon about Obagi for dark skin. Many of the products Obagi makes are ideal for varying skin types. For dark skin, Obagi’s Nu-Derm and Obagi-C Rx treatments can clear away pigmentation problems from within.
Makeup Wakeup: Revitalizing Your Look at Any Age
Photo courtesy TalkingMakeup.com
Women who have elected cosmetic surgery are eager to show off their younger look, but may now need to apply makeup differently to best showcase it. The authors of Makeup Wakeup: Revitalizing Your Look at Any Age, are determined to help these women, among others.
With Makeup Wakeup, written by Lois Joy Johnson and Sandy Linter, the authors say their goal was to “write a beauty guide we’d read ourselves, one that solved the kinds of issues women face every day.”
Makeup Wakeup, which is targeted at women over 40 aims to provide tips and tricks to combat common signs of aging. Additionally, the authors consulted with surgeons about combining makeup with both cosmetic surgeries and non-surgical treatments.
The authors have a strong pedigree—Johnson was a co-founding editor of More magazine and Linter is a makeup artist for many celebrities.
The book’s release party, which was held last month was attended by several noted celebrities, including Blondie singer Debbie Harry, who is featured in the book. The foreword was written by Better Midler.
Industry experts and professionals are taking note of Makeup Wakeup. A review on Oprah.com said the book is “full of sharp advice” and pointed out the unique makeup buying tips it features.
Makeup Wakeup is available nationwide and is published by Running Press.
Chin Surgery in the Limelight After Palin's Corrective Jaw Procedure
A recent “corrective jaw surgery” for Bristol Palin also gave her what she saw as added cosmetic improvements, too, according to Us Weekly.
Though Palin said she underwent the procedure to help align her jaw and teeth, her appearance is now more streamlined. Palin said because of the surgery she looks more mature and has less of a “chubby little baby face.”
Women, as well as men, who wish to improve the projection of their chins actually have several cosmetic options. Though Palin said she chose surgery for medical reasons, the aesthetic improvements that can be made include permanent chin implants as well as more temporary options like fillers.
By augmenting the shape and projection of the chin, your facial features can be streamlined and harmony between your chin and other prominent facial features can be improved.
Chin augmentation with an implant can add projection to an underdeveloped chin. In this procedure, an alloplastic implant is placed in front of the jaw through an incision under the chin or inside the mouth.
For patients whose chin is only slightly underdeveloped, a dermal filler may be used to fill out its shape, though this is only a temporary solution.
In addition to these procedures to augment the chin, your other facial features can be modified surgically to improve facial harmony. These procedures may include lip augmentation or rhinoplasty, to reshape the nose. Additionally, neck liposuction may create a more refined jawline and chin.
Liposuction After Effects Examined in New Study
A recent study published in Obesity by the University of Colorado called into question the effectiveness of liposuction and has piqued the interest of plastic surgeons and patients alike.
The writers of the study said they found that after patients had undergone liposuction on their lower body, the fat returned a year later in their upper body. The researchers said they found that the body “defends” its fat stores in this way.
While this may be somewhat disheartening news for some, others like Grand Rapids plastic surgeon Dr. Steven Ringler are skeptical. Dr. Ringler said on his blog that he has performed traditional and newer technology forms of liposuction for two decades and has not seen the same result.
“Once fat cells are removed via liposuction, they do not return. They are permanently destroyed,” Ringler said regarding patients who are not overweight and undergo liposuction. “If the patient does not gain weight, they usually are extremely happy with their results and the area of fat does not automatically show up in some other area of the body as the study suggested.”
Ringler stressed that liposuction is not a weight loss solution and concedes that in overweight patients, where a healthy diet and exercise are not adhered to after treatment, the results of liposuction may not be long lasting.
Ringler reminds patients of the importance of consulting with your plastic surgeon to ensure a procedure is right for you.
“Proper patient selection and communication about what liposuction can and cannot accomplish are the best tools to ensure patients are satisfied with their results,” Ringler said.
Four Common Liposuction Myths Debunked
Maintaining realistic expectations is important when considering liposuction, so it is also therefore necessary to separate fiction from fact. Here are four common liposuction myths that frequently confuse and frustrate patients.
Myth: Liposuction is for Weight Loss
Fact: Liposuction does not actually help with weight loss and will not cause a noticeable reduction in weight.
Liposuction is also not an effective way to combat obesity. Obese patients are typically not good candidates for the procedure, as health problems caused by obesity can make elective surgery too risky. Liposuction is best for patients who have a healthy weight and lifestyle, but simply want to improve body proportions or get rid of stubborn fat deposits in specific body areas.
Myth: Liposuction Removes Cellulite
Fact: Liposuction removes fat in deeper tissue layers, but doesn’t affect superficial fat deposits which, in combination with loss of skin elasticity, cause cellulite.
Laser treatments and non-surgical skin tightening procedures may be able to provide temporary cellulite reduction, but the best way to get rid of cellulite is with lifestyle changes that help you maintain well hydrated, collagen rich skin.
Myth: There are Non-Surgical Liposuction Options
Fact: Liposuction is a surgical procedure. There are some body slimming devices out there that claim to provide fat reduction without surgery, however these are often only mildly effective, if at all, and will not provide the same results.
Although liposuction is minimally invasive, it does still involve some sort of anesthesia and incisions needed to insert the suction tube, or cannula, that removes fat cells. So, very small, discreet liposuction scars will be present after the procedure, and patients will need to take at least a few days off work following liposuction.
Myth: Liposuction Can Also Treat Loose Skin
Fact: Liposuction is not an effective skin tightening treatment and cannot get rid of loose skin. However, liposuction is frequently performed in combination with procedures that address flab and excess skin such as a tummy tuck or arm lift surgery.
Some laser liposuction devices claim to offer skin tightening benefits in addition to fat reduction, but any skin tightening achieved with lasers during liposuction is usually minimal and will not do much for patients with moderate to severe skin laxity.
Hand Transplant Restores Function for California Woman
Photo by Francine Orr, courtesy the Los Angeles Times
Surgeons are often regarded as giving a helping hand to reconstructive patients. For Emily, a 26-year-old Californian who recently underwent a hand transplant, according to the Los Angeles Times, this could not be more true.
This process, in some ways is a much more advanced version of hand surgery, which aims to correct hands and fingers that have suffered trauma or a birth defect. Following hand surgery, patients often experience not only increased mobility, but also improved aesthetic appearance, both of which can positively affect many aspects of their lives.
Though Emily is only expected to gain about 60% of the mobility of a normal hand, her spirits seem up near 100%.
“About a week after the accident, my mom said, ‘You can be the kind of person who says ‘Woe is me’ and gives up, or you can say, ‘This sucks, but I’m moving on.’ I chose that one,” Emily said of her attitude.
Unlike what one might expect, Emily’s new donor hand, which her physical therapists are working to get Emily to recognize as her own, is not attached with a circular scar around her wrist. Rather, it is attached using a scar that extends partway down her forearm and then back up to the wrist. Much like techniques that plastic surgeons use for scar revision, this asymmetrical scar greatly improves mobility.
Despite being early in her journey toward gaining more everyday use of her hand, Emily is pushing forward, maintaining her drive.
“The minute you tell me I can’t do something, I do it,” Emily said.
The Rewards and Challenges of a Plastic Surgeon
Photo by Pioter Fliter, courtesy Jewish Journal
Being a young doctor may seem daunting enough, but for plastic surgeon Dr. Rania El Hativ, couple that with also being the first female in your field out of a population of more than 7.5 million.
29 year old, Dr. El Hativ is the first female Israeli plastic surgeon, according to Jewish Journal, a distinction she finds both encouraging and a responsibility. With that comes carrying the weight of speaking for her patients and showing that plastic surgery stretches far beyond cosmetic procedures, El Hativ said.
El Hativ says the challenge of repairing traumas like burns, tumors and cleft palates, among others, is inspiring to her. As an artist, El Hativ says she is able to combine the medical with the aesthetic to help her reconstructive patients.
One such patient was a child who was born with a cleft palate. Three months after El Hativ performed the surgery, the child returned for a check up and El Hativ said there was no evidence of the cleft palate.
“I suddenly understood what I had done for her and how her life was transformed by this surgery,” El Hativ said.
For now, as El Hativ focuses her attention on helping reconstructive patients regain something they once thought was lost, she also works to educate her community about plastic surgery.
“They don’t know that there are so many other things we can do to help change people’s lives,” El Hativ said.
Among the reconstructive surgeries performed by plastic surgeons are also breast reconstruction after a mastectomy and tissue expansion, which works to create excess tissue as part of a procedure.
Mammograms Easily Read for Breast Lipomodeling Patients
Women who have undergone breast lipomodeling should not encounter any issues when submitting to a mammogram, a study by the ASPS found.
The study, which was published in March, examined women who had undergone breast lipomodeling as an alternative to more traditional implant-based breast augmentation. It found that 16 months after the procedure, more than half of the women displayed no abnormalities that would cause an issue on a mammogram. Of the women who did show any abnormalities, they were minor issues like scarring or small calcifications.
The study also compared mammograms for women both before and after breast lipomodeling and found no significant differences in the mammogram results.
Breast lipomodeling was originally introduced as a means for breast reconstruction following a mastectomy. In the cosmetic procedure, your plastic surgeon would use liposuction to remove excess fatty deposits from a donor site on your body, like the hips or thighs. After it has been purified, your plastic surgeon then uses lipomodeling techniques to inject the fat into your breasts, giving them volume and improving the shape.
While the results of the ASPS study are only preliminary, they bode well for the continued adoption of breast lipomodeling in the plastic surgery breast augmentation canon.
MRIs May Not Detect All Ruptured Breast Implants
MRIs may not be as effective in detecting ruptured breast implants in women as the FDA originally thought, according to a study published by Medical News Today.
A research team at the University of Michigan investigated the effectiveness of MRI scans in detecting breast implant ruptures and found that among women who had no symptoms, the ruptures often went undetected. For women who had experienced symptoms of a ruptured implant, such as hardening of the breast or pain, detection rate was much higher. In a mixed screening of women with and without symptoms, ruptured implants in those with symptoms were twice as likely to be detected by the MRI.
Researchers said that the average age of the ruptured implants they saw was ten years—implants are not guaranteed to last a lifetime and often need to be replaced.
Though this data may be disconcerting, the study’s authors said further research needs to be done to determine the effectiveness of detecting a ruptured implant through an MRI. They also urged that the long-term health effects of a ruptured implant need further study.
Plastic surgeons successfully use breast implants as part of breast augmentation to increase breast size and projection as well as in breast lift surgeries to lift sagging breasts, which may have also lost volume.
Alternative to Botulinum Toxin Injections
An alternative to Botox and Dysport is seeing early signs of success in “freezing” away many types of forehead wrinkles, according to U.S. News.
Though both Botox and Dysport are hugely popular non-surgical options for diminishing many facial lines and wrinkles, new alternatives are often being researched. This treatment, which is called cryoneuromodulation, “appears to have the same clinical efficacy and safety comparable to the existing techniques,” according to Francis Palmer, director of facial plastic surgery at the University of Southern California School of Medicine in Los Angeles, who co-authored the study.
Rather than paralyzing the underlying muscle to smooth out the wrinkle as Botox and Dysport do, this new method freezes specific nerves in the forehead using small needles. This stops the nerve from communicating with the muscle, which causes it to relax. The smoothing effect is almost immediate and lasts about as long as botulinum toxin-based methods—three to four months.
The procedure takes about 15 minutes to complete while the patient is under a local anesthetic. Patients said the level of discomfort was similar to that experienced with Botox.
Though you may want to jump at the chance to try this new wrinkle-fighting treatment, it is still in the early stages of trails and has only been tested on forehead wrinkles. In the meantime, Botox is known to beautifully treat forehead lines, frown lines and crow’s feet.
