Florence Mussat, M.D.
680 N Lake Shore Dr. #1030 Chicago, IL 60611 (312) 751-9000

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Category: facelift

How a Brow Lift Can Really Make the Face | Dr. Florence Mussat

Your eyes, forehead, and eyebrows play a significant role in expressing your emotions to those around you. A heavy forehead or eyebrows is likely to make you appear more tired, unhappy, or older than you actually are. Well-meaning friends may even comment that you look tired, sad, or ask if you’re feeling down when you’re really feeling just fine.

Due to family genetics, environmental factors such as too much sun, or simply the passage of time, the forehead and eye area are likely to develop wrinkles and sagging skin resulting in an aging, tired, or sad appearance. You might find yourself becoming curious about facial rejuvenation and wonder whether you would benefit from a surgical procedure known as a brow lift.

What Is a Brow Lift?

Through brow lift surgery, Dr. Florence Mussat has helped many men and women achieve a more youthful and natural-looking brow area that helps present the face they wish to share with the world. A brow lift is a cosmetic procedure that improves the upper face’s appearance by effectively lifting the eyebrows and smoothing out wrinkles.

How Can I Benefit from a Brow Lift?

As a result of a brow lift, your forehead will be smoother, and your eyebrows will be more lifted and natural-looking. Brow lift surgery often eliminates upper face wrinkles and can correct the upper eyelid hooding caused by sagging brows. It can also significantly reduce creases, frown lines, and a sagging brow line.

A brow lift offers many benefits, including:

  • Minimizes creases, frown lines, and sagging brow lines across the forehead.
  • Improves frown lines and reduces vertical creases between the eyebrows.
  • Repositions low or sagging brows over the upper eyelids.
  • Raises the eyebrows to a more youthful position.
  • Creates a brighter, more alert appearance
  • Increases self-confidence

Can a Brow Lift Be Combined With Other Facial Cosmetic Procedures?

A brow lift can be performed in conjunction with other procedures such as a facelift,  eyelid surgery, or even injectables to produce even more stunning results. Dr. Florence Mussat will help you decide on the best combination for you during your scheduled consultation.

What Can I Expect During Recovery?

During your recovery from a brow lift, expect some swelling and discomfort in the upper part of the face and around the eyebrows.

Dr. Mussat will provide instructions for your recovery as well as cold compresses to apply to your forehead. She will also suggest that you sleep with your head slightly elevated for the first few nights after surgery and to expect your recovery to take about 2-3 weeks.

To make your recovery even more comfortable, avoid strenuous workouts or movements that might place unnecessary pressure on your face.

Your Next Step Towards a Youthful Profile Starts Here!

For a complete assessment of how a brow lift can help you look younger and more vibrant, schedule a personal consultation with board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr. Florence Mussat in Chicago, IL, or call (312) 751-9000 today!

Get Ready for Valentine’s Day – 10 Ways to Look and Feel Your Best

Valentine’s Day comes at the perfect time of year. The joy and excitement of the Christmas season are but a memory. As we eagerly begin to anticipate the arrival of spring, February brings us Valentine’s Day and, with it, a much-needed dose of fun, romance, and excitement.

With more and more people going the extra mile to look their best for Valentine’s Day, why not schedule a visit with Dr. Florence Mussat at her Chicago plastic surgery office?

Be on your way to a fresh, vibrant look with one of these 10 solutions from Dr. Mussat.

1.     Restore Youthful Fullness to Your Face

Perhaps it’s due to genetics, aging, or simply your facial structure, but parts of your face could be lacking in volume and making you appear gaunt. Well, it is possible to enhance your facial volume and improve the appearance of your face with a facial fat transfer expertly performed by Dr. Mussat.

2.     Fall in Love With Your Skin

Taking care of one’s skin is essential throughout the year, and there’s no better time than now to get back your radiant glow in time for Valentine’s Day with a nonsurgical facial rejuvenation treatment.

With medical-grade, topical retinoids, various conditions, including mild to moderate acne, signs of sun damage, freckles, fine lines, and wrinkles, can be treated.

3.     Refresh Your Eyelids

Your eyes may be the window to your soul, but drooping eyelid skin or undereye bags could be concealing and aging your eyes, making you look tired, sad, or angry. If so, you could be a good candidate for an eyelid lift, also known as blepharoplasty. It could take years off your appearance and give your self-esteem a big boost.

4.     Repair the Sun Damage

Even though summer is long gone, your skin could still be showing signs of too much sun with dryness, new lines, and wrinkles. Dr. Mussat offers a range of treatments to undo the harsh effects of summer, and just two of these are highlighted below.

Chemical Peel: Replaces thickened and damaged skin with fresh, youthful cells, eliminating uneven pigmentation and skin discoloration.

Microdermabrasion: By rubbing fine crystals across the skin with a medically-calibrated wand, the rough outer layer is removed, and new skin stimulated.

Laser Skin Rejuvenation: A concentrated beam of light is used to gently exfoliate the skin’s sun-damaged outer layer.

5.     Reclaim Your Youthful Shape

Becoming a mother can be one of the most rewarding experiences. However, pregnancy and breastfeeding can leave you with unwelcome reminders such as stomach flab and flattened breasts.

While diet and exercise can go a long way towards reclaiming your youthful appeal, a mommy makeover as a Valentine’s gift to yourself could be all you need to restore your youthful figure.

6.     Get Back Those Perky Breasts

Full, perky breasts may be a distant memory of the days before gravity, weight loss, pregnancy, or breastfeeding changed things. To regain confidence in your appearance this Valentine’s Day, a breast lift could be exactly what you need.

7.     Slim Your Jawline

Whether it’s the result of age or weight gain, a double chin can be one of the most frustrating facial flaws to have. Through a facelift, Dr. Mussat can tighten loose skin under your chin and neck area, lift those sagging jowls and restore a youthful appearance.

8.     Tone and Tighten

Are you plagued by problem areas of flab that won’t go away? Regardless of how much you exercise and eat healthily, do you find that lean, sexy stomach continues to elude you?

Well, you might consider a tummy tuck, also known as abdominoplasty, which surgically removes excess skin and flesh from the abdomen and even repairs abdominal muscles damaged during pregnancy or weight gain.

9.     Restore Those Smooth Contours

If you’ve lost a significant amount of weight either through diet, exercise, or bariatric surgery, you could now have excess skin in areas of the body where large amounts of fat used to be. Through one or more body contouring procedures, expertly performed by Dr. Mussat, you could be well on your way to having your body’s contours restored by Valentine’s Day.

10.            Put Your Best Face Forward

Despite taking good care of yourself and trying to age gracefully, age-related changes in your face are still inevitable.

With facelift surgery, Dr. Mussat can tighten and lift the soft tissues of your face, tighten lax, excess skin and surgically reposition sagging facial tissue giving you a more youthful, rejuvenated look.

Regain Your Sexy, Youthful Look in Time for Valentine’s Day!

What better to get a self-confidence boost and bring some excitement back into your love life before Valentine’s Day than a visit to board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr. Florence Mussat in Chicago, IL?

Too look your absolute best before Valentine’s day, schedule a personal consultation or call (312) 751-9000 today!

Why Facelifts are Growing More Popular with Younger People

When we think of facelifts, we immediately think of older people, like our grandparents, turning back the clock on signs of aging. However, there is a growing trend where increasing numbers of younger patients are controlling the “pre-juvenation” process by actively slowing down their visible signs of aging.

The trend helps avoid reversing the apparent aging process later in life and helps candidates to be more competitive in the job and dating markets. Even career coaches on the LinkedIn professional website are encouraging the use of profile pictures that show a person as bright-eyed and “ageless.”

With younger people gravitating towards facelifts, it’s interesting learning about what might be driving the trend.

Maintain and Extend a Youthful Appearance

We live in an era known as the “Age of the Selfie.” With increasing attention being paid to people’s faces on social media, the millennial demographic is more focused on their facial structures and physical appearance than any other generation.

In particular, millennials seek to maintain and extend their youthful appearance to help them compete in the workplace or find that perfect next date. Better self-care, non-invasive cosmetic procedures, and even invasive surgeries are increasingly being considered by this demographic.

It’s Not About Reversing Aging

Being more aware of the need to always look their best, young people are increasingly taking care of their skin. The simple act of applying sunscreen with a high SPF every day and avoiding prolonged exposure to direct sunlight reduces UV damage and the development of fine lines, wrinkles, sagging skin, and age spots.

By limiting sun exposure, not smoking, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, young people know that this improves their chances of keeping their youthful looks for longer. Choosing to have a facelift, especially a mini facelift, can provide better results than waiting another 10 or 20 years.

Advances in Plastic Surgery

As cosmetic surgeons continue to advance their skills, knowledge, and use of continually evolving technology, facelifts are Improving. They have become less invasive, delivering natural, long-lasting results with less downtime for both surgery and recovery.

With facelift surgery becoming less of an obstacle for young people coping with busy and demanding careers, it’s becoming more popular to consider the procedure earlier in life rather than later.

Better-Now-Than-Later

There are several good reasons why this better-now-than-later attitude is becoming popular with younger candidates:

  • Getting that facelift while the skin is still naturally elastic yields the best results.
  • Family genetics can lead to droopy jowls and sagging cheeks, which can be more easily corrected while still young.
  • A modern facelift can last a decade, and by getting the procedure done early, young people can enjoy the full benefits for a longer time.
  • For younger people, there is a quicker recovery and less downtime.

The first signs of facial aging start to appear in our thirties. Before considering a facelift, non-surgical injectable options like medical-grade, topical retinoids, a Trichloroacetic Acid (TCA) Medical Grade Peel, Botox®, or other dermal fillers, might be the perfect first step to minimizing wrinkles and fine lines.

While these injections relax the muscles for only a few months with each treatment, by preventing the muscles from contracting, wrinkles are prevented from worsening, effectively slowing down the aging process.

Contact Us for Your Youth-Preserving Facelift

If you’re interested in discovering more about why facelifts are growing in popularity with young people, please contact board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr. Florence Mussat in Chicago, IL. Schedule a personal consultation with her online or call (312) 751-9000 today!

New & Improved: Facelifts Through the Years

It may be hard to believe, but modern facelift surgery has been around for over 100 years. Here, we’d like to explain the history of the facelift and explain the new, amazing innovations practiced by modern experts like Dr. Florence Mussat.

Read on to learn about the gradual development of the facelift, or schedule your facelift consultation today!

The Facelift and Plastic Surgery Are Born

The earliest recorded facelift was performed by Eugene von Hollander on a Polish aristocrat in 1901. For this procedure, he is reported to have used elliptical skin excisions in natural skin folds adjacent to the hairline and ears to provide the lift she was seeking.

A few years later, the brutality of the First World War lead to innovations and improvement of facial restoration procedures. As the demand for reconstructive techniques rose, along with American economic wealth, increasing numbers of patients sought facelift surgery. Advances in anesthesia and surgical techniques became more widely used in this time and would continue to expand.

The More Natural Look of the 1920s

By the late 1920s, facelift surgery had progressed past the reconstruction methods developed during WWI. By changing the incision and lifting the skin off of the underlying fat layer, excess skin could be removed.

Understanding Deeper Dissection in the 1960s

In the 1960s, surgeons began to better understand the importance of dissecting deeper facial layers. It was this discovery that led to our modern knowledge of facelift techniques.

Another facelift milestone was reached in 1968. Swedish cosmetic surgeon, Dr. Tord Skoog, changed the world of plastic surgery with a technique to manipulate the platysmal muscle of the neck and lower face without detaching the overlying skin.

SMAS Becomes the New Trend in 1976

It was not until 1976 that Dr. V. Mitz and Dr. M. Peyronie described the Superficial Musculoaponeurotic System, now known as SMAS. SMAS lifting techniques include pulling muscles and connective tissue over the bones of the face. This knowledge allows surgeons to use more than just the skin’s tension to restore the youthful lines of the patient’s face.

By the 1980s, SMAS became the standard approach to the facelift for several decades.

Deep Plane Rhytidectomy in the Late 1980s

The major weakness of the SMAS techniques is the ability to effectively rejuvenate the midface and malar fat pad, and this lead to the development of “deep plane rhytidectomy,” which elevates the midfacial soft tissues.

Minimally Invasive Techniques of Today

Shortly after the popularization of deep plane rhytidectomy techniques in the late 80s and early 90s, more minimally invasive techniques gradually gained popularity. Modern facelifts are completed in less time, have decreased risks, require less downtime, and can be performed under local anesthesia in the surgeon’s office.

When appropriate, modern-day, highly-skilled surgeons still address the SMAS during facelift procedures. However, alternative techniques such as autologous fat transfer or dermal fillers are now available as well.

Even less-invasive non-surgical skin-tightening techniques, such as InstaLift, have been developed in recent years. Each of these targets collagenous tissue, such as the papillary and reticular dermis, and offer viable alternatives to patients unwilling to undergo surgery.

Your Facelift Consultation with Dr. Mussat

Board-Certified Plastic and Reconstructive surgeon, Dr. Florence Mussat, has the broad expertise to give you a full facial rejuvenation through a customized facelift, erasing years from your appearance!

Please contact us today to schedule a consultation at our Chicago, IL, office, or give us a call at (312) 751-9000.

Spring into Spring with a Facelift

Spring is a time of rejuvenation. Flowers are blooming and trees are coming back to life. Don’t let Mother Nature have all the fun this year. Come see Dr. Mussat for your facelift consultation and spring into spring with a whole new look. Look younger and feel better!

Am I a Good Candidate for a Facelift?

If you’re thinking about a facelift, come see us. A consultation with Dr. Mussat, a talented facial rejuvenation surgeon, can help you determine if surgery is right for you. You may be a good candidate for a facelift if you have:
• Sagging throughout the middle of the face
• Creases beneath the lower eyes
• Creases extending from the nose to the outer corners of the mouth
• Loss of facial volume
• Shifting fat deposits
• Jowls
• Loose skin under the chin and/or on the neck
There is no set age for a facelift, but typically patients are in their 40s, 40s, or 60s. If you have significant facial aging and are in good health, you’re likely a good candidate.

What Happens During a Facelift?

Your facelift surgery will be customized to you and designed to target your problem areas. Your facial anatomy and skin health, along with the extent of your facial aging will determine what approach Dr. Mussat will use for your surgery. We’ll discuss the specifics of your surgical plan during your consultation.
All facelift surgeries are performed using general anesthesia in our surgical center. Incisions are made, typically within the hairline. Dr. Mussat tightens and repositions facial muscles, holding them in place with permanent, internal sutures. Excess facial skin is removed and the skin is pulled taut. The incisions are closed and the recovery process begins. Dr. Mussat performs the SMAS facelift (traditional facelift), the deep plane facelift, and the mini-facelift.

What Results Can I Expect from My Facelift?

A facelift can really turn back the clock on your appearance Many patients report looking 5-10 years younger after surgery. These results will last and last. Although you’ll continue to age, you’ll generally look younger than you would have without your facelift, even decades later. It’s like a reset for your appearance.

I’m Interested in a Facelift. What’s the Next Step?

Get into the springtime spirit of rejuvenation with a facelift. If you’re ready to take the next step and learn more, give us a call and schedule your consultation.