Your child just graduated from college. Of course, you are proud; but you’re also feeling a bit nostalgic. So you start looking back on your child’s life through photos, and besides remembering how adorable he or she was, you can’t help but notice that time has taken a toll on your appearance. It’s like watching a movie in slow motion but there is no denying that you’re looking older, particularly your face and neck. At 55, gravity is beginning to win. You are OK with getting older; in fact, you wouldn’t want it any other way. But looking older is another story.  You start scouring the Internet to explore your options. You think that a facelift may be the appropriate treatment for, you but you are soon overwhelmed by choice: The Band-Aid Lift, QT Lift, Lifestyle Lift®, Laser Lift, Mini Lift, Quick Lift, Short Scar Lift. Your head begins to swim. The promises and testimonials all sound so good. “What should I do?”

Let’s clear the air. None of these names should matter to you. Most are simply proprietary marketing terms, not technical terms, to distinguish one surgeon’s facelift technique from another’s. The details of how a facelift is actually performed should be the surgeon’s concern. In general, a facelift is an operation that repositions skin and often, deeper facial and neck structures to rejuvenate the lower third of the face and neck. What you should be focused on is the training, experience and reputation of the surgeon and the results that they achieve. Do you like their aesthetic?  When assessing the surgeon’s before and after photos, do their patients look more attractive and natural after surgery? Are the photos honest? That is, are the patients in the same exact position with the same lighting before and after surgery, or are the post-operative photos more a glamour shot than a clinical photograph? Don’t be fooled. Learn to be a careful observer. You must look at not one, five or ten patients, but many before and after photos to see if there is consistency in their work. Realize that for any facelift, there is a tradeoff; the placement of incisions and the resulting scars for the correction of facial and neck laxity. Look for the patient’s scars, particularly around the ear. In most cases these scars should be very difficult to see. How does the patient’s neck contour look, the jaw line, and the cheek area? Do they look pulled or natural? In my opinion, if you speak only with a consultant or surrogate and not with your surgeon at your consultation, that should be a big red flag. Don’t be fooled. If the “promises” or the “deal” sound to good to be true, chances are they probably are. Do you feel pressure to “sign up”? Trust your instincts. This is your face we are talking about. Do you really want to get a bargain rate facelift? Is that where you want to save your money? Personally, I would want a board certified facial plastic surgeon that is artistic, caring and experienced. Choose your facelift surgeon wisely.

Seth A. Yellin, MD, FACS
Director, Marietta Facial Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics Center
Fellow, American Academy of Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery
Board Certified, American Board of Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery

Throughout the teenage years, our faces go through a transformation due to normal growth and development. It is during this time that our most prominent facial feature, the nose, morphs into its adult shape. As our faces develop, aesthetic differences are magnified compared to when we were younger. It is often during these formative years that one’s nasal appearance becomes an issue. It is not uncommon for a young man or young woman to get very self-conscious about their appearance and if a feature as prominent as the nose is the source of their discontent, over time, their self-confidence can be negatively impacted.  Additionally, as the nose grows, nasal-breathing problems may develop. In this case, it may not be just the appearance that is troublesome, but the actual function of the nose itself. In either case, the nose becomes a source of negative attention for the individual and in some cases may even develop into a true preoccupation, which is neither healthy nor productive.

Fortunately, today’s modern nasal surgery techniques often permit complete correction of both aesthetic and functional issues during the same procedure. However, aesthetic nasal surgery, also known as rhinoplasty, is often referred to as the most challenging of all cosmetic surgery procedures and therefore, the expertise of the surgeon is critical to obtaining consistently excellent outcomes. Of course, the patient’s initial nasal problems and the patient’s ability to heal well are also important factors when determining final outcome, but the importance of the training, skill and experience of the nasal surgeon can not be overstated. Plastic surgery in general is a unique art form. Aesthetic nasal surgery highlights this particularly well.

If you are unhappy enough with your nasal appearance or are troubled by nasal breathing, you may wish to explore surgical correction. It is important to recognize that before surgery can be recommended, the nose must have stopped growing. For most young women, this occurs around age 15 or 16 and for young men between ages 16-18.  Therefore, in most cases, unless the nose is severely disfigured, one should wait until the nose is fully developed before pursuing surgical advice.

Personally, I try to respect the ethnicity of the face and aesthetically enhance the nose in that context. Creating a natural, un-operated appearance is the goal of most rhinoplasty surgeons today. Achieving that goal consistently requires both talent and experience.  Choose your nasal surgeon carefully.

Seth A. Yellin, MD, FACS
Director, Marietta Facial Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics Center
Fellow, American Academy of Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery
Board Certified, American Board of Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery

Ultherapy® provides a way of both visualizing the layers beneath our skin and non-invasively delivering — and here is the critical point — focused, high intensity ultrasound energy, which generates heat leading to both tissue tightening and collagen stimulation. Ultherapy® allows me to target multiple levels in a patient’s face by choosing different “lenses” that focus the energy to different depths. Therefore, I can tighten the deeper facial layer in your cheek that we would otherwise routinely tighten with a facelift while also tightening the skin itself, which of course is also routinely tightened with a facelift. Finally, we can target the energy within your skin to help soften unwanted lines and wrinkles such as those under your eyes or around your mouth. For the right patient, Ultherapy® can even provide a non-surgical brow lift!

The procedure takes about one hour to treat your whole face and about one-and-a-half hours if you include your neck as well. You can also choose to limit the treatment and target a particular facial area of concern. Depending on your facial sensitivity, the treatment may feel like anything from a tingling light massage to a hot rubber-band snap. To keep our patients comfortable, we often pre-treat our patients with a high dose of ibuprofen before the procedure and use a special distraction device during the therapy when treating a sensitive area of the face.

Ultherapy® is FDA-approved as a one-time treatment for skin tightening. In my opinion, it is the first device that provides meaningful non-surgical facial rejuvenation by tightening the facial tissues at multiple depths. The results are immediate though the effects continue to improve for several months after the treatment and are expected to last about three to four years. To achieve additive benefit, a small number of patients choose to have a second treatment about three months after the initial therapy.

Perhaps the best news of all: there is no downtime and no healing whatsoever! Costs for the procedure are about a third of what a facelift costs and you can return to your normal routine immediately! You can have it done at noon and be in the gym that evening.

Like any procedure, Ultherapy® may or may not be right for you. At Marietta Facial Plastic Surgery & Aesthetic Center, we offer Ultherapy® as one of may treatment options. The only way to know what’s right for you is to visit us for a consultation. Call 770-425-7575 today to schedule an appointment.

Seth A. Yellin, MD, FACS
Director, Marietta Facial Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics Center
Diplomate, American Board of Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery
Fellow, American Academy of Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery

At Marietta Facial Plastic Surgery & Aesthetic Center, we offer this acclaimed non-surgical lifting procedure, Ultherapy, which counteracts the effects of time and gravity on your skin. The beauty of this 30- to 60-minute procedure is that it uses the body’s own collagen-building process to gradually strengthen and tone your skin from deep within. The result? Tighter, firmer, better-fitting skin!

Of course every bride focuses on her dress, often planning months in advance, but all too often she won’t think about her face looking its best until right before the wedding. This is true not only for the bride, but for the groom and the parents as well. With just a bit of forethought and advanced planning, everyone in the bridal party can look their best for that special day.

For the bride in her 20’s or 30’s and her bridesmaids, the skin’s beauty is often the main focus. For toning, color correction and smoothing, a combination of topical skin care products, a series of intense pulsed light treatments or facial peels and soothing facials may optimize appearance. Since many of these treatments need to start several months before the wedding to yield optimum results, planning is essential. For others, the addition of injectable facial volumizers and line control with either Botox® or Dysport® may be appropriate. These can often be done several weeks before the special day.

For the older couple or the parents of the bride and groom, age related changes of the face are often best served with procedures that require some healing time. Be it a laser procedure to soften facial lines or wrinkles, a blepharoplasty to enhance the appearance of the eyes (often the most important and one of the simplest surgical interventions to make someone look their best), or a facelift to improve the lower face, jawline and neck. Also, if you have ever considered refining a facial feature such as your nose or ears, a pre-wedding procedure may be considered. Ideally, those individuals who require some type of facial surgical procedure should seek out a consultation with a board certified facial plastic surgeon at least 4-6 months before the wedding. As a general rule, I would only consider a surgical procedure for a patient who can have at least 3 months of healing and preferably 6 months, to allow swelling to resolve, facial redness to fade and scars to soften.

When you walk down the aisle, walk with the confidence of knowing that you look your best.

Hair is more than mere scalp coverage. It is the frame of the face that sets the remainder of the features into harmonious balance. For men, hair loss may represent lost youth and for women, severe thinning of their hair may rob them of feeling feminine and beautiful.

Though a man can elect to shave his head, it is not a look that is universally appealing. Also, the rise in popularity of toupees and wigs speaks to the large number of men and woman who suffer with the emotional consequences of hair loss.

The medical science of hair restoration can provide remarkable results that not only permanently transfers hair to create the appearance of a fuller, healthier more youthful head of hair, but can also reestablish an individual’s confidence and self-esteem.

Over the past 30 years, surgical hair restoration has undergone a true transformation. From the early days of doing large scalp flaps to move large segments of hair, which often left the patient with unusual hairlines and large scars, to transferring multi-hair containing plugs which often looked unnatural when transferred, hair was rearranged but didn’t necessarily look natural.

Modern hair restoration is able to move individual hairs from areas of the scalp that are resistant to hormonally induced hair loss to areas of the scalp that have suffered hair loss. When these individual hairs are moved to their new location, they grow naturally and will remain in place even if hair loss progresses.

To accomplish this, the hair restoration surgeon has two options available. The first is to harvest a strip of hair bearing scalp from the back of the head, dissect individual hair follicles, and transfer them to the areas of thinning or absent hair. The second and most advanced technique, which leaves no visible scar, is to both harvest and transplant individual hair follicles. In either case, modern hair restoration procedures can now create a completely natural reconstruction using nothing but your own hair. When the new hairs are artistically placed so that they grow in the proper direction and with the proper density, it is impossible to tell that these hairs are anything but natural.

Dr. Ken Anderson, a facial plastic surgeon and specialist in surgical hair restoration who divides his time between his Beverly Hills practice and Marietta Facial Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics Center, reminds us that establishing a natural hairline is an artistic endeavor and is best done by an expert who specializes in the latest techniques.

Seth A. Yellin, M.D., F.A.C.S.

When was the last time someone paid you that compliment?  Your eyes may be the windows to your soul, but they often reveal something less poetic… your age.

As we get older, there are a host of predictable changes to the eye area that occurs to a greater or lesser degree in all of us. These changes are often the first visible evidence that we no longer look our youthful best. The question then becomes, “Are you okay with looking your age or do you want to maintain your youthful appearance?”

If you feel healthy and remain vigorous, the answer is often that you want to look your best so that your appearance is in synch with how you feel. So then, what can be done to remedy the situation?

Fortunately, with modern, state-of-the-art techniques, many procedures are available to enhance one’s eye area. These can often be performed in just a matter of minutes to an hour, in an office environment using nothing more than local anesthesia to numb the area and with results that will last for years to come. Through a combination of treatments such as injecting fillers just above the bone at the eyelid-cheek junction, dramatically tightening and smoothing the lower lid skin with customized peels or laser treatments, surgically contouring the excess skin, muscle and fat of the eyelids and maintaining the results with medical-grade topical serums and creams, the area around the eyes can be made both more youthful appearing and more beautiful.

By enhancing this critical facial feature, your eyes will once again visually “pop.” More importantly, when these techniques are performed properly, the natural shape of your eyes and the eyelids’ important functions will not be disturbed. Fears of looking “startled” or “different” should be put aside. When we see people who do not look like themselves after a cosmetic procedure, it is the choice of the procedures performed or improper execution, not the procedures themselves. If they are properly selected and artistically performed, the procedures discussed above will leave you appearing well rested and relaxed, healthy and youthful.

The emotional boost that my patients get from these procedures makes performing them tremendously gratifying.  If you are considering cosmetic facial enhancement, I encourage you to seek the advice and expertise of a board certified facial plastic surgeon. Look your best today!

Seth A. Yellin, MD, FACS
Director, Marietta Facial Plastic Surgery & Aesthetics Center
Board Certified, American Board of Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery
Fellow, American Academy of Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery
Fellow, American College of Surgeons

There is simply no other intervention that can be done in an office, with minimal disruption to one’s busy life and provide such meaningful facial enhancement at such an affordable price.

A loss of volume under the eyes and in the mid-face makes us look older, tired, and can accentuate dark circles by creating a shadow. It can also exacerbate lower eyelid puffiness that many individuals develop, by creating a “valley” just beneath the “hill” caused by fat protruding forward from behind the eyelid. Though commonly seen in people in their fifties and older, these changes can also be seen in much younger patients who have an hereditary absence of mid-face volume which makes their faces look flat and washed out.

There are several FDA approved fillers as well as one’s own fat that can be safely injected into the hollowness under the eyes that has come to be known as the tear trough. With that said, my filler of choice for this particular facial area is Restylane®, which is cross-linked hyaluronic acid that is found naturally in our skin. This material is injected just above the bone and plumps all of the soft tissues to create a natural, youthful fullness in this area. Since the tear trough is such an aesthetic focal point, an artist’s eye and millimeter specificity are required when treating this area. The effect is to visually shorten the lower eyelid, create a smooth transition from the eyelid to the cheek, lift the cheek and create a healthy, youthful fullness to the mid-face.

To optimize the effects one must prepare for the procedure. It is recommended that you avoid medications and supplements that are known to thin your blood for one week prior to your treatment to help reduce post-operative bruising. These include vitamin E, aspirin products and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen and naproxen. If you are taking physician prescribed blood thinners please inform your doctor before proceeding. Prior to injecting the filler, the area will be numbed, making the injections pain free. After the procedure, Arnica Montana is provided to further reduce bruising. However, you should expect several days of mild bruising and swelling. Patients usually look optimum at one week following the procedure. Results generally last about 18 months, though I have seen patients who still looked great at 24 months.

If you feel like your face has lost some luster, speak with your facial plastic surgeon about tear trough fillers. It might be just what the doctor orders.

Seth A. Yellin, M.D., F.A.C.S.