The Plastic Surgery Channel

Discover the Top 5 Non-Surgical Procedures to Keep You Looking Young

Most of us try to look our best as we age.  Now it’s become easier than ever to turn back the clock with new advances in medical technology.  Age defying procedures that once required surgery can now be accomplished with very little inconvenience to the patient.  Dr. Jason Pozner, a board certified plastic surgeon in Boca Raton, Florida says, patients are very clear as to what they want.

“Patients want no downtime and no pain.”

By Carolynn Grimes
ThePlasticSurgeryChannel.com

Delay Plastic Surgery

“I’m a wife and a mother and I don’t have time for surgery,” says Melisa Sutter, a Botox patient from Dallas, Texas.  She’s not alone in her way of thinking.  According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, Americans spent more than 3-billion dollars last year on non-surgical procedures and plastic surgeons are taking note of the booming non-surgical business.

“We as plastic surgeons really need to embrace the entire continuum or spectrum of facial aging and that includes non-invasives,” says Dr. Lou Bucky, a board certified plastic surgeon in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Both Dr. Pozner and Dr. Bucky have expanded the non-surgical side of their practices to include highly trained nurse injectors and aestheticians.  It seems the new trend in plastic surgery is to offer more to the patient at every level of the aging process. Currently, non- surgical procedures account for 80 percent of all plastic surgery.

Here are the top 5 non-surgical procedures:

(According to board certified plastic surgeons at ThePlasticSurgeryChannel.com)

  1. Botox  – for  frown lines
  2. Dermal fillers – to treat creases and hollowed areas on the face
  3. Intense Pulse Light  Therapy – for sun damage and hair removal
  4. Coolsculpting – a non-surgical way to remove fat
  5. Ulthera – ultrasound therapy used to lift and tighten the skin on the face and neck

“I think it’s going to be like a pyramid, where people are going to have their non-invasives first, because the recovery is less,  it’s easy to do, and if patients need something later they will move up that pyramid and have their surgical procedure,” says Bucky.

Dr. Pozner points out, there is still a place for surgical procedures.  For example, there comes a time when Botox and fillers have done as much as they can do and a patient may need to look into a traditional face lift.  Pozner says, “At the present time I don’t see non-surgical procedures replacing surgical procedures, but in the somewhat not too distant future, I can see us replacing a lot of plastic surgery procedures.”

This is good news to patients like Sutter who is in her 40’s and a busy mom.  She plans on sticking with Botox or fillers for a few years, then she says, I’ll see if I need anything more substantial later on.