Archive for the ‘New Technologies’ Category
Facelift surgery is an intensely personal decision and many patients can have difficulty sorting through the marketing terminology in the plastic surgery industry in order to choose the surgeon and the type of facelift most appropriate for their individual issues. Often, patients can have a significant degree of anxiety and uncertainty when choosing their plastic surgeon. Seeking out a facial plastic surgeon with the latest and most advanced facelift surgery techniques as well as choosing the surgeon one feels most comfortable with will avoid bad and even sometimes disastrous outcomes.
Many of the mini facelift surgery techniques available today can only offer short term corrections for their aging jawlines and neck. Most patients want to have the longest lasting results in order to avoid additional surgeries and healing periods and requiring fewer surgeries during their lifetime. Revision facelift surgeries are often more challenging for the surgeon and more expensive for the patient, and getting it right the first time is of paramount importance.
Expert facelift surgeons agree that the deep plane facelift provides the most superior outcomes and long lasting results in facelift surgery techniques available today. Older, more traditional facelift incisions have been associated with unacceptable scarring that can be difficult for the patient to camouflage. In recent years, cosmetic surgeons have refined facelift incisions to develop the shortest, least noticeable facelift incisions. These incisions have several different names including: the s-lift, short scar facelift, endoscopic facelift, and mini facelift.
Until recently, the deep plane facelift was unable to be performed through the tiny hidden incisions of a mini facelift. A few national and international expert facelift surgeons have refined the technique to be able to perform the deep plane facelift through these shorter facelift incisions. Dr. Benjamin C. Stong at Kalos Facial Plastic Surgery trained with one of these advanced facelift surgeons and now delivers this superior facelift procedure to his clients in the Atlanta metropolitan area and patients throughout the United States as well as the world.
An additional benefit to the mini deep plane facelift, is that it can be performed safely in smokers as well as revision surgery patients with the shortest downtime, thereby getting patients back to work and their social lives as fast as possible. Laser skin resurfacing can also be performed safely during the deep plane facelift avoiding significant complications associated with skin resurfacing procedures with other facelift surgery techniques.
The mini deep plane facelift is safe and effective in all age groups, genders, and skin types. Kalos facial plastic surgery is the first to offer this technique in Atlanta and the surrounding areas. The cost is similar to other facelifts widely available today, just without the uncertainty of the outcomes. Finding a surgeon who performs this procedure is critical to achieving the best and longest lasting results.
Posted by: Benjamin C. Stong MD
Healing following Facelift surgery is of significant interest to patients and practitioners. Millions of dollars are spent on marketing every year, promising less healing and down time, and subsequently, a faster return to daily activities. Practitioners advertise minimally invasive surgical techniques and use prescription pharmaceuticals and homeopathic remedies to facilitate healing following surgery. Bromelain and Arnica Montana (A. Montana) are the two most common homeopathic treatments offered following facelift surgery; they are supposed to reduce swelling and bruising, respectively. One of the most conclusive studies on A. Montana demonstrated no difference in the degree of bruising between the group taking A. Montana and the group receiving a placebo pill following facelift surgery. However, this study did validate an objective computer model to assess bruising, with a superior ability to discriminate subtle color changes over the human eye and eliminating the inherent, subjective bias of visual analog scales and ranking schemes. This allowed the medical community to objectively study the effect of therapies on bruising following surgery, and in particular facelift surgery procedures.
Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) therapy has been popularized in the main stream media through several celebrities for its anti-aging effects. In the scientific literature it has been demonstrated to hasten wound healing by promoting free radical scavengers, reducing cell damage, and increasing the oxygen delivery and blood supply to wound beds. For years, hyperbaric oxygen therapy has been used to facilitate healing in chronic, non-healing wounds. Ultimately, the common pathway in hyperbaric oxygen therapy is more rapid wound healing. A new, unique application for HBO therapy is to assist healing in facelift surgery.
We performed a prospective, controlled study on thirteen patients undergoing face lift surgery with six electing to undergo HBO therapy immediately before and after their face lift. Seven patients were entered into the control group and received no therapy. Any additional confounding factors were equal and accounted for. Statistical Analysis, digital photography and the previously validated objective computer model were used to assess the resolution of bruising postoperatively. The result was a statistically significant decrease in the degree of bruising in the HBO group over the control group on postoperative days 7 and 10, with a 35% and 30% reduction, respectively. There were no complications associated with the treatment group.
This is the first report of the benefit of HBO therapy on wound healing in cosmetic surgery. To date there has been no more compelling evidence for a particular adjunctive therapy to facilitate healing, with many of the current treatments having little scientific evidence supporting their use. The validated computer model in this study provides the scientific community an excellent resource to objectively measure the resolution of bruising and healing following surgery. Additionally, a larger number of patients enrolled in this study would empower the degree of effect on bruising and most likely become statistically significant sooner in the postoperative course.
When patients are choosing to undergo facelift surgery, they should educate themselves on therapies that do and do not work. This can often be difficult due to the current directed marketing strategies making promises that often go unfulfilled. What the patient truly needs is a consultation with a facial plastic surgeon in order to decipher and discuss the information. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy offers patients a statistically validated and scientifically studied adjunctive therapy to recover faster, following facelift surgery. HBO in otherwise healthy patient’s is a safe, innocuous therapy with little downside. Although it can potentially increase the overall cost associated with the surgery, it does offer patients seeking the most rapid recovery from facelifts a further treatment modality to employ in order to return to daily activities faster. Due to the proven benefits, HBO should be included in the discussion with patients undergoing facelift surgery as a potentially beneficial therapy in the healing process and may be applicable to other plastic surgery procedures such as the midface lift.
Posted by: Benjamin C. Stong MD
Atlanta, GA
Cutera has created a highly competitive advanced multiplatform laser that will leave practitioners and patients very happy with its versatile capabilities. The Xeo system has two intense pulse light systems, a versatile 1064nm YAG laser, an infrared skin tightening device, and an YSGG traditional full surface ablative and fractionated deep dermal laser. The versatility of the laser is unparalleled with a tremendous advantage in the ablative laser technology by combining the benefits and eliminating the problems of more traditional lasers such as erbium and CO2. The Xeo has numerous applications including: laser and intense pulse light hair removal, a 1064nm YAG system for rosacea, vascular lesions, and collagen building therapy, the Titan skin tightening application, and a full face ablative skin resurfacing rejuvenation.
The intense pulse light system also known as broad band light has two applications. The first is called the LimeLight. A LimeLight facial treats dyschromias (brown and red color imperfections), including: melasma, solar lentigines (sun spots), dilated capilliaries, telangectasias, and rosacea as well as stimulates superficial collagen production to improve wrinkling. It is best used during a period when the first signs of aging occur or as maintenance therapy between deeper rejuvenation procedures and is often performed as a series for optimal results. The second intense pulse light (IPL) application is called Prowave and it customizes the wavelengths it emits to specifically perform hair removal in a fast efficient manner.
The 1064nm YAG laser is extraordinarily versatile. It performs traditional YAG capabilities such as single pulsed vascular lesion treatments and hair removal and is called the CoolGlide. It can treat hemangiomas, dilated capillaries, spider veins, and telangectasias. The Laser Genesis uses a revolutionary patent pending millisecond-pulsed technology that allows the YAG to improve rosacea and skin texture, decrease poor size, and build collagen to treat superficial to moderate wrinkles. It is painless and can be performed on all areas of the face during a lunch break with absolutely no downtime. Similar to the LimeLight facial it is usually performed as a series to treat the beginning stages of aging or as maintenance therapy for facelifts and between deeper skin rejuvenation procedures.
Titan is the infrared skin tightening system on the Xeo multiplatform laser system and delivers equivalent results to comparable technologies. Skin tightening systems do not deliver dramatic results like face lift surgery but do provide an intermediary step for patients who are not committed to surgery and have realistic expectations for any non-surgical procedure to provide significant results.
The workhorses of ablative skin resurfacing have traditionally been the erbium and CO2 lasers. There are benefits and drawbacks to each of these lasers. The CO2 generates more thermal energy and has been associated with higher complications including permanent scarring and hypopigmentation, but it also delivers more impressive results. The CO2 has also been associated with much longer periods of healing and erythema or redness. The erbium laser is much safer with fewer permanent complications than the CO2, but is associated with bleeding due to less coagulation ability, interrupting the delivery of energy to skin tissue. Contemporary erbium lasers have improved this problem by using longer pulse durations to increase coagulation, but the problem still persists. Cutera introduced YSGG as a wavelength for ablative resurfacing technology to combine the benefits and eliminate the problems of the CO2 and erbium lasers. It delivers enough energy for excellent coagulation while minimizing thermal injury and complications such as hypopigmentation and scarring.
Fractionated resurfacing technology has provided a critical element to skin resurfacing and rejuvenation. Erbium, CO2, and YSGG lasers now have applications for fractioned resurfacing. Fractionated laser resurfacing uses laser micro-columns to treat a percentage of the skin surface area and penetrates into the deep dermis stimulating a deeper more robust collagen production improving deep dermal discolorations and wrinkles. CO2, Erbium, and YSGG full skin surface ablative technologies are being combined with fractionated procedures to provide the state of the art in total skin rejuvenation.
The Cutera Xeo YSGG total skin resurfacing treatment is called the Pearl. The Pearl Fractional is their fractioned, deep dermal technology. The Pearl Fusion treatment combines these two technologies to deliver optimal total skin rejuvenation results while minimizing the risk of complications. A detailed understanding of laser science and technology is critical to choosing the type of procedure indicated to meet patient expectations. Laser skin rejuvenation is not a substitute for facelift, midface lift, or brow lift surgery and should be viewed as a complimentary procedure. Choosing a facial plastic surgeon that is knowledgeable and experienced in both surgical procedures and laser skin rejuvenation is critical to being able to communicate goals and deliver the best outcomes.
Post provided by: Atlanta Laser Skin Rejuvenation - Benjamin C. Stong MD