The Latest in Plastic Surgery: Do You Dare in 2015?

EDGE READ TIME: 4 MIN.

Botox, filler, breast augmentation, rhinoplasty, that's so 2014. The demand for outright wacky plastic surgery has surpassed virtually anyone's imagination including most plastic surgeons. As long as there is patient demand to tweak body parts heretofore deemed untouchable, the roster of surreal procedures continues to grow. Philadelphia area board certified plastic surgeon Dr. Lyle Back breaks them down for EDGE, but by doing so, does not unilaterally endorse them.

Grin lift
The corners of our mouths droop as we age. But for an unlucky minority, this permanent scowl can make them look perpetually grumpy. The grin lift as is a surgical way to turn this frown upside down. For the procedure, a surgeon removes small skin triangles from above each corner of the mouth to cause it to lift. What's the upside? People no longer ask you why you are upset. But there is a downside - this creates permanent scars that can make you look like The Joker. Trust your plastic surgeon to guide you in the right direction. You can usually get the same lift-like results without surgery with a simple 15-minute wrinkle filler treatment.

With eyebrow transplants, patients design their ideal eyebrows with a stencil, just like the kind sold at Sephora. Surgeons use the patient-created stencil to achieve what the patients want through one of two procedures: Follicular Unit Transplant (FUT) or NeoGrafting. With FUT, plastic surgeons remove a four-inch-wide slice of scalp from the back of your head and then dissect all the hairs to graft in wherever you'd like. This procedure tends to leave a scar. NeoGrafting involves using a machine to suck out the hairs from your scalp without leaving a scar, but is known to have a lower success rate.

Belly button surgery
Is it possible to turn an outie into an innie? Sure is - most outie belly buttons are actually small umbilical hernias. Surgeons can repair this hernia with an umbilicoplasty - a small incision on the upper surface of the belly button that turns it into a more aesthetically pleasing innie. The procedure creates a permanent scar that is usually well-hidden.

Chubby cheeks are cute in kids, but can make some adults look overweight or jowly. This can be improved by a buccal lipectomy. In this minor surgery, the plastic surgeon makes a small incision inside the cheek and removes a gumball-sized chunk of fat. This causes the cheek hollows to contour inward, improving the jowly or "chipmunk cheek" look.

Bra line back lift
Many women complain to their plastic surgeons about the dreaded "bread back" - unsightly rolls of back fat which make their bras fit uncomfortably. In the past, the only real surgical option was to liposuction this fat away, sometimes leaving the patient with loose skin. The Bra Line Back Lift is a novel procedure where the back rolls are surgically removed, leaving behind a flatter back with a scar that's hidden in the bra line.

Nipple and areola reduction
Some women - and even men - develop excessively long nipples or wide areolas. This can be due to heredity, pregnancy, or just bad luck. Doctors reduce the nipples by literally cutting off the tip or removing some skin at the base of the nipple. Excessively wide areolas are reduced by removing a donut-shaped ring of skin from the periphery of the areola and suturing it into a smaller diameter. This leaves a permanent circular scar around the areola, however.

Thigh gap therapy uses cold lasers to give you space between your legs. The therapy treatment, called Verju', claims to contour your shape by melting away fat cells without surgery. The cold laser does not create any heat, burning sensation or pain as it shines a green beam on the surface of the skin causing a shrinking of the fat cells just underneath. It basically emulsifies the bulging outside layer of your fat, and allows it to exit out of your lymphatic system.

Internal Bra
Want perky breasts but hate wearing a bra? Plastic surgeons have solved this problem with a procedure known as internal bra. British doctors have successfully implanted three patients with internal bras. Doctors use hardened silicone cups and place them under the breast tissue that are then lifted with silk straps secured by being sewn into position. In the more common version, an internal bra-like sling mesh is surgically placed to permanently limit any potential future sagging breast tissue at the time of a breast lift.

Dr. Lyle Back is a well-known, popular Philadelphia area board certified plastic surgeon, in private practice for over 20 years. He specializes in the full range of the most modern and state of the art cosmetic surgery procedures and non-surgical cosmetic enhancement techniques available today.


by EDGE

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