Though the term “best cosmetic surgery procedures” may seem subjective, hundreds, if not thousands, of research studies and trials are conducted each year on procedures and non-surgical treatments. Researchers are often on the lookout for treatments that provide optimal results, with minimal side effects for the patient. The better the results of the study, the more likely the product or treatment may be included among the best cosmetic surgery procedures.

In his review of 98 studies, Dr. Murad Alam of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and surgeon at Northwestern Memorial Hospital found the best cosmetic surgery procedures, based on his research.

Botox and other botulinum toxin-based injectables:

Dr. Alam said that based on the two decades of research and findings on Botox-like treatments, they are safe and effective for patients to use.

Tumescent Liposuction:

When tumescent liposuction is performed, special fluids that are used help the surgeon to safely remove fat cells. Dr. Alam added that tumescent liposuction minimizes the chance for excessive bleeding, improving the patient’s comfort and overall health and safety.

Dr. Alam looked into additional treatments, some of which are relatively new on the market. While he found that treatments that freeze fat or shrink it with laser light, and treatments that tighten skin are safe for use, he was not able to confirm the long-term benefits of each treatment.

To find the best cosmetic surgery procedures for you, Alam suggests talking it over with your surgeon and confirming what will best meet your needs.

For more about the best cosmetic surgery procedures in Owensboro, please email Dr. Edds.

Pamela, who had suffered from crippling migraines for most of her 47 years, says she chose to undergo the migraine headache surgery, as a means of reclaiming her life. Before, Pamela suffered from migraines on an almost daily basis, but after the surgery, the headaches have ceased.

She says her “life began at 47.”

The migraine headache surgery worked for Pamela by removing the corrugator facial muscle, located on the inner part of the eyebrow. For facial function, this muscle allows the brow to make a frowning shape. Though Pamela’s facial functions have changed from the surgery, she now says she has nothing to frown about since the surgery worked to treat her migraines.

While the form of migraine headache surgery Pamela underwent is still not widely performed and may not work to treat all types of migraine headaches, results from the procedure are positive.

Still, limited research has been published about this type of migraine headache surgery, and many other non-surgical options are available.

Before looking into alternative treatments for her migraines, Pamela used prescription medications to treat her condition. Additionally, Pamela saw success when using Botox injections to limit movement of the corrugator muscle and diminish the occurrence of migraine headaches.

Many cosmetic surgeons use Botox to treat not only facial wrinkles and folds, but also for patients who suffer from migraine headaches.

To learn more about applications for Botox in Owensboro, please email cosmetic surgeon Dr. Edds.

Around the globe, and especially in Spain, the beauty industry is actually growing. While some industries, like construction, are seeing decreases in demand, salon and beauty shop owners are seeing an influx of returning and new customers.

Many people credit a need to feel good about oneself as the reason for a boom in the beauty industry.

Salon manager Patricia Marquez knows the importance of personal care to her clients, saying, “A person needs to feel handsome, to feel comfortable with themselves. If they don’t look good it doesn’t matter what they do.”

Perhaps it is this desire, or even need, for personal upkeep that is causing the beauty industry in Spain to grow by 3% this year.

Even in times when other industries may be struggling, the “Lipstick index” still applies. The “Lipstick index,” as described by Estee Lauder founder Leonard Lauder, shows that even during an economic crisis, his customers bought more lipstick.

It’s safe to assume the “Lipstick index” applies to non-invasive cosmetic surgery stateside, as well. In an effort to look and feel their best, even if money may be tight, patients often choose non-invasive cosmetic surgery as a means of beauty upkeep.

Popular Options for Non-invasive Cosmetic Surgery

Injectable fillers like Radiesse and Juvederm can fill lines around the mouth, while Botox treatments can diminish crow’s feet near the eyes. Treatments like an Obagi Blue Peel can also improve a patient’s overall complexion at a lower cost than more involved procedures.

To learn more about non-invasive cosmetic surgery and treatments to fit your needs, please email Owensboro cosmetic surgeon Dr. Edds.

A chemical peel, like an Obagi Blue Peel, is a solution that can be applied to your face in your cosmetic surgeon’s practice that works to restore youth to the skin and remove surface impurities. By sloughing away dead and damaged surface skin cells, the chemical peel kick-starts your skin’s own rejuvenative processes. This allows fresh, clear skin cells to emerge.

What Are the Benefits of a Chemical Peel?

The many benefits of a chemical peel can apply to patients of varying ages and skin types. Patients most often choose chemical peel treatments for:

• Facial lines and wrinkles
• Uneven skin tone and texture
• Acne or blemishes
• Facial scarring

On top of these cosmetic benefits, chemical peels have added bonuses. The benefits of a chemical peel also extend to its cost-effectiveness. While injectable fillers can also be used to fill lines or depressed scars on the face, they must be retreated every six to 12 months. Meanwhile, the benefits of a chemical peel can last years on average.

Patients and surgeons understand the benefits of a chemical peel, like their ease of use. Because of the positive perception of chemical peels, they are a highly popular cosmetic treatment, following Botox and injectable fillers.

Chemical peels are prepared using different components and in varying strengths. Thus, chemical peels can be customized to meet the needs of many patients.

Unlike some other treatments, the healing time for chemical peels can be minimized, as needed. Though some other treatments may require several months of recovery, a patient can heal from a light chemical peel within a matter of several days. Medium or deep chemical peels, like those with phenol, may have healing times of several weeks.

To learn more about the benefits of an Obagi Blue Peel in Owensboro, please email cosmetic surgeon Dr. Edds.

The new hyaluronic acid dermal filler, which is called Belotero Balance, has been approved to treat moderate to severe facial wrinkles and folds. This includes nasolabial folds, the lines that run from your nose to the edges of your mouth.

Belotero Balance joins Merz Aesthetics family of non-surgical injectables, including Radiesse. Radiesse is a popular filler comprised of calcium-based microspheres in a water gel that works to restore lost volume in the face. Though its uses are similar to Belotero Balance, the new hyaluronic acid dermal filler works differently.

Like similar hyaluronic acid dermal fillers, Restylane and Juvederm, Belotero Balance works to restore lost volume to your skin by increasing its hydration. Hyaluronic acid is a naturally occurring hydrating component in your skin and these dermal fillers work to mimic it. When injected into the skin beneath the site of a wrinkle, a hyaluronic acid dermal filler provides a sort of scaffolding for depressed areas of skin, supporting them and improving the appearance of youth on the face.

To test the effectiveness of Belotero Balance, it was compared in a split-face study with a collagen-based filler. Using a scale that rates wrinkle severity, Belotero Balance was shown to provide a greater reduction in the appearance of nasolabial folds over 24 weeks. In fact, at the six-month mark, Belotero Balance still showed a greater correction of the wrinkles than its counterpart.

To learn more about your hyaluronic acid dermal filler options in Owensboro, please email cosmetic surgeon Dr. Edds.

Using special brow lift techniques, cosmetic surgeons are able to help a patient appear younger and open an eye area that may suffer from a descending brow. Rather than fully lifting the brow to a higher position, your surgeon may only lift part of the brow for an ideal result, as discussed in Cosmetic Surgery Times.

One way a brow lift is sometimes performed is by unilaterally lifting the entire brow, but this may not be the ideal brow lift technique. In fact, in some cases, it may make the patient appear older and create a hollow appearance above the eyes, which may later need to be corrected.

Rather, the brow should ideally be lifted in a minimal manner, which can still create a dramatically younger-looking visage. In the case of cosmetic surgery, oftentimes less is more.

Instead of focusing on how high the brow should be after surgery, the shape of the brow overall may be more important. In the past, what was considered a beautifully shaped brow was different than it is today. At one point, a downturned brow was desirable, and later a more upturned brow.

Today’s ideal is somewhere in the middle, where the brow is lower near the center of the face, higher near the end and with a peak above the iris of the eye.

If you struggle with a descending brow but may not yet desire one of these brow lift techniques, Botox may be used to treat some types of brow deformities. Botox works by paralyzing the muscle at the treatment site, allowing the skin and brow to relax in a more natural position.

To learn more about brow lift techniques or how your cosmetic surgeon may use Botox to treat an aged-looking brow, we encourage you to join our mailing list.

Botox is already a controlled substance, but in practice this means that only someone with a medical license can order the product. There are very few limitations on who can administer the shots, and while the injections are not particularly dangerous except in rare instances, a poorly placed injection can cause undesirable side effects.

Botox has made waves across the country and around the world. In China, it is frequently and openly administered by beauty parlors with no training or qualifications, which has led to widespread calls for stricter controls. Last year, the UK considered implementing tighter regulation on Botox, but this was ultimately dismissed for being too expensive to enforce.

Stateside, Botox regulation has become a hot topic in Texas and New Jersey, as politicians, doctors, and concerned citizens worry that the lack of controls is endangering many patients. The Texas Medical Board has considered making changes to the rules about who can perform cosmetic procedures involving prescription medications. This would include injectable fillers.

In New Jersey, legislators have introduced a bill that would ban Botox for minors, except in cases where a doctor affirms that the treatment is medically necessary. Before it became a popular cosmetic procedure, Botox was (and continues to be) used for a variety of medical purposes, including the treatment of certain migraines and cerebral palsy symptoms.

Botox regulation is supported by many people who fear that unscrupulous providers are capitalizing on the treatment’s rising popularity without taking into account the safety and ethical issues involved. You should always make sure that your Botox is being administered by an accredited professional with years of experience. Only these providers are qualified to target specific facial muscles and deliver predictable results with consistency.

Though both Botox and Dysport are hugely popular non-surgical options for diminishing many facial lines and wrinkles, new alternatives are often being researched. This treatment, which is called cryoneuromodulation, “appears to have the same clinical efficacy and safety comparable to the existing techniques,” according to Francis Palmer, director of facial plastic surgery at the University of Southern California School of Medicine in Los Angeles, who co-authored the study.

Rather than paralyzing the underlying muscle to smooth out the wrinkle as Botox and Dysport do, this new method freezes specific nerves in the forehead using small needles. This stops the nerve from communicating with the muscle, which causes it to relax. The smoothing effect is almost immediate and lasts about as long as botulinum toxin-based methods—three to four months.

The procedure takes about 15 minutes to complete while the patient is under a local anesthetic. Patients said the level of discomfort was similar to that experienced with Botox.

Though you may want to jump at the chance to try this new wrinkle-fighting treatment, it is still in the early stages of trails and has only been tested on forehead wrinkles. In the meantime, Botox is known to beautifully treat forehead lines, frown lines and crow’s feet.

Botox, produced by Allergan and Dysport, produced by Medicis, contain similar components of the botulinum toxin, which controls muscle movement when injected between the brows and diminishes glabellar lines and wrinkles. On top of this cosmetic use, botulinum toxin-based products have been used to treat excessive sweating and migraines and now the makers are taking the next steps in making their products widely available to those averse to injections.

So far, the news is good for consumers. The second phase in trials for topical Botox, which was completed in October, was successful. While no market date has been set for the topical version of Botox, nor for its Medicis-produced rival Dysport, needle-shy individuals can still test the possible effects of Botox by using Allergan’s Treatment Visualizer.

To learn more about injectable treatments as well as other skin care options, we encourage you to join the mailing list of Owensboro based cosmetic surgeon Dr. Edds and to call to schedule a consultation.

Each of the women questing for the ‘Bridalplasty’ prize has a wish list of cosmetic procedures they would seek should they beat out the competition, in addition to ideas for their wedding cake, dress, invitations and more.

According to an article in the Chicago Sun-Times, the show’s oldest contestant, Allyson, is a 33-year-old who plans to claim a wedding suited to her “old-school rocker chick” tastes and other prizes in the form of liposuction, a breast lift, a breast reduction and Botox, as well as some cosmetic dentistry, if named the show’s victor.

Before I was pregnant with my son, I was in the best physical shape of my life,” Allyson says. “I would love to get back to that and I’m sure [my fiance] would NOT mind some smaller perky boobies on me. I’m 33 and they sag down to my belly. What will happen when I’m 50? Will I have to roll them up and tuck them in my bra?”

Many women face the same troubling physical changes after undergoing the rigors of pregnancy and childbirth, however they are rarely so public as on reality TV shows.

The Sun-Times noted some particularly cringe-worthy scenes on Bridalplasty, such as the one where Allyson uses the spare tire of fat around her stomach to tell Dr. Terry Dubrow, the plastic surgeon featured on the show, “Help me, please. Suck me out.”

Dr. Dubrow is also shown using a marker to circle the problem areas on his topless patients, a scene that, according to the Sun-Times, calls to mind the behavior of a “sorority mean girl.”

“There is something beyond sensational with these cosmetic surgery makeover shows.  There is some indignity involved in the process,” says Owensboro cosmetic surgeon Dr. Gerald Edds.

Although, as Dr. Edds points out, there are certainly humiliating undertones present in Bridalplasty (and most other reality TV shows, for that matter), he like most critics acquiesces to the makeover competition, saying, “As long as the result is good and there are no complications, I suppose it is a win-win for both the ‘winner’ and the celebrity cosmetic surgeon.”