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Atlanta facelift surgeon

Dear Dr. LeRoy: Common Questions About Facial Rejuvenation

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Looking younger is one of the top cosmetic concerns for men and women alike. As a double board-certified plastic surgeon who specializes in facial rejuvenation, I spend most of my time working toward this goal for my patients. In over twenty years as a plastic surgeon, I’ve heard just about every question you can imagine about facial rejuvenation. Chances are that you have some of the same questions my past patients have had, so to help you learn more about your options, I’ve compiled and answered some of the most common questions I hear about aging.

What's the Difference Between a Band Aid Facelift and a Band Aid Micro Mini Facelift

What’s the best age for a facelift?

Some patients expect that there’s a general age at which most people are ready for a facelift. In reality, everyone ages at a different pace, so the number on your driver’s license has nothing to do with determining which cosmetic procedure will best suit your needs. Instead, it depends on the unique signs of aging you have and how severe they are.

Many patients who first come to me haven’t yet aged enough to warrant a traditional facelift. For these patients, my specialized Band Aid Mini Facelift can offer natural-looking results with half the recovery time, minimal scarring and swelling, and gentle numbing rather than general anesthesia.

Does Botox® really freeze your face?

Botox® and Dysport® does reduce wrinkles by relaxing the muscles that have become tensed and wrinkled by repeated facial expressions. However, if it’s injected by a board-certified plastic surgeon with a skilled technique, Botox® and Dysport® can reduce your wrinkles while letting you still feel like you can make natural facial expressions. When either is administered well, you’ll look younger and more refreshed but no one will recognize why.

Will a facelift get rid of age spots?

Facelifts address the shape of your skin, but age spots (or liver spots, which are caused by sun damage) are formed by excess pigment within the skin. As a result, a facelift doesn’t remove age spots. If you want to reduce sagging skin as well as age spots, I typically recommend a facelift followed by Band Aid Laser Skin Resurfacing. It’s a minimally invasive treatment that breaks down the excess pigment in age spots while also reducing fine lines, wrinkles, in addition to tightening the skin and rebuilding collagen.

Why does it seem like I have extra skin as I age? Is my body producing more skin?

The amount of skin you have doesn’t increase as you age. Instead, your skin becomes thinner and starts to sag. If you take a ball of dough and hold it up by just the top, the lower part will get longer and thinner. This is the same thing that happens to your skin as you age. A facelift removes the sagging skin and lifts the remaining skin and other tissue to a more youthful position and shape.

Can Botox® or Dysport® prevent wrinkles?

There’s a growing trend of preventative Botox® or Dysport®. These injections don’t just relax wrinkled muscles like those that form crow’s feet, frown lines, and forehead wrinkles. They also keep those muscles from continuing to tense and to form worsening wrinkles. In this way, starting Botox® injections in the early stages of aging can keep wrinkles to a minimum.

Will taking collagen supplements make my skin firmer?

Collagen is the protein that keeps your skin young and firm. However, in order to make your skin look younger, there are specific ways to cause your body to produce more collagen within the skin. Some companies sell supplements and even beverages that contain collagen, but this will not rejuvenate your skin.

While you can’t stop time, you can control the way your body responds to it. By taking preventative measures and learning about all your options for looking younger, you can remain your most confident and beautiful self for years to come. If you want to reduce aging that has already appeared, schedule an appointment with me, Dr. John L. LeRoy. For more facial rejuvenation tips, follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

What to Do When New Aging Appears After a Facelift

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There’s no mistaking the look of newfound confidence and excitement on a patient’s face when they start to see their facelift results – it’s one of my favorite parts of my job as a board-certified plastic surgeon. And while new signs of aging will eventually appear, the good news is that you can still get that joy back. There are a variety of ways to reduce new signs of aging and help you reclaim the confidence you felt right after your initial facelift.

What to Do When New Aging Appears After a FaceliftCosmetic Facial Injections

Facial rejuvenation injections like Botox® and facial filler injections are primarily used to treat individual fine lines and wrinkles. Because facelifts focus primarily on aging in the structure of your face rather than on the surface, these injections are often used to complement a facelift even in the first months after surgery. However, some facial fillers can also be used to restore youthful volume in various areas of the face. When you start to notice new facial hollows in the years after your facelift, adding volume with facial fillers can be a quick and convenient way to treat them.

Band Aid Skin Tightening

It used to be that the only way to noticeably tighten aging skin was with surgery, but that’s no longer the case. In my Band Aid Skin Tightening procedure, I used advanced technology to send targeted warmth into the deeper layers of your skin. This tells your body to produce more collagen, a natural protein that makes the skin firmer and smoother. For early hints of newly sagging skin, this non-surgical, non-invasive procedure can give you a subtle touch-up with no recovery time or incisions.

Band Aid Laser Skin Resurfacing

If the new signs of aging you’re noticing include fine lines, wrinkles, age spots, and skin texture issues, Band Aid Laser Skin Resurfacing is probably your best bet. This treatment uses a unique laser that hits your skin in a patter of tiny dots. The procedure breaks down unwanted pigment from sun damage while also enhancing your skin-firming, wrinkle-reducing collagen, all with minimal downtime.

Band Aid Micro Mini Facelift

The Band Aid Micro Mini Facelift is an in-office procedure I developed specifically for patients who are 3-4 years out from their last facelift and who want to simply lift the mild sagging skin that has developed since their surgery. It only requires local anesthesia and the downtime is minimal, but for many patients, it’s the perfect balance of surgical results and convenience.

Band Aid Facelift or Another Band Aid Procedure

If you have too much sagging skin or other new aging to benefit from the treatments above, it may be time for a new Band Aid Facelift. This time often comes 8-10 years after the first facelift, although every patient ages at a different pace. It’s also common for patients to come in to treat aging in a different area than the area their original surgery treated. For instance, you may have had a Band Aid Mini Facelift on your lower face in the past, but now you’re seeing more pronounced aging around your eyes. In this case, Band Aid Eyelid Surgery may be the right fit. Regardless of what area you want to treat, all of my Band Aid procedures are performed in-office using gentle numbing rather than general anesthesia and involve about half as much downtime as a traditional surgery.

Aging is a continuous process, so facial rejuvenation needs to be continuous as well. But fortunately, between living a healthy lifestyle, protecting your skin from the sun, and keeping up with intermittent facial rejuvenation treatments can help you maintain a youthful and refreshed look for decades to come. To discuss your own cosmetic needs, schedule a consultation with me, Dr. John LeRoy. For more helpful facial rejuvenation tips, follow me on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google+ as well.

Plastic Surgeon Hosts Spring 2018 Charity Contest

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If you’ve been following me and my work for a while, you probably know about my charity contests already. Each season, I host a social media charity contest, getting my followers’ input on local charities who could make great use of a $1,000 donation from my office. With your nominations and votes, I’ve been touched by some fantastic Georgia charities I’ve learned about, and I’ve been honored to be able to assist many of them and their causes. To make a difference in more lives throughout the Atlanta area, I recently started giving each contest a category (like pet-related charities, or organizations that help kids). This has helped me discover many smaller, more specialized charities. So, for my spring 2018 contest, I’m continuing this tradition and looking for organizations in a specific category: homelessness/poverty.

Dr. John LeRoy Hosts Social Media Charity ContestHow the Charity Contest Works:

My social media charity contests have two stages: nomination and voting. From April 12th-April 27th, 2018, we invited our patients, friends, and followers to the John L. LeRoy Facebook page to nominate their favorite Georgia organizations that are dedicated to ending homelessness and poverty. We’ve now evaluated this list and chosen four finalists.

Those finalists have now been announced, and the final voting is open to everyone. Simply visit our Facebook page before May 11th, 2018, find the post at the top of the timeline that invites you to cast your vote, and comment with the name of the charity you feel should win the donation. Finally, we’ll announce the winner of the donation on Monday, May 14th, 2018.

I’m passionate about finding joy in every part of life and in helping others do the same, and while I’m able to do that every day at my plastic surgery office, these charity contests let me take it one step further. This spring, I would be honored to have your help in finding local charities that make a difference in Georgians’ lives every day, and I look forward to working with you to make our community a better place for all.

Surprising Facts about Facelifts

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Plastic surgery is a subject people talk about constantly, often in the context of celebrity gossip. As a double board-certified plastic surgeon, I’m glad that awareness of cosmetic surgery is spreading, but I’ve noticed that there is a lot of incorrect information floating around as well. If you’re considering a facelift (or any other elective surgery, for that matter), it’s a good idea to educate yourself about the procedure. With that goal in mind, here are a few facelift facts that may surprise you.

Surprising Facts about Facelifts

Fact #1: More and more men are getting facelifts.

People typically think of plastic surgery as appealing to women because women have more of a tendency to by concerned about their appearance. But in our modern society, more and more men are acknowledging that they could stand to feel more confident in their appearance and that there’s no shame in working toward this goal. Just compare the last few years as an example – in 2016, 11.3% of facelift patients were men, while it was just 8.1% in 2010*.

Fact #2: For nearly 70 years, facelifts only treated the skin.

The first known facelift was performed in 1901, and from that procedure until 1968, a facelift only consisted of removing excess sagging skin and lifting the remaining skin to a higher position. This put all the tension on the skin and had a tendency to give patients the dreaded “wind tunnel look.” Facelifts have evolved since then, and today they typically involve restructuring the underlying muscle and other facial tissue as well. After all, these underlying tissues change with age as well, so raising the skin alone won’t give the natural-looking results that come from the more well-rounded facelifts performed today. Keep in mind, however, that some surgeons still do facelifts that make patients look “windblown” or “overdone, ” so it’s important to find a board-certified plastic surgeon with extensive experience performing facelifts, and to look through the surgeon’s facelift before and after photos before you commit.

Fact #3: Facelifts are becoming more and more popular for the 65+ crowd.

Most people think of a facelift as a procedure for people in their 50s, perhaps early 60s, but recent trends show that there’s no age limit for enjoying your appearance. In fact, in 2016, patients age 65 and older accounted for over 30% of facelift patients in the US – the highest percentage since the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery began tracking this data in 1997*.

Fact #4: A typical facelift addresses the lower 2/3 of the face.

It’s easy to see how patients would assume that a facelift lifts the entire face. However, the lower 2/3 and the upper 1/3 of the face need to be rejuvenated in different ways. For patients with sagging skin throughout their forehead, I typically suggest a brow lift, also called a forehead lift or an upper facelift.

Fact #5: Every facelift is different.

The human anatomy is incredibly complex and it varies slightly with every patient, and facial aging is no exception. Because each patient ages in their own way and at their own pace and has different goals for their results, every good facelift is customized to fit the patient. Surgeons also have their preferred techniques, like the Band Aid Facelift I developed to reduce recovery time, scarring, swelling, bruising, and cost for my patients.

Fact #6: A facelift doesn’t remove all signs of aging.

Some patients assume, “If Botox® gets rid of my crow’s feet and a facelift is more extensive than Botox®, the facelift will remove my crow’s feet as well as my sagging skin and other signs of aging.” Unfortunately, there is no “one and done” procedure for facial rejuvenation. Facial aging happens in several ways at once, and while a facelift focuses on the structure of the face and the contours of the skin, it doesn’t address the more superficial issues. That’s why most facelift patients also get Botox® injections, facial filler injections, and/or laser treatments to reduce their fine lines, wrinkles, and age spots.

Fact #7: Facelift have risen by nearly 22% in the US since 1997*.

In recent years, the cosmetic world has been favoring a more natural look, but that doesn’t mean plastic surgery has slowed down. Patients are simply seeking procedures that give them a more natural-looking result, like mini facelifts and other minimally invasive options.

Fact #8: Facelifts may be more affordable than you think.

I see patients all the time who say, “I’ve wanted a facelift for years, but I assumed I couldn’t afford it, so I never looked into it.” In reality, cosmetic surgery is more accessible than many people realize. There has also been an increase in minimally invasive facelifts like my Band Aid Mini Facelift in recent decades, and when these procedures are performed in-office with gentle numbing rather general anesthesia, they can be about half the cost of a traditional facelift. Keep in mind that not all surgeons perform mini facelifts this way, though, so be sure to ask specific questions in your facelift consultation.

A facelift can make a great difference in a patient’s confidence on a daily basis, but only if it’s done correctly and performed by an experienced, qualified surgeon. Take your time to research board-certified plastic surgeons in your area. If you live in the Atlanta area, schedule a consultation at my plastic surgery office where I can meet with you directly to discuss your options.

*Statistics are from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.

Happy New Year from the Office of Dr. John LeRoy

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The holiday season always makes us reflect on the year we’ve had. As any year does, 2017 has had its ups and downs, but one of the many blessings we’ve enjoyed is our fantastic, supportive group of patients. Working with you all has been a true joy. If you’re new to our family or you’re in the mood for a walk down memory lane, here are a few of the other happy highlights from 2017.

Happy-Holidays-from-John-L-LeRoy-MDTop Doctors Award

Every year, Atlanta Magazine publishes a list of the local doctors who have earned distinction from Castle Connolly, a group that evaluates doctors across the country. Nominated by their fellow physicians, these doctors need to make medical contributions, earn the respect of their patients and peers, and more before Castle Connolly names them among the best in their field. I am honored to have received this special distinction once again.

20 Years of the Band Aid Mini Facelift

The Band Aid Mini Facelift is a signature procedure I developed in 1997 to offer patients a lighter, natural-looking facelift with dramatically less recovery time and cost. Performed in-office with gentle numbing, my Band Aid Mini Facelift uses specialized techniques to provide a comprehensively younger look with less scarring, swelling, and bruising and about half the recovery time a typical facelift requires. This year, I celebrated twenty years of using the innovation to help my patients look and feel their best, and I look forward to many more years of the same.

Charity Contests

I’m so fortunate to be able to do what I love every day for my cosmetic surgery patients, and I believe it’s important to share your blessings. That’s why I hold several social media charity contests every year, enlisting my supporters’ helping in finding local charities that do great work for the community. Through nominations and votes, my patients and followers helping me donate thousands of dollars this year to three wonderful organizations: The Tree House, Genesis JOY House Homeless Shelter, and TJ & Friends Foundation.

Our entire staff at the office of Dr. John LeRoy would like to offer all of you, our valued patients, a special thank you. You have made 2017 brighter and more rewarding for all of us, and we are truly honored that you chose us to help you become your most confident and beautiful self. To catch up on the blogs and other news you may have missed this year, explore our plastic surgery blog and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google+.

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