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More Male Executives Face Mid-Life With Facial Surgery
(To Get Lasting Results, Seek Surgery That Is More Than Skin Deep) Many vigorous, healthy Baby Boomer male executives, as they approach age 50, are worried that their drooping faces don't match their inner vigor. In increasing numbers they are seeking the benefits of oculoplastic and facial plastic surgery. In fact, men make up one third of the facial plastic and reconstructive surgery practice of
Arthur L. Millman, M.D., and Thomas Romo III,
M.D., at The New York Eye and Ear Infirmary -- up 100 percent from five years ago.  TOP
Men Are Goal Oriented: Seek Healthy Look, Not Youth
"Most middle aged executive men who seek surgery have a very specific goal in mind," said Dr. Millman, an ophthalmologist as well as a plastic and reconstructive surgeon. "They want to look healthy, not younger. As a result, they are generally happy with the results of their surgery." "Many men we see are exercise buffs who feel great and are healthy; but, they appear fatigued, wearing the classic "hound dog" look, with overlapping lids, bags, and drooping jowls and chin. They are tired of being told they look tired," said Dr.
Romo, an otolaryngologist and facial plastic surgeon. TOP
Lasting Results Requires Surgery That is More Than Skin Deep
One of the frustrations with the best cosmetic eye lid surgery, or
blepharoplasty, is that it lasts only two or three years before the skin wrinkles, re-droops and another round or cosmetic surgery is required. Men appear to want a more permanent change, according to Dr. Millman. To achieve more permanency, he offers a more specialized surgical procedure. He lifts the skin, muscle and supportive connective tissue surrounding the eye as one integral unit, stretches it taut and reattaches it to the bone. This strengthens the entire eyelid and gets more permanent aesthetic results, from five to eight years, he says. "Not only does aging cause skin to relax, it has the same effect on the muscles and ligaments that hold up the skin," says Dr. Millman. "To produce lasting results, both are rejuvenated." Using this more specialized procedure, less skin is removed to achieve a healthy-looking skin surface. In addition, basic functions such as eye motility, closure and protection are preserved. Patients who have had several traditional plastic surgery procedures and have had too much skin removed can develop problems with lagophthalmus (cannot close lids) and scleral show (white of the eye is overexposed). TOP
Combining Eyelid and Forehead Lifts -- A Novel Team Approach
Dr. Millman performs hundreds of oculoplastic operations a year, but when a patient wants to combine an eyelid and upper face procedure with a nose or neck procedure, he joins forces with his sub-specialist colleague, Thomas
Romo, M.D. "We operate at the same time on the same patient, combining our sub-specialties to treat medical conditions, trauma and eye and facial aesthetics," said Dr.
Romo. "This is unique. By applying reconstructive surgery to plastic surgery, we offer men and women who have complex facial needs more permanent results." Drs. Millman and Romo also offer the option of using the CO2 Pulse Laser in their reconstructive approach to plastic surgery. The rapid pulse laser can vaporize wrinkles from wide surface areas of the skin quickly, without removing skin. "The advantages of strengthening the entire eyelid -- skin, muscle, connective tissue -- to remove bags, combined with removing surface wrinkles by vaporizing them with a laser appear to promising," said Dr. Millman. Wrinkles appear because aging skin loses elastin and collagen fibers begin to separate. The pulse laser removes a thin, 100-200 micron depth of skin, a process which retightens collagen fibers. Patients who have laser surgery for wrinkles must wear a special ointment for several weeks, may have sensitive skin form a much longer period of time and must stay out of the sun, cautions Dr. Millman. In addition, no one knows the long term affects of laser surgery, said Dr.
Romo.
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