Previously, a full facelift was the predominant procedure used to correct loss of muscle tone and sagging in the neck in addition to improving the face. Now, Dr. Calabria also offers neck lift surgery to those who desire rejuvenation specifically in the neck and jaw area for a more youthful appearance. A neck lift can correct signs of aging under the chin, including fat accumulation, excess skin, and sagging jowls.

The neck lift procedure involves the use of inconspicuously-placed incisions, which wrap around the earlobes and end in the lower scalp. If necessary, an incision under the chin may also be used to further improve the neck. During neck lift surgery, underlying tissue is repositioned and the neck muscles are tightened, excess skin is removed, and the incisions are closed.

Candidates for a neck lift should have realistic expectations of the procedure and realize that although it can produce a more youthful appearance, the neck will continue to age with time. Patients should not smoke for at least two weeks prior to, as well as after surgery, and avoid certain medications that can cause bleeding. Those interested in a neck lift or another facial rejuvenation procedure are encouraged to visit Dr. Calabria for a consultation.
Please call (310) 777-0069 to schedule your consultation. We look forward to your visit!

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In general, most people younger than 40 are not early facelift candidates, but the age bracket for those undergoing facial rejuvenation procedures has shifted. Then, most candidates were about 55 years and older, and now they commonly range between 40 and 45 years old. According to a featured article on Dr. Calabria’s website, a facelift can now be used as a preventative measure to maintain a more youthful appearance for a longer period of time.

A facelift, or “rhytidectomy,” is intended to noticeably improve the visible signs of aging of the face and neck. These signs can range from loose skin and excess fatty deposits under the chin to deep creases that run from the nose to the corner of the mouth or below the lower eyelids. Previously, the typical facelift sculpted and redistributed facial fat and tissue, pulling the skin in a high lateral direction from incisions in the hairline at the temples and down around the ears. This often created the unnatural “windswept” appearance. Now, a vertical facelift can be performed through two discreet incisions in strategically-placed positions. This type of limited-incision facelift method entails the use of shorter incisions at the temples, around the ears, and possibly within the lower eyelids or under the upper lip.
According to a study in the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), patients under 50 who had a facelift have better long-term results than older patients. The younger patients had more consistent and higher satisfaction rates with both their short-term and long-term results. Certainly not all 40-year olds are good candidates for facelifts, but if you are interested in this procedure it is best to discuss it sooner rather than later. Dr. Calabria does not perform this procedure on those younger than 35 years old.
Some facelift patients also opt for a brow lift (forehead lift) and eyelid surgery to be performed in conjunction with a facelift in order to eliminate a sagging or deeply furrowed brow and/or to refresh aging eyes.

To schedule a consultation with our board certified surgeon, Dr. Calabria, please call (310) 777-0069.

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The Traditional Facelift

Traditional facelift surgery, or “rhytidectomy,” is intended to improve areas of the jawline and neck. Incisions are usually made within the natural creases in the hairline at the temples and in front, within, and behind the ear. Various degrees of alterations can be made within the layers of the face. In some cases, the deeper layers are adjusted by tightening the sagging muscles of the lower face and neck. Facial fat and tissue can be sculpted and redistributed, depending on the patient’s individual needs, and excess facial and neck skin can then be removed or repositioned. The traditional facelift will help to correct the dramatic signs of aging, restoring a more youthful contour to the face.

Mini Facelift

The mini facelift addresses the same areas as a traditional facelift but to a limited degree. This procedure typically involves shorter incisions at the temples, around the ears, and possibly within the lower eyelids or under the upper lip to produce minimal scarring. A mini facelift usually provides overall skin tightening to the neck and lower third of the face. During this procedure, the skin is gently lifted from the underlying tissue and pulled taut. The results of a mini facelift typically last shorter than a traditional facelift because the underlying structures are not usually addressed. Rather, the mini facelift is usually best for patients with very early signs of aging, and desire a quick and discreet procedure to correct minimal laxity in their lower face around the jaw. Most mini facelift patients are younger than traditional facelift patients or have had a previous facelift that needs minimal maintenance.

Mid-Face Lift

The mid-face lift (“cheek lift)” is designed to correct signs of aging in the nasolabial folds, below the lower eyelid, and in the cheeks. It does not target the jawline or neck. Incisions for the mid-face lift are often made at the temple and inside the mouth, as well as in front of the ear. Descending cheek skin, muscles, and tissues are then vertically adjusted toward the eyes for a more lateral projection of the cheeks. This procedure may be combined with fat grafting to restore fullness and provide more youthful cheek contours.

This facelift is often performed on younger people because it does not address aging in the jowls and neck that older patients usually possess. This procedure is more beneficial for patients whose signs of aging is limited to the mid-face region.

As Dr. Calabria mentioned, “Every face is different and a cookie cutter approach is deemed to fail.” Therefore, to schedule a consultation with Dr. Calabria to learn which method will meet your desired facial rejuvenation results, please call (310) 777-0069. During your visit with Dr. Calabria, you will be able to learn more about the details of each facelift method, including recovery, anesthesia, and potential risks and complications.

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Vivamus ultrices, eros eu mollis tempor, quam ipsum adipiscing ligula, sed sollicitudin orci turpis non nisl. Maecenas vel nunc tellus, id molestie quam. Aenean porta accumsan dui eget pharetra. Cras eget posuere erat. Nulla egestas congue vulputate. Vestibulum velit diam, faucibus eu consectetur id, sagittis quis elit. Nam nisl nunc, rutrum sed porta eget, pharetra vitae mi. Vivamus sollicitudin, dui sit amet fringilla sollicitudin, mi enim porttitor nisl, ut consequat nisl enim in magna. Pellentesque dapibus mattis ante, ac volutpat sem molestie nec. Sed sit amet velit massa. Phasellus dictum tempus vehicula. Mauris ac felis ligula. Aliquam scelerisque, quam id consequat suscipit, libero sapien pretium odio, sit amet tempus diam massa ut arcu. Donec sit amet dui et quam porta placerat quis vel risus. Donec ullamcorper, turpis in pellentesque venenatis, purus purus porttitor tellus, vitae condimentum risus velit non diam. Suspendisse id quam tortor.

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Causes of Cellulite

The skin is scattered with fibrous cords that connect from the top of the skin to the muscle underneath, and these cords pull the skin down in various places. Lumpy fat deposits push against the skin in between these cords and create the clumpy, bulging effect of cellulite. The dermis layer gives skin its thickness, and if this layer is thin, clumps of fat can become more apparent through it. The way that fat and muscle are distributed in women differs from their distribution in men, causing cellulite to be more common in women. Genetic predispositions, hormonal changes, and weight gain can all contribute to the appearance of cellulite.

Treatments

There are multiple approaches to improving the appearance cellulite, but there is no guaranteed, permanent treatment. Many may look to liposuction as a possible cure, but the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) has concluded that it does not eliminate cellulite. It can actually worsen the appearance of cellulite because it may create more depressions in the skin. Here are possible treatment options that have helped alleviate cellulite concerns:

Lose Body Fat

Exercise and diet can reduce the amount of body fat you have, which may variably help decrease the appearance of cellulite. Although losing weight isn’t guaranteed to eliminate cellulite, many women who diet and exercise to lose weight notice at least a minor decrease in the appearance of their cellulite. Regardless of your body mass index, or BMI (the measure of body fat based on your weight and height), cellulite can still affect you, and gaining weight can significantly increase the presence of cellulite in problem areas.

Compression Garments

The compression effects of binders and wraps, such as Spanx® and ACE™ bandages, may temporarily diminish the appearance of cellulite, but these are not effective treatments for guaranteed or permanent reduction of cellulite. Skineez™ Skincarewear is impregnated with vitamin E, caffeine, retinol, and shea butter, and is recommended to be worn at least a month for five days a week at eight hours a day. It advertises smoother skin and smaller thigh circumference, but the advantages of vitamins and caffeine are not proven to have an effect on cellulite.

Minimally Invasive Treatments

Thermage®: This radiofrequency treatment is a non-invasive procedure designed to help tighten and contour the skin, and can help temporarily reduce the appearance of cellulite in a single procedure. Thermage stimulates the body’s natural renewal of collagen and does not require surgery or injections.

Cellulaze™:This is the first FDA-approved, minimally-invasive treatment designed specifically for treating cellulite, with results after a single treatment. Cellulaze requires local anesthesia and is accomplished by inserting a laser under the patient’s skin through small incisions. This laser heats up to melt clumps of fat and then breaks up the fibrous cords that connect the top of the skin to the muscles underneath. New collagen growth for better skin elasticity and thickness is achieved as the laser heats the skin.

If you would like to visit Dr. Calabria for a consultation regarding your cellulite concerns, please call (310) 777-0069.

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Now face lift surgery is a very sophisticated operation and it is a blend of the most advanced techniques. An experienced plastic surgeon has to have the ability to first understand patient’s wishes and goals and then permute them in a three-dimensional project.

Every face is different and a cookie cutter approach is deemed to fail. Tailoring the surgery to each patient is the key of success. Using the same technique in every facial rejuvenation is not appropriate. Some marketing trends seem to offer a quick solution to a difficult problem. Lifestyle lift promotes the same operation to the majority of the patients. Using the same approach is far from ideal. There are a number of different face lift techniques that a plastic surgeon should be familiar with and use according to each specific needs. From the one stitch face lift, to the short scars face lift to the mini face lift to a mid face lift to a vertical facelift to a cell-enhanced face lift, there are multiple choices for each patient.

One of the common mistake patients do is to think that the less invasive the procedure is, the more natural the results will be: nothing furthest from the truth. Sometime a face lift performed with the wrong vector of pull is more damaging then a properly performed lift. A mini facelift done in a patient that really needs also a neck lift will create a disharmony in the face and a more unnatural result that a more comprehensive procedure.

Lifestyle lift become popular in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills because they are done under local anesthesia: it is basically a mini- facelift with minimal to moderate undermining of the skin and little muscles repositioning compared to other face lift techniques. Most lifestyle face lift centers, even in Beverly Hills, are able to keep their fees low because they have a volume practice, meaning they see and perform multiple face lifts in one day. The lifestyle facelift is one standard operation used in every patient. “If you have a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail” philosophy seems to fit the lifestyle face lift credo.

A boutique approach where time is spent to get to know personally the patient and his needs, careful computer imaging and analysis of the face is performed, all alternative options are evaluated and then finally every patient’s face is fitted to a personalized technique ,is more likely to produce better results.  Most the face lift procedures can be now done under local anesthesia by an experienced plastic surgeon and, if properly executed, deliver a natural result.

Being educated on different choices in face lift surgery is what it is all about. Picking the right operation for the patient is the key of reaching patient’s satisfaction,  along with choosing a plastic surgeon versatile not in one standard procedure like the lifestyle facelift but on all the available alternatives. Be able to tailor the surgical solution to the patient needs and doing it with a sense of aesthetic and beauty  is what today’s face lift surgery is all about.

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44 years old female with clear sign of aging including brow ptosis, deflation of the cheecks and accentuation of the nasolabial fold before and after endoscopic brow lift, scar less face lift and lip augmentation.

The scar less or no visible incisions face lift is a facial rejuvenation procedure which is very popular along younger Hollywood celebrities because of a reduced downtime but, foremost, because of the total absence of visible scars. Dr. Calabria has been on the forefront of this new face lift procedure, in fact he has presented his technique to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons meeting which is the most prestigious plastic surgery meeting probably in the world.

The presentation is called “minimally invasive facial rejuvenation for early signs of aging” and it has been now accepted as one of the most popular face lift procedures not only in Beverly Hills but also all around the country and the world.

The scar less or no visible scars face lift is performed by Dr. Calabria through small tiny incisions in the temporal scalp and inside the mouth. Dr Calabria uses an endoscope to visualize the dissection and special instruments which allow him to work through these small incisions. Very important factor for a natural result is the vector of pull and reposition of the tissues which is in a vertical direction. Dr Calabria uses special made anchoring sutures called Endotine which are completely absorbable and very gentle with the surrounding tissues.

Dr Calabria often combines the scar less facelift with an endoscopic brow lift in order to complete the facial rejuvenation by repositioning the brow in a more youthful way.

Scar less Face Lift Recovery

The down time of the scar less face lift is considerable less that the traditional face lift because of the absence of scars and the fact the elevation of the tissues is done at a deeper level.

Where is the Scar less Face Lift Performed?

Dr Calabria has performed this procedure in his Beverly Hills surgical center and Rancho Mirage and Palm Spring Centers. Celebrities and Hollywood  have embraced the no scar face lift because it is such a non invasive procedure and there is no risk of visible “bad” hypertrophic scarring but also because the vertical vector of the face lift pull that gives a much more natural look and completely avoids the “ wind tunnel” look of the tradition face lift.

Final Thoughts on The Scar less Face Lift

The scar less face lift is also a great alternative for a patient that has already had a tradition face lift but need to correct the stigmata of the previous unnatural face lift. Dr Calabria also believes that with this procedure there is a critical repositioning of volumes in the face with a vertical shift and recreates a most youthful appearance.

The scar less or no visible scar face lift is a great tool in correcting or avoiding the typical mistakes made in today face lift surgery. Only face lift surgeons experienced in minimally invasive endoscopic facial rejuvenation surgery should performed this procedure and Dr Calabria has been teaching and presenting this procedure all around the world and he has been on the fore front of minimally invasive plastic surgery.

If you would like to set up a consultation with Dr. Calabria please contact his Beverly Hills or Palm Springs office at 310.777.0069

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Therefore a lot of men are approaching facial rejuvenation as an option to look younger.

Male patients, though, are very different then female patients: they want different things and the approach to facial rejuvenation in men has to be tailored to their needs.

There are several issues that a man has to keep in mind when considering face lift surgery.

Usually men have no time or very little time to recuperate. They are very busy working, they can not afford to take a long time off and they want to look good almost immediately! The first question I get asked by men in my Rancho Mirage and Beverly Hills offices are:” When can I go back and play golf?” So it is very important to tailor the face lift surgery to be the shortest recovery time available. More importantly, men can not afford to look “done”. If it is a taken that women undergo plastic surgery, men are still looked “not as masculine” if they seek attention by a plastic surgeon. Also they usually don’t have a lot of hair to hide the scars and a therefore can not afford any of the tail-tell signs of having had a facelift.

To avoid the “done” look I Introduced several years ago the vertical face lift where the vectors and direction of pull are drastically changed from the traditionally horizontal approach ( the more common and almost universal technique) to a more natural vertical repositioning of the facial tissues, recreating a more natural framework of the aging facial structures.

Also the volumizing theory applies in men as well, where it is not important to pull the skin tight in the wrong direction like most face lift do, but it is much more crucial to recreate the lost volume in the face. That is the reason why we often combine the face lift procedure with fat grafting.

One step further is the cell-enhanced face lift where the fat is turbo-charged by adding stem and other type of cells with the help of the Celution device by Citory. With this technique it is postulated that we can actually improving the texture of the skin and there fore rejuvenate the skin itself. This is the ultimate goal of face lift surgery: being able to reposition tissues but at the same time make the skin itself look younger. The early results are very promising.

Other important issues are the ancillary procedures often combine with face lift surgery in men.

Blepharoplasties, both superior and inferior, are commonly performed in combination with face lift but a word of caution is warrant. Too many times an overdone upper blepharoplasty creates unnatural, “done” changes and gives the unfortunate patient the stigmata of a surgical look.

You see it on celebrities all the time, especially male actors. The “round” look of the eyes is a clear give away sign of past surgery. I usually don’t perform upper blepharoplasty in men and when I do in extreme cases, I’m extremely conservative so I don’t deliver that “skeletonized” look.

The same judgment should be used for the lower blepharoplasty where a fat repositioning procedure is chosen over a traditional blepharoplasty where the fat has been removed and in the long run it will caused a “hollow” look.

Brow lift should never been performed on men: they will feminize their faces too much.

The incision of the face lift should be placed inside the ear cartilage and the anatomy of the ear should not be changed. Too many times I see blunt ear cartilages as a classic sign of post face lift surgery. Also the tension placed on the scars is crucial to produce hypertrophic visible scars, there fore I developed a closure called the “vip closure” which takes away the tension on the incisions, and so they can heal leaving as little evidence as possible. The ear lobe itself is a tail-tell sign of having had surgery: it should be stitched at a 15 degrees angle posteriorely. Too many times I see it with a straight axis, and that does not look natural.

In conclusion, male face lift is a much different operation then in a female. Attention to details is much more important as delivering a natural “undone” look. Using the same “cocky cutter” approach in all case is a recipe for disaster and in men it is much more difficult to correct.

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Liposonix just received FDA clearance for fat reduction in the United States. Liposonix is a non invasive liposuction procedure based on a ultrasonic technology that produces fat reduction. Dr. Renato Calabria is the first plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills and one of the few in the Los Angeles area to offer this new radio frequency fat reduction. Liposonix has been very popular in Europe where Dr. Calabria also practices and it was introduced in United States just a month ago. Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Dr. Renato Calabria has used Liposonix in Europe and he has developed years of experience on this new non surgical ultrasonic weight reduction procedure and he is excited to be able to finally offer in his Beverly Hills, Los angeles and Palm Spring practices

Liposonix is a truly non invasive fat reduction based on a high focus thermal beam that destroys the fat cell’s membrane.

The results are very impressive: in 4-8 weeks the weight reduction is evident. During this period there is absolutely no down time.

Liposonix treatments are done in Dr. Calabria’s office. Dr. Calabria evaluates each patient that are candidates for ultrasonic fat removal. After a careful physical examination, in which he determines if the patient is a good candidate, Dr. Calabria performs the liposonix ultrasonic treatments himself. There is minimal pain involved along with Minimal bruising and swelling. The best results of this radiofrequency fat reduction are seen in 4-8 weeks. The liposonix treatment takes only one hour and in one treatment there is one size improvement. The ultrasonic procedure allows for  a smoother contour and avoids traditional complications of liposuction like irregular dents, infections, scars, indentations etc. Dr. Renato Calabria feels that Liposonix fat reduction is a revolutionary procedure that delivers an excellent weight loss reduction minimizing down time and complications. Beverly Hills celebrities are already embracing this new technology and Dr. Renato Calabria is considered the pioneer and first surgeon in Beverly Hills to offer Liposonix treatments to his high profile clientele.

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