4 Tips for Relaxing While You Recover from Liposuction
Even if you feel confident about having plastic surgery and can’t wait to show off the results, having any kind of procedure can still zap your energy. Once the procedure is over, it can take several weeks before the swelling goes down and you begin to “feel normal” again. Patients often feel a variety of emotions before and after surgical fat reduction in the Los Angeles area, with impatience, frustration, and depression common at first, followed by more positive emotions once they’ve fully recovered. These initial, more negative feelings are to be expected and are perfectly natural, so there’s nothing to be alarmed about. If you’re feeling bored or a little overwhelmed while in recovery, here are a few ways to ease your mind:
1. Use Breathing and Relaxation Techniques
To keep your stress levels down and relieve some discomfort, try techniques such as meditation, deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, or guided relaxation. Look for a quiet, comfortable area, close your eyes, try to center your mind, and repeat a calming mantra while meditating.
2. Try Listening to Music
If you’re feeling tense, consider looking for some new albums or go back to your favorite classics. Finding some new music to listen to is a great way to distract yourself. It quiets your mind, soothes you, and helps you decrease stress because of the chemical reactions it triggers in your brain.
3. Practice Visualization
Visualization is another highly effective way of releasing stress and tension. It involves using mental imagery to put yourself in a relaxed state. Rather than worrying about other things, imagine yourself healed and try to think more positively.
4. Get Exercise
As soon as your surgeon gives you approval to do so, you can gradually incorporate light exercise such as walks or even lifting light weights. Staying active will help you to heal faster and avoid blood circulation issues. It will also help you to cope with stress.
Think liposuction might be exactly what you need to sculpt your ideal body shape? For advice on what you can expect before and after surgical fat reduction, reach out to our team at Cosmetic Surgery Institute. Get in touch with us today by calling (760) 837-0364, or submit a contact form to request a consultation, and we’ll get back to you shortly.
What Are the Best Types of Facelifts for Addressing Specific Concerns?
We all eventually age, and the effects of time passing can be seen in the condition of our skin, as well as our facial contours. When we’re younger, it’s normal to have a more heart-shaped face with a slimmer, more defined jawline and fuller, higher cheeks. Once the surface of the skin begins to pull away from underlying tissues, becoming saggy due to gravity and a loss of collagen and healthy fat, it might form pronounced folds on the lower face, loose areas on the neck, and “jowls.” Many people feel self-conscious about the way this drooping skin changes their appearance. Fillers and other injectables can help to some degree, but the option that provides the most dramatic and long-lasting results involves removing the excess skin and restoring a more sculpted face via facelift surgery. For Los Angeles, Palm Desert, and other area patients, there are several different options to choose from, including the standard facelift, mid-face lift, and mini facelift.
The most suitable technique for you depends on your unique aesthetic concerns, facial anatomy, skin condition, and more. While your plastic surgeon will make a recommendation for how best to approach your specific surgery, here is some basic information you should know about the differences and similarities between each of these options, as well as the signs of aging each approach can target:
Mild Jowling and Sagging Skin
If you’ve started to notice the earliest signs of sagging around your jawline and neck area, you might be an ideal candidate for a mini facelift. One of the benefits of having this particular procedure done is that you may not need to have more drastic surgery in future years. The mini facelift is not as “involved” as more significant procedures and requires smaller incisions.
Sunken Eyes and Hanging Skin Around the Cheeks
The mid-face lift, also known as a cheek lift, is designed for improving the area that extends from the eyes to the mouth, without altering the jawline or forehead. It can improve the appearance of pronounced nasolabial folds, sunken eyes, and deflated or pinched cheeks.
Moderate to Advanced Signs of Aging
A full facelift is a more extensive procedure used to target especially pronounced signs of aging on the lower two-thirds of the face, including everything below the ears. This surgery can involve removing and repositioning skin and other tissue via incisions that are larger, but still well camouflages in natural lines and creases on the face.
Find out more about the types of facelift surgery Cosmetic Surgery Institute offers. Our team can answer any questions and help you decide which type of surgery would be best for achieving your goals. Call us at (760) 837-0364, or fill out a contact form to request a consultation.
3 Ways to Look Cute on Zoom Dates
Since the pandemic began, the way we go on dates and connect with friends or relatives has changed significantly. The idea of virtual dating might not be appealing for some people, but it’s a great way of combatting loneliness and establishing authentic human connections that are so vital for our mental health during uncertain times. Due to the fact that we’re spending more time looking at our own faces online, many people have been increasingly self-conscious about what they deem to be flaws or imperfections, such as a bump on the bridge of their nose, wrinkles around the eyes, or a slight double chin. If this sounds like you, now’s an ideal time to take advantage of the extra opportunities we have to heal in the privacy of our homes and finally have a more significant surgical procedure, such as eyelid surgery or a rhinoplasty. Many Los Angeles-area patients—including in Palm Desert, Riverside, and beyond—may have been putting such decisions off because they weren’t able to take time off from coming into the office for work to recover from their procedure. That’s no longer the same potential hindrance for many people.
With that in mind, there are some things you can do to feel more confident on your next FaceTime, Skype, or Zoom date—beyond altering your appearance with cosmetic surgery, if you still aren’t quite ready.
Lighting is Important
Before your date, take some time to experiment with lighting because it will make a huge difference to your appearance on camera. Set yourself up in an area of your house that has good lighting. You should ideally be facing your light source. A circle light, bright natural light from a window, or even a setting up a desk lamp will be very flattering. Natural light will always look the best.
Get Your Angles Right
The last thing you want is to have your camera too close up to your face or at some other unflattering angle. Sit back and give yourself and your date some room. Studies have shown that sitting too close to your camera can make your nose look up to 30 percent bigger!
Make Your Skin Look Great
Cameras are unforgiving to skin issues, so be sure to moisturize, hydrate, and get plenty of sleep. Hide irregularities with concealer and use body oil or luminizer to give your skin a glowing look. You can also consider laser skin resurfacing to get a more even tone and glowing complexion.
Find out more about having a rhinoplasty at Cosmetic Surgery Institute. Call us at (760) 837-0364, or fill out a contact form to request a consultation.
Get the Curves Without Looking Like a Cartoon
Once upon a time, breast implants were highly
obvious and very easy to spot. The 2000s may have been the era for huge,
fake-looking, and highly noticeable boobs, but trends have changed a lot in the
previous two decades. Patients have gradually shifted toward preferring a more
“real” aesthetic. In the last few years, celebrities and non-famous patients
alike have been selecting smaller implants that are designed more for altering
the shape of their breasts in a less conspicuous but nevertheless attractive and
feminine way. The idea is to have your breasts enhanced in a way that fits you
as an individual rather than taking a “cookie cutter” approach to cleavage. If
you’re going in for breast
augmentation at a Los Angeles-area
practice—or anywhere, really—and want more subtle, believable results, follow
these tips below:
1. Choose
the Right Material
During your consultation for breast implants,
your surgeon will be discussing lots of variables involved in the surgery with
you, including everything from sizes and fillings to implant placement. Generally,
silicone implants, including the more cohesive silicone “gummy bear” implants,
tend to have a squishier texture that’s more similar to actual breast tissue.
2. Consider
Fat Grafting
Autologous fat grafting or fat transfers involve
using some of a patient’s own body fat—taken from an area of excess on some
other part of the body—to enhance the breasts. Fat augmentation can be a way of
increasing the breast size by up to one cup if you don’t want implants. Alternatively,
it can be used to hide potential rippling or other minor irregularities and to enhance
the cleavage when used in combination with implants.
3. Think
About Sizing
Patients often complain that they wish they had
gone a bit larger or smaller after they have had breast augmentation. Don’t
assume that bigger is necessarily better. Sometimes, the width of certain
implants is too wide for your frame or projects too much, making it clear that
you’ve had work done. Your implants should be as small as possible with a low
to moderate projection if you’re aiming for a realistic appearance. Talk with
your surgeon about ways to see what various sized implants would look like on
your frame.
Are you thinking of having a breast augmentation? The Cosmetic Surgery Institute team will help you plan your procedure. Call
us at (760) 837-0364 or submit a contact form to request a consultation.
Can Liposuction Help to Get Rid of Stubborn Fat Pockets When I’m Close to my Goal Weight?
No one has the
“perfect” body, and beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. However, there’s also
no harm in having a cosmetic treatment like liposuction. From
Los Angeles to
Palm Desert, everyone wants to feel more confident and comfortable in their own
skin. Although there’s a common misconception that surgical fat reduction is
meant for fatter people, this strategy isn’t designed as some kind of magic
bullet for weight loss, nor as an easy way for patients who are very overweight
or obese to lose a significant amount of overall body weight. In fact,
liposuction is ideal for those people who have already hit a healthy weight for
their height—and have managed to stably maintain their weight at or close to
their goal. Continue reading to learn how liposuction can fine-tune your body
shape in this situation.
Liposuction works the
same for thin, athletic patients like runners and weightlifters as it does for
patients who are slightly heavier. So if you’re average weight-wise but just
have a few flabby areas of excess fat that you’ve been unable to tone up—like
belly fat, double chin, or thigh fat—you may be an ideal candidate for the
surgery.
This procedure alters
your body’s proportions and silhouette by removing some of the soft, grabbable
fat from below the skin so that the surface contracts around your newly slimmer
contours. Are you one of those people who always has thicker thighs even after
losing weight from elsewhere, or a rounded stomach even when you are at your
slimmest? When you’re restricting your calorie intake and working out
frequently, your body might get sculpted in some areas, but you also might not
be able to attain the figure you want because of genetics, hormones, or
age-related weight gain.
Liposuction is the ideal
technique for getting rid of this fat, even if you only have a modest amount of
it that needs to be taken out. If you have a thinner frame and are thinking of
having liposuction, it’s better to go to an experienced surgeon who knows the
right techniques to lower the risk of contour irregularities.
Cosmetic Surgery
Institute also offers Renuvion
laser for skin tightening in combination with liposuction.
Ready to plan your
liposuction with the physicians at Cosmetic Surgery Institute? For
more information on surgical procedures, call us at (760) 837-0364 or send us your
info via contact form to request an appointment.
What Are the Benefits of Combining Your Tummy Tuck with Liposuction?
Although the abdominal area is a common place for people to
store excess weight when they put on a few pounds, belly fat isn’t always
linked to being overweight. You can be very slim but still have some resistant
flab around this area—flab that refuses to budge despite dieting and exercise. Some
people simply have a body type that makes them prone to being heavier in this
area. Others experience fullness in this area because their muscles and skin
have been stretched due to aging, weight loss, or pregnancy. If you’re planning
on a tummy
tuck in Palm Desert to tighten and flatten your abdominal area,
adding liposuction to the treatment can give you enhanced results.
Although both tummy tuck surgery and liposuction are highly
effective on their own as standalone procedures for reshaping the abdominal
area, the Cosmetic Surgery Institute team believes that having them done at the
same time can produce optimal results for certain patients. While the terms are
sometimes used interchangeably by patients who don’t know the difference, tummy
tucks and liposuction accomplish very different things. In this post, we
explore some of the advantages of combining the two.
1. Removing
Fat While Tightening Skin and Muscle
Liposuction allows you to have some of your subcutaneous fat
suctioned away from specific areas. A tummy tuck can also involve some fat removal,
but the procedure focuses on removing excess skin, tightening the remaining
skin, and repairing muscles to improve your mid-body contours. By having these
procedures done together, you’ll be able to remove a larger amount of diet-resistant
fat while addressing skin and muscle laxity at the same time.
2. Addressing
Transition Areas
As opposed to a tummy tuck, which is solely focused on the
abdomen, liposuction can be used to reduce fat in other areas surrounding or
near the stomach, including the hips, thighs, flanks, and back. This improves
your overall contours and emphasizes the results of the tuck.
3. Less
Recovery Time and Discomfort
By having both surgeries done at the same time, you’ll only
have to schedule a single appointment for the procedures. That also means you
will go through just one recovery period instead of two. Studies have shown
that this strategy has a low complication rate, which is very appealing for
patients.
For more information on what’s involved in liposuction and a
tummy tuck from Palm Desert’s Cosmetic Surgery Institute, as well as other body contouring
procedures, get in touch with our team today. Call us at (760) 837-0364 or send us your info via contact form
to request an appointment.
Weight Loss Basics: Which Areas Do We Lose Body Fat from First?
Although it’s not a weight loss tool, liposuction from our
Palm Desert Cosmetic Surgery Institute allows you to do
something that exercise, and dieting can’t accomplish: remove targeted pockets
of fat from isolated spots. Understanding the basics of fat loss—and why it’s
so difficult to “spot reduce” unwanted bulk in certain areas—can help anyone wondering
why their daily exercise routines and low-carb lunches aren’t touching a pesky
double chin or love handles.
Unfortunately, although your overall body fat percentage may
be lower after weeks or months of working out and reducing your calorie intake,
you may be frustrated when you notice that the areas you want to lose weight
from don’t seem to ever grow any slimmer. Additionally, many people get to a
point where exercise isn’t enough for them to get to the point where they have achieved
their body contouring goals.
A balanced diet and getting enough routine physical activity
certainly keep you healthy. However, if you’ve reached a weight-loss plateau—meaning
you’re still following your exercise and diet closely, but are temporarily unable
to lose any more weight—cosmetic procedures may be the best option for helping
you attain the shape you want.
Body fat or adipose is a connective tissue that has many
important health benefits, including temperature regulation, balancing hormone
levels, improving reproductive health, and serving as an energy reserve to use
for fueling our activities.
You may notice that whenever you gain weight, it usually
goes to one or two areas. For some people, it’s the belly. For others, it’s the
thighs and buttocks. Ideally, we could simply do exercises that focused on
specific areas to make them thinner. For example, wouldn’t it be great if running
and squats would automatically give someone smaller thighs? Sadly, fat doesn’t
work that way.
The way that our bodies distribute fat and the “order” in
which it is lost is mostly determined by genetics, gender, metabolism, and body
shape. Women typically store more fat in their hips and thighs because it is
essential for childbearing, so these may be the last areas to reduce in volume.
Men tend to have more at in the abdominal area.
Also, the most recent area where you gained weight is likely
where you lose it from first.
Generally, you’re likely to retain your same basic body
shape—but in a smaller size—after weight loss. Liposuction, however, can help with
all of these challenges by targeting specific pockets of fat no matter when
they first appeared, as well as improving proportions after you’ve reached a
stable weight. Think of it as customizable body contouring.
Interested in having liposuction in Palm Desert? To request
a consultation with Cosmetic Surgery
Institute, give us a call at (760) 837-0364 or fill out a contact form.
5 Bra Suggestions for Shopping After Breast Augmentation
For most women, shopping
for bras is challenging enough as it is—even if they haven’t had plastic
surgery. Our patients sometimes report that bra sizing becomes even more of a
challenge after having a high-quality breast augmentation from our
Palm Springs-based team
at Cosmetic Surgery Institute.
While you may be
tempted to immediately rush out and buy all-new bras to flaunt your figure
after surgery, your breasts will experience some swelling immediately after the
procedure, and it can be difficult to predict what their exact size will be
after they’ve completely healed. Breasts will also continue to change slightly
for six months following augmentation surgery.
These tips are
intended to make it easier for you to find the perfect support (or even lingerie!)
after your surgery.
1.
There’s No Such Thing as a Standard Cup/Bra Size
Many women spend a good portion of their adult lives wearing bras that are technically not the right size for them. Sizing labels can give you an idea of the general size of the bra, but the problem is that sizing for a given bra is actually determined by the company that creates the bra—so the A, B, C, and D sizes aren’t as universal as you might think. It’s also important to note that implant sizes aren’t the same as cup sizes.
2.
It’s Better to Try Them On
Don’t bother with online shopping at first—especially for costly undergarments. As with any other type of clothing, when buying bras, it’s often better to just go into the store in person and see how they fit. When in doubt, this is the best way to find what you need (especially if all the online size calculators aren’t helping you). Ideally, you can be re-measured and professionally fitted for bras after your recovery.
3.
Consider the Shape of Your Implants
Note that some bras will work better for teardrop-shaped breasts, while others are intended for round breasts. This is another reason in-person shopping is ideal. You can see not just how a bra fits, but how it looks on you!
4.
Use Non-Wire Bras
You’ll have to
wait until your breasts have completely healed before moving on to conventional
wire bras. In the meantime, choose a different sort of support.
5.
Try A Plunge Bra
Many augmentation
patients “start from scratch” and experiment with new styles after they’ve
healed from their surgery. A “plunge bra” is a push-up type that doesn’t have
uncomfortable wires and is good for heavier breasts.
Get more breast
augmentation tips from Cosmetic Surgery Institute. Patients in Palm Springs and the entire
Los Angeles area can connect with us by calling 760-837-0364 or write to us
directly.
How Can a Tummy Tuck and Liposuction Work Together?
If your
midsection is a “problem zone” for you, you probably already know how difficult
it is to maintain a lean look. You may do everything right—including eating
well and exercising—but a flat abdomen seems to stay out of your reach. The Cosmetic
Surgery Institute team explains that while lifestyle-based efforts can give you
a healthier body overall, and are ideal for reducing fat, diets can’t be used
to target specific areas. Sit-ups can build muscle, but the results may remain
hidden under a thick layer—or the muscles may be separated from being stretched
out.
To address a
range of cosmetic belly problems, there’s no substitute for an abdominoplasty, available at our Palm Springs-area practice. For the procedure better
known as a tummy tuck, we make strategic incisions that allow us to tighten
muscles, fascia, and skin, as well as to excise any redundant skin. A traditional,
full tummy tuck is limited to the area that extends below the chest to the
pelvis.
But what about
stubborn, resistant rolls that often surround the belly area? For additional
fine-tuning, there’s always liposuction. Our approach involves using surgical
fat removal to optimize results, in addition to standard surgical techniques.
Performing two
procedures (a tummy tuck and liposuction) at the same time proves to be more
efficient, effective, and less expensive than performing them separately—not to
mention patients won’t have to go through two surgeries and recovery periods. Also
with this approach, the risk of complications associated with standalone tummy
tucks, such as seromas, is reduced, and combining procedures has been shown to
improve patient satisfaction. This combination is sometimes referred to as
“lipoabdominoplasty” or “liposuction-assisted abdominoplasty.”
Liposuction is a
commonly performed body contouring procedure that allows patients to remove
resistant, subcutaneous fat deposits from most areas of the body, using a
hollow cannula to break up and extract fat cells. In addition to the belly it
also allows for shaping features that border the belly area, like the hips,
flanks, waist, and back, for more definitive contouring. Slimming down these
other areas also accentuates a flatter abdomen. This improves your overall body
contours for a more streamlined and balanced appearance.
Patients from
Palm Springs and surrounding areas can plan an abdominoplasty with liposuction
at Cosmetic
Surgery Institute. Call (760)
837-0364 or send a message online to get more information or arrange a
consultation.
The Negative Effects of Smoking on Liposuction Results
Liposuction
continues to be an ideal surgical technique for dramatic body-contouring
results. It produces new contours faster than non-invasive alternatives can, is
generally low risk, doesn’t require a long recovery time, and only causes small
scars. The procedure can be a useful tool for body contouring—also referred to
as body sculpting, a term referring to a range of procedures intended for
altering the contours of the body by modifying fat, skin or muscle. While it is
great for removing fat from almost any area of the body, doctors at Cosmetic
Surgery Institute explain to patients in the Los Angeles basin area that liposuction for body contouring's success hinges on them avoiding nicotine
before and after surgery.
You may have
noticed in your research before the big day that cigarette smoking is
emphasized on just about every list of things to avoid before going in for
plastic surgery. Some surgeons recommend staying away from cigarettes for a few
weeks or up to a month before the operation and for a long time afterward as
well. But why exactly is smoking so bad for you—in this specific case?
In short, smoking
makes you much more likely to develop post-operative complications after
liposuction surgery. If you’re a regular or heavy smoker, surgeons understand
that giving up the habit can be difficult, but they can also help you find support
during this time.
A chemical
called nicotine, which is contained in cigarettes—and such cigarette
substitutes as gum, patches, chewing tobacco, pipes, cigars, etc.—is the source
of the problem. When you have plastic surgery, some of the blood vessels are
severed, and it’s up to the remaining intact vessels to supply the oxygen and
nutrients needed by the rest of your body. This includes the incision sites and
tissues in the surgical site that need to heal. Poor healing can lead to poor
results. Scars may be more pronounced and visible, since nicotine restricts
blood flow and inhibits oxygen supply to cells.
If you still
continue smoking, your surgeon may not want to administer liposuction. Complications
from pre-op and post-op smoking may include infections, fat necrosis, blood
clots, increased pain, and thick scars.
Are you ready
for a new you? Get started on your plastic surgery journey today with help from
the Cosmetic
Surgery Institute team. To
schedule a consult regarding liposuction for body contouring in the Los Angeles
basin area, connect with us by phoning (760) 837-0364 or sending a message.