As we age not only does the skin becomes less elastic and thin, but our bony skeleton also becomes thinner and smaller. The fat “baby fat” disappears and it all results in hanging empty skin with less architectural aesthetics. The atrophy of the fat is addressed with fillers.  The skin thinness and lack of elasticity is addressed with various lifts whether face lift, abdominoplasty, breast lift or mons pubis lift.  Some require arm lifts, and thigh lifts as well.  In some areas the fat disappears more than others. For example how often we hear people say-”if I loose enough weight for my thighs to be thin my face becomes too gaunt”.. Therefore often we do liposuction on the thighs which stubbornly hold on to fat while our face looses it very quickly.  So now what about the shrinking skeleton. We all know that with age we get shorter. However, we also know that even tho we look better after a facelift the area around the mouth rarely improves. ASK DR. STEPHEN COLEN who is trained as a dentist as well as a plastic surgeon. He will be the firtst one to tell you that in order for the area around the mouth to improve very often one may need to do onlay grafts to fill out the bone area under the upper lip so that the lip will not hang like a curtain with pleats.  Only grafts could also be put under the base of the nasal vestibule so that the nose will not look too long and hooked as our face shrinks.  Often we hear people say -”she is so photogenic”. This is often said about models or actresses.  They usually have in common a squere and strong bone structure which we loose as we get older.  So there are many ways to look younger besides just lifts, skin fillers and botox.  ONLAY grafts can also be very necessary.

Finally we have someone who takes pride in showing her body. Michelle is confident and, therefore, showing her arms is not a big deal. Her confidence obviously is so strong that no one even dares to criticize what she does. Her husband who is the most powerful man in the world and quite the looker himself adores her. Why does he adore her?? For the same reason that everyone adores her. It is her confidence in herself that makes him respect her as he beams with pride everytime she is around. Sooo- what does that tell you. Your self confidence is very important. How you feel about yourself is the key. Your feeling about yourself says tons and communicates to all whether you are great, just so and so or a true failure to be dismissed. So you must boost your confidence and pride in yourself whatever it takes. Diet, exercise, a new lipstick and makeup or haircu or a bit of fillers, botox, latisse to bat those long eyelashes, fraxel for good skin, lipo for skinny arms, or a tuck here and there. Vaginal tightening anyone, or labiaplasty for great confident sex life?????? Your self confidence will boost your relationship, get you a job or keep you on the job. You are what you think you are and not what they say you are.

The aging of our skin and facial structures is most noticed when one looks at a mother and her daughter. The fullness under the brows which represents youth is gone. The fat in that area becomes atrophic. The area of the upper lip becomes thinner and the upper lip looks like a hanging washed out curtain. The fullness of the lips changes, as the lips become thinner and loose that wonderful roll at the border with the skin. The cheeks become more drawn and the skin of the neck becomes wrinkled in need of ironing. Our complexion becomes muddier and our nose becomes pointier and longer looking. The eyelids get folds which cover our eyelasher and the lower eyelids make us look like we never sleep. To regain some of that younger look, one needs fillers to replace some of the plumpness (baby fat look). Some people use fat injections and some use fillers and some use more permanent implants like alloderm. The fillers help with the lip borders so lipstic does not run into the small wrinkles and with the nasolabial folds which become much more deep. They help to restore cheek prominence and upper brow fullness. We use Botox to iron our skin, especially in the glabella above our nose. We can use it to iron the wrinkles around the lower lids, and corners of our mouth. We use it at the bottom of our columella to raise the nasal tip. Platysma neck bands also can be injected making for a much more youthfull neck. We use fraxel and good skin care to improve complexion and tighten skin. We can make ourselves much better looking with simple procedures. Look at the video on the website about the fillers and how it transformed one of our patients without major surgery. We will be delighted to examine you and see what will help.