Dr. Robert Carl Ciardullo, MD

The risks are Very rare and usually temporary. These will include bruising asymmetry and very rarely, infection. Most fillers used for lip injection can be removed with an enzyme if a patient does not like it.

Generally, the bulk of the bruising and swelling following a lower facelift subsides enough to look well between two and three weeks. This is very variable depending on the patient and most particularly on the patient’s age. The older one is, the longer it takes. The average person in their 50s by 2 to 3 weeks after a lower face lift begins to look better than before.

Immediately after surgery, sleeping with the back of the bed elevated and applying cold compresses intermittently will reduce bruising and swelling. The cold compresses are generally used for the first 48 hours. Sleeping elevated is beneficial for the first 1 to 2 weeks. You will have a cast postoperatively, this should be kept dry. You should avoid strenuous activities such as working out, lifting weights, contact sports, etc., for 3 to 4 weeks depending on the level of the activity. The skin will be somewhat sensitive to the sun for the first several weeks so use sunscreen, a large hat, and intense sun avoidance should be practiced. Also, avoid aspirin, Advil, Motrin, and all of the so-called non-steroidal anti-inflammatories for at least two weeks before and two weeks after surgery since these may cause bleeding. Some surgeons feel that vitamin C complex with bioflavonoids reduces bruising and swelling as well as Arnica taken before and after surgery. Good nutrition is always helpful for rapid and complete healing. There are a number of other drugs to be avoided immediately before and after surgery. Both surgeons also want their patients to discontinue the birth control pill since this may result in blood clots forming after surgery. Most surgeons provide their rhinoplasty patients with a detailed list of preoperative preparation and postoperative care. Follow these directions carefully for the best and quickest healing.

After a neck lift, there is a feeling of tightness which lasts several weeks. This is due to the tightening of the platysma muscle bands of the neck. This feeling generally wears away after several weeks. The actual skin tightness will also not last indefinitely. Postoperatively, there is swelling, which increases the tightness, but stretches the skin a little bit. When the swelling goes down over the first 2 to 3 weeks, the skin tightness may already be a little less than achieved during the surgery. The effect of aging and the effect of gravity also set in immediately after the surgery. While the person will always have less excess skin of the neck and therefore a tighter neck for having done a neck lift, gravity and the aging process take over immediately after the surgery is complete. Generally, by about 10 years, people consider a re-tuck. But they still look better at this time than they would have had they not done the neck lift in the first place.

If you are an appropriate candidate for liposuction with good skin tone the excess fat from the legs can be removed. Liposuction has surgical risks such as infection bleeding, dents, asymmetries, and irregularities. Health risks of surgery depend heavily on the patient’s general health and body weight. Higher risk factors would include diabetes, heart disease, obesity, the use of hormones (which may be discontinued preoperatively), etc. There are rare, worse complications that can occur. They should be discussed with your surgeon in detail.

The fat and skin that is generally removed from the upper and lower eyelids during Eyelid plastic surgery cannot regenerate. Therefore what is removed is gone permanently and the improvement is therefore permanent. However, the aging process does not stop. With age the eyebrows descend, the skin loses elasticity, wrinkles develop and other aging processes that will diminish the look around the eyes also occur. This however is an ongoing aging process, and not a wearing out of the surgery that was performed. In other words if someone has an eyelid plasty they will always for the rest of their life look better than if they had not, but they will not always look as good as when they first had it because the aging process Resumes the moment the last stitch is placed.

Canthoplasty refers to surgery on the corner of the eye, not the ear

Breast implants move slightly; when you stand up from a laying down position, they drop a little bit. When you lie down from a standing position, they may drift slightly laterally. Some movement is normal and expected, however, some patients develop excessive movement, which may need to be adjusted surgically.

Scars can be removed, however removing the scar replaces it with a new scar. In some cases the new scar may be no better than the old scar. This is a judgment call that an experienced surgeon could make before surgery. Depressed scars such as those formed from chickenpox can also be filled with fillers, but this is is a temporary measure.

There are creams for that but not surgery

Permanent cheek implants are generally inserted through a small incision inside the mouth above the upper molars

A cheek lift is the upper portion of a facelift. It is generally done through an incision which starts in the temple and extends down in front of the ear. The skin of the temple and cheek area is then elevated from the tissue beneath and sutures are placed in the tissues beneath the skin to lift it. The skin is then draped back over this lifted tissue and redundant skin removed and sutures placed.

The only way to increase breast size short of gaining weight or taking hormones, is a breast implant. A breast lift will raise the position of the nipple, which may have declined after losing breast tissue following childbearing and breast-feeding. This loss of breast tissue is called postpartum involution. For mild cases of breast lost with the breast remaining still quite high on the chest, an implant may be all that is necessary. If breast tissue loss is also associated with sagging of the breast, a lift is often combined with an implant. If there is asymmetry, a larger implant may be used on one side than the other to compensate for the imbalance.

Older forms of silicone breast implants were made of a liquid silicone much like maple syrup encased in a silicone shell. If the shell broke, the liquid silicone would exit the shell and spread into the surrounding tissues. Newer models of breast implants are made with self-cohesive gel, which sticks to itself. It has the consistency of the candy called a Gummy Bear, therefore, if the outer shell breaks, the silicone does not travel. That is what is referred to as gummy bear implants.

Most people feel that silicone implants feel more natural than Saline implants particularly if there is very little tissue covering the implant. The look however is usually very similar except that in patients with very small amounts of tissue covering the implant, Saline implants may show rippling while silicone implants generally do not

The swelling and bruising after otoplasty generally subsides after approximately two weeks. However one should wear a headband while sleeping for 6 to 8 weeks to avoid inadvertent pulling forward on the ear which can disrupt the sutures

Liposuction is performed through tiny punctures. For the abdomen it is generally performed through tiny punctures in the groin creases and in the belly button. These scars are only a few millimeters in length and generally fade into a natural crease so they are virtually invisible

Every operation has its risks. The risk of upper eyelid surgery is that if too much skin is removed the eye will not close completely which could result in irritation and dry eyes. Removal of too much skin from the lower lid could cause what’s called an ectropian which is a drooping of the lower lid away from the eyeball. Other risks are infection, worse than expected scarring and an extremely rare risk called retro bulbar hematoma. These risks are generally rare in experienced hands. But a patient should discuss these risks in depth with her surgeon

The FTA has determined that they are. There are of course surgical risks such as infection bleeding and cosmetic problems. There are longer-term problems including scar tissue creating hardness and implant leakage. Long-term use of silicone breast implantsI was thought to be associated with a higher risk of autoimmune disease but studies did not bear this out. textured surface implants have been found to be associated with lymphoma in approximately one in 3000 patients. There are a number of vague illnesses such as depression which have been lumped together into the term breast implant illness. This is rareAnd poorly understood. Implants eventually may leak and need replacement but this is generally not a health concern. The majority of women who have had implants for many years and even a lifetime have done fine but there are those exceptions. The risks should be discussed in detail with your surgeon.

When a scar is surgically removed it is replaced by a new scar. The procedure is done with the expectation that the new scar will be better than the former scar. It however will also be permanent Some scars do not lend themselves to Surgical improvement while others do.