With the 4th of July only a few days away, your family probably has plans to spend the weekend basking under the summer sun. Cookouts, pool parties, and fireworks displays are on everyone’s holiday to-do lists. We fully support those plans, but we have a new #1 for you: skin protection.
How to Protect Your Skin from the Sun
Whether your goal is to protect your family from melanoma or keep your skin healthy and glowing, we know you’ve heard the #1 rule of skin care: use sunscreen. But it’s not enough to simply slather on last year’s leftovers. Are you doing enough to protect your skin?
After 3 years, most sunscreens begin to lose their potency. If you’re not sure when you bought the bottle, check for an expiration date.
Apply sunscreen 30 minutes before you leave the house. Not only does this give UV protection enough time to sink in before sun exposure, you’re also less likely to miss spots at home.
Read the bottle. You may think that reapplying once is enough, but you can’t always see sun damage on your skin. It’s always better to follow the instructions on how often to reapply.
Towel off before reapplying sunscreen. If you’re at the beach, brush off any sand prior to breaking out that bottle of SPF 30.
Does sunscreen make your face breakout (or worse, burn)? Buy a sunscreen specially formulated for the face, which is more sensitive than other parts of your body.
Make sure your lip balm has sunscreen.
Layer up. Hats, cover ups, and sunglasses provide added protection against UV rays.
Soothe your skin when you get home. Cleaning and moisturizing after sun exposure rehydrates your skin, helping it remain elastic and smooth.
Keep an eye out for melanoma. Cancerous spots on your skin may look irregular in shape or color or may change over time.
Sun damage causes a multitude of skin problems, from premature aging to skin cancer. To treat sun damaged skin, call Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
Over the last 30, 40, or 50 years, you’ve earned every fold on your face. Each tells a story of a laugh, a cry, a kiss, a sip, or a smile. But when life’s little moments start to line up, many women wish for a way to roll back the clock. Restylane Silk gives you a smooth, blank canvas to start collecting memories again.
Lip Enhancement with Restylane Silk
Restylane Silk smooths lines around the mouth and leaves patients with fuller, more youthful lips. Restylane Silk is a clear gel that uses hydraulic acid, a sugar naturally found in the skin, to subtly smooth and enhance the lips. Just one Restylane Silk injection can reduce signs of aging for up to 6 months. It’s specifically designed for subtle, natural-looking results, allowing both women and men to smooth fine lines around the mouth and augment thin lips. It is FDA-approved for lip enhancement in patients 21 years of age and older. 98% of patients report a visible improvement in lip fullness within 2 weeks, and 76% of patients still had visibly smoother skin and fuller lips 6 months after the injection.
Choosing Restylane Silk
Schedule a consultation with Dr. Brantner to determine if Restylane Silk is right for you. Before your lip enhancement, follow these instructions:
Avoid using aspirin, ibuprofen, and other anti-inflammatories
Give any facial sores or acne time to heal
Avoid sun exposure after treatment
Use a cold compress to reduce swelling
Follow any instructions given to you by Dr. Brantner
Reclaim the smile of your dreams. Call Dr. Brantner at Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery to see if Restylane Silk is right for you.
The era of false youth is over. Today embracing your natural mature beauty is in style. Instead of hiding behind harsh hair dyes and stark makeup, women find satisfaction in subtle rejuvenation, physical fitness, and nourishing their souls. Together, health of body and mind helps each woman achieve her own timeless charm that’s impossible to duplicate.
How Healthy Habits Delay Aging
Healthy habits have a more powerful anti-aging effect than any make-up ever could. Protect your skin by cutting back on sugar and alcohol, which lead to premature wrinkles, sagging, and sallowness. A healthy, balanced diet fuels your body to minimize the effects of aging.
Staying physically active rewards women with youthful skin in addition to a fit figure. Researchers at McMaster University in Ontario recently discovered that older adults who got at least three hours of moderate-to-vigorous exercise a week had skin composition similar to that of people in their twenties and thirties.
When you hit the cosmetics aisle, look for skin care products with anti-aging properties. These are typically gentler and more moisturizing than standard formulas. Higher-quality products soften fine lines, brighten your skin tone, and diminish age spots. While you’re there, pick up some sunscreen of SPF 15 or higher. There’s no better way to protect the skin than by using sunscreen daily.
For existing age-related skin damage, plastic surgery can create dramatic improvements through subtle changes. Eyelid surgery improves the look of under eye bags and fat deposits, while a mini facelift smooths wrinkles and folds.
Mental health is an often overlooked aspect of women’s health, but it too plays a role in your appearance. A good part of that natural glow that twenty-somethings have comes from sheer zest for life; and that’s a trait that knows no age limit. Support your mental health by spending time with your family, investing in your church, and making time for your true passions. Doing what you love will bring a light to your eyes that gives you confidence at any age.
To learn more about rejuvenation of the face and body, call Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery to schedule a consultation.
If you’ve been considering getting cosmetic surgery, either for cosmetic reasons or for reconstructive purposes, you probably have some idea of what you want to look like post-surgery. The most obvious way to communicate that picture to your surgeon is to find before and after photos of someone who’s undergone the same procedure. But you can’t pick just any photo. Here’s a look at how to find the right before and after pictures to bring to your consultation.
Just Your Type
To achieve the best results, it’s crucial to find photos of a patient who has your same body type, is in the same age range, and is the same gender. If you bring in a photo of a famous pair of lips (like Scarlett Johansson, for example) you may get the same volume, but if you’re closer to 60 than 30, you won’t get the same overall effect. Patients will be happier with their results if they find a before/after photo with someone who has a similar face or body shape. Otherwise they’re setting themselves up for disappointment (and potential miscommunication with their doctor).
Look Closely
In an age of photo manipulation, people have a lot of tricks up their sleeves. Some less reputable doctor’s offices may subtly manipulate before/after photos to make the after photo look better. Different lighting, head positioning, posture, and other factors can make a surgery look more successful than it really was. When looking at before/after pictures, scroll through galleries of reputable, board-certified surgeons, and inspect the pictures carefully for signs of manipulation.
Deciding to undergo plastic surgery is not a decision to be taken lightly. Before scheduling any cosmetic surgery, arrange for a consultation with a board certified plastic surgeon.
In the world of camera phones and social media, selfies are on the rise. People spend more time looking at their faces, and a growing number of patients focus on one target area: the lips. Whether you like puckering up for the camera, duckfacing on Facebook, or you’re simply looking for the smile of your dreams, lip augmentation procedures can help you achieve the look you want.
Loving Your Lips
Lip augmentation is the second fastest growing cosmetic procedure in the United States. And it’s not just for female patients. Last year plastic surgeons performed a total of 27,449 lip augmentation procedures (that’s one every 19 minutes). And statistics show that men are becoming more and more comfortable with maintaining their appearance with the use of injectable fillers and cosmetic surgery. Scheduling a lip augmentation or lip injection allows men and women to subtly alter the appearance of their face. It’s popular for younger patients seeking a plumper mouth, as well as for older patients who want to look more youthful, but are not ready to commit to facelift surgery.
Lip Augmentations vs. Fillers
Injectible fillers have been a popular lip treatment for several years now, giving patients a temporary boost in the fullness of their lips. While the temporary nature of injections is a draw for some, other patients are happy with their new lips, but dislike the maintenance of their new look. For those patients, lip augmentations make an appealing solution. Lip augmentations, much like breast implants, are a safe, permanent, but reversible cosmetic procedure. Lip implants are made from soft, flexible silicone. Newer implants come in a variety of sizes, allowing the patient to choose one that will fit the shape and symmetry of their face. Lip augmentation procedures have minimal recovery time, with minimal bruising and only a few stitches to heal. As with any other cosmetic surgery procedure, it’s important to find a board certified plastic surgeon to perform the procedure.
Want to learn more about achieving the lips of your dreams? Call Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery to schedule a lip augmentation consultation with Dr. Brantner.
After 3 years, most sunscreens begin to lose their potency. If you’re not sure when you bought the bottle, check for an expiration date.
