Davis

It’s bathing suit and sleeveless top season—which may not be welcome news if you’re particularly sensitive about your upper arms.

Rest assured, you’re hardly alone. Sagging upper arms can occur not just as a result of having lost some weight but also simply from aging and heredity. So it’s a concern that plagues millions of women.

More positively, there’s a pretty straightforward solution for it. It’s a cosmetic procedure known as brachioplasty, or an arm lift. An arm lift is a surgical procedure that:

• Reduces the excess skin from the underarm between the elbow and the armpit
• Tightens and smoothes the supportive tissue that defines the upper arm
• Reduces localized pockets of fat in the upper arm

So, what’s the procedure like?

Once you’re sedated with a general anesthesia, the plastic surgeon will remove an elliptical segment of skin from the inner backside of your arm. Depending on the extent of the excess skin, the surgeon may also take some from the very top of the arm, into the armpit.

In the process, some of the fat is also removed either surgically, with the aid of liposuction, or through a combination of both. Liposuction alone may seem like the preferred treatment for sagging upper arms because there’s no scarring, but liposuction doesn’t address the excess skin.

From there, the muscles are tightened and the incision is sutured. In all, an arm lift generally takes two to three hours.

And, how long do the results last?

The results of an arm lift are permanent—and dramatic. Most describe a significant improvement in their upper-body appearance as a result of the surgery.

The smoother, tighter contours should be apparent almost immediately after the procedure, even with some initial swelling and bruising. (A compression garment will help control the swelling.) And the scar will fade with time.

You should be able to resume most of your normal activities within just a few days. And you could likely go back to more strenuous activities within three to four weeks, which is important because your upper arms will maintain those sinewy contours for years to come as long as you stick to a nutritious diet and a challenging exercise regimen.

Aging may eventually diminish a bit of the firmness, but you’ll still be much better off than you were before the procedure.

The body-positive conversations have helped. And as they continue to increase in frequency, the more inclined we’ll be to feel comfortable in our own skin. That doesn’t mean we’re going to stop striving to be the best version of ourselves. Only that the goal will be better aligned with our physical and emotional qualities, rather than a steady stream of photoshop-ed images we absorbed during our most formative years.

We each have our own relationship with fat, and that’s not going to change overnight. But simply being able to focus our attention and energy on a particularly problematic area or two, like the belly or thighs, is so much more useful than thinking of ourselves as just plain fat.

To that end, there have been some really exciting innovations, most notable of which has been the advent of a non-invasive fat-reducing procedure called CoolSculpting. You’re probably already familiar with it on some level. Here’s what you need to know if you’re considering it.

What’s the procedure like?

CoolSculpting for women can treat just about any unwanted bulge, but it’s FDA-approved for the abdomen, love handles, thighs, upper arms, “bra fat,” back fat, “banana roll” underneath your butt, and double chin.

An applicator that looks kind of like a big vacuum hose applies suction to the area you want to target. It then applies carefully regulated cooling plates to bring fat cells down to a temperature at which they’re irreversibly damaged. For most areas, the treatment takes a little over a half-hour.

The frozen fat cells will then die and be eliminated by the body over the course of the next few months. You’ll start to see results within a few weeks, but it should take about three months for the final effects to become apparent.

Key to the process is having enough fat for the applicator to adhere to. In other words, enough to pinch.

The treatment itself is relatively gentle. You may feel some initial discomfort as the cooling begins, but it’ll dissipate. And then you’ll be able to catch up on email, scroll through Instagram, or even close your eyes and appreciate a bit of solitude.

What about after it’s done?

There’s no downtime with CoolSculpting for women. So you can return to the office, run errands, or even hit the gym following a treatment.

Over the coming weeks, you can expect up to a 25 percent reduction of fat in the treated area. The results are permanent—once the fat cells are frozen, they’re gone for good. Though the remaining fat cells will still function as normal, which means they’re subject to getting bigger with weight gain. (Contrary to popular belief, fat cells expand with weight gain. They don’t multiply.) So, eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly are as important after the treatment as they ever were.

When we think of ourselves as fat, it’s very hard to ever gain any meaningful traction. But by focusing on key areas, momentum is much easier to come by—and sustain.

Breast augmentation is one of the most popular kinds of plastic surgery performed in the United States. And while it’s common for women to arrive at their consultation with a pretty well-formed concept of what they want, many tend to gloss over the recovery.

But that phase is critical to ensuring you achieve your desired shape. So here’s a little insight into what you can expect over the days and weeks immediately following your surgery.

The first few weeks

During the first week after your breast augmentation surgery, focus on resting and following your plastic surgeon’s recovery instructions to a T. Everyone heals at their own pace, but those two acts will go the furthest toward facilitating a quick and complication-free recovery.

Any drains or sutures may be removed within a day or two after the surgery.

Your breasts are likely to feel tight and tender, but that should gradually dissipate with each passing day. The surgical bra or compression garment recommended by your plastic surgeon will help. As will applying cool packs to swollen, bruised, or tender areas.

There should be a significant improvement in the swelling and bruising after the first week. The swelling and associated discomfort generally peaks over the first three days or so. From there, the vast majority of swelling usually goes down within six weeks.

Sleeping with your torso elevated will help limit the swelling. It may take a little getting used to, but it should be relatively short-lived. You will, however, need to sleep on your back for a couple of months to avoid unnecessarily straining your incisions and to continue to keep the swelling to a minimum.

Within a week or two of their surgery, most women are able to return to work and other light activities, like walking. That’s important because it’ll improve your circulation and boost your mood.

You’ll still, however, need to avoid the more strenuous stuff, including high-intensity exercise and, sorry to say it, sex for a few more weeks. Raising your blood pressure too soon after an operation can lead to complications that could harm your health and compromise your results.

Month 2 and beyond

Maybe the top question on every woman’s mind as she proceeds through recovery is, “How long will it take for my implants to settle?”

Your implants will sit high and firm on your chest until the surrounding tissue and muscle adjust to their presence. Once they relax, your breast implants will settle, or “drop and fluff,” into their intended position. Generally, the process takes three to four months, but it can take up to six months if your implants are especially large or your breast tissue is firmer than average.

But that’s a much subtler transformation than it sounds. Beyond that, most women are nearly completely recovered from their surgery within a few weeks. Over the course of the next several months, your incision scars will fade to thin lines that will be all but invisible when you’re wearing a bikini or a low-cut top—leaving just you and your captivating new breasts.

Just because you sport your dad bod with pride or hit the gym religiously doesn’t mean you’re free from insecurity about your physique. For almost all of us, it’s a seed that’s planted during puberty and grows through drought or deluge for the rest of our lives.

The perception of masculinity has pressed many of us into putting up an invincible shield when it comes to our appearance. Jay-Z may admit to having 99 problems, but I’m sure he’d deny that his body is one of them.

Yet, we, as an unspoken rule, tend to avoid floor-length mirrors and try to maintain eye contact with the medicine-cabinet mirror when we’re brushing and shaving, because glancing down would mean acknowledging those stubborn love handles.

The thing is, the deeper we bury it, the more it eats at us. Doing something about it, however, will at least bring a certain amount of relief and may even unearth a more confident you. When you think about it that way, what’s there to lose?

Now, what if I told you there’s a way to go about it discretely and with minimal effort? Have you ever heard for CoolSculpting for men?

Sit back and shed fat?

CoolSculpting is a noninvasive therapy that freezes away stubborn fat. The FDA’s approved it to treat: the abdomen, flanks, thighs, upper arms, back, double chin, the area below the jawline, and the so-called “banana roll” beneath the buttocks.

Despite how it may seem, we all have a set amount of fat cells. When we gain weight, those cells are expanding, not multiplying. But we all carry fat in different areas of our bodies. In some, it manifests in pockets that may shrink down some with mindful eating and exercise but never really go away entirely.

For years, liposuction was the lone solution for removing those pockets. But the last decade or so has seen the rise of noninvasive treatments that use either heat or cold to kill fat cells in problem areas. CoolSculpting makes use of the cold, the more natural of the two options.

Here’s how it works: A suction applicator delivers targeted cold temperatures. At a certain temperature, the fat cells will freeze and rupture. At which point, they’ll be naturally eliminated by the body over the course of the next few months.

A treatment generally takes between a half-hour and an hour, during which time you’re free to catch up on email, scroll through Instagram, or just close your eyes and enjoy the alone time. Shedding fat has literally never been this easy.

What kind of results can you expect?

CoolSculpting for men has been shown to reduce fat in the targeted areas by up to 25 percent over the months following the treatment. Many elect to have multiple treatments to enhance those results. Your plastic surgeon will recommend a treatment plan that’s based on the amount of your excess fat and the size of the area you’d like treated. (Some also treat multiple areas simultaneously.)

The results are permanent—once the fat cells are frozen, they’re gone for good. Though the remaining fat cells will still function as normal, including being subject to getting bigger with weight gain. So, eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly are as important after the treatments as they ever were.

Which leads us to another positive side of CoolSculpting for men: There’s little to no downtime. You won’t even need to skip the gym after work the day of your treatment.

A new, more confident you is waiting. All you need to do is inquire within.

More than 2.5 million dermal filler procedures were performed in the United States last year, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, making it not only one of the most popular kinds of plastic surgery being done today but also one of the fastest-growing.

Dermal filler injections temporarily smooth out fine lines and wrinkles, restore youthful volume to the face, and enhance lip and cheek contours without a single incision or even really any downtime. But you probably already knew all that. What you’re more interested in knowing—what may be holding you back—is can you reverse dermal fillers?

The vast majority who receive such treatments from a board-certified plastic surgeon, licensed physician’s assistant or nurse injector that’s trained and experienced in administering them are thrilled with their results. But, admittedly, less-than-perfect outcomes, such as overfilling and asymmetry, do happen. In a small percentage of cases, a patient’s body may simply react poorly to the product for no apparent reason.

Most dermal fillers are by their very nature temporary. But, if you don’t love your results, a skilled plastic surgeon can, in many cases, make more immediate corrections or improve on your results. Here’s a look at some of those treatments. So the question remains, can you reverse dermal fillers?

Your next move

Many of the most common dermal fillers are hyaluronic acid-based—Juvéderm, Voluma and Volbella. They, along with Restylane products and Belotero, can be partially or completely removed with an enzyme called hyaluronidase. It’s injected into the affected areas and dissolves the hyaluronic acid particles.

In some instances, it may remove more than the desired amount of filler, which may prompt another filler treatment to achieve your original goals.

Hyaluronidase won’t help with non-hyaluronic acid fillers, such as Radiesse, Bellafill, and Sculptra. But a steroid injection can help reverse the effects to an extent. A skilled plastic surgeon may also be able to significantly improve your results with the strategic placement of another filler.

Cosmetic surgery is part science and art. While a solvent that dissolves the filler may seem logical enough, treating a poor outcome with another filler probably sounds counterintuitive. So it may help to think of it this way: An artist creates dimension and life not by erasing imperfections but by delicately developing shading.

Yep, there’s homework

Often, time is the best remedy for subpar results. Mild symptoms, like moderate lumpiness or slight asymmetry, can usually be improved by massaging the area.

Well before then, though, be thorough about researching and screening prospective surgeons. The more capable they are to discern the appropriate filler for you and inject it safely and precisely, the more likely you’ll be to achieve a beautiful result.