Age-Related Changes to the Face

Loss in Facial Volume

Perhaps the most prominent trait that differentiates a young face from an old one is volume. Fat and volume add fullness to  your skin, which creates appealing contours. However, with age, fat droops, leaving sunken cheeks and deep hollows below your eyes. This results in a gaunter appearance.

Skin Loses Its Elasticity

Over time, your body naturally decreases its production of two proteins that are responsible for keeping the skin tight: collagen and elastin. Without elasticity, your skin gradually sags. Most noticeably, sagging skin rounds out the bottom of your face, blurring the youthful definition of your jawline.

Lines Become Semi-Permanent

When you make facial expressions, lines appear on your face. On young, supple skin, these lines vanish as soon as your face returns to a resting position. However, on older skin, these indentations can linger for longer and longer stretches of time, to the point where they become essentially permanent.

Ears Keep Growing

Although most parts of your body stop growing by the time you finish puberty, one exception is your ears. The cartilage in your ears expands indefinitely, which means your ears gradually get bigger. In your later years, this may make your ears look disproportionate with the rest of your face.

Nose Points Downward

The cartilage on your nasal tip loses its strength as you age. Consequently, a nose that once pointed slightly upward or straight forward can develop a drooping effect that ages the face.

Cosmetic Solutions

Not every physical change to the face is intolerable. You may embrace several of these changes as indicators of a life well lived. However, if there are certain signs of aging that you would like to reverse, Dr. Coscia offers a variety of procedures that can rejuvenate your face:

• Facelift addresses loose skin and jowls at the bottom of your face.
• Eyelid surgery and brow lift tackle lines and volume around your eyes and on your forehead.
• Fat grafting restores volume to your cheeks.
• Otoplasty helps reshape your ears.
• Rhinoplasty can alter the projection of your nasal tip.
• Minimally invasive skin treatments like facial filler injectables and laser resurfacing improve the texture of your skin.

To discuss all your facial rejuvenation options with one of Sacramento’s best-reviewed plastic surgeons, please request a consultation online.

Then it’s time to introduce yourself to the HydraFacial, an advanced facial treatment that uses multiple steps to help cleanse, purify, exfoliate, and hydrate your facial skin. With just a single HydraFacial treatment, you’ll notice that your skin looks smoother, feels softer, and seems to glow from within. Best of all, regular HydraFacial treatments can reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, leaving you with a much younger-looking complexion.

Here’s how it works: the HydraFacial is performed in multiple steps, each of which is designed to help produce your best skin ever. The steps aim to:

• Cleanse and prepare the skin for the treatment. During this first stage of the treatment, your skin will be totally cleaned, which ensures that the serums applied to the skin during later stages will fully sink into your dermis.
• Exfoliate the skin’s surface, which helps remove dead skin cells and other impurities that may be clogging your pores. The exfoliation process helps take care of surface issues while preparing the skin for the next stage of the HydraFacial process.
• Vacuum out deep-rooted impurities, which can help tackle the appearance of blackheads and clogged pores. This part of the HydraFacial process can help make dull skin look completely brand-new, precisely because it’s removing impurities and pollutants that contribute to creating aging and blemished skin.
• Hydrate the skin with an advanced cocktail of serums and antioxidants. This final stage of the HydraFacial helps produce the glowing, healthy-looking skin that has made the treatment so popular!

Want to experience the HydraFacial treatment for yourself? Want to see if you’re a candidate?

Take the Next Step

Schedule a consultation with board certified plastic surgeon Dr. Rudy Coscia at his new plastic surgery practice in Granite Bay, CA. Dr. Coscia’s practices also serve Coeur d’Alene and the Sacramento metro area. Granite Bay (916) 773-5559 and Sacramento (916) 929-1833

But which treatment is best for you?

To figure that out, let’s take a look at each procedure and what they’re designed to do:

• Dermal fillers: These FDA-approved injections contain hyaluronic acid (HA), a natural compound that absorbs more than 10x its weight in water – and when HA is injected into the face, it helps plump and moisturize the skin. Dermal fillers are great for minimizing the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines, but in a really cool way: it plumps up the skin and adds youth-enhancing volume to key areas of the face. Dermal fillers typically last anywhere from one to two years.

Best for: People who have lost volume, especially in the mid-facial region. If you have hollow cheeks, dark circles underneath the eyes, and/or lines around the eyes and cheeks, dermal fillers may be best for you.

• Facial fat injections: These treatments perform a similar function to dermal fillers, in that they help add volume to key areas of the face. What’s different, however, is that these injections use your own fat to add youthful contours to the facial region. Your plastic surgeon removes a small amount of fat from the stomach or thighs, cleanses the fat, and prepares it for injection. The fat is injected into key facial regions, including the cheeks, temple, and even around the eyes.

Best for: People who want to avoid using traditional fillers, as fat carries no risk for allergic reaction or rejection.

Ultimately, your plastic surgeon will help you learn which anti-aging procedure is right for you. To learn more about dermal fillers and facial fat injections, schedule a consultation with board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Rudy Coscia at his new plastic surgery practice in Granite Bay, CA. Dr. Coscia’s practices also serve Coeur d’Alene and the Sacramento metro area. Granite Bay (916) 773-5559 and Sacramento (916) 929-1833

The problem is, what is the best time of year to undergo facial laser resurfacing?

If you think the time of the year doesn’t matter, think again: since facial laser resurfacing makes skin extremely sensitive to sunlight, the best time of year to undergo these treatments is when your exposure to sunlight is limited.  Summer – when the days are longer – can be tough because you’re likely spending more time outside enjoying yourself.  Unless you’re extremely vigilant about wearing high SPF sunscreen, you may be exposing your refreshed skin to harmful UV rays, which could further pigment your skin.

Fall, winter, and spring are excellent months for facial laser resurfacing, as the days are shorter and outdoor activities tend to be more limited.  Don’t let those cloudy days fool you, though; you’ll still need to wear sunscreen, even during rainy cold days.

You may want to undergo facial laser resurfacing in the early autumn months, especially if you’d like to look refreshed and rejuvenated for the holiday season.  Most facial laser resurfacing treatments reveal optimal results within two to three months, making this time of year the best time to start unlocking your most gorgeous skin ever.

Don’t wait to enjoy your beautiful complexion. To learn more about which facial laser resurfacing treatment is right for you, schedule a consultation with board certified plastic surgeon Dr. Rudy Coscia at his new plastic surgery practice in Granite Bay, CA. Dr. Coscia’s practices also serve Coeur d’Alene, ID, and the Rocklin and Loomis areas. Call Granite Bay 916-773-5559 & Sacramento 916-929-1833 today!

With that in mind, if you’re looking to reverse facial aging in the most natural way possible, you’ll need a treatment that helps add volume to key facial areas.  That’s where facial fat injections come into play!

A facial fat injection is an innovative cosmetic procedure that injects a person’s harvested fat into facial contours to add youthful-looking volume.  A facial fat injection usually follows these steps:

1. Fat is harvested from the body using micro-liposuction methods (fat is typically taken from the stomach or thighs)
2. The harvested fat is processed in a centrifuge and prepared for injection
3. The fat is carefully injected and shaped for optimal facial augmentation

The procedure takes a surprisingly short amount of time and allows for a natural augmentation of fullness to your face.  The injected fat helps to minimize areas of hollowing; thus, restoring a natural youthful appearance to the face. 

The recovery time for facial fat injections is surprisingly short; you’ll likely notice considerable swelling during the first week after your injection treatment.  During the second week, swelling will go down and you’ll begin to see what your results look like.  Final results should be visible after three weeks.

Keep in mind that you may lose some augmentation within the first six months after your procedure.  At this point, you can return to your plastic surgeon for additional augmentation if necessary.

To learn more about facial fat injections and what you can expect from recovery, schedule a consultation with board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Rudy Coscia at his new plastic surgery practice in Granite Bay, CA.  Dr. Coscia’s practices also serve Coeur d’Alene and the Sacramento metro area. Granite Bay 916-773-5559 & Sacramento 916-929-1833.

Rhinoplasty

But what happens when you’re only concerned with how the tip of your nose looks?

Many patients are satisfied with the overall structure of their nose; however, they may be concerned about a hooked or bulbous tip.  The tip of the nose can drastically affect a person’s facial appearance, meaning just a simple change could improve both appearance and confidence levels.

At board certified plastic surgeon Dr. Rudy Coscia’s practice (located in Coeur d’Alene, Granite Bay and serving the greater Sacramento area), he and his staff specialize in tip rhinoplasty procedures.  This procedure is a simple type of rhinoplasty, where the sole focus of the cosmetic operation is on improving and reshaping the nose tip. 

During the tip rhinoplasty procedure, Dr. Coscia will manipulate the lower cartilage so as to change the cartilage width and angle.  This changes the prominence of the tip and refines it.  He can also change the angle of the tip and other small details that can enhance a person’s facial appearance.

The incisions for this procedure are very small and essentially undetectable. 

Rhinoplasty procedures are particularly challenging, which is why it’s important to have an experienced board-certified plastic surgeon perform this surgery.  To learn more about the tip rhinoplasty procedure, schedule a consultation with board certified plastic surgeon Dr. Rudy Coscia at one of his two practices in Sacramento and Granit Bay, California. 

Dr. Coscia can walk you through the tip rhinoplasty procedure, as well as help you understand what to expect immediately after your surgery. Call our Sacramento 916-929-1833 & Granite Bay 916-773-5559 office locations to learn more today!

Facial fat grafting

Like all cosmetic procedures, facial fat grafting comes with side effects, including swelling and bruising. That’s why it’s important for patients to have a realistic expectation for how they’ll appear after the surgery and how long the swelling from fat grafting will last.

Swelling from facial fat grafting tends to vary from person to person. In general, the process of injecting fat causes swelling itself. In addition, the body tends to absorb some of the fat that is injected. Therefore, at times this is taken into account in determining how much to inject at the time of surgery.

Patients should expect to have their most notable swelling resolve by approximately 2 weeks. Some swelling will persist up to 6 weeks but should be much less noticeable. Bruising tends to follow this same time course as well.

Want to learn more about what to expect from a facial fat grafting procedure? Schedule a consultation with board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Rudy Coscia at one of his three practices in Sacramento, Granite Bay, and Coeur d’Alene. Dr. Coscia can walk you through the facial fat grafting procedure, as well as help you understand what to expect immediately after your treatment. Call one of our locations to learn more: Sacramento 916-929-1833 & Granite Bay 916-773-5559

Yet with so many procedures being performed on your body, it’s safe to say that the first couple of weeks after the Mommy Makeover will be spent in some discomfort.  So what’s the best way to sleep after a Mommy Makeover?

• Sleep in a “V”: Relieving tension in surgical areas is key to a comfortable night of sleep.  Many patients prefer to sleep in a recliner the first few nights after surgery.  After the initial few nights, it is good to sleep with your head elevated on a few pillows and a pillow or two under your knees.  This provides optimal comfort in the areas that were just operated on.

• Break out those pregnancy pillows: Remember those pillows you placed along your sides and back?  Bring them back – because holding a pillow and placing one behind your back offers you the comfort and support you need to sleep.

• Get gentle exercise: While it’s not recommended you undergo strenuous exercise in the weeks following your Mommy Makeover, going for walks during the afternoon can help you become sleepy by the time you’re ready for bed.

Want to know more about how you can take care of yourself after a Mommy Makeover?  Schedule a consultation with board certified plastic surgeon Dr. Rudy Coscia at one of his three practices in Sacramento, Granite Bay, and Coeur d’Alene.  Dr. Coscia can walk you through the Mommy Makeover procedure, as well as provide you tips on how to relax and sleep in the weeks after the treatment.

Sacramento 916-929-1833 & Granite Bay 916-773-5559