The most common sorts of cosmetic surgeryAbdominoplasty, more commonly referred to as a ‘tummy tuck’, is employed to enhance the form of the abdomen. Tummy tucks remove excess fat and skin and restore weakened or separated muscles within the abdomen so as to enhance the profile. Tummy tucks can improve the looks of loose or sagging skin, but cannot remove stretch marks.
Abdominoplasty isn’t a replacement for an exercise routine or eating right for weight loss. The results of an abdominoplasty are permanent, but maintaining a correct weight is critical to take care of the results.
Lidocaine is an anesthetic (painkiller) administered with fluids
injected during liposuction to help manage pain. Although generally
safe, in rare circumstances, lidocaine toxicity can occur, causing
serious heart and central nervous system problems.
Before getting surgery, be sure that you have proper consultation by
visiting a therapist or your medical doctor. Always check for
references, and be sure that you are willing to live with the changes
you make, whether they are good or bad.
Cosmetic surgery is a type of plastic surgery that aims to improve a person’s appearance, but it should be approached with caution.
Cosmetic surgery continues to grow in popularity, with 15.1
million cosmetic procedures carried out in the United States in 2013, an
increase of 3 percent on the previous year.
Procedures are available for almost any part of the body, but the
choice to undergo cosmetic surgery should not be taken lightly. The
results are often permanent, so it is important to be sure about the
decision, to use an appropriate practitioner, and to have the right
motivation.
A surgeon may refer a patient for counseling before surgery if
they believe there is an underlying problem that cannot be solved by
the surgery, or if the patient shows signs of Body Dysmorphic Disorder
(BDD).
BDD can cause a person to perceive that there is something seriously
wrong with their appearance, when objective evidence suggests otherwise.
Reconstructive surgery is another type of plastic surgery. It aims to
improve function and to give a normal appearance to a part of the
person’s body that has been damaged, for example, after a mastectomy.
This article will focus on cosmetic surgery only.
Types and uses
A variety of aesthetic procedures is available for different parts of the body.
intBreast implants can be used to increase breast size or in reconstruction after surgery.
Women may seek breast surgery to improve their body shape. Mammoplasty procedures may include:
Breast augmentation, or enlargement, traditionally performed using saline or silicone gel prosthetics, and now occasionally with fat grafting.
It may be carried out if the woman feels her breasts are too small,
if one breast is larger than the other, or if the breasts have changed
after pregnancy or breastfeeding. Some older women opt for this
treatment when the breasts being to droop due to the skin losing
elasticity.
In some women, a breast enlargement can boost self-esteem and improve
their feelings about their sexuality. In some, however, existing
problems remain. This is why women are encouraged to undergo
counseling first.
Breast reduction can help provide relief from
physical discomfort, while the aim of augmentation more often relates to
appearance. Breast reduction may also reduce the risk of breast
cancer in women who are at high risk of the disease.
Mastopexy, or a breast lift, involves removing skin
and glandular tissue to make the breasts smaller and rearranging the
remaining tissue to make the breast appear lifted.
Depending on how much volume a patient has lost or desires, mastopexy
can be combined with an implant. While it is similar to a breast
reduction, which removes a much greater amount of tissue, mastopexy is
not usually covered by major insurance carriers as it is not deemed
medically necessary.
Male breast reduction treats gynecomastia, an
enlargement of the mammary tissue in men. It may be done by liposuction
or with various scar patterns, often hidden around the nipple and
areola.
Liposuction
Liposuction, or suction-assisted lipectomy, uses thin cannulas, or
hollow metal tubes, to vacuum fat from various parts of the body,
usually the abdomen, thighs, buttocks, hips, backs of the arms, and
neck. Liposuction may also be used for male breast reduction.
Tools used in liposuction include standard, ultrasound, mechanical,
and laser devices. They all tend to involve suction of fat through a
tube.
To prevent complications, there is a limit to the amount of fat that
the surgeon can safely remove, depending on whether the patient will be
discharged immediately after surgery or admitted to the hospital.
Liposuction should not be intended as a weight-loss procedure. When
performed in the right patient, the goal is to improve contour and
decrease limited areas of fat deposits.
Complications are rare but possible. They include the accumulation of
blood under the skin, known as hematoma, infection, changes in
sensation, allergic reactions, damage to underyling structures, and
unsatisfactory results. The doctor must discuss these with the patient
beforehand.
Labiaplasty, labioplasty, labia minor reduction, or labial reduction
involves surgery of the labia majora or labia minora of the vulva, a
part of the female genitalia. It aims to reduce elongated labia, usually
as part of a vaginoplasty.
There is a lack of clinical or scientific evidence to guide gynecological surgeons as to the safety and effectiveness of cosmetic vaginal procedures.
Abdominoplasty, or “tummy tuck” reshapes and firms the abdomen. Excess skin and fat is removed from the middle and lower abdomen, with the aim of tightening the muscle and fascia of the abdominal wall.
This may be suitable after pregnancy or after losing a great deal of weight.
Other body contouring procedures
Buttock augmentation enhances the appearance of the
buttocks by making them larger. The surgeon will either graft fat from
another part of the patient’s body using liposuction. This is known as
the “Brazilian Butt lift.” Silicone implants may also occasionally be
used in the buttocks.
A buttock lift, or lower body lift involves removing
excess skin from the hips, buttocks, and thighs in order to tighten and
lift them. These procedures are often combined with abdominoplasty in
patients who have lost a considerable amount of weight after bariatric,
or weight loss, surgery, for example.
Blepharoplasty, or eyelid surgery, aims to reshape
the eyelids. With age, the skin becomes lax, and there may be drooping
or hooding of the upper lids, and bags on the lower lids. Eyelid surgery
may be functional, cosmetic, or both. It usually involves removing or
repositioning excess skin and fat, and the procedure may reinforce
surrounding muscles and tendons.
Surgery can change the shape of the face or tighten the skin.
In rhinoplasty, also known as a “nose job,” the
surgeon reshapes the patient’s nose to improve the appearance and often
breathing, too. It may involve reshaping the tip and reducing the bony
hump at the upper aspect of the nose.
It can be performed with small incisions that are well hidden, often
inside the nostrils. Surgeons do not recommend rhinoplasty until the
patient is at least 15 years old, to allow for full growth of the
cartilage and bone of the nose.
Otoplasty, or ear surgery, treats prominent or
misshapen ears by surgically “pinning” the ear closer to the head with
sutures, reshaping the cartilage, or both.
One or both ears may be treated. It is most commonly performed in
children after of 5 or 6 years as the ears have essentially reached
adult size by that age.
Rhytidectomy, also known as a facelift, aims to
surgically remove wrinkles and tighten facial skin in order to achieve a
more youthful appearance.
Typically, the incision is placed in front of and behind the ears,
extending into the hairline in the temple area. The skin is lifted off
the deeper facial tissue, redraped more tightly, and the excess skin is
removed. The incisions are then closed with sutures.
The deeper tissues of the face and neck may also be tightened. Blepharoplasty, or eyelid surgery may be done at the same time.
A brow lift, browplasty, or forehead lift aims to
remove signs of aging by raising drooping eyebrows and removing forehead
wrinkles, or worry lines. It is often done alongside other cosmetic
procedures to achieve a more harmonious facial appearance.
Chin augmentation aims to make the chin more
prominent and provide a better balance of facial features. It may be
done at the same time as rhinoplasty, depending on the measurements
taken before surgery. It can be performed with either a prosthetic
implant or through manipulation of the chin bone.
Malar, or cheek, augmentation can make the cheekbones more prominent. The surgeon may place an implant at the top of the cheekbones.
Peels, fillers, grafts, and laser treatment
Less invasive treatments may include peels, fillers, injections, grafting, and laser treatment.
Share on PinterestFillers can be used to iron out wrinkles and to make the lips look plumper.
Chemical peels may help treat acne, pock marks, scars, or wrinkles. A number of active agents may be used.
A light or superficial peel uses Alpha Hydroxy Acids (AHAs) such as
glycolic, lactic, or fruit acids to treat the outermost layers of the
skin. The treatment is not as deep as with some peels, so the recovery
time is minimal.
A medium peel usually involves TCA (tri-chloroacetic acid) of various
concentrations. It penetrates the dermis, or deep layer of the skin, to
a greater depth than the light peels. The recovery and pain are more
significant than the lighter peels. Redness and flaking may persist for
several days or weeks.
A deep peel, or phenol peel, penetrates the skin to the deepest extent. As a result, it has the greatest impact on resurfacing the skin, but it also has the longest recovery time, and it can causing scarring and skin lightening.
Chemical peels have been shown to be safe and effective for both light and darker skin types.
Botulinum toxin, or botox,
is the brand name of a toxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium
botulinum (C. botulinum), first approved by the FDA in the 1980s for
muscle spasm.
A range of cosmetic surgery procedures aim to improve appearance.
It is used to treat wrinkles and facial creases.
It acts by blocking the signal from nerves to the muscles that are
injected. The injected muscle can no longer contract, or tighten, as
forcefully as before, and this leads to a controlled relaxation of the
muscles.
It is approved for treatment of frown lines on the forehead, crow’s
feet, or lines around the eye, and axillary hyperhidrosis, or increased
sweating of the armpits.
Apart from “botox,” several other brand names of botulinum toxin are now commercially available.
Soft tissue fillers, or dermal fillers, are medical
device implants approved by the FDA for use in helping to create a
smoother, fuller appearance in the face.
They can be used to treat nasolabial folds, cheeks, and lips, and to increase the volume of the back of the hand.
They can also reduce wrinkles, lines and scars, and augment soft
tissue contours. They are not permanent, but they are degraded by the
body, so repeat treatments may be necessary to maintain the effect.
Commercially available products include hyaluronic acid,
poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA), calcium hydroxyapetite, and
polymethylmethacrylate beads (PMMA).
These products normally come in a gel formulation that fine needles
can inject into the deeper layers of the skin and underlying soft tissue
of the face. Collagen injections are no longer performed because some
patients experienced allergic reactions, some of them serious.
Complications can occur with
facial fillers, and especially permanent fillers. Clinicians and
patients are urged to check the contents of a filler and discuss all the
implications of surgery before going ahead with a procedure.
In 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned that rare
but serious problems may arise if soft tissue fillers are accidentally
injected into blood vessels in the face.
Fat injections and fat grafting have broad applications in cosmetic surgery.
The patient’s own fat is collected from one part of the body using
liposuction, and it is injected into areas requiring volume enhancement.
It is usually applied to the face, including the lips, the hands, and
depressions in skin contour.
The results are generally safe and long lasting, and it can have the
additional benefit of removing fat from a place where it is not wanted.
The fat is removed, washed, and purified and then carefully re-injected
with specially designed needles. Sometimes the procedure needs to be
repeated several times for best results.
Stem-cell enriched fat grafts have been trialed for
reconstructive surgery, with promising results, suggesting that the
procedure is reliable, safe, and effective. However, tumor growth may be
an adverse effect, so further research is needed before stem cells can
become central to plastic and reconstructive surgery.
Lasers and light-based facial treatment, also known
as facial laser resurfacing or laser skin treatment, can help reduce
fine lines, wrinkles, and abnormal pigmentation, such as sunspots.
Treatment utilizes concentrated, pulsating beams of light.
A variety of laser types are used, and these vary in aggressiveness and downtime. It may take several sessions to see results.
Surgery can return hair growth to those with hair loss.
Share on
Hair transplantation is a kind of cosmetic surgery. can help renew hair growth.
Tiny hair follicle grafts are obtained from the back of the scalp,
where hair tends to be denser. It is then transplanted with minute
incisions to the areas of the scalp that are affected by hair loss.
Patients may need several sessions to achieve the desired results.
After 6 weeks, the transplanted hair will fall out, but about 3 months
later, new hair will appear.
Anyone who is considering cosmetic surgery should stop smoking or
using any tobacco products several months prior to any procedures, as
they can interfere with wound healing.
