March 1999
Publication: Town & Country
Article Topic: Top Cosmetic Surgeons in the U.S.

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YOUR FACE

PROBLEM: Your cheekbones have lost their definition, your jowls are puffy, and the skin of your jaw line and neck has become noticeably fleshy.

SOLUTION: “Near-Lift”

PROCEDURE: Peter B. Fodor, M.D., a plastic surgeon and researcher at the UCLA School of Medicine uses the term to describe a series of smaller procedures, performed over a period of years, that are designed to postpone a first facelift.

He gives this example of a 44-year-old patient: "I did her eyes, suctioned her neck, put a chin implant in and removed her buccal [cheek] fat pads. Not only did she look better; she looked younger. The chin implant is done from inside the mouth. The suction of the neck is done through two tiny incisions under the chin. The eyelids are done through incisions in the groove of the upper eyelid and behind the lower eyelid."

Four years later, she underwent an endoscopic forehead lift. "She looks spectacular, but she still hasn't had an old fashioned facelift," says Dr. Fodor.

PROS: Says Dr. Fodor: “No scars, the recovery is quick and the results are quite dramatic.” He says this method buys a patient “eight to twelve years of not having a procedure that puts her out of commission for longer and involves more scarring and a more difficult recovery.”

CONS: Some doctors question the advantage of having numerous procedures done over a period of years when you can do everything in one time with a facelift.

YOUR BELLY, HIPS & THIGHS

PROBLEM: Excess fat around your stomach, hips, inner and outer thighs.

SOLUTION: Liposuction.

PROS: The removed fat cells can't grow back, but the remaining cells in the suctioned area will expand if you gain weight, warns Peter B. Fodor, M.D., of Los Angeles. The good news is that you'll gain in the same proportion everywhere. Small new Cannulas and syringes enable surgeons to scrape the superficial layer of fat just below the dermis, which may create a smoother contour and tighten the overlaying skin.

RISKS: The mortality rate for tumescent liposuction is higher than that for any other cosmetic procedure, largely because many so-called "lipo" doctors aren't adequately trained to perform the procedure. “Between the introduction of liposuction in this country in the early 1980s and 1995, there were only about twelve deaths,” says Dr. Fodor. “That's a very, very low rate of significant complications. From 1995, at the point tumescent became well known, and for the next eighteen months or so, there were more than 100 deaths.”

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