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To schedule a plastic surgery consultation in Palo Alto with an experienced cosmetic surgeon, contact the practice of Lauren Greenberg, M.D., today.
Lauren Greenberg, M.D.
BOARD CERTIFIED, American Board of Plastic Surgery
Member, American Society of Plastic Surgery
750 Welch Road, Suite 117
Palo Alto, CA 94304
p / 650.617.9907
f / 650.617.9909
Cosmetic Options Available to Palo Alto Patients from Cosmetic Surgeon Lauren Greenberg, M.D.
Many patients that come to my practice seeking plastic surgery and other cosmetic treatments know what areas they would like to improve, but are not necessarily sure of the best treatment for their individual flaws. Below, I have provided information about common procedures performed on patients of all ages and body types. Simply click on the area of the body you would like to improve or click on your age to learn more about some of the treatments available at my practice. To schedule a consultation at my Palo Alto practice, contact the office of cosmetic surgeon Lauren Greenberg, M.D.
By Area of Body
Skin
Do you have fine wrinkles? Deep wrinkles? Pigmentation variation? Crow's feet, forehead lines, or lines between your eyebrows? Do you look tired and have a dull complexion? Acne scarring? Sun damage? Pre-skin cancers or skin cancers? Do you want to do things to prevent aging? Do you prefer non-surgical methods?
There are many non-surgical methods to improve your skin. Not only will your skin look better, it will be healthier - reversing some of the sun and aging damage. Skin products with Retin-A®, hydroquinone, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, sunscreen, and exfoliants all improve the quality of your skin. Skin resurfacing with a chemical peel will improve skin quality. You can also treat fine lines with BOTOX® Cosmetic, Restylane®, and other soft tissue fillers at my Palo Alto office. As an experienced cosmetic surgeon, I can assist you in selecting the appropriate treatment to help you achieve your goals.
When looking at your skin, look at the quality. Do you have many age spots? Freckles? Fine lines? Deep lines? Where are the lines located? These are areas where you can practice "preventive" medicine, to help prevent signs of aging, spots and wrinkles, and skin cancers. The following questions will help guide you to possible appropriate procedures for you.
Sun Exposure
Do you have sun damage? Are you fair skinned with light eyes and hair? Do you wear sunscreen daily? Have you had a lot of sun exposure (work outside, golf, tennis)? Do you have precancers? Scaling patchy areas?
Pigmentation
Do you have pigment problems? Age spots? Skin products and peels can help.
Fine Lines and Wrinkles
Do you have fine lines on the forehead, around the eyes, or between the eyebrows? BOTOX® treatment, skin products, and soft tissue fillers may help. Deeper lines and wrinkles usually indicate you will need skin removal, so a surgical procedure may be indicated. A cosmetic surgeon can recommend the appropriate solution depending on your individual goals.
Face
When considering alterations to the face, the first step is to decide precisely what feature you'd like to improve: Brow? Eyes? Mouth? Neck? How is your skin tone? Is the skin loose? Common procedures to address these problems include facelift, brow lift, blepharoplasty, and non-surgical skin treatments. The following questions will help guide you to possible appropriate procedures for you at our Palo Alto practice. Contact the practice of cosmetic surgeon Lauren Greenberg, M.D., to schedule a consultation to discuss the options available to you.
Forehead
Do you have deep wrinkles? This may mean you need to raise your forehead to lift your eyebrows or upper lids to help your peripheral vision. Treatment can include non-surgical methods like BOTOX® injections, soft tissue fillers, or skin resurfacing, or surgical methods like a browlift, endobrow lift, eyelid surgery, or a combination.
Upper Eyelid
Do you have excess skin, or overhanging skin on the side of your eyelid? Does your eye area seem smaller? Do you have a difficult time applying eyeshadow? Treatment can include skin resurfacing with a peel, an eyelift, a browlift, or a combination.
Lower Eyelid
Do you have pooching of the skin? A shadow under your eye that makes you look tired or sad? Are there fine or deep wrinkles under the eye? Depending on the severity, a skin resurfacing with a peel, a surgical eyelift, or a combination is appropriate.
Cheeks and Nasolabial Fold (crease from nose to mouth)
Does your cheek seem less full or lower? Is your jaw line not as defined as it once was? Is the crease from your nose to your mouth deeper than it once was? For finer lines you can non-surgically treat the area with soft tissue fillers or a peel. For deeper lines, a facelift is the treatment of choice
Mouth
Do you have lines around the mouth? Do you like the size and fullness of your lips? As we age, the lips tend to thin. Treatment options include skin resurfacing with products and peels, soft tissue fillers to fill out the lip a little, or a combination.
Neck
Does the neck/chin have excess fat? Poor definition? Banding? A double chin? A "waddle?" If you are younger or have good skin tone, liposuction may be a good alternative. Otherwise, a facelift is the treatment of choice.
Breast
When considering an alteration to your breasts, it is important to figure out what you do and don't like. Are your breasts symmetric? Do you like their volume? Do you like the shape? Do they sag? Do you want a mature looking breast or a more youthful one? How do you feel about implants? The following questions will help guide you to possible appropriate procedures for you at my Palo Alto practice.
Treatment options a cosmetic surgeon may recommend for the breast are breast augmentation (also known as “augmentation mammaplasty,” “breast enhancement,” “breast aug,” “breast implants”), breast reduction (also known as “reduction mammaplasty”), breast lifts (also known as “mastopexy” - there are many types of breast lifts), and breast reconstruction.
Symmetry
First, are they symmetric? Most breasts are not. Usually one is larger, one sits higher on the chest wall, the nipples are at slightly different heights. Which shape or size suits you better?
Volume
Do you like the volume? Do you want them to be the same size, larger, or smaller?
Shape
Do you like the shape? Do you want more cleavage and upper breast fullness? Do you have narrow or tubular breasts (tubular breasts are a natural variant where the lower half of the breast is not as full, giving a tubular shape)? Do you have wide flat breasts? Do they sag
Cancer
Are you missing a partial or total breast due to cancer?
Remember that your insurance will cover changes to both breasts, even if the cancer impacted only one. So consider your other breast. Is your risk for breast cancer in this side very high? (Do you have the BRCA gene?) Do you like your unaffected breast? You don't need to change it, a cosmetic surgeon can match the reconstructed breast to it. But if you don't like your natural breast, do you want it larger? Smaller? Lifted? Look at this as an opportunity to modify it if you would like.
Body
When thinking about body alterations, it is important to identify whether your dissatisfaction is driven by excess fat, excess skin, or a combination of both. To help identify if your skin tone is good, look for stretch marks, fine wrinkling, or sagging of the skin. As we age, our skin tone naturally declines, but treatments such as liposuction, abdominoplasty, and body lift can improve the appearance of these areas. The following questions will help guide you to possible appropriate procedures for you.
Abdomen
Do you have stretch marks? Overhanging skin? Muscles stretched from pregnancy or weight loss? Have you been pregnant before?
If you have excess fat, can you 'pinch an inch'? Is the fat resistant to diet and exercise? Are you within 20 percent of your ideal weight? Is your weight stable? Is your skin tone good?
Treatment options include liposuction, an abdominoplasty (also known as “tummy tuck”), a mini-abdominoplasty, or a combination.
Love Handles/Flank
This is an area where liposuction is great, EVEN if you have stretch marks. It is also a very common area for men to need help with. Can you "pinch an inch?" Is this where you hold your weight? Do you have a bulge that comes over pant waistlines or is visible in shirts or dresses? Do you have an "apple" shape?
Inner Thigh
We all hate it when our thighs rub together. To analyze your skin tone, look for fine wrinkling or sagging of the skin. You can pinch the skin together to get an idea of how much excess fat you have. If you have a bulge, but the skin is not wrinkled or sagging, liposuction is a good alternative. If you have fine wrinkling or sagging of the skin, you may need to undergo a medial thigh lift to remove excess skin, performed at the surgical center near my Palo Alto practice. Talking to an experience cosmetic surgeon about your treatment options can help you make the best choice to meet your goals. Contact my plastic surgery practice to schedule a consultation about treatment.
Outer Thigh
Do you have a "pear" shape? Do your pants pull tightly at the level just below the bottom? Do you have to buy pants that are too large in the waist in order to get the thighs to fit? Liposuction works well in this area.
Arms
Do you have skin that hangs down when you put your arms out horizontally? Are you embarrassed to wear tank tops? Have you undergone significant weight loss? If you have a lot of loose skin, you may need skin removal, known as a brachioplasty. If your skin tone is good, liposuction works well to give good muscle contour and definition.
By Age
In Our 20s: Think Skin
It is important to make sure you protect and maintain your skin. I recommend wearing daily sunscreen and using good facial products.
The most common procedures tend to be those that are made necessary by family genetics: breast reductions, breast augmentations, and liposuction.
In Our 30s: Think Skin, Breast, and Body
This is a time to optimize non-surgical ways to keep your skin looking young. The skin ages as a result of sun, use, and loss of elasticity. During this time skin care is paramount: you can reverse some of the damage with good skin care products or skin resurfacing (TCA peel, laser.) This is also a time to "prevent" wrinkles from happening. BOTOX® injections can prevent or reverse wrinkles of the forehead, crow's feet, or between the eyebrows.
Common surgical procedures are breast augmentation, breast lifts, breast reduction, eyelifts, browlifts, abdominoplasty, or liposuction.
PREGNANCY and WEIGHT LOSS affect many areas of the body. Plastic surgery can help return a woman's body to back to "normal." Frequent procedures are breast augmentations or breast lifts to return fullness, volume, and lift to the breast. If you are a liposuction candidate, it is good to do liposuction while your skin tone is still good, so the skin retracts tightly after fat removal. Also a tummy tuck or abdominoplasty is particularly good to tighten underlying abdominal musculature and remove skin laxity, fat, and stretch marks caused by pregnancy or weight loss.
In Our 40s: Think Eyes and Brow
Unfortunately, aging continues. This is still a good time for skin care (products /peels /soft tissue fillers /BOTOX® Cosmetic) and common plastic surgical procedures (breast surgery, liposuction, tummy tucks).
People in their 40s start to notice they look "older" or tired. This is usually predominantly due to aging around the eyes. The procedure needed is either a browlift, an upper eyelid lift / lower eyelid lift, or a combination of these. Sometimes, lower facial aging becomes noticeable. If your jowls or neck are becoming noticeable, this may be a good time to consult a cosmetic surgeon about a facelift or facial liposuction.
This is also a time to start doing a skin survey, looking at moles and other skin lesions, as skin cancers become more common as we age. If you have not had a mammogram, get a baseline, and make sure you do self exams. To speak with a Palo Alto cosmetic surgeon about maintaining your health and appearance, contact my practice today.
In Our 50s: Think Face
By our 50s, most people start to notice the face is slacker: the line from the mouth to the nose, the jaw line, and the neck. This is a common decade for people to get a facelift, and if they did not do so before, an eyelift/browlift.
60s/70s/80s
There is no age "limit" for plastic surgery. With our lifespan getting longer, we perform surgeries at older ages. A 60-year-old today is not "old" by most standards. Your medical health, type of surgery, and goals determine if surgery is appropriate for you. Cosmetic procedures are usually browlifts, eyelifts, and facelifts. Reconstructive procedures focus around skin and breast cancers.
As a Palo Alto cosmetic surgeon who has served the plastic surgery needs of patients throughout the Peninsula, I have the knowledge, skill, and inviting demeanor to guide patients through treatment. Contact the practice of Lauren Greenberg, M.D., today to schedule your cosmetic surgery consultation.