Tips To Prolonging The Life Of Your [Insert Plastic Surgery Procedure]

Beauty News, Doctor's Talk January 27, 2023 By Brooke Klaiman

Photo Credit: ShutterstockRegardless of the procedure you choose to undergo, there are a few post-op questions that run through your brain prior to surgery day. Some are dead giveaways like what medications should you avoid, how to treat possible pain or when you can go back to your everyday routine. Other questions that you wouldn’t always think of asking your plastic surgeon include tips or tricks for prolonging the life of your procedure. This is where Haute Beauty experts come into play.

Dr. Ira Savetsky | Nose | New York

Top 5 things you can do to preserve a facelift:

Avoid sun exposure. Sun exposure is one of the leading causes of facial aging. Sunscreen should be worn daily. When in direct sun, make sure to be protecting your investment with a hat in addition to sunscreen.
Do not smoke. Smoking cigarettes or nicotine-containing products don’t allow essential oxygen and nutrients to reach your skin which can significantly accelerate facial aging.
Implement a skin care regimen. Having a good skin care regimen including a gentle cleanser, moisturizer, and sunscreen of at least 30 SPF.
Stay hydrated. This will keep your skin moisturized and eating a healthy balanced diet will feed your skin essential vitamins and minerals.
Maintenance with cosmetic treatments. Laser treatments, chemical peels, and facials will help remove fine lines and age spots.

For more information, visit Dr. Savetsky’s website, Instagram, or Facebook!

Dr. Yuly Gorodisky | Brazilian Butt Lift | Oxnard, CA

One of the ways to prolong the results of a BBL is to maintain a healthy weight and take part in an exercise program that emphasizes resistance training. Excess weight gain may cause disproportionate enlargement of areas not liposuctioned, and significant weight loss can shrink the buttock fullness achieved with the procedure. Maintaining a healthy weight and keeping buttocks and abdominal muscles toned, can improve and maintain the results of the procedure.

For patients undergoing facial rejuvenation, one of the most common problems that continue to happen is skin laxity. In order to maintain the results of a facial rejuvenation procedure, a physician-supervised skin care program and minimally invasive treatments such as fractional laser, radio frequency microneedling, PRP with microneedling, or medium depth chemical peels on a regular basis are beneficial in stimulating collagen and improving skin texture and firmness. Our skin naturally loses collagen with age so procedures that stimulate repair also stimulate collagen production and maintain the results and delay the progression of aging.

For more information, visit Dr. Gorodisky’s website, Instagram, or Facebook!

Dr. Paul Durand, Careaga Plastic Surgery | Body | Miami, FL

To prolong the life of any facial procedure, good skin care, and maintenance treatments are very important. Good skin care includes everything from daily skin care at home to periodical facials with a qualified aesthetician. Other treatments include microneedling, platelet-rich plasma, and botulinum toxin injections. After breast surgery, gravity is your enemy. While it is okay to not use a bra at times, it is important to wear one as much as possible to help counteract the effects of gravity. After any body contouring procedure, including tummy tucks or liposuction, controlling what one eats and getting plenty of exercise are crucial for maintaining great results.

For more information, visit Careaga Plastic Surgery’s website, Instagram, or Facebook!

Dr. Jeffrey Lee | Breast | Boston

Every procedure is different and extending the longevity of any procedure is specific to that procedure. Facelifts tighten the face and neck area. As we continue aging the skin will continue to lose and the face will continue to lose volume. Having a good, long-term treatment plan using filler can dramatically slow the aging process in the face so I always recommend keeping up with Botox and filler even after a facelift.

Breast surgery, whether it be augmentation or lift, or both, will also be affected by gravity. Therefore, my main piece of advice is this: do not go bra-less forever. A lot of patients want this but the reality is that bras are one of the few gravity-fighting things that exist.

Lastly, the abdomen/back area is mostly affected by fat tissue so it is important to keep your weight consistent. Just because you had a tummy tuck does not mean that fat won’t accumulate there and stretch out the skin. I always say that it is less likely in that area but it’s not completely immune to weight gain. With or without a procedure, it is always important to keep a balanced diet and an active lifestyle.

For more information, visit Dr. Lee’s website, Instagram, or Facebook!

Dr. Brian K. Machida | Face | Los Angeles

With facelifts, skin care is essential. First, avoiding the sun and using a high SPF sunblock is important. Second, moisturizer is essential; some incorporate HA to keep the skin hydrated. If you smoke, it will be essential to quit smoking for your face and your general health. Avoidance of excessive alcohol would also be helpful. It would be helpful to avoid excessive weight fluctuations, including weight gain or weight loss. There is no need to buy expensive products; you only need to keep them simple.

For more information, visit Dr. Machida’s website, Instagram, or Facebook!

Dr. Daisy Ayim | Body | Houston

My practice is heavy body contouring which gives immediate impact and results. I emphasize to my clients to make a healthy lifestyle a priority before surgery and continue with it after the procedure. During the consultation, my focus is to educate clients on what to do to keep their post-procedure body in check. The first item in sustainable cosmetic surgery is nutrition. I counseled my client about consumption and provide recommendations as well. This conversation is tailored to their needs, especially in our multicultural society.

For more information, visit Dr. Ayim’s website, Instagram, or Facebook!

Dr. Jeffrey Lisiecki | Nose | New York

Absolutely, and this is a great question. We both put a lot of thought and effort into your procedure, so absolutely we want to maintain the results as much as possible. Some of my advice is universal to all procedures but is worth mentioning. Eating a healthy diet, getting regular exercise, and maintaining a healthy weight all play a role in keeping you looking your best before and maintaining your results after surgery. Don’t smoke (or use nicotine), which should be obvious, and do use sunscreen or otherwise appropriate sun protection (which also means avoiding tanning).

For any procedure on your face including facelifts, eyelid surgery, and rhinoplasty, there are further things that can be done to prolong your results. Medical grade skincare, with the appropriate amounts of the correct active ingredients, does absolutely make a difference in your skin quality and aging. Sleeping on your back, if you can, is really beneficial in preventing skin laxity and wrinkles, and even jowling. In fact, experienced professionals can often tell which side of your face you sleep on based on the pattern of wrinkles, so staying on your back at night will help prevent skin from loosening again and wrinkles from setting in again.

Nonsurgical procedures are very important for maintaining your results, as well. Regular Botox (or another neuromodulator), and appropriately-placed fillers or fat grafting maintain your results and slow the process of facial aging. Resurfacing and skin treatments like microneedling, laser, and light treatments will also keep your skin at its best and tightest by stimulating collagen and elastin production, and even changing your skin’s gene expression to act more like youthful skin.

For breast and body surgery, the advice is similar. Sleeping on your back if you can, especially after breast surgery, will likely help maintain the shape of your breasts and implant position, if you have breast implants, and may prevent wrinkles in the decolletage. Skin treatments, especially certain light therapies, improve skin quality and reverse photoaging of the skin on the body, just like they do on the face.

For more information, visit Dr. Lisiecki’s website, Instagram, or Facebook!

Dr. Jason Bloom | Face | Philadelphia

Many patients ask questions about things that they can do to prolong the life of a facial rejuvenation surgical procedure (facelift, blepharoplasty, etc.) that they are undergoing. At the consultation, I explain that aging is an ongoing process and that tomorrow, you are older than today. I can help rejuvenate a patient, but I can’t stop the aging process. We do have options, most of them non-surgical, to keep their results looking as good as possible for as long as possible. For one, surgery isn’t the be-all-end-all!

Patients should maintain their skin and facial soft tissues with lasers and skin care. My post-op patients are often seeing our aestheticians for both pre and post-op skincare regimens and laser rejuvenation or peels, so that not only are the surgical results excellent, but their glowing skin helps to show it off in the best way possible.

Additionally, injectables are an amazing way to maintain a good surgical outcome. Things are neuromodulators around the eyes smooth dynamic fine lines and wrinkles, conservative amounts of dermal fillers to touch up small areas of concern, and bio-stimulatory products like Sculptra can provide ongoing volume for surgical patients and keep them looking great! The vast majority of my surgical patients see my nurse injector team to continue looking their best! Also, for those who really want to do everything they can to maintain a face or neck lift result, I advise a once-a-year non-invasive lifting or tightening device like Sofwave to improve things. We don’t start this right away, but it is easy to do and it will keep the face and neck tissue in good condition for the long run.

Finally, patients continually ask me how long their facial rejuvenation surgical procedure will “last.” I explain that by doing some of these things that I have mentioned here, they will always look better than if they didn’t have surgery, be it 5, 10, or 20 years later!

For more information, visit Dr. Bloom’s website, Instagram, or Facebook!

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