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Dr. Gal Aharonov Facial Plastic Surgery Blog

Facial Plastic Surgery Blog by Dr. Gal Aharonov

Archive for November, 2009

I had cheek implants placed about 10 years ago. They looked good at the time but now they look very obvious and fake looking. Do they need to come out or can I do something else?

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

As we age we loose facial volume and fat in a nonuniform manner. Our cheeks loose volume as well as the area around our eye, temples, and jaw line. This contributes greatly to the aging process. When you were younger you probably had decent facial volume which blended better with the cheek implants. Since you are now loosing more volume around the cheeks, such as in your temples, under eyes, and lower cheek and jawline area, it makes the cheek implants appear more obvious and fake.

You have a couple of choices: one would be to enhance your facial volume around the cheek area, including your temples, under eye area, and brows. This will put your face into greater balance and harmony again.

Your other option is to take out the cheek implants, but then you will be faced with more hollowness and a more aged appearance. Your cheeks will no longer look fake, but instead might look deflated and older. At that point you can decide whether you want to enhance your facial volume. Your choices for doing that include fillers such as Radiesse, Restylane, and Juvederm, or your own fat.

I am interested in dimple surgery. Is this permanent or something that I would ever have to redo?

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Dimple surgery is permanent. It is possible that the dimple might become slightly less deep with time as we age, but it should be permanent. Dimple creation surgery takes only a few minutes to perform. It will be a bit swollen and not 100% natural for several days. After this time, you might still have a dimple present even when you are not smiling. This phase lasts anywhere from several days to several weeks, after which the dimple should only be present when you are smiling or animating your face.

You can read more about dimple surgery at our Dimple Creation Surgery Page

I was diagnosed with rosacea several years ago. While my skin is much clearer now, I still have parts of my face that are red and can get painful at times. I tried IPL and laser treatments, as well as numerous skin creams and gels. Is there anything else I can do?

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

There are 4 types of rosacea, with one of them being the type to have more redness and erythema. A non approved treatment that I have recomended to some of my patients with good success is using a topical decongestant solution on the red areas. This tends to work with in an hour or two to reduce the redness substantially.

I am an 18 year old man with a high forehead. I would like my forehead to be reduced my about 3-4 cm. Will hairline lowering surgery be right for me?

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

In general, young men are not the ideal candidates for forehead reduction or hairline lowering surgery. This is because in men the natural hairline might recede with age making the scar potentially more visible. It is still possible to perform hairline lowering surgery in men, as long as they know that they might have to have some hair grafting performed in the future, or they can choose to have a small amount of hair grafting performed the same day as their hairline lowering surgery.

I have dark brown spots all over my cheeks. Is there a cream I can use to help get rid of them?

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Usually dark brown spots start to appear as we age, especially in people with darker skin types. Using a bleaching cream can help. Lasers can help as well, but tend to be a more pricey option for most people. You want a bleaching cream that has as an active ingredient of hydroquinone, kojic acid, or both. hydroquinone is slightly irritating to the skin and can cause redness and pealing at least initially.