DR. RICARDO L. RODRIGUEZ
Board-Certified, American Board of Plastic Surgery
Founder, Ricardo L. Rodriguez MD, Baltimore Plastic Surgeon
Medical Director, Cosmetic Surgery Facility, LLC
In his articles about Facial procedures, Dr. Ricardo L. Rodriguez, Baltimore Plastic Surgeon, discusses Facelift, Brow Lift, and Lip Lift techniques, as well as procedures to restore volume after weight loss.
Dr. Rodriguez explains why some people need a Lip Lift instead of a Lip augmentation. Beautiful lips are identified by a nice cupid’s bow and having the perfect amount of space between your upper lip and your nose. Find out whether you need a lip augmentation or a lip lift with Dr. Ricardo Rodriguez on his Cosmeticsurg blog.
The primary goal of a Facelift is to achieve a natural, refreshed appearance, not a ‘done’ look. Dr. Ricardo Rodriguez, a Yale trained board certified plastic surgeon, explains more about achieving a great face lift and his unique approach.
In order to get your desired surgical result for a Rhinoplasty (nose surgery), you should explain the nose you want using certain descriptive terms with your plastic surgeon in your initial consultation. Dr. Rodriguez explains how surgeons think about the nose and what terms you should use to describe the things you want to change about your nose.
During the past decade, researchers have discovered that stem cells can also be extracted from your own fat tissue. These adult stem cells have the same potential as embryonic stem cells, except for the ability to differentiate into sperm or ova. Unlike embryonal stem cells, stem cells extracted from your own fat are abundant, easily available, and pose no ethical or political controversy.
Five levels of anesthesia used in Cosmetic Surgery are:
The Brow lift is the new Eyelid lift. If you want to refresh the upper eyelids, the Brow lift is oftentimes a better alternative than the traditional upper eyelid surgery. Dr. Ricardo Rodriguez, a Yale trained Plastic Surgeon explains why the brow lift is a better alternative than the eye lift in his Brow lift video.
Plastic Surgeons have been harvesting stem cells for years. Your own unwanted fat is loaded with precious adult stem cells. Dr. Rodriguez talks about fat injections and your own fountain of youth.
I did my first case of micro fat grafting to the face over 20 years ago. It was a patient that had acne scarring in her face. During the decade of the 90’s I had tried laser for that problem, under the theory that you could level the skin.
Frankly the results were OK, not great, because the pits were not filled. Fat grafting was used to fill the pits under the skin. The great surprise was how good the skin looked after the fat injections ! The skin became rosier, softer, and just younger looking.
The Botox Detox procedure is the endoscopic Brow lift. The Brow lift not only permanently smooths the forehead wrinkles, but you get the added advantage that your upper eyelids become lifted to yield a longlasting, youthful, and refreshed appearance. The modern day brow lift or forehead lift is a two hour procedure done thru small incisions behind the hairline. An endoscope is used to lift the brow to a more youthful position. The procedure can be done under IV or twilight anesthesia in an outpatient surgical facility. Recovery is very quick- within one week you should be back at work. During the post operative week, you will have minor bruising which can be covered with makeup.
What can one do for bags under the eyes? For many years, patients would come to me asking to remove the bags under the eyelids, saying the bags made them look old and tired. I usually recommended a standard blepharoplasty or Eye lift. That involves making an incision right under the eyelashes, lifting skin and the muscle that is right under the skin. I would then remove the fat. It was the standard solution but it had several drawbacks.
In practical terms, for a Westerner, a Rhinoplasty usually means taking the bump out of the nose, making it thinner, and making it look straight from the side view. The Asian nose usually does not have a hump, but instead tends to be flat in appearance. Thus Asian patients ask for more projection. Surgeons enhance the nose by augmenting it with a silicon insert to get it to look “straight” from the side view. This enhancement eliminates the flat look. When the nose is remodeled with a silicone insert, it will make the nose look thinner. Surgery of the tip is also different because in the western patient one has to reduce the size of the tip cartilage and put sutures in it to narrow the shape. When using the silicon insert in the dorsum, the tip is usually pulled up and the shape of the nostril is refined as it becomes narrow and taller. In a few cases the tip cartilages may require sutures, but usually the procedure is simpler than in the western nose.
“DAO” (Depressor anguli oris) release to lift the corner of the mouth. I have always been a fan of the lip lift procedure. There are many reasons why it’s preferable to fillers, but the most important one is that it looks so good and natural. The effect is best in the central part of the…
Most patients seeking facelifts say that coworkers or family members tell them “they look tired” all the time. They then proceed to pull upward on their neck or lower cheeks mimicking the effect they want from surgery. To make a point, I sometimes cover my face and ask what color my eyes are. They always get it right (my eyes are brown). I then ask whether I have bands in my neck (I have one). Invariably they say they didn’t notice. So, what’s the point I’m trying to make? People make judgments about how old your face looks from your eyes, not your neck or jowls. There is a famous study where the picture of a woman was put on a screen. A subject looks at the picture. Behind the screen there is a camera that tracks the eye movements of the subject looking at the picture of the woman…
Exparel is a long acting local anesthetic which is injected into the operative area at the end of the procedure. Like the pain pump, it focuses just on the operative area, and does not disseminate to the entire body like a narcotic does. The function of the Exparel is to numb the area of surgery so you do not feel pain. With cosmetic surgery, patients only need the one injection, and the pain control lasts for about 3 days. Similar to the pain pump, patients take fewer narcotics post operatively, because the pain is more controlled.
The Liquid facelift. I first heard about it from Heidi Rebuck, a Juvederm and Botox rep from Allergan. “The Liquid facelift” is basically what I did with my male patient, using a filler with Botox, but I think these pictures of “The Liquid facelift” are worth a thousand words. Basically, the patient in the photo (courtesy of Allergan) had Botox to forehead and “crow’s feet” wrinkles around the eyes, with tissue fillers to the lips, nasolabial folds (folds that go from side of nostrils towards the corners of the mouth), and possibly under the eyes. The change is dramatic and substantial.
