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What Is a Facelift and How Can This Popular Procedure Actually Benefit Me?

Friday, September 10th, 2021

WHAT IS A FACELIFT AND WHAT CAN IT DO FOR ME?

Patients often consult with Dr. Castillo at Cosmetic Plastic Surgery Center when they begin to notice unwanted aging changes in the face and neck. Loss of collagen and elastin fibers, resulting in skin laxity, along with the loss of tissue and bone volume in the face are all normal parts of the aging process. When you combine those natural aging changes with gravity, years of cumulative sun damage, and hormonal changes, the result is often the formation of jowls, sagging facial and neck tissue, excess skin, wrinkles or skin folds, drier, thinner skin with pigmented spots and texture changes.

Funny how as a kid, you just can’t wait to “get older.”  You dream of the days when you can drive, go to bed when you want to, get up when you want to, make your own decisions, have total freedom… “BE AN ADULT.”  Well, apparently there is more to getting older than just gaining independence. Decades later, here we are “faced” with the full view of what giving up our youth really means.  Jowls. Sagging. Wrinkles.

So now what? The way I see it, there are 2 good choices:

  1. Truly accept the aging changes that are staring back at you in the mirror and live happily ever after.

OR

  1. Do something about it: Consult a Board-Certified Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon like Dr. Castillo on the options of a facelift and live confidently and happily ever after.

 

WHAT IS A FACELIFT?

A facelift is a surgical procedure that tightens sagging tissue and skin of the lower face (cheeks, jowls, neck), resulting in a smoother, more youthful appearance.  A facelift is typically preformed under general anesthesia and will take on average 2.5 – 5 hours of surgical time.

During this procedure, excess tissue, skin, and fat are removed and muscle and skin that has been pulled downward by gravity over time is re-positioned to create a more rested, youthful appearance.

 

WHAT CAN A FACELIFT DO FOR ME?

In a nutshell, a facelift will make you look younger than you do today. It helps to repeal the forces of nature: time, stress, environmental factors, sun, gravity, hormonal changes, volume loss, decreased collagen and elastin production.

A facelift can:

  • Remove your jowls and turkey neck
  • Tighten your sagging muscle structure
  • Lift your cheeks
  • Remove any loose, sagging skin, therefore tightening the remaining skin
  • Give you a more defined jawline
  • Deliver a smoother, more youthful, more inviting version of you.

WHAT TYPE OF RESULTS CAN I EXPECT?

Going into surgery with an appropriate set of REALISTIC expectations is the key to being happy with your surgical results.  Your surgeon can help you to understand what can and cannot be accomplished with a facelift. Here is where I would strongly recommend you listen to your surgeon, rather than Dr. Google (who by the way, didn’t actually go to medical school).  The results can vary from individual to individual depending on the severity of aging you present with before surgery, your skin quality, the amount of time you have spent in the sun over the course of your life, your genetics and your anatomy or facial shape and your lifestyle habits.

While surgery cannot stop you from aging in the future, it can certainly turn back time. Most people can expect to look 7-10 years younger after a facelift. For more information on facelifts review more of our blog entries on facelifts and follow us on Instagram and Facebook.

 

Roxanne Grace
Skincare and Laser Specialist
G. D. Castillo, M.D.
COSMETIC PLASTIC SURGERY

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM

800-252-7123 (within IL)
217-359-7508 Savoy (Champaign-Urbana)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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WORRIED ABOUT PAIN? HERE IS EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT POST-SURGICAL PAIN PUMPS

Friday, October 26th, 2018

A common reasons patients put off having the cosmetic surgery they have always dreams of is their concern about post-surgical pain. While pain is a valid concern, it doesn’t have to be. Today, we offer our patients a simple way to manage pain without pills (narcotics).

This technology is called a pain pump. While the majority of the surgeries we perform at Cosmetic Plastic Surgery do not results in much post-surgical pain, utilization of a pain pump can offer a more comfortable recovery period for those procedures that do or for those individuals who have a low pain threshold.

A pain pump is a simple, non-electrical device that delivers local anesthetic (numbing

medication) such as Marcaine, directly to the surgical site after your surgery, allowing you to recover from surgery without the typically discomfort.

The pain pump looks like a small ball or balloon and comes in it’s own strapped carrying case. Dr. Castillo connects the pain pump at the surgical site at the time of surgery. It will deliver medication to the surgical area slowly and continuously through tiny catheters for 3-4 days. As the patient, you do not have to do anything with the pain pump. It is automatically regulated; you just get to reap the rewards of steady relief!

The pain pump offers pain management without the side effects of traditional methods of pain control like oral pain medications. This means you can avoid the potential side effect that oral pain medications often cause such as:

      •mental fogginess             •drowsiness              •nausea             •vomiting             •dizziness            •constipation

For patients who are narcotic sensitive or allergic, this can be a first-rate alternative for pain management. Patients who elect to use pain pumps are typically moving, driving and functioning and return to normal life activities more quickly since the affects are limited to the surgical area, the rest of your body & mind remain unaffected and have normal function.

While it does add about $350.00 to the cost of your surgery, the feedback we receive from our patients is that use of the pain pump provided them with a much smoother and quicker recovery than they had originally anticipated.

 

Yours Truly,

Roxanne Grace
Skincare and Laser Specialist
G. D. Castillo, M.D.
COSMETIC PLASTIC SURGERY

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM

 

800-252-7123 (within IL)
217-359-7508 Savoy (Champaign-Urbana)



800-252-7123 (within IL)
217-359-7508 Savoy (Champaign-Urbana)    /

 

 

 

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Posted in Body Procedures, Breast, Breast Enlargement, Breast Lift, Breast Reduction, Brow Lift, Cheek Bone Surgery, Facelift, Male Breast Reduction, Mommy Makeover, Neck Lift, Patient Advocacy, Protruding Ear Surgery, Recovery: What to expect, Tummy Tuck, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Options For The Aging Face

Thursday, March 6th, 2014

During the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Meeting in San Diego, it was stated that the AAFPRS had recently released a new study that found 39% of women were most worried about sagging cheeks or under eye bags, while 33% of women were most worried about lines and wrinkles.  28% of women were most worried about the “turkey neck” effect.

Being a women (and working with an incredible mentor and internationally-renown facial plastic surgeon for years; G.D. Castillo, M.D.) these stats come as no surprise to me.  Of course we women worry sagging cheeks, under eye bags, wrinkles, and the dreaded t-t-t-turkey neck.  It’s normal to want to be the best version of ourselves!  Stop for a minute and think about the women in your life who make a real effort to look their best, exercise, eat healthy.  Those people get things done!  They enjoy life! They are advancing in their careers, moving forward in their personal lives, involved in the community. They are movers and shakers. Looking good and feeling good about how you look is a true life motivator.

I cannot think of single women I know who is excited about the arrival of the next sign of aging. We are always scanning the mirror at home or in the car to make sure we look good – checking for lettuce in our teeth, smeared lip stick, dark circles that might need camouflaging… you know the drill.  For those  who say that’s simply being vain, well, maybe, but in my opinion a little vanity is a great thing. I think it means you care about how you represent yourself.  To me that is self respect.  Something we should all have because we all deserve it.  After all, if we don’t respect ourselves, who will?

I remember when my youngest daughter was about four years old.  She always had a way put a positive spin on things, always encouraging and complimenting others. We were on the floor playing a matching game when she looked at me and said “Wow mommie, the hair right here on the top of your head is shiny white.  Mommie, you are doing a great job at that!”  Cute as that was, you better believe my head was covered in chocolate expresso hair color with in the hour!

We all know aging is inevitable but that doesn’t mean we have to accept it gracefully with no attempt to slow the process.  This blog is called “Anti-Aging” with Grace after all.

Well not to worry (besides worrying just causes frown lines and then everyone thinks your angry all the time).  With the advances in technologies and the growing experience in plastic surgery and skin rejuvenation at your disposal, you have both surgical and non-surgical options available to wash your worries and your wrinkles away!  

SAGGING CHEEKS:

  • Non-surgical options –

1. Dermal fillers can be used to restore volume loss in sagging cheeks.

  • Surgical options –
  • 1.  A facelift – Fortunately, today facelifts are really customized for the individual’s needs.  There are Mini-facelifts, which is a limited facelift generally indicated in someone with early signs of aging (late 30’s to late 50’s) and are most effective in people with facial aging rather than neck aging.  Mid-facelifts, which elevate of the mid portion of the face. This type of facelift is needed in patients that have either facial sagging or lacking facial volume in the second 1/3rd of the face. Traditional facelifts are the treatment of choice for those who have of both the sagging of the cheek and the neck area.***Keep in mind that when sagging tissue is present, non-surgical results will not compare to the results of surgical removal of tissue, which is the hallmark of any kind of surgical facelift.

UNDER EYE BAGS:

  • Non-surgical options –
  1.  Try cutting out salt and preservatives from your diet for one month.  Observe over the month whether or not the bags disappear or reduce to a tolerable state. Salt / preservatives are found in prepared foods such as those you purchase from a deli or restaurant and in canned or boxed foods and can be responsible for puffy under-eye bags. If you see considerable improvement, you may be able to avoid partaking in the options below just by avoiding salt and preservatives.
  2.  Dermal fillers – Hyaluronic acids (Restylane, Perlane, and Juvaderm) can be used fill in depressed curves that form between the cheek and the bag to provide a more natural, youthful contour.
  3.  CO2 Micro-fractional laser resurfacing can help to tighten the lower eyelid skin but it will not improve excess fat deposits.
  • Surgical options –

       1.   Lower Eye Lid Surgery (Blepharoplasty) – This may include the removal of fat from the lower lid area or the transplant of fat to the area depending on the needs of the patient.

FINE LINES AND WRINKLES:

  • Non-surgical options –
  1. CO2 Micro-fractional laser resurfacing is a minimally invasive treatment that typically produces the best non-surgical results for fine lines and wrinkles.  It will also remove brown spots and other pigment and texture changes that often present along with lines and wrinkles.
  2. Botox® can be used to smooth out lines and wrinkles of the forehead, between the brows, and around the eyes.
  3. Dermal fillers such as Juvederm®, Perlane®, Restylane®, orRadiesse® can be used to replace volume and fill in lines and wrinkles.
  • Surgical options –
  1. CO2 full face laser resurfacing, (not to be confused with CO2 Micro-Fractional Laser resurfacing) can smooth out lines, wrinkles, tighten the skin, increase collagen, improve poor texture and pigment issues, and unwanted spider veins. If you are experiencing structural sagging a facelift or cheek lift may be done simultaneously.
  2. Facelift– As individuals age, they tend develop lines an wrinkles caused by loose skin and lax underlying muscle structure. A Rhytidectomy or facelift is designed to remove loose skin and tighten lax underlying structures which result in a lasting, more youthful appearance.
  3. Fat Transplantation can sometimes be used to replace volume loss of the face, relieving the lines that have developed due to loss of facial fat that can happen during the aging process.

TURKEY NECK:

  • Non-surgical options –
  1. Beyond managing your weight and avoiding the yo-yo weight effect along with protecting your skin from UV radiation to preserve collagen and elastin, your best bet is a trip to the O.R.  Once you develop a turkey waddle, there is not much in line of non-surgical options that provide true improvement.
  • Surgical options –
  1. Neck lift – This procedure is often combined with a cheek lift. The typical neck lift or neck/cheek lift consists of a modified type of facelift in which the main emphasis is to tighten the muscle structure and remove as much excess neck skin and fatty tissue as possible, resulting in a smooth, youthful contour of the neck, jawline, and lower face.
  2.  Chin implant surgery – also known as a mentoplasty is needed when a patient has a short mandible or recessed chin. The lack of adequate bone structure tends to accentuate jowls and loose, sagging skin around the neck.
  3. Neck liposculpture – This may be all that is needed to correct a double chin or turkey neck.  During this procedure, fatty tissue is removed via liposuction and the musculature of the neck is tightened to create a defined jawline. In some instances, neck liposculpture may be combined with a chin implant to correct a recessed chin. Patients can return to work within 3 to 4 days.

Yours Truly,

Roxanne Grace Hammond

Skincare and Laser Specialist

Cosmetic Plastic Surgery

 

 

 

 

 

Roxanne Hammond, RMA
Skincare and Laser Specialist
G. D. Castillo, M.D.
COSMETIC PLASTIC SURGERY  

https://www.cosmeticplasticsurgery.com

LIKE US ON FACEBOOK:

http://www.facebook.com/DrCastilloCosmeticPlasticSurgery
800-252-7123 (within IL)
217-359-7508 Savoy (Champaign-Urbana)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Ask Our Expert – Advantages of an Outpatient Surgical Facility Verse a Hospital

Wednesday, October 23rd, 2013

 

Question: Why do you prefer to perform surgery in an outpatient facility rather than the hospital?

Dr. Castillo’s state-of-the-art outpatient surgical facility.

Answer : Dr. Castillo: Actually, about 90 percent of cosmetic plastic surgical procedures are now done in outpatient surgical facilities for the following reasons:

 

•    Safety

The surgical procedures done in an outpatient surgical facility are done by a staff which is dedicated to doing only outpatient surgical procedures, so they are better focused, the staff is better experienced and dedicated to a single task.  This increases safety and provides the patient with knowledgeable people that are experienced in state-of-the-art outpatient surgical procedures.

*    Infection

The rate of infections in hospitals varies anywhere between 2 to 12 percent.  The rate of infection in outpatient surgical facilities is much smaller.  In fact, in our outpatient surgical facility, infection is a nearly non-existent problem and we say that because it only presents itself every few years.  That is, the rate is so small that it is difficult to quantify.  You may ask yourself, why?  The reasons are multiple but for the most part it has to do with carrying out procedures that are done in patients who are healthy and not suffering from disease and/or infection.  Also remember that in our facility, we do not do what is referred to as a “dirty case,” that is, procedures that involve entering the intestine, colon or areas that typically have bacteria.

*     Cost

The cost of care in a hospital facility is often unknown and extremely high.  The reasons have to do with hospitals having fees that are much higher than the real expenses to be able to cover the uninsured and establish artificially high rates that can then be applied to different insurances.  The reason why this is possible is that generally insurance have no choice but to pay a fee while in our facility, the choice is yours.  That is, you are the patient and you elect whether to pay or not pay the cost you know beforehand to be – that is, you approve of that cost.  What this results in is a great competitiveness and a much reduced cost for the surgical procedure.

*      Scale

When you go to a hospital, you immediately become part of literally hundreds or even thousands of people who may be at the hospital for one reason or another.  That makes you one of many and the services are going to be diluted, meaning you are not likely to have individual care.  In comparison, an outpatient surgical facility like ours has staff that is dedicated to only you and no other business to take care of during the time that you are at the facility.  Consequently, you have a staff member that remains with you throughout your surgical procedure.  There are no delays and this results in expedient care and a much reduced level of anxiety.

*     Comparative Services

Are the outpatient surgical facilities like ours able to take care of you in an emergency?  The answer is yes.  Our facility is equipped to respond to an emergency in the same manner as a hospital would be.  The level of response, equipment, drugs and supplies is par with a hospital.  What the outpatient surgery facility has that the hospital does not, is the experience to deal with the type of surgical procedure, that is, cosmetic surgery, which you are going to have.  This is an area, like in most areas, where expertise is not only important but is often the determinant for the degree of satisfaction and success that the procedure has.

So regarding the question, are you better off having your surgical procedure in a dedicated outpatient surgical facility doing cosmetic surgery only?  The answer is a qualified yes for the above reasons.

 


G. D. Castillo, M.D. FACS
COSMETIC PLASTIC SURGERY
LIKE US ON FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM   
800-252-7123 (within IL)
217-359-7508 Savoy (Champaign-Urbana)

 

 

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Posted in Ask Our Expert, Body Procedures, Breast, Facial Surgery, Patient Advocacy, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Myths and Truths about Surgery in the Older Individual

Friday, June 26th, 2009
The portion of the population in the United States that is 65 or older will continue to steadily increase.  The US Census Bureau expects that by the year 2030, one out of every five Americans will be age 65 or older.  This fact alone suggests that the popularity of cosmetic surgery in the older individual will steadily increase.
Age alone is not a determinant of who can or who should have cosmetic surgery. The age of the patient is irrelevant to the safety and the appropriateness of surgery. The relevant issue is the health of the individual. In a healthy individual, such as one who does mild to moderate exercise and takes few medication, cosmetic surgery is an extremely safe and rewarding surgical procedure.  By the same taken, an individual who may only be in their 40’s but is on high blood pressure medication and smokes, is a significant surgical risk.
As an individual ages, there seems to be a natural tendency and trend toward participating in less activities and being less socially involved. It surprises no one that when an individual looks younger, they will act younger. They will participate in a greater number of social activities. Those patients who are seeking to look younger are generally patients who have what is referred to as “cognitive and emotional vibrancy.” This refers to the degree of awareness, connectedness, and involvement that the individual may have in the current issues of the day.  One could say that a window of cognitive vibrancy would be demonstrated with high physical energy and animated facial expression.
Of extreme importance is the fact that older individuals have less hang ups and less need to prove themselves.  Under these circumstances, the effects of cosmetic surgery tend to be much more satisfying. The need for perfection is not generally there. They are looking for improvement, not necessarily a homerun.

oldercoupleThe portion of the population in the United States that is 65 or older will continue to steadily increase.  The US Census Bureau expects that by the year 2030, one out of every five Americans will be age 65 or older.  This fact alone suggests that the popularity of cosmetic surgery in the older individual will steadily increase.

Age alone is not a determinant of who can or who should have cosmetic surgery. The age of the patient is irrelevant to the safety and the appropriateness of surgery. The relevant issue is the health of the individual. In a healthy individual, such as one who does mild to moderate exercise and takes few medication, cosmetic surgery is an extremely safe and rewarding surgical procedure.  By the same taken, an individual who may only be in their 40’s but is on high blood pressure medication and smokes, is a significant surgical risk.

As an individual ages, there seems to be a natural tendency and trend toward participating in less activities and being less socially involved. It surprises no one that when an individual looks younger, they will act younger. They will participate in a greater number of social activities. Those patients who are seeking to look younger are generally patients who have what is referred to as “cognitive and emotional vibrancy.” This refers to the degree of awareness, connectedness, and involvement that the individual may have in the current issues of the day.  One could say that a window of cognitive vibrancy would be demonstrated with high physical energy and animated facial expression.

Of extreme importance is the fact that older individuals have less hang ups and less need to prove themselves. Under these circumstances, the effects of cosmetic surgery tend to be much more satisfying. The need for perfection is not generally there. They are looking for improvement, not necessarily a home run.


http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cosmetic-Plastic-Surgery/65943304419
https://www.cosmeticplasticsurgery.com
800-252-7123 (within IL)
217-359-7508 Savoy (Champaign-Urbana)

G.D. Castillo, M.D., FACS

G.D. Castillo, M.D., FACS

Director of Cosmetic Plastic Surgery Clinic
COSMETIC PLASTIC SURGERY
 

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Posted in Facial Surgery, Skincare & Aging | No Comments »