98% of women agree that a Mommy Makeover is worth it

The Mommy Makeover is becoming more and more popular. These procedures usually include Breast Augmentation, Liposuction, Tummy Tuck and possibly Labiaplasty (Vaginal Rejuvenation). Let our doctors help you decide which procedures would be right for you. They will make you feel safe and comfortable, but most importantly, get you back to the body you've been missing. Please visit our website for before and after photos. www.takeshape.info. And visit this link to read real stories about women who have undergone the Mommy Makeover http://www.realself.com/Mommy-makeover/reviews.

You can get these results and more from the doctors at Take Shape Plastic Surgery.

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Getting rid of cellulite: What works and what doesn't

Effective ways to eliminate cellulite

Cellulite can prove to be a less than appealing addition to one's physique, especially as time wears on and skin continues to lose its firmness. Unfortunately, this condition plagues a number of individuals, both male and female. The Washingtonian recently compiled a list of cellulite-fighting methods and their effectiveness. Currently, there exists an array of procedures aimed at eliminating this pesky problem, or improving skin elasticity to make it smoother. While there is no definitive cure for combating this condition, doctors weighed in to determine which methods are most likely to create the best results.

Skin rejuvenation
One method of skin rejuvenation that continues to yield favorable results is laser therapy, or skin resurfacing. During this procedure, doctors make a small incision then place a probe underneath the skin, which melts fat bulges and cuts the connective tissue that causes dimples. Skin rejuvenation and resurfacing has been proven to help alleviate the loss of skin tone and hinder the development of cellulite. The Washingtonian states that this path is minimally invasive, shows immediate results and only requires one session, though some patients may want to schedule yearly follow-ups.

Liposuction
Liposuction remains one of the most common plastic surgery procedures available, with almost 315,000 people undergoing this method in 2012 alone, according to statistics from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. While its popularity cannot be denied, doctors have warned that it may not be the most effective means by which cellulite can be reduced. The procedure can help decrease pockets of fat found on the body and make the body appear slimmer, but it should not be considered for patients who merely want to reduce the appearance of cellulite. 

Creams and lotions
Over-the-counter creams and lotions that claim to treat dimpling may be successful in making the skin appear healthier, but their long-term effectiveness on eradicating cellulite is unknown. The ASAPS explains that while creams may hydrate the affected area and mask a dimpled appearance, they have not been scientifically proven as a viable option for cellulite elimination. 

Endermologie
Roller mechanical massage therapy has been proven as a treatment for bumps and is sometimes used in conjunction with liposuction, but it produces no long-term effect on the appearance of the skin. The process works by increasing blood flow to the area and loosening connective tissue, producing temporarily healthy and smooth skin. But patients must undergo several treatments as its effectiveness is only short-term.

Reference: www.smartbeautyguide.com

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Tips on avoiding the plastic surgery nightmares of some celebs

BY VIRGINIA ROHAN

STAFF WRITER

THE RECORD

"If it looks like plastic surgery, then it's bad plastic surgery"

The signs of aging have been creeping up for years — marionette lines around the mouth, under-eye pouches, the dreaded neck wattle just like the one your mom had. But then, one day, you look in the mirror and think, who the heck is that person looking back at me? And that's the day when you may resolve to look into what cosmetic facial procedures are out there.

Kim Novak, 81, took much flak for her appearance at the Oscars.

But then you tune in to one of TV's many star-studded awards shows and see something scarier than "The Following," "Hannibal" or "Bates Motel" — once beautiful and familiar faces that are now lumpy, puffy, frozen, barely even recognizable.

Critics say John Travolta bungled more than Idina Menzel's name.

Take, for example, the recent Academy Awards, when the appearance of 81-year-old Kim Novak, 68-year-old Goldie Hawn and 60-year-old John Travolta generated lots of tweets and morning-after buzz. They join a long list of celebrities — including Mickey Rourke, Joan Rivers, Bruce Jenner, Kenny Rogers and Priscilla Presley — whose apparently bad facial work has inspired online ridicule and troubling questions. One of them: If Hollywood's rich and famous could end up looking so bad, what chance have I of looking good?
"The nagging problem in our industry is that our good results — Mother Nature gets the credit. And our bad results are there for everyone to see," says Dr. Richard D'Amico of Englewood, the 2008 president of The American Society of Plastic Surgeons, who saw enough of the latter to have been cringing as he watched this year's Oscars. "If it looks like plastic surgery, then it's bad plastic surgery. Good plastic surgery is something you'd never think of. You look at the person and say, 'She looks good and she looks natural.' That's the good plastic surgery, and we get no credit for it."

Goldie Hawn generated lots of post-Oscar buzz — not in a good way.

D'Amico and other North Jersey board-certified plastic surgeons say that patients often mention famous people that they do — or do not — want to wind up looking like. "Earlier today, I had a woman who came in for facial rejuvenation, and she said, 'I just don't want to look like the people I saw on TV the other day,' and she was referring to the Oscars," says Dr. Luis Zapiach, who has offices in Paramus and Franklin Lakes. "I told her, 'I'm a very conservative plastic surgeon. I will make you refreshed and that's it. … And she was very happy with what we had done, just with fillers. She was very concerned about not having her cheeks too full. Some of the things that we see sometimes on TV is their cheeks are too full."
Dr. Valerie Ablaza, who does 80 to 85 percent cosmetic work (much of it facial rejuvenation) in her Montclair private practice, often has to reassure patients who bring up celebrity mishaps.
"Everyone says the same thing, 'How did someone do that?' " says Ablaza, last year's president of the New Jersey Society of Plastic Surgeons. "I don't know why those people and their handlers don't see that just like the common people see what happened to that person. But I know that no one that walks out of my office looks like Kim Novak or Goldie Hawn.
"Even Priscilla Presley and Mary Tyler Moore and Carol Burnett — they all just look a little bit freaky and you say, 'Really, who's giving you advice?' Why did Priscilla Presley have silicone injections in her face when it's not even approved by the FDA in this country? ... You'd think that they have all the money in the world and all the exposure, they must be going to the best. But they aren't. They're just in their own little bubble of thinking."
Ablaza believes that some celebrities "get carried away … and keep making changes, little by little, and they get so far off the mark," they may even lose sight of their "starting point." (She speculates that this may be the case with Joan Rivers.)
D'Amico has also had patients say, " 'I don't want to look like blank.' Fill in any number of those blanks," he says. "People come in and they say, 'Don't change me.' And what I explain to them about facial rejuvenation surgery is that time and the environment and stress has changed you. So, it's restoration, never alteration. What you saw in Kim Novak and Goldie Hawn is alteration, and that's always a mistake."
Dr. David Abramson, chief of the department of plastic surgery at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, says, "I think, unfortunately, a lot of these people do too much, whether it's surgery or fillers. If you overdo something, you wind up with abnormal facial expressions. They always talked about that 'Joker' look from having too many face-lifts, but I think when people have too much non-operative stuff they can look just as bad because they can look puffy, swollen."
To be sure, many older actors and actresses look great, including 64-year-old Meryl Streep and 56-year-old Ellen DeGeneres, the Oscars host, who quipped that night that "the most important thing in the world is youth."
"The ones that looked good, but didn't look like they had something done, you bet your boots they had something done," says D'Amico, an assistant clinical professor of plastic surgery at New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Although women in general account for the vast majority of all cosmetic procedures — 91 percent in 2012, the most recent year the American Society of Plastic Surgeons released data — the gender breakdown is surely less lopsided in Hollywood, where looking good is in everyone's job description. Travolta, after all, was among the Oscar-night stars who raised eyebrows (and not just for mangling Idina Menzel's name).
While a character actress like 84-year-old June Squibb may feel no need to hide her gray hair and wrinkles, aging can be especially tough for those once known for their looks, as Cameron Diaz told Oprah Winfrey on the March 16 episode of "Oprah Prime," which also featured Sharon Stone. "It's almost as if we have failed if we don't remain 25 for the rest of our lives," Diaz said.
While most of us don't have millions of strangers watching as we age, the process is the same for celebrities as for everyone.
"When we're young, the skin has a lot of elasticity, so all the rubber bands are nice and tight and the dermis is very thick with collagen and plump, and tight skin and plump skin is young skin, and that looks very good," says Dr. Barry DiBernardo, a Montclair plastic surgeon and past president of the New Jersey Society of Plastic Surgeons. "Somewhere around 35 years old — it's different in all of us, it depends on your genetics, your sun damage, your smoking — those cells will slow down the production of collagen and elastin, and that's when you'll start to see the lines come in. The skin thins. Things start to fall."
The good news, the doctors say, is that there are now many non-invasive and minimally invasive options for rejuvenating faces, including toxin injections (such as Botox, for forehead wrinkles) as well as fillers like Radiesse or Voluma (for, say, cheeks); Juvéderm (for nasolabial folds); a newer, lighter filler called Belotero (good for lower eyelid hollows); and fractional lasers to resurface and tighten the skin.
"We now have more tools in our toolbox than ever," D'Amico says. "It used to be, you held out and you went right into the operating room at some point. Nowadays, we have all different levels of intervention."

- See more at: http://www.northjersey.com/arts-and-entertainment/celebs-plastic-surgery-mishaps-trouble-professionals-too-1.750110#sthash.U3KUpY3e.dpuf

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Can a lift give you a lift?

As a field of medicine, aesthetic plastic surgery is unique in that patients actively seek out procedures and pay out of pocket to not only help them look better, but to feel better. That being said, having an 87% patient approval rating with 97% recommending others and 93% coming back for more is a testament to the specialty. It’s no coincidence that the cosmetic surgery procedures that have seen landmark growth are ones that give you a lift – upper arm lift,breast lift, thigh lift, lower body lift and tummy tuck. Lift procedures help dramatic weight-loss patients remove large amounts of skin and fat left behind, as well as those who have stretched out their skin from pregnancy, weight fluctuations and the loss of muscle from aging. All that excess skin can sure weigh a person down.

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The mission of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ASAPS) includes medical education, public education and patient advocacy. Plastic Surgery News Briefs are summaries of current stories found through various news and magazine outlets that relate to or mention plastic surgery and cosmetic procedures. The views expressed in these news articles do not necessarily reflect the opinions of ASAPS, but are merely published as an educational service to our members and the general public. For additional information on these subjects and other plastic surgery related topics, please go to www.surgery.org

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Body Contouring Brings Lasting Improvement in Quality of Life after Weight-Loss Surgery

Body contouring after weight-loss (bariatric) surgery produces long-term gains in several aspects of quality of life, reports the November issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

"The study indicates a sustained quality of life improvement in post-bariatric patients after body contouring surgery," concludes the study led by Dr. Eva S.J. van der Beek of University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands. "This suggests the importance of including reconstructive surgery as a component in the multidisciplinary approach in the surgical treatment of morbid obesity," Dr. van der Beek said.

Improved Quality of Life after Body Contouring Surgery
The researchers evaluated quality-of-life assessments in 33 patients who underwent body contouring after bariatric surgery. Body contouring refers to various plastic surgery procedures done to remove excess fat and skin after massive weight loss.

The most common procedures were abdominoplasty ("tummy tuck") and operations on the breasts. Through an average of seven years after body contouring, the patients repeatedly completed a standard questionnaire evaluating obesity's impact on quality of life.

The results showed "mostly moderate to large, sustained improvement" in quality of life in the years after body contouring. Scores improved in six out of seven quality-of-life domains, including physical functioning and appearance, mental well-being, social acceptance, intimacy and social network.

Some domains showed a small decrease between four and seven years' follow-up. In general, quality-of-life scores were lower for patients who regained weight after their body contouring surgery.

Overall, 55 percent of patients were very satisfied with their results. All but one patient said they would undergo body contouring again, and considered it "an inevitable step to improve daily quality of life." About one-fourth of patients had further body contouring surgery-another 30 percent said they would do so if their insurance covered it.

Bariatric surgery produces sustained weight loss in patients with severe obesity. However, more than two-thirds of patients with massive weight loss are left with loose or overhanging skin. This may lead to decreased satisfaction with the results of bariatric surgery, as well as psychological, social and physical problems.

Previous studies have shown that body contouring improves quality of life after bariatric surgery, but the long-term benefits are unclear. "There is an ongoing debate if body contouring surgery is an optional or essential step after massive weight loss in the treatment of morbid obesity," Dr. van der Beek and coauthors write.

The new study shows significant and lasting improvements in quality of life for patients who have body contouring after bariatric surgery. "This suggests the importance of including reconstructive surgery as a component in the multidisciplinary approach in the surgical treatment of morbid obesity," the researchers write. They call for further study of the long-term benefits of body contouring-including possible reasons for the decrease in quality-of-life scores a few years after surgery.

Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery® is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, part of Wolters Kluwer Health.

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Highlighted Procedure: The Brazilian Butt Lift

Take Shape Plastic Surgery in Fort Lauderdale will now be offering gluteal augmentation for patients looking to improve the contour and aesthetic appeal of their buttocks. Plastic Surgeons, Christopher Low MD MS, George Dreszer MD and Russell Sassani MD are now offering free consultations for patients interested in gluteal augmentation, otherwise known as the “Brazilian Butt Lift”.

The procedure was first performed in the late 1960’s using breast implants to enhance the buttocks, the results were suboptimal and complication rates were high which led most US plastic surgeons to abandon the procedure. During the next several decades, plastic surgeons in Mexico, Brazil, and other South American countries continued in the search for better procedures and improved implants for gluteal augmentation.
Currently, there are two primary techniques in buttock augmentation, gluteal implants and autologous fat grafting. Creating a more aesthetic female torso requires augmentation of the buttocks and more importantly a reduction of the waist and lower back. Only autologous fat grafting can accomplish these goals. Gluteal implants cannot. During autologous fat grafting, sculpting of the waist and lower back requires aggressive liposuction of the presacral area in order to create the feminine inward sweep of the lower back. This liposuction is routinely done at the time of the autologous fat grafting but should not be routinely done at the same time as the gluteal implants.

Autologous gluteal augmentation is performed on patients desiring a more defined waist and fuller, rounder buttocks. This procedure is done at Take Shape Surgery Center, LLC, and is performed with minimal scars and healing time. The first step in gluteal augmentation is the aggressive liposuction of the hips, lateral thighs, lower back, and abdomen. The liposuction performed in these target areas will improve the shape of the buttock, making it appear rounder and proportionally larger. The harvested fat removed during liposuction is then processed in order to obtain the maximum amount of fat stem cells. Through tiny incisions, the harvested fat cells are then transferred into the upper and lateral buttocks in order to create the greater volume and improved definition.