While a facelift can take a few years off of your looks, it won’t magically keep those years from returning.
Making the most of your facelift and getting results that last five or 10 years, or even longer, means remembering to shield yourself from external factors that contribute to aging. In some cases, it also means embracing non-surgical options, which can help you maintain or even enhance your results.
Turning back the clock on your looks doesn’t mean you can turn back the clock on your habits. If your teens, twenties and thirties were full of junk food, alcohol and cigarettes, don’t revert to those habits. If you kept up a diet of junk food, such as salty snacks and sugary treats, into your forties and beyond, the time after your surgery is ideal for turning over a new leaf is now.
Try to stick to a balanced diet full of good-for-you foods such as vegetables, grains, fruit and lean protein. For one thing, losing and gaining weight after your facelift can affect the results, as losing fat from your face makes you look older. Eating a steady diet full of foods that contain a lot of vitamins and nutrients gives your body that fuel it needs to fight the signs of aging. You don’t have to necessarily look for “superfoods,” which are bursting with nutrients. Simply choosing to eat more of a wide variety of vegetables and fruits can help.
It’s also important to try to say no to sugar. Although it might taste sweet, sugar wreaks havoc on your skin, causing something called glycation. Glycation affects the collagen that’s just below the surface of the skin, leading to more wrinkles and to skin that’s less smooth and elastic.
Even though your surgeon might have told you to stop smoking for just a few weeks after your surgery, it’s in the best interests of your overall health and the prolonged results of your facelift, for you to kick the habit for good. Smoking is one of the leading causes of wrinkles. If your goal is to look more youthful and keep wrinkles away, smoking just isn’t the way to do it.
One of the best ways to pamper and care for your skin after a facelift is to protect it from the sun. You might be told to avoid any sun exposure immediately after your surgery. Once your surgeon gives you the go-ahead to go outdoors again, make every effort to cover up your face. Wear a moisturizer with sunscreen, don a wide-brimmed hat and put on a pair of sunglasses with UV protection.
Keeping up a good skincare routine post-surgery is also a good way to make your results last as long as possible. Your surgeon can recommend certain products for you or you can ask about prescription strength products, such as Retin-A to help fight wrinkles or products that contain alpha hydroxy or beta hydroxy acids. Try not to go overboard with the products after your surgery. If you’re not sure if two products will interact with each or irritate your skin, ask before using them.
Although you probably don’t want to receive laser skin resurfacing or an injection immediately after your surgery, as time goes on, either or both can be an option to help you maintain the results. A facelift only focuses on the lower portion of your face, so injections that target the forehead and upper area, such as Botox, can help create a balanced, more youthful look. As time goes on, injectable fillers in the lower part of your face can help keep wrinkles and lines from returning.
A facelift procedure doesn’t adjust the quality of your skin, such as its texture or areas of discoloration. Laser treatments, such as fractional CO2 laser, can help reduce the appearance of fine lines, scars and uneven texture. Lasers also help give your skin a more even tone, by removing or reducing the appearance of sun or age spots.
In , Dr. Stephen Smith offers facelift surgery at two locations. He can also help patients maintain their results with non-surgical options, including laser treatments and injections. To learn more about facelifts, injections and laser skin resurfacing, call to schedule an appointment with Dr. Smith today.
When you were a kid, your parents probably had you take a multivitamin to help you grow. Now that you’re an adult, you might not be so concerned about developing strong bones or about gaining in size. But, vitamins will play a big role in your life and in your diet. A number of vitamins play an important role in protecting your skin from the signs of aging. Along with considering skin rejuvenation treatments and surgery to reduce the signs of aging, it’s also worth taking a peek at the vitamins you’re ingesting or applying to your skin. Some have a huge part to play when it comes to minimizing wrinkles, spots and other signs of getting older.
If you’ve ever used a topical product that claims to fight wrinkles, you might be very familiar with the role vitamin A plays in helping your skin. Retinol, a known wrinkle-fighter, is derived from it. Products that contain retinol or retinoids, the synthetic form of vitamin A, are known to help increase cell turnover and improve the production of collagen in the skin. Retinoids not only help minimize wrinkles. They are also helpful for minimizing dark spots and hyperpigmentation, since they encourage exfoliation.
You can find retinoids in both over-the-counter and prescription products. As you might have guessed, the prescription strength products tend to be stronger. If you have particularly sensitive skin, it can be helpful to speak with your facial plastic surgeon first or to try a milder over-the-counter retinol product. When you use a product with retinol, it’s often best to apply it at night, since it does make you more sensitive to sun exposure. You’ll also want to be particularly diligent about wearing an SPF every day when using retinol.
It can seem like there’s nothing vitamin C can’t do. It not only helps your immune system and improves your body’s absorption of certain nutrients, but it’s also great for your skin. Vitamin C helps reign in free radicals that cause skin damage, helps encourage collagen production, and helps fade dark spots. When you’re focusing your skin, the best way to get your vitamin C is topically.
Applying a moisturizer or serum that contains the vitamin can help reduce dark spots and improve the texture of your skin. There are just a few things to keep in mind: vitamin C is a bit volatile, and will break down when exposed to sun or air. For that reason, look for a product that contains it and that is also packaged in an opaque, airtight container.
While evening in the best time for your retinoids, morning is the best time for your vitamin C. Put a product containing it on your skin first, before your sunscreen, to give your skin even more protection against sun exposure and free radicals.
Vitamin E is known as an antioxidant and a moisturizer and it’s fairly common in skincare products. It’s also often found in sunscreens, as it provides an added layer of protection against sun exposure (just don’t rely on vitamin E instead of SPF). While it might be tempting to take a vitamin E supplement to further protect and moisturize your skin, you’re probably getting enough from your diet or in a multi-vitamin. Go ahead and use topical products with vitamin E to your heart’s content, but speak with your doctor before taking a vitamin E supplement, or any supplement, for that matter.
As you get older, your skin begins to lose its protective barrier. Redness becomes more common. Some anti-aging products, particularly those that contain retinoids, can also make redness worse, particularly if you have sensitive or reactive skin.
That’s where niacinamide, or vitamin B3, can come in handy. It helps strengthen your skin’s protective barrier by encouraging the production of fatty acids and ceramides. The stronger your skin’s barrier, the more protected it is, and the less redness you’ll see. Topical products with niacinamide can be particularly helpful if you suffer from rosacea, as they can minimize redness and flushing associated with the condition.
While using skincare products that are packed full of vitamins won’t replace surgery or treatments such as Botox or fillers, they can help you keep the signs of aging at bay for some time. If you’re interested in learning more about the role vitamins play in skincare and more about what you can do to keep your skin looking youthful for longer, make an appointment with Dr. Stephen Smith, a fourth generation facial plastic surgeon in , today. Call to schedule your consultation.
The age old targets of facial plastic surgery have been dropping tissues. Therefore, the answer had always been reductive surgery (removing tissue). While these surgical techniques remain useful in our facial rejuvenation strategies, volumetric changes were initially neglected. Fortunately, that has changed in the modern practice of facial plastic surgery.
If we look at our children, their faces are full and voluminous. The senior most members in our lives may become hollow and skeletal in appearance, and most of us are somewhere in between. Therefore, Volume portrays youth and our ability to correct those changes allows us to reserve surgical efforts. Hyaluronic acids (Juvederm and Restylane), and hydroxyapatite (Radiesse) are office based strategies with little or no downtime, with longevity up to and potentially beyond a year. Fat transfer offers a longer term solution.
A facelift does two things. It takes years off of your appearance by minimizing loose or sagging skin in the lower part of the face and near the neck. It also helps you stay looking youthful for longer, with some patients seeing the results of their facelift last for 10 years, if not longer. Before you are able to enjoy the results of the facelift, though, you need to get through the surgery itself and the recovery period. While some parts of the recovery process might be a little uncomfortable, there are several things you can do to make yourself as comfortable as possible as your body heals after surgery.
When you get home from the surgery center, one of the first things you might want to do is collapse in a prone position on your bed. For the sake of your comfort, and to keep bruising and swelling to a minimum, resist the urge to flop onto your bed. Instead, keep your head elevated as much as possible.
That doesn’t mean you have to stand. You can sit upright in a chair or lean back in a recliner, as long as your head is held up above your heart. Avoid any activities that require you to bend or lean over during the initial recovery period, as well. Bending can make swelling worse and can raise your blood pressure, increasing your risk for bleeding.
Draping a cool, but not freezing, compress over your eyes or the upper part of your face after your surgery can help relax you and bring down swelling. Keep the compress comfortable by using a rag dipped in cool water and wrung out, not a bag of ice. Using ice can reduce blood flow in the facial area, which can interfere with healing. Not to mention, the ice might be way too cold for skin, creating an uncomfortable experience.
After any type of facial plastic surgery, things tend to look worse before they start looking better. After a facelift, you’ll likely have a lot of swelling and puffiness on your face, as well as some bruising. During the first few days at home, you’ll most likely be wearing a bandage and may have some stitches.
For that reason, it’s usually a good idea to avoid the mirror as much as possible, at least for the first few days after your facelift. You can know that you’ll eventually look better, but seeing a reminder that, at the moment at least, you don’t, won’t be very helpful. If you can, take any mirrors down or cover them with a dark cloth. It’s also a good idea to avoid using your phone’s camera to take selfies or to video chat at this time.
A facelift can take a lot out of you and making sure you get plenty of rest and sleep afterwards is an important part of your recovery. But, falling asleep can be challenging during those first few days after your procedure.
There are a few ways you can coax yourself into getting the sleep you need. For one thing, take an pain medication prescribed by your surgeon for a few days after your facelift. The pain medication can help minimize any discomfort that can keep you up at night. If your surgery took place in the summer, make sure your bedroom is cool enough for sleeping at night. Run the air conditioner in the room or take a few blankets off of the bed, so that you don’t overheat.
It’s also helpful to avoid caffeine during the first week after your facelift, especially if you find that it keeps you up at night. Switch to decaf or to a relaxing herbal tea instead.
Adding more pillows to your bed can also help you get a good night’s sleep after surgery. A few pillows under your back and neck will keep the head sufficiently elevated, while a few pillows on either side of you will keep you from rolling over if you usually sleep on your stomach or side.
Finally, if you usually sleep with a partner, you might find that kicking him or her out of bed for a few days can help you both get a better night’s sleep.
Although many people find that they are ready to return to their usual lives a week or two after their facelift, keep in mind that everyone heals at a difference pace. You don’t have to rush yourself or hurry to return to daily activities, especially if those daily activities are on the strenuous side. Take your time and listen to what your body is telling you. You might be ready to bounce back after just a few days, or you might need three or four weeks before you’re back to normal.
If you have any questions about the facelift recovery process, Dr. Stephen Smith, a fourth generation facial plastic surgeon in , is available to answer them. Dr. Smith’s practice has two locations in the state. To schedule a consultation at either practice, call today.
Before she came clean and admitted to having had injections to plump up her lips, there was a lot of speculation surrounding reality TV star Kylie Jenner’s pout. The gossip and rumors about her lips reached a point where people, mainly teenagers, were going to great, mostly unsafe lengths to get her look.
The “Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge” involved sucking on a small cup or glass, such as a shot glass, to plump up the lips. While many people who tried it did see volumized lips, many also had to deal with painful and unpleasant results, such as bright red marks or purple bruising around their lips. There was also the risk of the cup breaking and cutting the skin, especially if it was made of glass. Damaged caused by the “Lip Challenge” wasn’t just superficial and temporary. The pressure from the glass can hurt the muscle and skin tissue in the lip area, causing permanent injury and making the lips less full looking.
Fortunately, most have agreed that sucking on a shot glass isn’t the way to go about getting fuller, plumper lips. Even Kylie herself has admitted to having worked with a surgeon to plump her pout. If you are looking to add volume to your lips safely, you have a few options.
Depending on how long you want your results to last, lip augmentation using injectable fillers might be the way to go. While years ago, collagen injections were commonly used to add volume to the lips, today, many facial plastic surgeons prefer to use injectables made from hyaluronic acid.
Fillers that contain hyaluronic acid offer a number of benefits. They tend to be more lighter and more natural feeling that certain other options. Since hyaluronic acid is a naturally occurring substance and isn’t derived from animals, the chance that it will cause an allergic reaction is greatly reduced. Another major benefit of hyaluronic acid fillers, such as Restylane and Juvederm, is that the surgeon can reverse the treatment by injecting an enzyme that dissolves the material, if a patient doesn’t like her results. Alternatively, if a patient decides she wants a bit more volume, the surgeon can easily inject more of the filler into the lips.
The treatment process is relatively straightforward and simple. Most treatments take less than half an hour. Before injecting the filler, the facial plastic surgeon will apply a topical anesthetic to the area, to minimize discomfort. He will then use a very fine needle to administer the filler. Many patients are able to return to their regular lives immediately after the treatment. It is usually recommended that you wait a few hours or a day before you use lipstick or lip balm again.
The big downside of hyaluronic acid fillers is that the results are very temporary. For the most part, people can expect to see fuller lips for about six months.
If you have a bit of extra, unwanted fat on your body, one option is to put it to good use by having it injected into your lips. Fat transfer, sometimes call lipotransfer or fat grafting, involves using liposuction to remove fat from an area such as the hips or thighs, cleaning the fat using a centrifuge, then injecting it in the area that needs to be volumized. It can be used in a variety of areas, not just the lips, such as the cheeks and under the eyes.
Fat transfer does take a bit longer to perform compared to injectable fillers, since the surgeon needs to first remove extra fat and prepare it. There’s also a slightly longer recovery period after the injection. Bruising, redness and excess swelling are common after the procedure. It might seem at first that your lips are too full, but that extra fullness will diminish as swelling decreases and as your body reabsorbs some of the fat.
How long the results last depends on your body and how it reacts to the treatment. Fat grafting can provide a permanent results for some people. It’s also possible that your lips will reabsorb a considerable amount of fat and that you’ll want another treatment. No matter what happens, you can expect the results from fat grafting to last longer than the results from an injectable filler.
Fourth generation, -based facial plastic surgeon Dr. Stephen Smith offers both fat transfer and a variety of dermal fillers for lip augmentation. He can help you decide which method best meets your needs. Dr. Smith’s practice as two locations in . For an appointment at either location, call .
Good things come to those who wait. When it comes to a facelift, that can definitely be the case. The surgery’s results can last for a decade or even longer. But in exchange for having long-lasting results, the surgery also has a bit of a lengthy recovery process, especially when compared to injections and fillers, which provide quick, but not long-lasting results. While you might be ready to go and take on the world a day or two after your surgery, it’s important to take your surgeon’s advice and follow the schedule for recovery.
During the first week after your facelift, you’ll want to take it as easy as possible. Going to work or school is definitely off the table during those first seven days. Instead, you’ll want to stay home, resting as much as possible. Your face will most likely be bandaged for the first couple of days. By the seventh day, you’ll most likely return to the doctor to have any stitches taken out.
Activities should be limited during that first week. Bruising, swelling and puffiness are to be expected, and in some cases, they can get worse before they get better. It’s usually recommended that you keep your head elevated during the first week to help reduce swelling and bruising. Sitting in a recliner and sleeping on your back, propped up by pillows, is usually advised. While you can’t hit the gym for a major workout at this point, you might feel up to going for a short, leisurely walk after the first day or two.
Week two after a facelift is when many patients are able to resume a number of regular activities. You’ll most likely be able to head back to the office by around the tenth day after the surgery. It’s worth noting that if you have a job that requires a lot of activity, such as bending and lifting, it might be recommended that you wait even longer before heading back in.
While you can get back to work and might be able to start doing other activities, such as your daily errands by week 2, your face won’t be completely back to normal at this point. It’s common for people to have some traces of bruising left or to have some slight swelling still.
By the end of the second week after the surgery, you might be able to resume taking certain prescription medications and certain over-the-counter medicines, too. Your surgeon will give you the specific details on when you can resume certain drugs. Even if you feel fine, it’s still a good idea to wait until you get the all-clear from your doctor before restarting any medicines you stopped for the surgery.
Technically speaking, you can also start smoking again at the end of the second week after your facelift. But since you’ve already gone a full month or longer without using any tobacco or nicotine products, it is usually in the best interests of your health to keep off of the cigarettes and tobacco products, even after the two week deadline is up.
Starting in the third week after your facelift, your life will begin to get back to normal. You’ll most likely be back at work, settling back into a regular groove. Your surgeon might also give you the go-ahead to start working out again, usually around week three or four.
As far as your incisions go, they will be beginning to fade and to become even less noticeable. Swelling and bruising might linger, but should be less obvious by this point. If you weren’t a back sleeper to begin with, you can probably resume your regular stomach or side-sleeping position at this point, too.
Taking good care of your skin in the weeks and months after your facelift can help improve your results and help you maintain those results. Sun protection is a must, not only in the weeks during which your incisions are healing, but at all times. Your surgeon may advise that you stay out of the sun for some time after surgery. Once you can go out in the sun, it’s usually recommended that you wear a sunscreen. You might also consider treatments such as injections or a chemical peel to help you maintain a refreshed appearance.
Fourth-generation plastic surgeon Dr. Stephen Smith is available to answer any questions you have about a facelift and about the recovery period afterwards. He practices in two locations. For a consultation at the practice in , , call . To schedule an appointment in Columbus, , call 614-678-7180 today.
Your eyes have started to give away your age, so you decided to have eyelid surgery to make them look more youthful and to reduce any puffiness, wrinkles or other signs of aging in the area. While you might be aware that you’ll need to take it easy for a week or two after your surgery, one question that might be on your mind is when can you start wearing makeup again?
After eyelid surgery, you might want to wear makeup to cover any bruising from the procedure or to show off your newly youthful eyes. It’s important that you check in with your surgeon before applying concealer or mascara. Using cosmetics before your eye area has sufficiently healed can cause a number of problems.
In general, it’s best to wait for your incisions to heal before you break out the eyeshadow, liner or mascara again. Your makeup can cause a few problems if it gets near or in the incisions. One issue might be infection. Eye makeup tends to attract bacteria. If that bacteria gets in the incisions, you can end up with a nasty infection near your eye.
While an infection is a worst case scenario, makeup in the incisions can cause problems in other ways. It might simply irritate the eye area or the incision, which can be unpleasant enough and is a good reason to wait to apply makeup until your surgeon gives you the all-clear.
A more complicated problem that can occur if you apply cosmetics to the eye area before the incisions have healed is tattooing of the area. If pigmented or tinted makeup gets in the incision, and the incision heals over the makeup, there’s a chance that the area will remain permanently made up, as if you’ve tattooed that part of the eye area with your mascara or eyeliner.
Bruising can persist for about a week or so after your surgery. While trying to cover up your bruises in the first few days after eyelid surgery is usually not recommended and is often not worth the effort, since you aren’t going out in public, you might want to try concealing any discoloration once you feel well enough to get back on your feet.
Using concealer is tricky, even when you’re not trying to cover up large areas of bruising. Wait until your surgeon says it’s okay to use it, and ask for advice on the best products to use. Depending on your skin tone and the amount of bruising you have, you might need a thicker concealing cream or you may be able to get away with simply using some foundation in the area.
Certain colored concealers can also cover up bruising by creating contrast. Complementary colors are often used to cover up the area. For example, yellow concealers work best on purplish bruises. If you’re not dealing with bruising so much as redness, green concealers are often ideal.
Usually, you’ll want to wait a bit longer after the surgery before you start wearing real eye makeup, such as mascara or eyeshadow. Your situation may be different, but it’s often recommended that you wait about two weeks before putting on eye makeup after your surgery.
Eyelid surgery provides the perfect excuse for investing in a whole new set of eye makeup. Used mascara or eyeshadow might be contaminated with bacteria. While it might have been fine before you had surgery, the risk of infection is too much to keep using it afterwards.
Certain types of eyeshadow are best avoided in the first few weeks after your surgery. Steer clear of anything glittery, whether it’s your eyeshadow, eyeliner or mascara. The same is true of frosted eyeshadow or any type of eyeshadow that flakes easily. You want to reduce the risk of having bits of makeup flake into your incisions while they’re healing.
Your surgeon can provide you with specific guidance on the types of makeup to avoid, the types that are best to use and the best time to start using cosmetics again after your procedure. Everyone heals slightly differently, so taking your doctor’s advice is often the best way to go.
Facial plastic surgeon Dr. Stephen Smith can give you an idea of what you can expect following eyelid surgery and when you can start using cosmetics again. To schedule a consultation with Dr. Smith at one of his two practices in , call today.
If you look back on your childhood years, you might remember a classmate who picked on you relentlessly. Kids can be cruel, calling attention to perceived flaws in their peers. Now that you have kids of your own, you most likely want to do everything you can to keep them from being bullied.
For some parents, that means deciding to have their child undergo ear surgery, or otoplasty, at a young age. While most other types of plastic surgery are reserved for adults or fully-grown teenagers, otoplasty is one surgery that can be performed on kids, and is in fact, actually recommended for that age group if the need arises.
No matter how old your child is, the decision to have ear surgery isn’t one to take lightly. There are a few things to think about, including his or her emotional maturity and how he or she might respond to the surgery.
There are a few reasons why you might think that ear surgery is a good option for your child. One common reason for the surgery is that the ears stick out or protrude from the sides of the head. The surgery can also be performed to reduce the size of very large ears or to fix ears that have folded over themselves.
Children’s ears are usually nearly fully grown by the time they are age 5, making the years between age 5 and 14 the ideal time for otoplasty. The ears are not only the right size when a child is younger, the cartilage is also still soft and malleable. It’s easier for a surgeon to shape and adjust the size of the ears when the procedure is performed on a younger person.
That doesn’t mean otoplasty can’t work on an adult. Fully grown people have ear surgery all of the time. But, having it done while a person is still a child can not only put a stop to any teasing or bullying, it can also make the surgery better.
Age is really just a number when it comes to ear surgery, though. Some children’s ears might be ready for the procedure, but their minds might not be. If your child seems very fearful about the idea of having surgery, it might be best to put it off for a few a years or to postpone it indefinitely. Your child should understand what the surgery will involve and how long the recovery period will take. If he or she protests a lot, it’s best not to push the idea.
It’s also recommended that you wait to schedule the surgery until your child is able to listen to and follow directions. Your surgeon will give very specific instructions for you and the child to follow after the surgery. Not following the instructions can slow down the healing or increase his or her risk for complications.
Your child’s health also plays a big part in determining if he or she is ready for otoplasty. If ear infections are a chronic problem, your surgeon will most likely recommend putting off the surgery until the infections clear up or until they are less of a common occurrence.
You’ll most likely want to schedule the surgery at a time that’s least likely to interfere with your child’s daily activities. Summer break is often recommended, but if your child is an avid swimmer or likes to play sports, scheduling otoplasty for the summer months can interfere with his or her activity schedule.
Another ideal time for ear surgery might be during your child’s winter holiday break, especially if it is a week or longer. In most cases, children need about five to seven days to recover from the surgery, after which they can head back to school. The surgeon will usually recommend waiting another few weeks before your child can go back to activities such as gym class or sports.
Facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr. Stephen Smith is a fourth generation surgeon in . He can evaluate your child’s ears and let you know if ear surgery is the right choice at the moment. To schedule an appointment with Dr. Smith at his , practice, call . You can also see Dr. Smith in Columbus, . Call 614-678-7180 to schedule an appointment today.
Wrinkles are just one sign of aging. A loss of volume on the face is another. While pronounced or chubby cheeks and a narrow chin signal youth, a wider jaw line and sunken cheeks add years to your appearance.
If you are bothered by a loss of volume in the facial area, you have a few options when it comes to restoring it.
Temporary options include using a dermal filler, such as Belotero. Fat transfer, also known as lipotransfer, is a more permanent option, but it might not be right for everyone.
Fat transfer might be a good option for you if youβve started to lose volume in the face. One commonly treated area is the cheek area. Everyone is born with pads of fat, known as the malar pads, just above their cheekbones. While it might seem like youβre gaining fat everywhere else on your body as you get older, youβre losing fat from the malar, or cheek, area. The result is cheeks that look sunken and an under eye area that seems more prominent.
The cheeks arenβt the only part of the face to lose fat and volume as you age. The lips also lose volume and become thinner. If you find that your lips are very thin or almost invisible, injecting fat into them will plump them up.
Another way to tell if fat transfer is right for you is to look at the amount of fat you have on the rest of your body. The procedure involves using your own fat, not someone elseβs. Itβs usually harvested from areas where there is an ample amount of extra fat, such as the thighs or abdomen. While part of the lipotransfer procedure involves liposuction, in many cases, the amount of liposuction isnβt enough to make a big difference in your overall size and appearance.
Still, youβll need to have enough fat on your body for the surgeon to successfully perform liposuction. If youβre not a candidate for liposuction because you are very thin or donβt have fat to spare, your surgeon will let you know of other options for filling in your face.
Being in good health is critically important before deciding to undergo fat transfer. If youβre a smoker, youβll be asked to quit for several weeks before or after the surgery. Smoking slows down healing and affects your circulation. Your surgeon might advise against the procedure if you have any other circulation issues in your body.
Itβs also helpful to have a realistic idea of what to expect from the surgery. The liposuction portion of fat transfer wonβt help you lose substantial amounts of weight. Itβs typically recommended that you be at or near your ideal weight before any type of liposuction.
Adding volume to your face will help you look younger. But, it wonβt change your overall appearance. You wonβt go into the procedure looking like one person and leave looking like a completely different person. Instead, youβll most likely look somewhat refreshed afterwards.
Fat transfer is a multi-step process. First, the fat is harvested from the body. Then, it needs to be purified to remove any debris from it and to ensure that the transfer is effective. Finally, it is injected into the desired area. The procedure is more complicated than a simple injection, but worth it for many.
You will want to take some time off of work to give your body a chance to heal following lipotransfer. The recovery period isnβt so long after fat transfer as it is after surgery, but isnβt as quick as the recovery from an injectable filler. The incisions from the liposuction will need time to heal and your face will need to time to adjust to the newly injected fat.
Your surgeon might inject more fat than desired in the final look. Your body might naturally absorb some of the fat as it heals. It can take a few weeks for the swelling to decrease substantially and for you to see the results you were hoping for. Once the swelling goes down, you can expect to enjoy the results for a long time. The duration of results varies from person to person. In some cases, your body might reabsorb enough of the fat that you need a second injection.
Dr. Stephen Smith offers lipotransfer to patients at in . To learn more about the procedure and find out if itβs the right pick for you, call (614) 702-7342 to schedule a consultation today.
While you may experience some discomfort after your rhinoplasty procedure, and your nose might feel a bit strange for a few days, in most cases the recovery period is nothing to fear. If you plan well, you might find that youβre able to use the recovery time productively, catching up with a few books or reconnecting with people youβve been
meaning to call or email.
To make your recovery as comfortable as possible, follow the instructions your surgeon gives you and follow up with him or her if you have any concerns. The following tips will help you have an enjoyable and pleasant recovery process.
Youβll get the best possible results from your recovery and your surgery if you make an effort to take it easy afterwards, especially for the first day or two. Before your surgery, set up a comfortable area in your home, where you can relax. If youβll be in bed, put plenty of pillows on it to keep your head elevated. If youβll be on a couch or easy chair, make sure itβs comfortable enough for you to sit with your head upright. Your surgeon will recommend keeping the head elevated for a few days after the procedure, to keep swelling down.
Plan a few light activities for that first day or two back. You can watch a movie, read or try to write a letter. You may simply want to use the time to take a nap, and thatβs perfectly fine.
Your nose will be in a splint or dressing for the first week or so after the surgery and will most likely be packed with gauze. As it heals, youβll want to be very gentle with it, avoid bumping it or causing yourself any discomfort. If your surgeon gives you permission, go ahead and put a cold compress or ice on the area to reduce swelling and bruising. But be careful not to press too hard.
Your nose may feel stuffed up after the surgery. Itβs very important that you not blow it, as that can impact the healing. Donβt sniff through the nose, either. If you feel that you need to wipe or clean the nose, use a damp cotton swab to gently wipe the area, being careful not to shove the swab into your nostrils. Moist towelettes can also be useful for wiping the nose.
Youβll also want to be careful about what you put on the nose, what you use around the nose and the way you get dressed after the surgery. Avoid pulling things over your head and face and stick with garments that button or zip for the first few weeks, so that you donβt bump the nose. Your surgeon will most likely recommend not wearing glasses for several weeks after your surgery. Contacts are usually fine, as they donβt put weight on the nose.
Eating a healthy, high fiber diet is a must after rhinoplasty for a few reasons. It will provide you with an adequate amount of nutrition, which your body needs for healing. Fiber will also help you avoid constipation, which can occur when youβre sitting around a lot. Constipation can cause straining, which can be problematic for a healing nose, as it can put pressure on the area and slow down healing.
If you werenβt in the habit of wearing sunscreen before your surgery, use it as an excuse to start. Sun exposure after surgery can discolor the area of the incision, and that discoloration can be permanent. You may want to completely avoid the sun for the first few days after surgery. After that, use a sunscreen with at least SPF 30 and wear a hat with a brim when outdoors.
Your surgeon will most likely recommend that you hold off on heading to the gym for about a month after rhinoplasty. Youβll also want to avoid low impact exercises such as swimming, since you donβt want to get water up your nose.
One form of exercise that is recommended, starting a day or so after your surgery, is walking. Walking has a number of benefits, from improving blood flow to reducing constipation. Just remember to take it easy when you walk and avoid straining or bending. If you feel tired, itβs okay to stop for the day and go back to resting.
Recovery after rhinoplasty isnβt something to rush. In many cases, people feel well enough to go back to work or school after a week. But, everyoneβs different and itβs best to listen to your surgeon and follow his advice.
Dr. Stephen Smith performs rhinoplasty at β two locations in . If you are interested in learning more about the surgery and what to expect during recovery, call to schedule a consultation with Dr. Smith today.
