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!
Are you patiently counting down the days until your scheduled cosmetic surgery? Your thoughts are probably on what you can do to prepare for your procedure and increase your chances of a successful outcome.
Board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr. Florence Mussat will provide detailed pre-surgery and post-surgery instructions. In addition to these, let’s look at three super-helpful tips you can follow to help you be as healthy and strong as possible before your surgery.
1. Make Healthy Lifestyle Choices
The better your health before going into surgery, the smoother your recovery process will be. To this end, address these three lifestyle factors to ensure you’re in the best possible shape.
Balanced Nutrition
In the days leading up to your surgery, eat foods rich in vitamins and minerals. Focus primarily on fresh fruits and vegetables – which will help prevent inflammation – and foods rich in protein and nutrients such as vitamin C and D, zinc, and calcium, all of which can aid in your healing. You should also stop consuming alcohol and avoid foods that can cause constipation, like dairy and red meat.
Routine Exercise
Among exercise’s other countless benefits, being more active before your surgery will increase your chances of bouncing back sooner after the procedure. Walking at least 5,000 steps a day will go a long way toward increasing your stamina and improving your cardiovascular health and muscle recovery.
Kick Bad Habits
Use the time before your surgery to quit smoking and drinking alcohol, along with any mood-altering substances that could affect your sleep or anxiety levels leading up to your surgery. Alcohol and nicotine can significantly affect your circulation and can increase your anesthesia risk.
2. Organize Your Personal Affairs
To avoid any anxiety and improve your peace of mind, here are a few things you should take care of before your procedure.
Check With Your Employer
Ensure you understand your options regarding vacation or sick time. Arrange for a colleague to fill in for you during your absence, so any professional responsibilities can keep moving smoothly.
Take All Required Medical Tests
Dr. Mussat will inform you what tests you will need before, during, and after your surgery. Check if any of these may require pre-authorization from your insurer.
Contact Your Health Insurance Company
You must understand what your policy will and won’t cover, including any deductibles, co-pays, and out-of-pocket costs.
3. Arrange for Help
Have a family member or friend agree to drive you to Dr. Mussat’s practice for your procedure and back home again afterward, where they can stay to help you for a day or two. Recruit family members and friends to take over meal preparation, diaper changes, laundry, and most parenting duties at home.
Those helping you both pre- and post-surgery can assist you in packing a bag with all of your basic essentials like toiletries, medications, and loose, comfortable clothing to wear home. They can also ensure you have plenty of water, vitamins, supplements, and healthy food at home.
Finally, make sure you take your personal ID, insurance card, and a list of any medications you may be taking, including the dosage.
Contact Us With Your Questions
If you have any questions about preparing for your surgery, please contact board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr. Florence Mussat in Chicago, IL. Schedule a personal consultation online or call (312) 751-9000 today.
Tummy Tucks Can Lead To Long-Term Weight Loss
Anyone who’s struggled with their weight knows that shedding excess fat is only half the battle. For many people, keeping weight off over the long term is the most challenging aspect of dieting. Fad diets have a very high failure rate (over 95% of these diets fail within three years), and even medically-supervised weight loss doesn’t work for everyone. As such, any tool that might encourage lifelong weight stabilization is very much worth investigating.
Abdominoplasty for Sustained Weight Loss
Though it cannot replace a healthy lifestyle, emerging evidence shows that abdominoplasty (tummy tuck surgery) can help eligible candidates maintain a healthy weight. According to a study published in the medical journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, women who undergo tummy tuck surgery after successful weight loss are much more resistant to subsequent weight gain than women who have had no plastic surgery.
The 20 patients examined in this study had an average BMI of 30 (indicating obesity) before they began preparing for tummy tuck surgery. One year after recovering from surgery, an impressive 14 of those patients had achieved an average BMI of 23, which is safely within the “healthy” range. This is significant when you consider the fact that the normal odds of recovering from obesity are just one in 124 for females (and one in 210 for males).
The amount of weight loss experienced by the study group greatly exceeded the amount of tissue removed during abdominoplasty. (Only five to ten pounds of tissue are removed during tummy tuck surgery.) This indicates that most tummy tuck patients continue to lose weight even after having surgery and therefore clearly buck the trend of weight regain.
How does Tummy Tuck Surgery Aid in Weight Maintenance?
The role that abdominoplasty plays in long-term weight loss is more than just psychological. Researchers believe that having tummy tuck surgery may actually increase satiety (the ability to feel full after eating a standard portion of food). Three fourths of all patients who have undergone abdominoplasties say they experience greater satiety after meals. They also report that they’re less likely to snack during the day.
Researchers aren’t completely sure why abdominoplasty improves appetite regulation. This effect may be linked to the realignment of patients’ abdominal muscles and connective tissues. During tummy tuck surgery, the linea alba (the band of tissue that joins the lateral halves of the abdominal muscles) is strengthened and repaired. This allows the abdominal muscles to exert a strong “corseting” effect on the stomach, potentially reducing its capacity. Another theory suggests that removing abdominal tissue alters the neuroendocrine system, lowering the amount of appetite-promoting hormones excreted by the body.
Regardless of the mechanism of action behind it, this reduction in appetite has powerful implications for weight maintenance. Most people who diet experience an increase in appetite that’s directly proportional to the amount of weight they’ve lost. (The human body prompts the consumption of 100 extra calories for every two pounds of fat lost.) Circumventing this inevitable surge of hunger is probably key to preventing weight regain.
It’s far too early to recommend tummy tuck surgery to all patients who have struggled with obesity in the past. However, eligible candidates who require abdominoplasty (to repair damaged abdominal muscles and remove loose skin) should take these facts into consideration when assessing the pros and cons of surgery.
To learn more about the benefits of abdominoplasty, contact Dr. Florence Mussat to arrange a personal consultation. She can assist you surgically and provide safe, effective medically-supervised weight loss to help you maintain your results.
Body Contouring After Extreme Weight Loss
Achieving massive weight loss is physically and emotionally freeing, but it also presents new challenges for patients. Foremost among these is loose, hanging skin: Most people who have lost more than 50 pounds notice folds of excess skin around their abdomen, thighs, and arms. Women also typically experience a reduction in breast volume, which can make the breasts look droopy or flat.
Unfortunately, loose skin doesn’t usually firm up on its own over time, even if the patient is young. Most massive weight loss patients require one or more body contouring procedures to achieve full comfort and confidence.
What are the Benefits of Body Contouring after Massive Weight Loss?
Body contouring after extreme weight loss is usually recommended for medical reasons. Left untreated, folds of loose skin tend to cause chafing and irritation, and they frequently limit a person’s ability to exercise. Over time, they may even become infected. By removing excess skin, body contouring procedures eliminate these risks.
Research has also shown that having body contouring is an important part of long-term weight maintenance. Patients who have one or more cosmetic procedures after massive weight less are less likely to regain weight than patients who have no cosmetic surgery. Not only does body contouring make it easier for patients to stay active, it confers important emotional benefits. When weight loss patients achieve a physique that they’re truly proud of, they become much more motivated to lead a healthy lifestyle.
Which Procedures Should You Consider?
Some people who have lost a significant amount of weight only require tummy tuck (abdominoplasty) surgery. This is more likely to be the case if you’ve lost less than 100 pounds or most of your excess weight was centralized around your abdomen. Usually, however, massive weight loss patients need to have what is known as a “body lift.” A body lift is a specialized series of operations designed to address skin laxity and remaining unwanted fat in multiple locations. It may include arm lift, thigh lift, buttock lift, tummy tuck, and breast lift surgery (for female patients).
These operations won’t be performed all at once. Instead, a body lift is performed in several stages, starting with the lower body and working upwards. Because body lift surgery is so comprehensive and complex, few plastic surgeons offer it. Dr. Florence Mussat is one of only a few plastic surgeons in Chicago who specialize in this procedure.
When to have Body Contouring after Weight Loss
Before you can have a body lift, you’ll need to show that you can maintain a healthy weight. Patients who are still overweight have a greater risk of experiencing complications during and after surgery, so it’s essential to reach a normal BMI before you proceed with treatment. You’ll also need to be in good overall health: If you experienced diabetes or cardiovascular disease due to your weight, you’ll need to have those conditions treated successfully before you tackle the challenges of surgery.
Forming realistic expectations is another important aspect of preparing for a body lift: Patients must understand that some scarring is to be expected after this type of procedure. Most people must also work hard during recovery to achieve and maintain the shape they want. Having cosmetic surgery is the first step, but you’ll also need to work out and take excellent care of your skin if you want truly stunning results.
Dr. Florence Mussat provides thorough, compassionate care to all of her post-bariatric and medical weight loss patients. It’s her goal to help patients stay safe, healthy, and motivated as they commit to leaving obesity in the past. If you would like to learn more about her personalized approach to body contouring, contact her Chicago plastic surgery clinic at 312-751-9000.
Most of us have been led to believe that it’s always possible to lose weight quickly; we just have to adhere to the latest fad diet or take up a punishing exercise regime. In reality, however, each of us has a very different body with its own unique physiology. As such, there is no “one size fits all” weight loss solution.
For some people, the weight loss journey is a long, challenging one. Hormonal imbalances, metabolic factors, and medication use can all conspire to work against us while we try to shed excess pounds. Likewise, some people are genetically predisposed to storing fat in certain areas (such as around the midsection or on the flanks). These people often have deposits of stubborn fat that simply will not budge, even when they’ve reached a healthy weight.
If you’re struggling with the issues described above and feeling desperate to get in shape in time for the holidays, we have good news for you: There are medical interventions available. Depending on your medical needs, bariatric and/or plastic surgery can help you both lose weight and reshape your body.
Bariatric Surgery and Nonsurgical Alternatives: Offering Hope to Obesity Sufferers
If you’ve decided to pursue surgical weight loss treatment, it’s important to first differentiate between true weight loss procedures and spot fat reduction procedures. Weight loss surgery generally refers to bariatric surgery, either the placement of a gastric band or the use of sutures to close off a portion of the stomach. Both of these options dramatically reduce the capacity of the stomach, allowing the patient to feel full after eating just a small meal or snack. This helps him or her dramatically cut down on the number of calories he or she is consuming and usually results in rapid weight loss. However, because these procedures also carry risks, they are generally only performed on people struggling with chronic obesity.
For those who don’t wish to have surgery, there are nonsurgical alternatives available. Gastric balloons, such as the Orbera balloon, can be inserted into the stomach without any incisions being made. These balloons, which must be removed after six months, occupy much of the stomach’s capacity, thereby reducing appetite.
Plastic Surgery: Putting the Finishing Touches on Your Body
For many people, getting to a healthy weight is only the first part of the battle. Those who have struggled with obesity often have significant loose skin that needs to be removed once their excess fat has been lost. Additionally, there may still be pockets of stubborn fat that have not responded to diet, exercise, and medical weight loss surgery. This is especially likely if the patient suffers from Metabolic Syndrome, a condition wherein the body is prone to storing fat around the midsection.
To tackle these issues, you’ll need to see a plastic surgeon. He or she will generally recommend that you have liposuction, tummy tuck surgery, or a combination of both of these procedures.
During liposuction, a minimally invasive tube-like instrument is inserted below the skin in areas where fat needs to be removed. The fat cells are loosened with a lubricant and then literally sucked out; this creates a sleek, toned appearance in the treated areas. Liposuction has been performed for decades, so this procedure is well-understood and generally very low-risk. Better still, because it’s not particularly invasive, most patients recover in just a couple of weeks.
Tummy tuck surgery, on the other hand, is a major operation—but it’s an important one. In addition to removing the folds of loose skin that result in a “flabby looking” stomach following weight loss or pregnancy, a tummy tuck addresses deeper structural issues. During a tummy tuck, damaged abdominal muscles are repaired so that they can support the abdominal tissue properly again. This both creates a taut, flat stomach and gives the patient back his or her ability to exercise effectively. (It’s impossible to tone damaged abdominal muscles via exercise alone.) Tummy tuck surgery usually takes about two months to completely recover from (though most of the initial healing is done within the first two to three weeks).
While not a lot of fat is technically removed by either liposuction or tummy tuck surgery (about 5-8 pounds are lost on average), these surgeries make a profound difference in the patient’s appearance. Tummy tuck surgery, in particular, often makes the patient look as though he or she has lost 15-20 pounds. The muscles repaired by this procedure compress the abdominal tissue so effectively that a stomach that stuck out noticeably before the operation will often be completely flat after it.
Tummy tuck surgery and liposuction have an important role to play in the fight against obesity. Not only do they complement weight loss surgery in a physical sense, they’ve been proven to have psychological advantages, too. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, previously obese women who undergo tummy tuck surgery are more likely to continue losing weight than women who do not have plastic surgery. This is an important consideration given the fact that many formerly obese patients are at risk of gaining back the weight they have lost. If you have lost a great deal of weight but still find you’re unhappy with your body, plastic surgery may, therefore, be the right choice for you.
