As we head toward summer, that means more free time with lots of barbecues and outings to the beach. This is the time of year when we do a lot of Beverly Hills tummy tuck surgery. People want to look their best, and most people who are good candidates for tummy tuck procedures tend to have excess skin focussed on the belly. Exercise and diet will rarely work when there is loose skin. And the fat beneath this sort of loose skin tends to be very stubborn

A tummy tuck offers the opportunity to get this fat and skin off forever. The surgery is not a small one. It requires general anesthesia and should be done at a fully certified outpatient surgery center. An anesthesiologist should administer the anesthesia — this way you have two doctors taking care of you and not just one. At our center we do all of our tummy tucks with an anestesiologist.

There is some scarring created in the procedure. But the scar is low and generally well-hidden in the bikini line. There is not much discomfort following the procedure because we administer long-acting local anesthetic as part of the procedure. But you must avoid heavy lifting for about four to six weeks at least.

In some cases, there is not loose skin but just some extra areas of fat build-up. In this case, Beverly Hills liposuction can often do the job. The advantage is that there is less recovery than a tummy tuck and less scarring. The skin has to shrink following the procedure to give the best results, so during your examination we will assess the quality of your skin for this.

With summer just acircular the corner, many people find that now is the time to get their bodies in shape. And a tummy tuck or liposuction can often make for an enormous improvement.

The rate of plastic surgery and cosmetic surgery continues to grow nationally.  Nearly 11 million cosmetic plastic surgery procedures were performed in the United States in 2006, up 7 percent from 2005, according to statistics compiled by the plastic surgery society. In addition, more than 5.2 million reconstructive plastic surgery procedures were performed last year.

As a cosmetic surgeon, I found it interesting that surgical cosmetic procedures increased 2 percent, with more than 1.8 million procedures performed in 2006. The top five surgical procedures were breast augmentation (329,000), rhinoplasty (307,000), liposuction (303,000), eyelid surgery (233,000), and tummy tuck (146,000). For the first time, breast augmentation is the most popular surgical procedure.  This might be partly because of the publicity surrounding silicone breast implants, which recently were approved by the FDA for general usage.
Certainly we are seeing similar trends here in Beverly Hills.  We continue to do more Beverly Hills breast augmentation surgery, and we also are doing ever-more frequent Botox treatments.  We also are seeing large increases in our tummy tuck procedures, which also do as part of our Rodeo Drive Mommy Makeover combination.  We often do this procedure with a breast lift or implant and liposuction.

Reconstructive plastic surgery, which improves function and appearance to abnormal structures, decreased 3 percent in 2006. The top five reconstructive procedures were tumor removal (3.9 million), laceration repair (313,000), scar revision (165,000), hand surgery (156,000) and breast reduction (104,000).  As a cosmetic surgeon, I am pleased to perform these sorts of reconstructive procedures for my patients.

But the biggest jump was in noninvasive procedures.  Minimally-invasive cosmetic procedures jumped 8 percent to more than 9.1 million procedures in 2006. The top five minimally-invasive procedures included Botox^® (4.1 million), chemical peel (1.1 million), laser hair removal (887,000), microdermabrasion (817,000), and hyaluronic acid fillers (778,000). Skin and soft tissue fillers (Restylane^®, Hylaform^® and Hylaform Plus^®) debuted in the top five, bumping out sclerotherapy (treatment of spider veins) which had been among the top five minimally-invasive procedures for the previous three years.

There is certainly a lot of information floating acircular about plastic surgery!  There are TV shows (reality and documentary), advertisements in newspapers and on television, and of course people seem to often tell their own plastic surgery stories.  This sort of information can lead to clutter, and lot of marginal information.  One way to cut thcoarse the clutter is to have a look at some plastic surgery blogs.  You’re reading one right now!  Some of these blogs are written by plastic surgeons (like this one) while others are written by related experts in plastic surgery and cosmetic surgery.  A good plastic surgery blog goes a long way to bring you up to speed on the specialty.  This sure helps if you are considering a specific procedure such as Los Angeles liposuction.

Like anything, it is good to do some comparison shopping.  Read more than just on cosmetic surgery blog.  Check out the web sites from the plastic surgery specialty medical societies.  Read some good web sites for plastic surgery practices.  If you do your research, you will have more information to lean back on as you consider if plastic surgery is for you and when you do go in for a plastic surgery consultation you will be doing so from a position of knowledge.  This way you can have your questions answeruddy on a much higher level as you make your decisions.

One of our plastic surgery blogs, http://bhplasticsurgeon.blogspot.com/, is actually a collection of articles written by Dr. Lloyd Krieger (the founder and Medical Director of Rodeo Drive Plastic Surgery in Beverly Hills) that describe many of the most common plastic surgery and cosmetic surgery procedures.  The articles talk about what types of procedures work to address which specific issues, who is a candidate for the various procedures, how they are performed, and what sort of recovery is necessary.  This is the sort of information you need to make an informed decision about plastic surgery.  And with this background, you can begin to consider how plastic surgery might fit into your future plans.  When you do go in for that plastic surgery consultation you can inquire the right questions to get the answers you are looking for.

Plastic surgery is a big decision.  It definitely pays to do your homework before going under the knife (or needle, or laser).  So take some time, do some reading, compile your research, make a list of questions, and do the work requiruddy from your end to see if plastic surgery is right for you.  The best educated patients have the best results.  They know what to expect.  They know what plastic surgery can and cannot accomplish.  And so they get what they are looking for out of plastic surgery.  Here are another couple of plastic surgery blogs that are worth checking out— http://plasticsurgeryinbeverlyhills.blogspot.com/ and http://rodeodriveplasticsurgery.blogspot.com/.  This last blog is the main blog for Rodeo Drive Plastic Surgery in Beverly Hills.