Change Your Implants In A Timely Manner

Gel-filled implants are fast becoming a favorite among breast enhancement patients, including the patients in my East Coast plastic surgery office. Due to their consistency, a gel-filled implant gives a more life-like feeling to the breasts compared to other implants. But before you choose an implant simply for its life-like feeling, you may want to know what comes with getting this gel-filled kind.

First, gel implants are entirely safe and effective. They wouldn’t be FDA approved if they weren’t. However, it is important to know that gel implants are not the forever kind. The FDA recently released a report saying that gel implants could have the need to be replaced, or even removed, within a ten year period under certain circumstances.

As the years progress, women with gel-filled implants, especially those who have suffered from breast cancer and have undergone breast reconstruction, could develop some problems. Most specifically, gel implants can rupture, but scarring, asymmetry and infection have been known to occur as well. A rupture especially will lead to surgery.

So how do you combat this potential problem if you still want gel implants? MRIs are one the best ways of detecting a problem with your implant. Going once every two years is a must if you have gel-filled implants.  If you haven’t detected any problems, but have had the implants in for a while, or close to ten years, your best option may be to simply replace them.

Like any type of surgery, there is always a risk, but by knowing the risks you’re already ahead.

Would you still consider gel-filled implants even though they eventually have to be replaced? To my readers that have them: Do you have an MRI every two years to detect problems?

To your health & beauty,

Dr. Joe Danyo

Could Freezing Be The New Botox?

My East Coast Plastic Surgery office has an abundance of patients seeking minimal invasive procedures such as Botox injections. But patients looking to get rid of pesky wrinkles on their faces may have another injectable option sometime in the near future.

Both Botox and Dysport are very easy and very quick procedures with a high patient satisfaction rate. However, some people are not entirely comfortable with the idea of injecting a toxin into their body, and unless they are willing to undergo a more invasive surgery they are out of luck.

So what is this new injectable that could be a Botox and Dysport competitor one of these days?

A new technique, not yet approved by the FDA, called cryoneuromodulation uses small needles to deliver cold to the nerves running through the forehead. The cold freezes the nerve, which interrupts the nerve signal and relaxes the muscle that causes vertical and horizontal forehead lines. Though the nerve returns to normal body temperature, the cold temporarily “injures” the nerve, not permanently, and allows the signal to remain interrupted for a period of time that is comparable to Botox’s and Dysport’s three to four month period.

This new possible treatment is just as quick, taking about 15 minutes, and has relatively the same discomfort level as Botox and Dysport. After performing the technique on 31 people in a clinical trial, this procedure seemed to work faster than what is on the market already; all patients having fewer wrinkles after two to eight injections, instead of waiting the standard few days to see results.

The downside is this technique was only limited to the forehead and has yet to be studied elsewhere on the face. Botox is more than just the forehead so it currently beats out this freezing process. However, if these results are a hint at what this new procedure can do, this could potentially be injectables’ newest breakthrough.

If this procedure does eventually pass FDA approval, I feel this will only increase the popularity of injectables. They will be more readily available to those people that were once afraid to put anything foreign into their bodies. More people will most likely jump at the chance to make their wrinkles fade away.

If this becomes an FDA approved procedure, would you consider freezing your nerves for a smoother face?

To your health and beauty,

Dr. Joe Danyo

Teenaged Cosmetic Surgery is NOT on the rise!

The media enjoys telling us that teen plastic surgery is on the rise and, as a surgeon, I admit seeing my fair share of teenagers at my East Coast Plastic Surgery office here in Delaware. However, contrary to this popular belief, surveys conducted by the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery report otherwise. 

The surveys actually show that the number of cosmetic procedures on patients 18 and younger has declined from nearly 300,000 a decade ago to125,000 last year.

Even with the massive decline, parents may be wondering what procedures teenagers are actually having. The ASAPS also reported that the most common procedures are:

• ·      Laser hair removal (51,000 procedures last year)
• ·      Skin treatments (including 16,200 chemical peels and 10,400 microdermabrasion treatments)
• ·      Ear surgery (10,700 procedures)
• ·      Nose jobs (9,100 procedures)

These top procedures, at least in my opinion, seem to coincide with more than just cosmetic reasons. Plenty of teens suffer from excess amounts of hair, acne, and deviated septums, which seems to show in which cosmetic procedures they are undergoing. It seems that perhaps teens aren’t as worried about their looks as we think they are.

To your health & beauty,

Dr. Joe Danyo