Plastic Surgery

Our goal is to provide a broad range of plastic surgery procedures. These include reconstructive and cosmetic procedures of the face, breast, hand, and body.

Body

Abdominoplasty

Abdominoplasty, or a tummy tuck removes excess fat and skin, and in most cases tightens weakened or separated muscles, creating an abdominal profile that is flatter and firmer.

Even individuals of otherwise normal body weight and proportion can develop an abdomen that protrudes or is loose and sagging. The most common causes of this include:

Pregnancy
Aging
Significant fluctuations in weight
Heredity
Prior surgery

Also known as brachioplasty, an arm lift reshapes the under portion of the upper arm, from the underarm region to the elbow. Fluctuations in weight, growing older and even heredity can cause your upper arms to have a drooping, sagging appearance.

Body Contouring after Major Weight Loss

Major weight loss often leaves residual excess skin, resulting in sagging wrinkling, and disproportionate appearance. Body contouring and lifting procedures can remove excess sagging skin and fat resulting is a more proportioned appearance and smoother contours. Examples include:

Tummy tuck/abdominoplasty
Circumferential body lift
Arm lift/brachioplasty
Breast lift/mastopexy
Face and neck lifts

Fat Transfer

Fat transfer can remove fat from unwanted areas and move it to other areas of your body. The technique involves harvesting fat using liposuction and injecting it into areas that would benefit from increased fullness or to fill in depressions resulting from injury or previous surgery. This is an option for women who are looking for a relatively small increase in breast size and would prefer to avoid implants.

Liposuction

Despite good health and a reasonable level of fitness, some people may still have a body with disproportionate contours due to localized fat deposits. These areas may be due to family traits rather than a lack of weight control or fitness.

Liposuction, also known as suction assisted lipectomy, slims and reshapes specific areas of the body by removing excess fat deposits, improving your body contours and proportions.

In some cases, liposuction is performed alone, in other cases it is used with plastic surgery procedures such as a facelift, breast reduction or a tummy tuck.

Liposuction techniques may be used to reduce localized fat deposits of the:

Thighs
Hips and buttocks
Abdomen and waist
Upper arms
Back
Inner knee
Chest area
Cheeks, chin and neck
Calves and ankles

Breast

Breast Augmentation

Breast augmentation can be a tremendous confidence builder in many women who either never developed full breasts, or have had decrease in size of their breasts following pregnancy or weight loss. Breast augmentation can safely fill out the breasts and allow these women to wear clothing that they may not otherwise feel comfortable wearing. Implants also may be used to reconstruct a breast after mastectomy or injury.

After the incision is made, a breast implant is inserted into a pocket either:

Under the pectoral muscle (a submuscular placement), or
Directly behind the breast tissue, over the pectoral muscle (a submammary / subglandular placement)

The method for inserting and positioning implants depends on the type of implant, degree of enlargement desired, your body type, and your surgeon’s recommendations.

There are three commonly used incision methods

Inframammary incision, in the fold where the bottom edge of the breast meets the chest.
Periareolar incision, around the lower edge of the areola, where the darker skin surrounding the nipple meets the lighter skin of the breast.
Transaxillary incision, small incision made in the armpit crease for breast augmentation.

Breast Lift

Also known as mastopexy, a breast lift raises and firms the breasts by removing excess skin and tightening the surrounding tissue to reshape and support the new breast contour. Breast lifts are often done as an isolated procedure, but also as a frequent adjunct to breast augmentation surgeries.

Sometimes the areola becomes enlarged over time, and a breast lift will reduce this as well. A breast lift can rejuvenate your figure with a breast profile that is youthful and uplifted.

Breast Reconstruction

Breast reconstruction is achieved through several plastic surgery techniques that attempt to restore a breast to near normal shape, appearance and size following mastectomy.

Breast reconstruction is a physically and emotionally rewarding procedure for a woman who has lost a breast due to cancer or other condition.

The creation of a new breast can dramatically improve your self-image, self-confidence and quality of life. Although surgery can give you a relatively natural-looking breast, a reconstructed breast will never look or feel exactly the same as the breast that was removed.

Types of Breast Reconstruction:

Tissue Expander/Implant Reconstruction
- A permanent implant can sometimes be placed immediately at the time of the mastectomy, however reconstruction with an implant often requires tissue expansion. Tissue expansion stretches healthy skin to provide coverage for a breast implant. Reconstruction with tissue expansion frequently allows a faster and easier recovery than flap procedures, but it is sometimes a more lengthy reconstruction process.It typically requires several office visits over 2-3 months after placement of the expander to gradually fill the device through an internal valve to expand the skin. A second surgical procedure will be needed to replace the expander with a permanent implant.Surgical placement of a breast implant creates a breast mound. Secondary procedures are often done to further improve shape and symmetry and to create a new nipple and areola.

Flap Reconstruction
- TRAM Flap
  - TRAM is short for transverse rectus abdominis muscle, which is a muscle in the lower abdomen between your waist and pubic bone. A flap of this skin, fat, and muscle are used to reconstruct the breast in a TRAM flap breast procedure.TRAM flaps are commonly performed, due to TRAM flap tissue being natural living tissue which feels quite similar to breast tissue — making a good substitute.

- Latissimus Dorsi Flap
  - A latissimus dorsi flap uses muscle, fat and skin from the back tunneled to the mastectomy site. In some cases the the flap is used alone to cover a mastectomy defect, but an implant is often used underneath the flap to reconstruct an adequate size breast mound. In contrast, implants are typically not necessary with TRAM flaps to create a full size breast mound.

Nipple and areolar reconstruction
- Minor outpatient procedures where a small skin flap is done to create the raised nipple and then medical tattooing is done to create the darker pigmentation of the nipple and areola.

All of these procedures are typically covered under health insurance.

Breast Reduction

Female Brest Reduction:

Excessively large breasts can result in significant physical and emotional issues. Many women suffer from chronic neck, back and shoulder pain from overly large breasts. The emotional discomfort and self-consciousness that can be associated with large breasts can be just as troubling.

Breast reduction, also known as reduction mammaplasty, is a procedure to remove excess breast fat, glandular tissue and skin to achieve a breast size in proportion with your body and to alleviate the discomfort associated with overly large breasts.

Breast reduction always involves a breast lift. The incision patterns are basically identical; see the Breast Lift section above for more details on the incisions used. However, in addition to skin tightening and lifting the nipple and breast tissue, significant weight is removed from the breasts to make them lighter and smaller.

Breast reduction patients are some of our happiest patients because they frequently feel immediate relief in their neck, back and shoulders, and they find it easier to be more active, and can fit into clothing better.

Male Breast Reduction:

Gynecomastia is common condition in adolescent and adult men, where the breasts are excessively large. This can result in significant social discomfort, as well physical complaints related to tenderness in the breasts. It is frequently treated by liposuction to remove fatty tissue from the breasts as well as direct surgical excision of breast tissue. In occasional cases, a second surgery may be needed to remove excess skin and tighten the breasts.

Face

Blepharoplasty

Cosmetic eyelid surgery, called blepharoplasty, is a surgical procedure to improve the appearance of the upper eyelids, lower eyelids, or both, and give a rejuvenated appearance to the surrounding area of your eyes, making you look more rested and alert.

Specifically, eyelid surgery can treat:

Loose or sagging skin that creates folds or disturbs the natural contour of the upper eyelid, sometimes impairing vision
Excess fatty deposits that appear as puffiness in the upper eyelids
Bags under the eyes
Droopiness of the lower eyelids, showing white below the iris (colored portion of the eye)
Excess skin and fine wrinkles of the lower eyelid

Botulinum Toxin

Botulinum Toxin, often referred to by its product name Botox®, is a popular non-surgical injection that temporarily reduces or eliminates frown lines, forehead creases, crows feet near the eyes and thick bands in the neck. The toxin blocks the nerve impulses, temporarily weakens and softens the muscle actions that cause wrinkles, while giving the skin a smoother, more refreshed appearance.

Botulinum Toxin can also be used for the following purposes:

excess saliva
excessive sweating
eye disease
prevent migraine headaches
movement disorder
muscle spasms
overactive bladder
skin lines and wrinkles
tremors

Brow Lift

Brow lifts may be performed in order to correct:

A low or sagging brow that is hooding the upper eyelid
Raising the eyebrows to a more alert and youthful position
Minimizes the creases that develop across the forehead, or those that occur high on the bridge of the nose, between the eyes
Improves what are commonly referred to as frown lines, vertical creases that develop between the eyebrows

Dermal Fillers

The visible signs of facial aging occur over time as a result of sun exposure, heredity and life style.

One of the earliest signs of aging is a loss of facial fullness and the development of wrinkles. Softening of these facial lines and the restoration of volume and fullness in the face often can be achieved non-surgically with injectable fillers.

If you would like to restore facial contours, or reduce the appearance of lines and creases, injection therapy with soft tissue fillers may be right for you.

Injectable fillers can:

Plump thin lips
Enhance shallow contours
Soften facial creases and wrinkles
Improve the appearance of some recessed scars

Facelift

Known as rhytidectomy, a facelift is a surgical procedure to improve visible signs of aging in the face and neck, such as:

Sagging in the midface
Deep creases below the lower eyelids
Deep creases along the nose extending to the corner of the mouth
Fat that has fallen or is displaced
Loss of muscle tone in the lower face may create jowls
Loose skin and excess fatty deposits under the chin and jaw can make even a person of normal weight appear to have a double chin

Rejuvenation procedures typically performed in conjunction with a facelift are brow lift, to correct a sagging or deeply furrowed brow, and eyelid surgery to rejuvenate aging eyes.

Otoplasty

Ear surgery, or otoplasty, is usually done to set prominent ears back closer to the head or to reduce the size of large ears.

For the most part, the operation is done on children between the ages of four and 14. Ears are almost fully grown by age four. Ear surgery on adults is also possible, and there are generally no additional risks associated with ear surgery on an older patient.

Rhinoplasty

Rhinoplasty, often referred to as a nose job, is a surgical procedure done to improve appearance as well as to improve breathing. Rhinoplasty can reshape the nose by removing a hump, changing shape of tip or bridge, narrowing span of nostrils, or changing angle between nose and upper lip. It is frequently done to straighten a crooked nose, correct a deviated septum, repair the effects of a broken nose, and open blocked nasal airways. Aesthetic changes are always considered cosmetic and not covered under insurance, whereas correcting breathing problems or issues related to previous trauma are often covered under health insurance.