By: Mark Solomon, MD

If you’ve been thinking about body contouring, there are more “liposuction alternatives” available now than ever before. Liposuction is still a tried and true cosmetic surgery procedure, but certain alternative procedures can offer real advantages for my patients.

Case in point: BodyTight®. This alternative to liposuction is available at my Philadelphia practice, and in fact, I personally developed this laser treatment method that both removes fat and can even tighten skin. BodyTight is similar in concept to Smartlipo™, which has received great press nationwide.

With BodyTight, I can treat practically any area of the body. Treatment and recovery are easier than traditional liposuction because fat cells aren’t actually removed from your body during the procedure, if you are a candidate for this procedure. Instead, they will be cleared from your body during its natural cleansing process over the month or so following treatment.

You can watch me demonstrate BodyTight (and LaserTight® – the version of this procedure for the face) on a recent Good Day Philadelphia broadcast to get a better sense if this liposuction technique might be something that makes sense for you. As always, evaluate any liposuction alternative carefully and ask plenty of questions beforehand so that you can achieve truly fantastic results.

By: Mark Solomon, MD

You see them every time you reach the checkout stand at the grocery store – celebrities who look great on the covers of magazines like Elle and Cosmo, right next to celebrities whose cosmetic surgery missteps are fodder for the tabloids. You’ve probably asked yourself: What separates the good from the bad? Here are a couple lessons you can learn from the celebrity “do’s and don’ts” you see in the magazines:

• Target key areas. This is a fairly easy one for most celebrities, because they often have very beautiful or handsome features to begin with. But it’s important to think carefully about which areas of your face or body are your biggest trouble spots, and then to focus your improvement on these areas. For instance, if you feel your face looks “old,” it may be a case in which a face lift alone will produce very attractive results.

  Your Lesson: It’s highly unlikely that you will need an “extreme makeover” of all your features to look your very best – a little really can go a long way.

• Seek subtle change. This point is particularly true for facial plastic surgery. How many times have you seen a celebrity go in for cosmetic surgery, only to come out with a face that just isn’t really recognizable? They may look too pulled, too lifted, too artificial. There are many reasons why such results can occur, but a lot of times it’s because these celebrities are trying too hard to recapture the look of their youth, rather than enhancing their appearance in a way that looks attractive and healthy for their true age.

  Your Lesson: Hollywood may be “youth obsessed,” but chances are you’ll get a more satisfying result if your goal is age-appropriate elegance.

• Stick with a professional. Celebrities have access to some of the best plastic surgeons in the world, right? Well you wouldn’t necessarily know it from some of the unattractive results you see in magazines and on TV. Of course, the celebrities that do choose their surgeon wisely are the ones who stay at the top of all those “Most Beautiful People” lists year after year.

  Your Lesson: Investigate the surgeons in your area, paying particular attention to before and after photos of prior patients and the distinction of the doctor’s credentials (board-certified plastic surgeons are specially trained in a wide range of cosmetic and reconstructive surgery techniques).

As a Philadelphia plastic surgeon, I’m pretty far removed from the whole Hollywood scene, but I tell my patients that they can refine their own surgical goals and enhance their surgical results by taking a close look at some of their favorite celebrities.

By: Mark Solomon, MD

“Bigger is better” is so 2007. By now, more and more Americans are seeing that they don’t need that huge house, that huge car, and that huge debt load to “have it all.” The fact is that in life, it’s the little things that matter. That’s why I’m so happy to see more and more of my breast augmentation patients focusing on beautiful breast contouring, and de-emphasizing that they just want a bigger size.

There’s no getting around the fact that women have breast augmentation to achieve larger breasts. And it’s completely true that size does matter to many women. But for my patients and me the ultimate goal is beauty. While the media likes to sensationalize women who get enormous “boob jobs,” there are hundreds of thousands of women nationwide who just want to achieve a balanced and attractive breast shape.

In addition to size, think about:

• What interests me in breast augmentation?
  I encourage all of my patients to dig deep and understand their motivations. A lot of women considering enlargement aren’t necessarily looking for that “wow” factor – they just want to feel a bit better about their image.
• What implant type makes sense for me long term?
  Both saline and the latest generation of silicone gel have advantages and disadvantages. You need to choose wisely so you can enjoy your look for years to come. At my offices, I discuss these issues with you in detail so that you can feel comfortable that your choice is the right one for you.
• How much cleavage do I want?
  How closely spaced your breast implants are and their “projection” can have a significant effect on how prominent your breasts appear.
• Will breast enlargement alone do the job?
  Particularly for moms and older women, combining a breast lift with breast augmentation at my Philadelphia practice is an ideal way to achieve a naturally enhanced look.