Though the term “best cosmetic surgery procedures” may seem subjective, hundreds, if not thousands, of research studies and trials are conducted each year on procedures and non-surgical treatments. Researchers are often on the lookout for treatments that provide optimal results, with minimal side effects for the patient. The better the results of the study, the more likely the product or treatment may be included among the best cosmetic surgery procedures.

In his review of 98 studies, Dr. Murad Alam of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and surgeon at Northwestern Memorial Hospital found the best cosmetic surgery procedures, based on his research.

Botox and other botulinum toxin-based injectables:

Dr. Alam said that based on the two decades of research and findings on Botox-like treatments, they are safe and effective for patients to use.

Tumescent Liposuction:

When tumescent liposuction is performed, special fluids that are used help the surgeon to safely remove fat cells. Dr. Alam added that tumescent liposuction minimizes the chance for excessive bleeding, improving the patient’s comfort and overall health and safety.

Dr. Alam looked into additional treatments, some of which are relatively new on the market. While he found that treatments that freeze fat or shrink it with laser light, and treatments that tighten skin are safe for use, he was not able to confirm the long-term benefits of each treatment.

To find the best cosmetic surgery procedures for you, Alam suggests talking it over with your surgeon and confirming what will best meet your needs.

For more about the best cosmetic surgery procedures in Vancouver, please email Dr. Workman.

These key winter dry skin tips can be applied throughout the day—from the moment you wake up to the time you head to bed.

Winter Dry Skin Tips for Your Morning

Though a hot morning shower may feel good on cold skin and feet that have hopped across a cool floor, dermatologists say it can be detrimental to your skin. The hot water can zap your skin of its hydration.

Rather, you might take a cooler shower and place a space heater in the bathroom for your comfort.

When buying shower products in the winter, it’s important to avoid harsh soaps that will dry your skin. Also, the use of conditioner more frequently may help maintain your hair’s health.

Daily Skin Care Tips

After a tepid shower, the next winter dry skin tips center around protecting your skin. It is important to shield your skin from ultraviolet rays, even in winter, by wearing long sleeves. Using a moisturizer with SPF is also important year-round.

If skin has already become damaged or even cracked, try applying Vaseline to it, which will work to restore and seal in moisture.

Nighttime Winter Dry Skin Tips

When you head to bed in the evening, the use of a humidifier can help heal dry skin as you sleep. If you suffer from dry hands and nails, oral Vitamin B and the application of a sealant with cotton gloves while you sleep can curb these ill effects of dry and cold winter air.

To learn more about winter dry skin tips and our options for skin care products, please email Vancouver plastic surgeon Dr. Workman.

Two sisters, who note that they usually give clothing or personal items for presents, may be exchanging different items this year. Sister Tina’s #1 wish for a gift? Botox.

Though her sister feels she may not need the injectable, Tina is sure about her request for a plastic surgery gift. She says she began getting Botox treatments after a recent break-up and continues to see improvement in the appearance of crow’s feet.

While the 2011 Christmas season may see an uptick in the number of plastic surgery gifts, it’s nothing new for many consumers. In 2010 alone, patients spent more than $10 billion on cosmetic surgeries and treatments.

With the continued acceptance of injection treatments like Botox and Juvederm it may be increasingly common for people to give plastic surgery gifts, which one woman called “injectable youth.”

Though non-surgical options are the most cost-effective way of giving plastic surgery gifts this year, some gift givers may choose to help out with cosmetic surgeries, too. Popular procedures include facial rejuvenation, body contouring and breast surgeries.

To learn more about plastic surgery gifts and specials on Botox in Vancouver, please email plastic surgeon Dr. Workman.

In the first clip for the plastic surgery film, which is to be released on HBO this summer, several noted models and actresses talk briefly about their views on plastic surgery and aging, both good and bad.

American model Carmen Dell’Orifice seems to have a “why not?” perspective on plastic surgery.

“If you had the ceiling falling down in your living room, would you not go and have a repair,” Dell’Orifice asks in the plastic surgery film.

On the other hand, Italian actress and model Isabella Rossellini may have not chosen plastic surgery as Dell’Orifice has as she ages, but she has seen how growing older in Hollywood has changed her life.

Rossellini shares in the plastic surgery film that while her daughter receives invites to Hollywood A-list parties, she herself no longer does. While Rossellini may feel somewhat shunned by young Hollywood, she is still able to laugh about aging in About Face, adding, “As you grow old, you don’t count any more!”

Other actresses and models are profiled in the plastic surgery film and give their wide-ranging views on getting older and trying to stay youthful and healthy in today’s society.

To find out more about plastic surgery in Vancouver, WA, please email plastic surgeon Dr. Workman.

Around the globe, and especially in Spain, the beauty industry is actually growing. While some industries, like construction, are seeing decreases in demand, salon and beauty shop owners are seeing an influx of returning and new customers.

Many people credit a need to feel good about oneself as the reason for a boom in the beauty industry.

Salon manager Patricia Marquez knows the importance of personal care to her clients, saying, “A person needs to feel handsome, to feel comfortable with themselves. If they don’t look good it doesn’t matter what they do.”

Perhaps it is this desire, or even need, for personal upkeep that is causing the beauty industry in Spain to grow by 3% this year.

Even in times when other industries may be struggling, the “Lipstick index” still applies. The “Lipstick index,” as described by Estee Lauder founder Leonard Lauder, shows that even during an economic crisis, his customers bought more lipstick.

It’s safe to assume the “Lipstick index” applies to non-invasive plastic surgery stateside, as well. In an effort to look and feel their best, even if money may be tight, patients often choose non-invasive plastic surgery as a means of beauty upkeep.

Popular Options for Non-invasive Plastic Surgery

Injectable fillers like Restylane and Juvederm can fill lines around the mouth, while Botox treatments can diminish crow’s feet near the eyes.

To learn more about non-invasive plastic surgery and treatments to fit your needs, please email Vancouver plastic surgeon Dr. Workman for our specials.

The new hyaluronic acid dermal filler, which is called Belotero Balance, has been approved to treat moderate to severe facial wrinkles and folds. This includes nasolabial folds, the lines that run from your nose to the edges of your mouth.

Belotero Balance joins Merz Aesthetics family of non-surgical injectables, including Radiesse. Radiesse is a popular filler comprised of calcium-based microspheres in a water gel that works to restore lost volume in the face. Though its uses are similar to Belotero Balance, the new hyaluronic acid dermal filler works differently.

Like similar hyaluronic acid dermal fillers, Restylane and Juvederm, Belotero Balance works to restore lost volume to your skin by increasing its hydration. Hyaluronic acid is a naturally occurring hydrating component in your skin and these dermal fillers work to mimic it. When injected into the skin beneath the site of a wrinkle, a hyaluronic acid dermal filler provides a sort of scaffolding for depressed areas of skin, supporting them and improving the appearance of youth on the face.

To test the effectiveness of Belotero Balance, it was compared in a split-face study with a collagen-based filler. Using a scale that rates wrinkle severity, Belotero Balance was shown to provide a greater reduction in the appearance of nasolabial folds over 24 weeks. In fact, at the six-month mark, Belotero Balance still showed a greater correction of the wrinkles than its counterpart.

To learn more about your hyaluronic acid dermal filler options in Vancouver, WA, please email plastic surgeon Dr. Workman.

A study published in Psychology and Aging found that facial expressions play a large role in how people perceive the ages of others. In fact, individuals who were smiling in photos were thought to appear two years younger on average than the person’s real age.

Those with a neutral or angry expression on their face did not have the same perceived lower age.

Researchers thought the fact that the individuals who were smiling in photos were perceived to be younger may be due to facial lines. Though age can bring on smile lines around the eyes and mouth, the fact that these are present when we smile or laugh may mislead the eye. It can be difficult to discern if the wrinkles are permanent or temporary, and simply caused by smiling.

Even if you can’t make it in to your cosmetic surgeon’s office, smiling more often can be a great way to look younger, even if only a couple of years.

The study also found that the age of the person viewing the photos, relative to the subject also played a role in how they perceived the subject’s age. Subjects who were older had an age that was more difficult to discern. Additionally, a subject whose true age was near to the viewer’s age was more easily discerned.

In addition to appearing happier, a simple way to look younger may be a visit to your plastic surgeon for a non-surgical treatment, like Botox.

Email Vancouver plastic surgeon Dr. Workman to find out more about Botox and other treatments.

After losing the weight, Olivia Ward struggled with the excess skin many weight loss patients deal with. Dr. Walden described how many patients may look “deflated” or feel like a “sack of skin.” It can be difficult to fit into certain types of clothing, like lingerie and health issues can also come up. These conditions can include rashes that form in skin folds.

Due to these concerns, Dr. Walden stresses that body contouring for patients who have lost a dramatic amount of weight is not a vanity surgery—she would classify it as reconstructive.

To remedy Olivia’s redundant skin, Dr. Walden says she performed a tummy tuck and breast lift. In both of these surgeries, the excess skin is separated from the tissues and removed. The plastic surgeon may also use liposuction to remove small, stubborn pockets of fat. The remaining skin is then tightened to ensure a more taut-looking appearance. In the case of a tummy tuck and breast lift, the bellybutton and nipple areola may need to be moved to a higher position, respectively.

Though later pregnancy can affect the look of the body, those who have undergone previous body contouring after major weight loss will only require a smaller procedure post-baby, if they desire.

To learn more about body contouring in Vancouver, please email plastic surgeon Dr. Workman.

A new injection treatment called a vampire lift is gaining attention for the youth it may add to the face, according to businessweek.com.

Patients who choose to undergo vampire face lifts may do so to combat signs of aging on the face. Even with proper skin care, time and gravity take hold and wrinkles can begin to appear in places like the nasolabial folds, or laugh lines.

While patients currently may choose injectable fillers to diminish the appearance of wrinkles and lines, some plastic surgeons are looking at vampire face lifts as a means to reverse some aging factors.

The way vampire face lifts work is not actually like a facelift surgery, but a procedure that uses components of the patient’s own blood. Platelets and fibrin in the blood has been shown to increase collagen production and strengthen connective tissues to repair some injuries.

Once the surgeon takes a sample of blood and has separated the platelets and fibrin, they are mixed with calcium chloride and prepared then injected into aged areas of the face.

Weeks after the procedure, it was found that at the treatment site, new collagen and blood vessels had developed. Researchers found that at ten weeks after patients underwent the vampire facelifts, the effects evened out, but should be long-lasting.

As vampire face lifts still must seek FDA approval, some plastic surgeons are skeptical of the benefits of the treatment.

Plastic surgeon and former AAPS president Phil Haeck told Los Angeles Daily News that more research should be done on the procedure. As Haeck says, plastic surgeons ensure that little to no blood is left behind in a traditional facelift, so he is unsure how placing blood under the skin achieves the desired result.

Haeck adds that his opinion on vampire face lifts could be changed, but that he needs to see further evidence of the procedure’s effects and safety.

To find out more about non-surgical treatments for aging on the face, we encourage you to email Vancouver, WA plastic surgeon Dr. Workman.

Like many women who have begun to experience the early signs of aging, like glabellar lines between the brows, actress Courtney Thorne-Smith, is an avid user of Botox and is eager to share her experience with the product and help answer common Botox questions.

Since her doctor began treating her with Botox nearly 10 years ago, Thorne-Smith says she is completely satisfied with the results. She says she wants women to know there are resources available to help them learn about how Botox may treat their own wrinkles and lines.

Allergan surveyed a range of women from age 35 to 65 and found out that the number of women considering talking to their doctor about Botox has quadrupled since 2002. Nearly 80% of women see Botox as an effective means of treating glabellar lines, a treatment Thorne-Smith says she has undergone with great success.

Even with this new knowledge women have about the injectable treatment, some Botox questions still remain. According to the survey, women most often wanted to know:

1. Are these products safe? Each aesthetic injectable treatment has a unique safety and efficacy profile and treatments are not interchangeable. For every injectable treatment, including BOTOX^® Cosmetic, it’s important to review the Important Safety Information and Medication Guide with your physician as serious side effects can occur. The most common side effects include pain or temporary bruising at the injection site, temporary tiredness, headache and nausea.
2. How much do these treatments cost? Cost varies across the country based on a number of factors. According to an American Society of Plastic Surgeons survey, the average cost of BOTOX^® Cosmetic is approximately $400 for treatment of the glabellar lines between the brows.
3. Will my face still have expression? Injectable treatments such as BOTOX^® Cosmetic should not radically change one’s appearance. When BOTOX^® Cosmetic is administered by an experienced physician, a person can still frown and look surprised without those moderate to severe lines – also known as the “11” – between the brows.
4. How long does treatment last? Minimally invasive treatments are temporary. BOTOX^® Cosmetic treatment effects can last up to four months.
5. Is treatment painful? Discomfort associated with the injection is usually minimal and brief, and your physician may apply an ice pack or anesthetic cream.

We encourage you contact your plastic surgeon with your own Botox questions. Please join the mailing list of Vancouver plastic surgeon Dr. Workman to find out about upcoming specials.