COSMETIC PROCEDURES FOR THE HOLIDAY SEASON
Everyone wants
to look their best for the holidays. Holidays may be the only time that they see certain family members, friends, or
colleagues all year and they want to look better than their best. Others may want to use this time off from school or
work to get surgical procedures done that they would normally not have time for.
The cosmetic procedures which
have the fastest recovery usually are the injectables. The injections may include Botox to smooth out the muscles causing
frown lines and crows feet or fillers used to fill lines or enhance fullness in the lips.
Placed carefully, Botox
can raise or alter the shape of your brows and soften or eliminate frown lines and crows feet. It can even help
with problem areas such as softening the down turned corners of your mouth and/or relaxing some of the bands in your neck.
Botox injections are done in a short visit to the office and the effect is usually seen in three to five days.
By examining the lines, wrinkles and expressions, we decide the areas to be treated. Facial expressions are used to
convey emotions. I prefer to soften or eliminate wrinkles, but to leave the face mobile. Botox has to be mixed
prior to injection and should be fresh, ideally used within four hours. Typically an injection will last between three
and six months. The most common complication is occasional bruising at the injection site so you would probably want
Botox injected a few weeks before a big event.
Injectable fillers are very popular before the holidays. They
have a relatively fast recovery, sometimes just overnight. Hyaluronic acid fillers are the ones I use most often in
my practice for a more immediate result. Hyaluronic acid is a chemical naturally found in your skin, soft tissues, and
joints, so skin testing prior to an injection is not necessary. They typically last from six to twelve months.
These type fillers have a minimal risk of getting hard nodules. Most patients will need some type of local
anesthetic infiltrated prior to injection to alleviate any discomfort during the injection. There may be some bruising
and swelling after the injection. You should be off aspirin and anything that can thin your blood for at least
two weeks prior to the injection.
Fillers can be used in the nasolabial folds (the parenthesis around your mouth)
lip lines, wrinkles, and even frown lines. They can be used to make the lips fuller, poutier or more defined.
They can also be used to raise a depressed scar from acne or an accident.
Chemical peels are another choice if
you are short on time. There are a few that will freshen your skin in about a week with just one treatment. Typically
a medium depth trichloroacetic acid peels may take a week for recovery, but the result is seen immediately after the outer
layer of skin heals. There are various concentrations of milder peels, such as the glycolic acids, that with repeated
treatments can give a result with slightly less rejuvenation than the medium depth peels, but they have the advantage of no
recovery time.
Surgical cosmetic procedures popular during the end of year depend on the amount of time you have
available. If you have only about one week off of a "desk" type job, then body contouring such as liposuction
and breast augmentation or lift is often chosen. These procedures and their various associated swelling and/or bruising
is easily hidden under the bulkier clothes of winter. There are a few facial cosmetic procedures with a relatively fast
recovery, such as an upper lid blepharoplasty. Most major facial cosmetic surgical procedures however involve temporary
swelling and bruising that may not fit into busy schedules with the holiday and social season. A facelift will probably
look acceptable in two weeks, but not necessarily back to normal enough to count on being at your best when you attend an
important holiday event. Even a fat injection into the lips will cause obvious swelling in the lips for several weeks.
Other procedures, such as tummy tucks and major laser skin resurfacing are popular when people have more than one
week before they have to return to "full speed" at work. Tummy tucks vary in their extent and complexity,
and the recovery time needed varies from about two to six weeks before significant strenuous physical activity can be resumed.
Major laser skin resurfacing involves at least seven to ten days where socializing and work is not possible.
Towards
the end of the year we may worry about how we will look for the holidays and what can be done to make it better. We
may have put things off that we have wanted to do but just did not want to take the time off. Be honest with yourself
and your surgeon about how much time you really have and what you hope to achieve. There are many options available,
each with its own recovery and reward.