Cosmetic Plastic Surgery Articles

In the age of social media, influencers, and everyone ‘Trying to live their best lives,’ Snapchat dysmorphia is a growing concern on everyone’s mind.

Case in point: you take a selfie, apply your favorite filter that makes your skin perfect, your lips plump and minimizes your nose, and you post for all your friends to admire — but is this the real you.

The perception of beauty is subjective. As social media use grows year after year, the social media dysmorphia trends grow and contribute to poor mental health and stress in many people.

Davis Cosmetic Plastic Surgery understands the want and needs of everyone to look and feel their best. We want you to live your best life and look your best while doing so. Ensuring we do not contribute to the problem while doing in-office or virtual consultations, the DCPS team makes sure to discuss realistic results for any desired procedure.

Setting expectations by using social media and Snapchat filters is a remedy for disappointment. Reality suggests, most filters cannot be replicated to individuals in the same manner they are applied digitally.

Five questions to ask yourself before consulting a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon:

1. What are you hoping to gain from your procedure?
2. Are you willing to potentially go through more than one procedure, if necessary?
3. Can you take time off to achieve a full recovery?
4. Are there any alternative procedures other than surgery?
5. Am I exploring plastic surgery for myself or to fit someone else’s ideals?

These are five valid questions for consideration as you explore your procedural options with Davis Cosmetic Plastic Surgery or any Board-Certified Plastic Surgeon.

We will publish articles about Snapchat Dysmorphia and each of these questions and explore these thoughts together in the next coming weeks.

If you have any questions about our practice or wish to schedule a virtual consultation, please contact our office, and we will get you scheduled.

The “mommy makeover” is an apt term for a fluid combination of procedures performed to restore a woman’s anatomy following pregnancy, childbirth, and nursing—events that cause tissues to stretch, scar, and sag. The most popular blueprint involves breast surgery (an augmentation, lift, or reduction), a tummy tuck, and liposuction.

Googling any of these procedures will yield a wealth of information, but it rarely delves into the practicalities surrounding the experience that women need to know before committing to the surgery and taking a hiatus from the constant multitasking that’s become a way of life for moms in the era of COVID-19. 

So, over the next two posts, I’ll address the real-life issues, from the pragmatic to the personal, on the minds of women mulling a mommy makeover.

How soon can I have a mommy makeover after I’ve stopped nursing?

Whether you’re having a breast augmentation with implants, a breast lift (with or without implants), or a breast reduction as part of your mommy makeover, your plastic surgeon will likely wait to perform the surgery until you’re at least three to six months removed from breastfeeding. That’s done to allow the milk to completely dry up and breast tissues to retract to their new baseline.

In the weeks immediately after nursing, the milk ducts are enlarged and there can be some bacteria lining those ducts. Bacteria in the presence of breast implants raises the risk of complications. There’s a little more flexibility with the timing if you’re just having a reduction or lift.

Can a tummy tuck incision be made over a C-section scar?

The average C-section scar is about a third of the length of a tummy tuck incision, which reaches from hip to hip to allow for maximum skin removal. It’s reasonable, then, to assume the incision can be made over the scar. The trouble is, most C-section scars are a little higher than you’d want for a tummy tuck incision. So rather than repurposing it, surgeons will usually go below it and eliminate it completely.

Can a tummy tuck help with lower back pain?

In a word: Yes. Because the operation typically corrects the abdominal muscle separation (or rectus diastasis) that occurs during pregnancy. When those muscles can’t stretch anymore, they widen and split. And they’re never quite the same again. The front of the core is left weak and the back ends up overcompensating.

During a tummy tuck, those abdominal muscles are realigned and sutured together, corset-style. A 2018 study showed a significant improvement in not only back pain but also urinary incontinence, which women commonly experience after giving birth.

What should I tell my kids about my surgery?

Sometimes women can feel kind of guilty for prioritizing themselves when they’re always in such high demand at home and work. While honesty is always the best way to go, moms tend to feel most comfortable focusing on the restorative nature of the mommy makeover. Maybe explain what happens to the tummy during and after pregnancy and say, “We’re just tweaking it to get it back to where it was.”

In my next post, I’ll get into the nuances of the recovery, including how soon you can pick up your kids again after a mommy makeover.

What are cheek fillers accomplishing? This relatively straightforward question has sparked a lot of debate recently. For years, it was widely accepted that injecting the cheeks with a hyaluronic acid-based filler can, among a number of benefits, lift the middle of the face, smoothing smile lines and tightening sagging jowls. But that ability is now being drawn into question.

Where does that leave us? And, more importantly, what can you expect from the procedure?

Distinguishing perception from reality

What’s actually happening is a sort of reinflation that’s being confused by some injectors as lifting. Filler can contour specific areas of the face (and body), adding volume where it’s otherwise been lost or perhaps never naturally existed, creating a more symmetrical or youthful-looking appearance. 

Wherever it’s injected, the filler will plump. And that swelling effect can appear to lift the overlying skin in both the targeted and surrounding areas.

Visually, the effect is real. By adding volume to the middle of the face, cheek filler creates definition and symmetry. And not only will the cheeks look more angular, the new definition and volume will also enhance the lower part of the face.

But physically, no filler—not yet, at least—is capable of achieving an actual lift. It’s difficult to accomplish even with a scalpel and sutures. That’s because facial tissue is heavy, and it’s fused into position with large and small ligaments.

In a recent study, a board-certified plastic surgeon examined the effect of cheek fillers on the nasolabial fold, specifically. Using a three-dimensional camera, he sought to find out whether “adding volume to the cheeks creates a pulling force on the skin that elevates the nasolabial crease or nasolabial fold.”

While he found that filler, in fact, expanded the skin where it was injected, it didn’t lift the fold. However, the expansion did lead to a “perceived improvement of the nasolabial fold.”

The takeaway

Setting your expectations prior to the procedure, with your plastic surgeon’s help, is critical. If it’s injected at the proper points and depths, cheek filler may be able to help create a subtle, localized lift. But it won’t structurally lift the underlying facial tissue.

So, if you want smoother nasolabial folds and a tighter jawline, consider another procedure. But if improved symmetry, definition, and volume restoration through the middle of the face is your goal, cheek filler can help.

Dr. Davis and the team at Davis Cosmetic Plastic Surgery are experts in making our patients look great and feel better. If you have any questions regarding these or other procedures, please contact our office and we are happy to help.