Virtually every person has natural beauty. At Matheson Plastic Surgery our goal is to correct the features which detract from that natural beauty, leaving our patients with a well balanced and beautiful appeararance.

FACELIFT

This procedure should probably be called the face and neck lift because it improves the neck even more than it does the face.

The incisions are in front of or just inside the ears, behind the ears, and hidden in the hair behind the ears. The lower face and neck are lifted upward and backward and the extra skin is removed in front of and behind the ears. The jowls are diminished and the area below the chin is flattened.

Deep work on the muscles of the face and neck improve the contour, leaving the face looking younger and refreshed.

Improvements in medical technique over recent years have revolutionized this operation.

Our experienced skin care consultant will help hide the healing areas. She will also teach you how to take care of your skin so the good results will last.

BROW LIFT/ FOREHEAD LIFT

In medical terms this is called the coronal face lift and involves lifting up the forehead and eyebrows and diminishing the frown lines above the nose. This also improves the laugh lines around the eyes.

This operation is probably the least known and understood of all cosmetic procedures. It gives the upper part of the face a fresh open look and complements a lower face lift.

The incision for this operation may be entirely hidden in the hair or for people with a high forehead the incision can be made at the hairline.

The people who benefit most from this procedure are those with heavy frown lines or those in whom the dropping eyebrows are crowding the upper eyelid and producing wrinkles beside the eyes.

EYELID SURGERY

Although this is popular with women, it is my number one procedure in men.

Excessive skin and eyelid fat bags are surgically removed, resulting in fresher, more rested appearance.

The incisions are minimal. In the lower lid, they are just below the eyelashes and extend out into the laugh line beside the eye. In the upper eyelid, the scar is in the crease that is not seen with the eye open. It also extends out to the side in the laugh line. Once a fat bag is removed, it does not recur.

Eyelid bagging and degeneration is a problem that tends to run in families. It is not necessarily a sign of aging.

For those who need to get back into the work force, our fully qualified skin care consultant can apply camouflage make-up to cover the healing areas.

BREAST ENHANCEMENT

This is one of the most popular procedures performed at Matheson Plastic Surgery.

The prostheses can be the silicone shell filled with saline (salt water). This saline is the same concentration as that of the body fluids, thus assuring safety, should it ever leak. The other choice of prosthesis is the silicone shell filled with silicone.

The prostheses may be placed below or above the chest muscle. The incision can be just below the nipple areola, under the breast or under the arm. Sometimes placing the incision above the nipple areola produces a more youthful nipple position.

I will explain in detail each of these options to each of my patients, so that they may make a well informed decision.
This operation does much to improve the self esteem and appearance of those who were not gifted by nature in this area.

BREAST REDUCTION

People who have mammary hypertrophy, or in every day language, large breasts can be greatly inconvenienced.

The size can be such as to class it as a major deformity. The breasts are quite heavy and can produce severe back ache, neck ache and strain and cutting of brassiere straps into the shoulder to such and extent that grooves are produced. The patient can suffer excoriation the skin under the breasts due to the moisture build up. This often leads to fungus infections. The extreme weight of the breasts can produce a posture that cramps the thoracic cage, resulting in difficult breathing and pressure in the upper diaphragm.

The breast reduction patients are amongst my most grateful patients, and the remark I hear most frequently is, “This is great! I wish I had known about it ten years earlier”.

LIP AUGMENTATION

One of our most popular surgeries involves enlarging the lips. Usually it is just the upper lip, but it can be both upper and lower lips. This procedure is most prevalent in women. This can be done with many materials, but I prefer to take tissue from another site on the body. The most permanent result is achieved by using the patients own tissue. Often I do this in association with another operation such as a breast operation of facelift where I can harvest excess tissue to augment the lips.

Often one of my patients will try the more temporary solution of using injectables such as collagen, hylaform or restylene which lasts about 4 to 6 months. This will allow her to see how bigger lips look on her face. If the patient likes, the look later we can produce a more permanent result.

No matter which of the many methods I use to achieve this goal, lips appear fuller and more youthful.

CHIN AUGMENTATION

A receding or “weak chin” can be a problem which spoils an otherwise attractive profile. Developmentally it is not uncommon to have a “hooked nose” associated with the under developed chin, or the chin alone can be the problem.

There are a number of different types of implants available which can advance the receding chin. I carefully and meticulously explain and demonstrate to my patients each and every option available prior to making our decision.

LIPOSUCTION - (Fat Suction)

Liposuction is the most frequently performed cosmetic surgery procedure in the United States today.

To understand the concept of liposuction, compare the fat to a block of hard cheese. The suction removes tunnels of fat until the area resembles Swiss cheese. Just standing on a block of Swiss cheese would compress the holes. A girdle or compression garment is worn to compress the fat, fill the holes and narrow the silhouette. Other fat cells are damaged. They shrink and atrophy over the post-operative period. Improvement is seen up to 3 months following liposuction.

The most common areas suctioned in men are the abdomen and “love handles”.

In women, the thighs, abdomen and hips are the most common areas improved with fat suction.

ABDOMINOPLASTY – (Tummy Tuck)

Many patients are troubled by excess skin that hangs and can be unsightly. This can be the result of excess weight loss or pregnancy which has stretched the skin. We can remove this excess skin and tissue, tighten the stomach muscles with sutures in the fascia and leave the patient with a flat abdomen. This procedure is often used by patients who have undergone weight loss surgery.

RHINOPLASTY - (Nasal Surgery)

This was the surgery which started Plastic Surgery in Italy in the 16th century. The nose can be too big or too small. It can have a big hump or be crooked. A surgeon certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery is trained to diagnose exactly what the structural problems are.

I like to explain to my patients exactly what I feel the problem is and how I plan to remedy it.

An improved nose with the defects corrected can make an immense difference in the patient’s confidence and self image.

PROTRUDING EARS

Having ears which stick out too far can detract from what would otherwise be a handsome or beautiful person. Protruding ears are missing several developmental folds which the surgeon reconstructs producing the normal appearing ears.

If possible, it is best to fix protruding ears before a child starts school. I have performed this procedure on patients of all ages, including a 50 year old man. He looked extremely handsome after the procedure. It was a shame he had gone through that much of his life without looking his best.

This is a further example of correcting a feature which detracts from a patient’s natural beauty.

INJECTABLES

Injectables are divided into two categories. The first is the type which relaxes the muscles and because the muscles are not contracting the wrinkles over these muscles diminish and over time can disappear. These injectables are in the BOTOX (see below) family.

The second type of injectable is a filler and they serve to plump out wrinkles and thus help to diminish them. These fillers are such things as collagen, hylaform, restylene and many others. Used correctly these can accomplish a great deal.

BOTOX

BOTOX® Cosmetic is a simple, non-surgical, physician-administered treatment that can temporarily smooth moderate to severe frown lines between the brows in people from 18 to 65 years of age. It is the only treatment of its type approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

One 10-minute treatment—a few tiny injections—and within days there's a noticeable improvement in moderate to severe frown lines between the brows, which can last up to 4 months. Results may vary.

BOTOX® Cosmetic is a purified protein produced by the Clostridium botulinum bacterium, which reduces the activity of the muscles that cause those frown lines between the brows to form over time.