Cheek Implants

November 01, 2011   Casandra   No comments

If you aren’t happy with your facial structure, one of the changes you can make is to emphasize your cheeks through cheek augmentation. During cheek augmentation, cheek implants are placed over the cheekbones. Alternately instead of implants, plastic surgeons may use Restylane or fat from elsewhere on the patient’s body. Sometimes cheek implants are used in conjunction with other procedures including cuts and modifications made to the cheekbones, or a general face lift or chin augmentation. During your surgical consultation you will have a chance to review all the options for cheek surgery and other facial cosmetic operations. You can decide at that point if you wish to combine multiple operations to achieve a certain look, and also pick the materials and shapes for your chin implants. At this point you’ll need to choose what type of anesthesia to receive and where the incision to insert the implants should be made.

What materials are cheek implants made from? Most commonly solid silicone is used (as it is in breast implants). Other common cheek implant materials include high-density porous polyethylene and expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE), known commercially as Gore-Tex. The latter two are more easily integrated into the surrounding tissue than solid silicone. The drawback is that these two are harder to remove if modifications have to be made since they do integrate so well.

Three different shapes of cheek implants exist called malar, submalar, and combined. Malar implants go over the cheekbones, which creates the effect of higher cheekbones. Submalar implants go underneath the cheekbones to counteract a “hollowed out” appearance. Sometimes you can get both at once, which is of course called combined cheek implants.

To introduce the implants into the cheeks, an incision is made by the top of the gum line or near the eye. Usually the option of which type of incision to make is left up to the patient. The gum line incision can carry a higher risk of infection, but the incision by the eye can leave a scar. It takes an hour to two hours to place chin implants under general anesthesia or IV sedation, and the recovery period is generally ten days.

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Chin Implants

November 01, 2011   Casandra   No comments

One of the most prominent features on your face is your chin. Like noses, chins protrude enough to draw attention, and a lot of people are unhappy with their chins since the shape of the chin can cause distortion in the entire face. The chin and nose also interact closely. If you have a nose job, you may lose facial proportion unless you also alter the size of your chin. Similarly, modifying just the size of your chin could change the way that your nose appears, eliminating the need for Rhinoplasty.

There are two types of chin surgery—chin reduction and chin augmentation. In the first case, the reduction surgery is performed on the bone. In the second case, augmentation is done using chin implants. Chin implants often involve the use of bone taken from elsewhere in the body, usually the ribs or the pelvis. Chin implants are considered relatively easy but also very effective in changing the appearance of a person. Other types of chin implants which use synthetic compounds include Gore-Tex, Supramid and Mersiline. There is also AlloDerm, which is extracted from tissue donors and modified before being used as a graft.

Are there risks to chin augmentation? There may be some hematoma and swelling, and sometimes numbness which develops in the lower lip but usually goes away very quickly. Occasionally there is also a risk of infection and displacement of the implant, but both of these are relatively uncommon. It is always smart to ask your surgeon about his or her history of complications when you go to your chin surgery consultation. The consultation is the event where you talk about your goals and select a chin profile from among the pictures provided to you. The surgeon will be able to apply his or her extensive experience with chin surgery to your situation and tell you how the surgery is likely to alter your overall facial features. It is best to take your surgeon’s advice quite seriously since it can be difficult to figure out how the chin implants will affect your overall appearance since you don’t have any experience. The change should be dramatic though, and hopefully quite positive!

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Buttocks Implants

October 30, 2011   Casandra   No comments

Many people are unsatisfied with the shape of their buttocks, especially women. Some women wish they had more curves. Buttocks implants are one way to achieve those curves. As with breast implants, buttocks implants are usually made of silicone and are put in place through an unobtrusive incision.

You may have also heard that you can get a fat transfer in order to enhance your buttocks. Which one is right for you? This depends on a couple of things. Firstly, do you have enough donor fat for a fat transfer? If you do, you might want to go with that. If you don’t though, you’ll need to go with the buttocks implants. Another relevant question is what part of your buttocks you want to enhance. If you want to enlarge the lower part of your buttocks, you can only use the fat transfer method, since there are lots of nerves down there. If you want to enlarge the top part though, you can use silicone buttocks implants.

Who is the right person for buttocks implants? When considering buttocks implants, ask yourself about your expectations. They will not grant you social acceptance, so make sure you are doing this for yourself and not for somebody else. You need to also be in good health in order to be the right candidate to receive buttocks implants. During your surgical consultation, your surgeon will show you pictures of different buttocks. You’ll need to choose from among them so that you’ll get the profile you’re expecting. Should any aspect of your body type influence the probability of achieving that effect, your surgeon will let you know in advance. Your surgeon may also recommend a buttocks lift, which is where the skin above your buttocks is tightened so that they do not sag. Some buttocks sag even without implants—adding the additional weight would only increase that effect unless a lift were to be included in the operation.

Recovery for buttocks implants requires you to take about two weeks off of work. Your swelling will subside for the most part after six weeks total, at which point the results of the operation will be apparent.

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Silicone Breast Implants

October 28, 2010   Casandra   No comments

When you’re looking at options for breast augmentation, one of the considerations you’ll have to deal with is what type of implants to get. There are a variety of implants available, but the most common and safest are considered to be silicone and saline implants. There are two types of silicone breast implants, those made of silicone gel and those made of solid silicone. Each is enclosed in a silicone shell, as are saline implants. What are the benefits and drawbacks though? Which types of implants are best for you?

Saline implants are often favored for safety reasons since if they rupture, the saline can be safely absorbed into the body. They aren’t the most realistic though; they can feel and look a bit odd, kind of like water balloons. For some people they work better than for others. If you don’t want saline, you’ll mostly be looking at silicone. The silicone gel is generally considered to provide the most realistic look and feel of any implant material. The drawback is that if silicone gel leaks, it doesn’t get absorbed by your body and can then be quite tricky to remove. This makes a lot of women uneasy about getting silicone breast implants.

There are also solid silicone implants however, which perhaps are the best of both worlds in many ways. Solid silicone implants won’t drain into your body if they happen to rupture since they aren’t a liquid gel. That makes them safer and easier to remove and replace than the silicone gel implants. How realistic do solid silicone implants feel? You’ll be surprised to learn that they scarcely feel any firmer and create quite a realistic sensation.

Are there any other alternatives to silicone breast implants? Some organic formulas have been created, but they have mostly been taken off the market. There still is not an ideal natural breast implant yet. One other alternative is the fat transfer process using stem cells. This process didn’t exist till several years ago but is now quite common. This treatment is not an implant though since it is simply a fat transfer. As far as implants go, solid silicone breast implants provide perhaps the best balance of realism and safety.

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Butt Implants

July 09, 2010   Casandra   No comments

Many people (women in particular), wish they were a little rounder in the bottom, instead of flat like a board. A rounder, fuller butt can provide what many feel to be a more attractive profile, which is why butt implants are now becoming popular. There are a couple of different ways to do butt augmentation—you can either use butt implants or get a fat transfer. Not everyone has enough fat in their abdomens to do a fat transfer though, which can make butt implants the better option for some.

Butt implants will enlarge your bottom, and removing excess skin will prevent or correct the appearance of sagging (which is called a butt lift). Often these two procedures need to be performed in conjunction with each other, though not everyone needs both. Some people really need just one or the other, so you will want to explain your goals thoroughly during your consultation to make sure that you are getting the right procedure. Altering the size or shape of your butt is a big decision, so you will need to use pictures to elaborate on what profile you are aiming for. Your surgeon can let you know if anything about your personal physiology will have an impact on the results. After that you will be ready to schedule your surgery for butt implants and/or a butt lift.

What are butt implants made of? Generally butt implants, like breast implants, are made of silicone gel. To place butt implants, the surgeon makes a small incision between the indentation of the two cheeks of the butt. After the scar heals it usually is very hard to notice. You can only fill out the upper part of your butt this way, since there are too many nerves in the lower part and putting implants there would be dangerous. If you want to fill out your lower butt, look into fat injections.

Recovery for butt implants usually involves 2 weeks of rest, followed by another 4 weeks of recuperation while you wait for all the swelling to subside. After that the final results should be visible in the form of a round and attractive butt.

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Pectoral Implants

May 21, 2010   Casandra   No comments

You may think that breast implants are only for women, but they’re for men too! Male breast implants are also known as pectoral implants or simply pec implants. These can be used either to enhance the cosmetic appearance of the chest or for reconstructive purposes. Many men get them in order to add size and definition to the appearance of the pectoral muscles, while others get them in order to reconstruct an injured chest.

The first step in getting pectoral implants is to schedule a medical consultation. During the consultation you will tell the surgeon whether you need pectoral implants for reconstruction or for pure aesthetics. In both cases you’ll have to explain how you want to look when the surgery is complete. You can review before and after photos of previous patients to detail your chosen appearance and also to check out the past work of the surgeon. The surgeon will then give you all the details about the day of your surgery, and give you preparation and recovery instructions.

Are you a prime candidate for pectoral implants? You should be in good health and not smoke, and you should have realistic expectations about the outcome of receiving pectoral implants. You should do it to enhance your own self image or to heal, not simply to fit into a social stereotype. If you have clear expectations and good health, then you may be ready for the operation.

Pectoral implants are sometimes covered by insurance carriers and sometimes not. It depends entirely on why you want to get the implants. If you are doing so in order to repair a damaged area, then you will probably get coverage. If your reasons are cosmetic only, then you’ll have to pay for the implant surgery, the pectoral implants themselves, and other associated fees. Pectoral implant surgery can be costly, so if you want to shop around for a good deal, try investigating medical tourism. Cosmetic procedures and pectoral implants can be discounted quite a bit when you travel abroad, sometimes up to 90%. This is just one of many aspects of planning your pectoral implant surgery.

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