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In time, gravity, sun exposure, and the stresses of daily life take their toll on our faces: deep creases appear beside the mouth, the jawline slackens, and folds and fat deposits appear on the neck. Facelifts counteract these problems by removing fat and tightening skin and muscles, giving your face a fresher, youthful look -- after surgery, some patients appear as much as ten or 15 years younger.
The procedure can be combined with others (browlift, eyelid surgery, nose reshaping) for more dramatic results, or it can be restricted to the neck (necklift) if the patient's problems center there. Incisions are made in inconspicuous places such as behind the hairline and in natural folds of the face and ears, and scars fade to near invisibility in time. Results of a facelift do not last forever; you may want to have another procedure in five or ten years. But in another sense, the effects are permanent; years later, your face will continue to look better than if you had never had the procedure.
By removing excess fat, skin and muscle from the upper and lower eyelids, blepharoplasty can rejuvenate puffy, sagging or tired-looking eyes. It is typically a cosmetic procedure but can also improve vision by lifting droopy eyelids out of the patient's field of vision. Blepharoplasty cannot be used to raise the eyebrows or reduce the appearance of wrinkles, crow's feet or dark circles under the eyes, but the procedure can be combined with others such as a facelift and BOTOX® Cosmetic treatments to achieve these results.
Browlifts can revitalize drooping or lined foreheads, helping you to look less angry, sad or tired. Using either traditional or minimally invasive (endoscopic) methods, browlifts involve the removal or alteration of the muscles above the eyes to smooth lines and raise the eyebrows for a more youthful appearance. The procedure is often combined with other operations such as blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery) and facelifts to improve the look of the eyes and other areas of the face.
In a traditional browlift the surgeon makes a coronal (headphone-shaped) incision behind the hairline, stretching between the ears and across the top of the forehead. In a minimally invasive (endoscopic) browlift the surgeon makes three to five short incisions; then an endoscope -- a slim instrument with a camera on the end -- is placed in one incision while the surgeon works through the other incisions.
One of the most common plastic surgery procedures, rhinoplasty is performed to reshape, reduce or augment a person's nose, remove a hump, narrow nostril width, change the angle between the nose and the mouth, or to correct injury, birth defects, or other problems that affect breathing. Rhinoplasty is usually an outpatient procedure performed under either local or general anesthesia and lasts one to two hours unless more extensive work needs to be done. Insurance may cover rhinoplasty if it is done for reconstructive or medical reasons, but likely not for cosmetic purposes.
Dr. Moscatello performs nasal surgery to enhance or correct previous rhinoplasties.
Ear surgery is typically performed to set prominent ears back closer to the head, or to reduce the size of large ears. Surgery may be helpful for "lop ear," "cupped ear" and "shell ear," large or stretched earlobes, and lobes with large creases and wrinkles. Surgeons are also able to construct new ears for patients who are missing them due to injury or other causes. The operation can be performed on children as young as four years of age when the ears are fully grown, in order to minimize teasing in school. The procedure lasts from two to three hours and may be performed in a hospital, office-based facility or an outpatient surgery center under general or local anesthesia.
Mohs surgery involves the systematic removal and microscopic analysis of thin layers of skin at the tumor site until the last traces of cancerous tissue have been eliminated. The immediate and complete microscopic examination and evaluation of excised tissue is what differentiates Mohs surgery from other cancer removal procedures. Only cancerous tissue is removed, minimizing both post-operative wound size and the chance of regrowth. Five-year cure rates have been demonstrated up to 99 percent for first-treatment cancers and 95 percent for recurring cancers.
Mohs surgery is most commonly used for basal and squamous cell carcinomas, although it can be recommended for the eradication of other cancers such as melanoma. High precision makes Mohs surgery ideal for the elimination of cancers in areas such as the face (nose, eyelids, lips, hairline), hands, feet and genitals.
For more information, visit the American Society for Mohs Surgery at http://www.mohssurgery.org
The extent of scarring after injury or surgery depends on a number of factors, including the nature of the injury or the surgeon's skills, your body's healing mechanism, the size and depth of the wound, how much blood supplies the area and the thickness and color of your skin. Scars are by definition permanent, but surgery can narrow, fade and otherwise reduce the appearance of severe or unattractive scarring, which is especially helpful in areas of cosmetic importance such as the face and hands.
Because large, tight, dark and otherwise problematic scars can improve after many months, it is recommended to wait at least a year before considering surgery. In the meantime, itching and other symptoms can be relieved with steroid injection. There are many surgical methods of scar revision, only some of which may be appropriate for a particular type of scar or its location. These include surgical excision, skin grafts, flap surgery and Z-plasty (repositioning a scar so that it aligns with the face and is less noticeable). Nonsurgical alternatives such as dermabrasion can soften scars, and phototherapy and laser treatments can lighten them.
Dr. Moscatello performs various surgeries for the correction of facial trauma, including sports- and work-related injuries, vehicle accidents, nasal injury, and other facial bone and nerve damage.
Non-Surgical Procedures >
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Facelifts
Eyelid Surgery
Primary Rhinoplasty
Mohs Surgery Reconstruction