Orange County, California
Plastic Surgery FAQ
What are some of the potential complications of plastic surgery?
As with all surgery, there are inherent risks to the procedure. Bleeding, infection and anesthesia are probably the big three areas where complications can occur. In addition, specific complications related to your specific surgery will be reviewed during the preoperative process.
Who is a candidate for plastic surgery?
Realistic expectations along with frank discussions with your one of us will lead to a plan for the areas that concern you. Beauty for Life is a recent combined program from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeon that will focus on areas to continue that youthful appearance in any decade of your life. This may begin with local products for your skin, lasers or peels. Later in your life, surgical intervention for more deep wrinkles may be appropriate. Regardless of your decade, we want to be your choice for maintaining that youthful appearance and enhance your beauty for life.
I have heard a lot about new products on the market. How do you choose from what is real versus a marketing tool?
We will be happy to discuss a variety of the new techniques that are currently being employed. Because we have a training program, many of these newer techniques are being trailed at the University. That being said, we are also willing to provide for you if available information regarding the long-term results of some of these newer techniques.
How popular is plastic surgery?
Despite domestic concerns like inflation and a looming home lending crisis, the average American continues to spend money on plastic surgery. Over the last several years, there has been an increase in cosmetic plastic surgery procedures that can be attributed to an increased public awareness of the available options to address body image issues and improve quality of life. In fact almost 12 million cosmetic plastic surgery procedures were performed in 2007 which is a 7 % increase from 2006 and a 59% increase from 2000. Today’s’ patients want to look and feel their best, demonstrated by the high demand for less invasive and relatively less expensive procedures with rebounds in some surgical procedures. While the majority of plastic surgery patients are women, it is interesting to see a similar rate of increase in similar procedures for both men and women. Most of these procedures focused on the face and chest.
What are the most common cosmetic procedures in plastic surgery?
Over the last several years, there has been in increase in injectables to address the battle on the war on aging. This includes the use of Radiesse, Sculptra and laser resurfacing procedures. There has also been a considerable increase among the boomer age groups in both facelifts and minimally invasive procedures for the face. Body contouring for massive weight loss continues to increase.
What are the most common reconstructive procedures in plastic surgery?
Although reconstructive procedures decreased 2 percent last year, tumor removal continues to be the number one reconstructive plastic surgery procedure. This includes primarily breast, but also extremities for sarcoma, and the facial area for melanoma, basal and squamous cell carcinoma.
What are some of the family and ethnic demographics for patients seeking plastic surgery?
There has also been a report on increase in couples for families having cosmetic plastic surgery together over the last three years. Many patients seek a support system as they prepare to have plastic surgery. It is not uncommon for one spouse to influence the other through a positive experience with plastic surgery. Similarly, this can happen with sisters, or mothers or adult daughters.
For the first time, Hispanic patients topped 1 million surgical procedures. Overall cosmetic surgery for ethnic patients increased 13 percent from 2006. Of the three ethnic categories, Asian American patients increased the most up 26 percent from last year. As plastic surgery becomes more mainstream, ethnic patients are becoming increasingly aware of what options are available for their skin types and facial features. The majority of these patients want to maintain their ethnic identity. They do not want to lose important facial features that exhibit racial characteristics but have similar motivations to other patients seeking plastic surgery.
What is Microsurgery?
Microsurgery is the ability to transfer tissue from one body location to another and establish a new blood supply by hocking up the arteries and veins under a microscope. Frequently, trauma, congenital anomalies, or because of tumor resection, normal tissue is removed or damaged such as in burns or breast removal following cancer. In order to assist with reconstruction of these missing tissues, muscle, skin, bone and sometimes a combination of these tissues are moved to the area that is injured or has been resected. The problem with these tissues is that without a blood supply, they will die. Microsurgery, which began in the late 1960’s gives us the ability to hook up a blood supply allowing tissues moved into these areas for reconstruction to survive. Some examples of where this may be applicable is the transfer of abdominal skin and muscle to the chest area to reconstruct breasts, following mastectomies. Microsurgery is also used to transfer bone and tissue from the leg to reconstruction a portion of the jaw bone resected for cancer. It also allows us to bring into the area of trauma well vascularized tissue and can be seen in combination with orthopedic surgery where exposed bone can be covered and protected.
Who is a candidate for Microsurgery?
Basically almost any patient is a candidate for microsurgery. Because we hook up the blood vessels, patients that have vascular disease are at increased risk for complications following surgery. These patients are ones with diabetes, who smoke or have some documented peripheral vascular disease.
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