Renaissance Plastic Surgery

Every plastic surgeon has a philosophy about how he or she will care for patients and this philosophy will directly affect you the patient. Somewhere in the background of every consultation with a new patient, a plastic surgeon must decide if he will tell the patient what she wants to hear or what she needs to know. If I were to poll any number of plastic surgeons and ask how this issue should be addressed, the answer would be: "Tell her what she needs to know?" After all, it's the only honest thing to do.

Yet every day consultations are being conducted in plastic surgeons' office in which exactly the opposite is occurring. Plastic surgeons, not to mention those from other specialties claiming to be plastic surgeons, are promising their patients beauty, sex appeal, the perfect body and more. And patients are taking it in faster than food at the state fair. If another surgeon can't make the same promise, it's only because he is not as skillful or talented. Fortunately, this is a small minority I'm describing but it happens often enough that you cannot afford to disregard the possibility.

Why does this have to happen in the first place? At best it will lead to disappointment and at worst it might spiral into a nightmare for everyone involved. At some point along the way Michael Jackson's plastic surgeon needed to say, "You know, Mike, I think we're getting a little carried away here." Maybe he did.

One unfortunate reason that this happens is supply and demand. The supply of practitioners anxious to be your plastic surgeon far exceeds the demand. Every one of us is under pressure to be positive, to be optimistic and to be the surgeon who can get the job done. It takes a great deal of resolve to sit there and talk about having realistic expectations and the limitations of plastic surgery, not to mention the complications.

This is not an excuse but it is a challenge. Every day the overwhelming majority of plastic surgeons meet this challenge, but some do not. And that's where it gets tricky. I do believe that people place trust in a plastic surgeon and want to hear the truth about themselves, even if it hurts a little. But they also want the truth about their bodies (their potential bodies) to be good news. So, in the end, some people want to hear what they want to hear.

The solution to all of this is an easy one, in theory at least: an honest consultation. So if you are in a consultation and you are hearing about limitations and risks as well as the benefits of plastic surgery, you are probably in the right place.

The skin changes that occur in the face will also occur on the body, but they will be less severe unless there has been significant sun exposure over the years. The reasons are the same as for the face: loss of collagen and elasticity, gravity, and so on.

Regarding the breasts, we have to consider the effects of aging, pregnancy, and breast feeding. The effects of pregnancy and breast feeding can vary, but most women will experience a volume loss in the breast, primarily above the nipple, and the result will be loose, sagging skin. Aging will also cause sagging of the breasts and some women will experience an increase in breast size around menopause, usually related to weight gain.

In many cases, the problem of loose, sagging breasts can be corrected simply by adding volume through a breast augmentation. If the sagging is severe, then a breast lift & augmentation may be necessary. For women who have sagging breasts but are satisfied with their breast size in a bra, then a breast lift, or mastopexy, alone will take care of it.

The arms and legs develop loose and sagging skin with advancing age, but the biggest changes you will see are in the trunk or torso. The number one complaint that I hear from my patients is a loss of their feminine shape. There is usually an expansion of the waistline due to hormonal changes of menopause, which cause an accumulation of fat, in addition to the loss of muscle tone that occurs with aging. Even women who are naturally thin seem to lose their feminine curves. These changes are compounded by pregnancy which stretches the abdominal muscle attachments and expands the ligaments of the pelvis.

Knowing what happens, or is going to happen, is all well and good, but what is there to do about it. Well, you can accept it or you can fight it, but if you are going to fight it, set reasonable expectations because aging is a normal process that can't be stopped and you don't want to end up frustrated.

Eating sensibly and exercise are the first steps to blunt (not stop) the effects of the aging process. For stubborn fat deposits that won't respond to your efforts, liposuction may be an option. If your problems are due to loose skin or stretched out abdominal muscles, a tummy tuck would probably be the right procedure for you.

The most important thing to remember is bodily changes due to aging and pregnancy are a normal part of life, so don't get too frustrated or blame yourself. Whatever you decide to do about it is a personal choice that should be made by you and for you.