Women have many options regarding their breast implants in Columbus, including implant type, size, and placement. Another important consideration is incision pattern. With the current technology available, breast implants can now be placed through a variety of locations in order to reduce scarring, including remote sites such as the belly button and underarm. However, I typically prefer the inframammary incision, which involves a natural placement located in the regular breast fold. As a surgeon, this location provides me with better control over the breast implant placement and allows me to work more closely to the breast. The inframammary incision offers my patients many benefits as well, such as:

• Inconspicuous scarring hidden in the natural breast crease
• Improved placement options: sub-glandular, partial sub-muscular or complete sub-muscular
• Flexibility of implant choice: appropriate for both saline and silicone
• An accessible incision site that can be used for future surgeries, thereby eliminating the need for additional incisions

Although I perform inframammary incisions most frequently, another option that I offer for breast implant placement is through the areola, also known as a periareolar incision. For this technique, breast implants are placed through an incision around the areola, making scarring nearly imperceptible.

When I perform breast augmentation in Columbus, I always take plenty of time to address all of my patients’ concerns and answer their questions. A few have mentioned reading on the Internet about a rare post-surgical complication known as the “double bubble” effect. This occurs when one or both of the breast implants shift below the fold of the inframammary crease, creating a second curve behind the breast. I always assure my patients that when they choose an experienced, board-certified plastic surgeon, “double bubble” should not be a concern.

At my practice, I take several steps to minimize the likelihood of double bubble. Some of the strategies I employ include:

• Choosing the right implant size for the patient’s body type and body frame
• Carefully evaluating the degree of skin elasticity and skin sag before surgery
• Properly positioning the implants in relation to the patient’s breast crease and chest anatomy

Using this careful approach allows me greater control over the surgical outcome – which is why my patients typically enjoy a pleasing cosmetic result. This meticulous attention to detail and careful execution applies to every procedure I perform, whether it is a breast enhancement or a face lift surgery at my Columbus, OH practice.

At my plastic surgery practice in Columbus, Ohio, I use advanced surgical techniques to minimize incisions, often to the point that scars are undetectable. But what about those patients who come to me with pre-existing scars that they would like to minimize?

I perform a special type of reconstructive surgery that is used to improve the appearance of scars for those patients with scars from an accident or injury. I am able improve the scar’s appearance when other treatments such as topical ointments, cortisone drugs, or steroids prove ineffective. Although it is not possible to completely remove a scar, this procedure can improve the cosmetic result by making the scar less noticeable.

Two common types of scars that may require scar revision surgery include hypertrophic scars and keloid scars.

• Hypertrophic scars: this type of scar is usually large, thick, and raised. Many are either red or dark in color and may itch or feel uncomfortable. Hypertrophic scars are limited to the site of injury and typically do not grow outside the wound location.
• Keloid scars: keloid scars are an overgrowth of tissue that develop on the surface of the skin. This type of scar may extend beyond the wound site and is usually larger than hypertrophic scars. Although they are harmless, keloid scars can also be painful or itchy.

Scar Removal Treatment

I may use several surgical techniques for scar removal, depending on factors such as the size, depth, and location of the wound, as well as the individual’s age and skin characteristics. Usually, it is best to allow the scar to fully mature (typically about 2 years) before undergoing surgery, since most scars fade and shrink as they age.

Before you know it, we’ll be finished with the holidays and celebrating the beginning of a New Year. If you’re like many men and women, your resolution is to work out more and slim down a bit. If you’re at or near your ideal weight and just need a little encouragement, liposuction just might be able to help you along.

First, let me explain one very important point: liposuction is not a weight loss method. It is only appropriate for people who are not overweight and have tried to improve their figure through diet and exercise. That said, liposuction has helped some of my liposuction patients in Columbus, Ohio get in better shape or stay in shape.

Why? Once they’ve had those “trouble spots” slimmed, people feel inspired and motivated to keep their figure looking good. Many men and women report that, after liposuction, they feel more confident about how they look in tight-fitting athletic gear. When they’re not self-conscious about minor bulges, they are less worried about hitting the gym in more revealing garb.

If you’ve been considering liposuction, maybe it’s time to take the next step. You can start 2011 looking your best, feeling your best, and excited about your active lifestyle.

Mommy Makeovers have gained popularity as more women discover that these combined plastic surgery procedures can be an effective way to restore their pre-pregnancy figure. Although the physical changes that occur after pregnancy and breastfeeding can be different for each woman, these changes usually affect the breasts. For this reason, breast enhancement (often breast augmentation) is usually incorporated as part of a Mommy Makeover.

How Motherhood Changes the Breasts

Breast size generally increases when women are pregnant and breastfeeding. This increased size can cause the skin to stretch as well. Yet, when women have finished breastfeeding, their breasts lose volume and the stretched skin causes their breasts to droop or sag.

How Breast Augmentation Can Help

Breast augmentation (also referred to as “breast enlargement”) increases breast size. At the same time, the added volume can fill out stretched skin and create a better breast shape. This can go a long way toward helping women get a look that resembles (or may even be better than) their “breasts before baby.”

The Breast Augmentation Procedure

During breast augmentation surgery, a saline or silicone implant is placed either above or beneath the chest muscle. The size of the implant can be fine-tuned to achieve just the increase women desire. There are several incision patterns that can be used for placing the implant, and your surgeon should discuss these with you in detail, as well as your breast implant options. Performed at an outpatient surgery center (not in a hospital), breast augmentation at my Columbus practice generally involves a relatively quick and comfortable recovery.

Combined Augmentation & Lift

If there is significant sagging (ptosis), a breast enlargement may not be enough to restore a perky look. In such cases, women often choose to combine their breast augmentation with a breast lift. These procedures can be safely performed together, for a more youthful breast appearance.

Abdominoplasty, often referred to as a tummy tuck, is popular among my Columbus, Ohio patients (as well as men and women throughout the United States). Many of my patients choose this procedure because they want a smoother and flatter stomach, one that will be proportional to the rest of their body. A tummy tuck removes excess abdominal fat and skin and tightens abdominal muscles.

Most people understand these basic facts about abdominoplasty; what they may not realize is that, especially when receiving a full tummy tuck, the position of the belly button may need to be changed.

During a full tummy tuck:

1. An incision is made from hip to hip, above the pubic area.
2. Another incision is made to free the navel of surrounding skin.
3. The skin is detached from the abdominal wall, and muscles are restructured.
4. Excess skin and fat are removed.
5. The old belly button stalk is brought out through a new hole.
6. Liposuction may be used to refine specific areas.

It should be noted that this does not need to happen in all cases. A skilled plastic surgeon will personalize the tummy tuck procedure for each patient, so each surgery is slightly different. If you’re considering a tummy tuck, meet with a qualified board-certified plastic surgeon to learn more about how the procedure would affect the position of your belly button.

When considering implants, it is important to think about more than just the cup size of your new breasts. I tell all of my breast augmentation patients in Columbus that they should look at the whole picture when making decisions about their implants.

Implant Type

Silicone

Pros: Silicone breast implants have a more natural look and feel than saline implants. They do not ripple or wrinkle like saline implants. After considerable scrutiny, they have been established as safe by the FDA (not causing autoimmune disorders, cancer, or other diseases).

Cons: If silicone implants rupture, it is possible that it could go unnoticed for some time because they will not immediately deflate. So women who have this type of implant should get regular MRI’s to ensure that the implant is still in place. Another drawback is that they tend to be more expensive than their saline counterparts, and patients must be at least 22 years of age in order to get silicone implants.

Saline

Pros: Saline implants are filled after insertion. This is an advantage because it creates some room for flexibility in the final size of the implants and may mean that a smaller incision can be used. Often, saline-filled implants are a more affordable alternative to silicone implants. Also, a rupture or leakage will be noticed immediately.

Cons: Typically these implants do not look as natural as silicone ones. They may cause visible rippling or wrinkling.

Size Matters

The size, or cc (which stands for cubic centimeter), of your implant is also something to consider when contemplating a breast augmentation. A good way to visualize this is that a 250cc implant can be approximated by filling a plastic bag with 1 cup of rice. So, as another example, a 400cc breast implant can be approximated by filling a plastic bag with a little more than 1 1/2 cups of rice (13 oz.).

CC’s Don’t Stand Alone

You’ll be asked to decide on the shell surface (smooth or textured) of your implants, implant shape (round or shaped), and profile (projection). There are also many other factors that will influence how the implants look after you’ve had your surgery. Chest shape, breast shape, breast volume, breast width, tissue quality, and many other things will affect how large implants ultimately look.

These tips are a good starting point, however, a qualified board-certified plastic surgeon will help guide you in determining which implant will best accomplish your goals.

As a surgeon, I’m naturally curious about which procedures are most popular with my Columbus plastic surgery patients and with patients throughout the country. Some people may just be thinking about cosmetic procedures like liposuction, BOTOX® Cosmetic and breast augmentation. But, as a surgeon trained in treating both form and function, I’m curious about reconstructive procedures, too. So, I got the facts.

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons releases statistics for each year. For 2009, the top 5 reconstructive procedures were:

1. Tumor Removal
2. Wound/Scar Repair
3. Hand Surgery
4. Breast Reconstruction
5. Breast Reduction

Let me take a moment to provide some brief information about these procedures.

Tumor Removal: Surgical removal is one of the main ways tumors are treated. In fact, tumors are often successfully treated with surgical removal alone. Surgery is also a good way to assess the extent of a cancer.

Wound/Scar Repair: Also known as “laceration repair,” the main goals are to stop bleeding, prevent infection, preserve function, and restore appearance.

Hand Surgery: Carpal tunnel syndrome, arthritis, dupuytren’s contracture, and trigger finger are examples of some conditions that can be treated with hand surgery. These procedures can treat diseases that cause pain and impair the strength, function and flexibility of the wrist and fingers.

Breast Reconstruction: This procedure recreates the breast and nipple/areola for women who have had a mastectomy.

Breast Reduction: Also known as reduction mammaplasty, this surgery removes excess fat, glandular tissue and skin from breasts in order to alleviate physical and emotional discomfort.

By: Jason Lichten, MD, FACS

Lately you may have seen a number of news stories about Connie Culp, the first patient to receive a facial transplant in the United States. While her procedure is classified as “reconstructive,” her surgeons clearly spent some time working to create a more “normal” and attractive appearance for her, and I think her case is a great example of how often reconstructive and cosmetic surgery overlap.

At my plastic surgery practice near Columbus I perform a fair number of procedures like reconstructive hand surgery along with “purely cosmetic” procedures. For most of my patients, though, even “cosmetic” procedures like face lift surgery and Columbus, OH breast augmentation have a reconstructive component that must be addressed if the patient is going to enjoy good results.

A few goals cosmetic and reconstructive patients share:

• A more “normal” appearance: No one wants to look unnatural, and while problems like underdeveloped or severely uneven breasts may seem unimportant to people who do not have them, for the person who experiences them, correction can be life-changing.
• Functional results: In the hands of a skilled surgeon, cosmetic surgery will reshape areas like the abdominal muscles, facial tissues, or breasts while maintaining or even enhancing the functionality of those areas. Eyelid surgery is a great example because for many patients, this procedure significantly improves vision, but even treatments like Columbus area BOTOX® Cosmetic, when properly performed, will retain as much as possible of the normal function of the patient’s body.

Connie Culp’s transformation is far more dramatic than what almost any other plastic surgery patient is likely to experience, but her case resonates with me because most of my patients’ goals are very similar to hers – achieving a lasting, natural-looking change that allows their outward appearance to reflect more accurately who they are. Ideally, I think that is the goal that every good plastic surgeon wants to achieve.

By: Jason Lichten, MD, FACS

Facial aging tends to happen “everywhere at once,” so many patients who are thinking of improving their appearance with face lift surgery in the Columbus, OH area will also look into eyelid surgery to smooth out extra eyelid tissues and complete their results. For some patients, dual procedures like this one offer more advantages than for others, so it can be a little difficult to decide whether the extra procedure really offers the benefits you want.

Factors that patients should consider:

1) Focus and Balance:

The eyes communicate much of the emotion of the face, and part of the positive effect of face lift surgery is to help Columbus, OH area patients de-emphasize the “downward” effect of sagging facial tissues and help make sure people’s attention is on your eyes and expression – not flabby cheek tissues. Loose eyelid skin may not be as noticeable as facial folds, but it tends to have a narrowing effect on the eyes that indirectly makes the face seem “fleshier” and more wrinkled.

• Try this: Instead of evaluating your eyes and mid-face in terms of “how much” wrinkling or loose tissue you are seeing, try to determine how well your features do – or don’t – create a good balance that emphasizes focal points like the eyes.

Even moderately sagging loose tissues can inhibit or change your expression, so evaluate different facial expressions and ask yourself whether eyelid sagging is affecting the emotions and attitudes you communicate to other people. If not, a face lift alone might meet your needs.

2) Timing and Cost:

Eyelid surgery typically does not add to face lift surgery downtime, but it will affect the cost of the procedure, so patients with a limited budget should evaluate their options carefully to make sure they are making a good investment.

• Try this: Think ahead. Consider how your family traits, tissue health, and unique aging patterns determine how your eyelid tissues will change over time, and think about whether you’re likely to find yourself considering eyelid surgery in the future. (Combined surgeries actually tend to be much more cost-effective than having the two procedures separately.)

Also, if milder upper-eyelid sagginess is your primary concern, ask your surgeon whether Columbus area BOTOX® Cosmetic injections would be effective to correct the problem in the short term. This approach is not right for everyone, and its effects are limited, but for certain patients it can work very well.