Archive for the ‘breast lift’ Category

Wear your Bikini to the Mommy Makeover?

Monday, July 16th, 2012

When I plan my mommy makeovers I like my patients to bring in their favorite underwear or even bathing suit with them. No string bikinis please no lacy panties and no granny panties. Something about an inch or two wide around the hips for a tummy tuck or similar width for a bra under the arms, something not too valuable in case I get some marker on it.

I draw the outline of your garment on your body before plastic surgery and I use the outline as a target in which to hide scars. My incisions are individualized. For, example in tummy tuck I will raise the incision if you wear a high cut underwear or lower it if the opposite is true. If you’re not sure bring both with you and we’ll try to meet in the middle. I plan these incisions low within the bikini line because the pubic skin and scar rise after the tummy is tighter. If the skin under the arm is loose wearing the bra helps me to plan a bra strap skin excision and keep it hidden under the bra line.

My very unusual occupation involves leaving scars for a living, but it’s not only about trying to make the scars look good it’s about doing are best to hide them when we can. So when in doubt wear your favorite undergarment or swimsuit to the consult and on the day of surgery. Whether its tummy tuck, breast lift, or reduction or even bra strap excision the garments are a big help.

If you are interested in learning more about the mommy makeover procedure in Baltimore, Rockville, Annapolis or the D.C. area, contact my practice today for a consultation.

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Posted in Body, Breast, breast lift, Plastic Surgery, Tummy Tuck | No Comments »

Herbal supplements and bleeding in Plastic Surgery

Monday, May 21st, 2012

If you’ve ever had a cosmetic surgery consult with me, and I hope you have or will, you will see that I walk my patients through what I call “a pretend day of surgery.” Each of my procedure-related talks starts out with telling patients to be sure to avoid aspirin, Ibuprofen and herbal supplements at least 2-3 weeks before their surgery.

Well, the aspirin and the Ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil) are pretty easy to remember, but many people forget about the herbal supplements, some of which are regular food products. Many are sold in health food stores and many are potent blood thinners. Plastic surgery patients just don’t know that. Because herbal remedies and supplements are not regulated by the FDA, the manufacturers do not have to study or list the side effects.

What’s the biggest side effect?-bleeding. Many supplements thin the blood which can increase blood loss and increase the risk of complications such as hematoma (collections of blood).

According to a recent review, some of the most popular herbs and supplements with potentially dangerous effects include:

Chinese peony
Garlic
Ginger
Ginko
Ginseng
Oil of wintergreen (methyl salicylate)
Palmetto (Serenoa repens, Salbalserrulata)

Add to this list weight loss drugs which can dramatically affect blood pressure as well.

So what should you do to be safe? I always recommend a normal, healthy and balanced diet for at least the 3 weeks before surgery. Don’t overdo any one food group. Avoid known supplements. Take a one a day vitamin without additional herbs (sometimes they come with the vitamin). Go over all medications with your doctor, including herbs, teas and diet pills. When in doubt about something you want to take, just ask us.

If you are interested in a cosmetic plastic surgery procedure contact any one of my three offices for a cosultation.

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Posted in breast lift, cosmetic surgery | No Comments »

Don’t try this at home

Monday, November 21st, 2011

This is a follow up to a blog I posed a few weeks ago about the pencil test. I am going to describe a sequence of operations that I really do not advocate but I hope makes sense when I describe it.

Every month or two, I will see a woman with a double D or more breasts who wants me to do a breast lift and give them gravity defying breasts. Now I can do a breast lift on just about any size breast. The problem is that if I lift a large and heavy breast that breast will go south again quite quickly. Heavy natural breast tissue will always respond to gravity and usually the patient does not want to be smaller (smaller breasts droop less).

So here’s how you create a gravity defying large breast… and please recall I generally do not recommend this to patients, but I hope the concept makes sense. First do an aggressive breast reduction and remove most of the natural breast tissue, the tissue that responds to gravity. Come back a few months later and then put in a large implant. The implant restores the volume and upper fullness and tends to defy gravity more than natural breast tissue.

When I do a breast lift with an implant I will often remove a moderate amount of tissue if the patient agrees for the reasons listed above. If an aggressive reduction is needed at the time of lift and augmentation, it is often safer to stage the two in order to preserve blood supply to the breast.

To make a breast smaller only to make it bigger kind of seems like the death of common sense to me but for some it may be the only option to achieve their goals. This is a very technical and difficult concept to get across for me.

If you want to know what’s right for you, or to set up a consultation then contact me and let’s chat.

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Posted in Breast, breast lift, cosmetic surgery, Plastic Surgery | Comments Off

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