Archive for the ‘Procedures’ Category

Acne Scar Treatment Healing Diary Released by Dr. Young Seattle

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

So we are excited to release our new photo diary on the healing process and recovery after subcision and deep chemical peeling for Acne Scar Treatment (Here is a link to see this Acne Subcision Chemical Peel Healing Diary). Many of our clients wonder what the healing process is like. We wanted to show the healing process through photos and what to look for in terms of healing and how to clean etc.  Deep chemical peeling is much like the process of laser resurfacing and the recovery and cleaning / healing process. So we invite you to also visit our laser resurfacing page to find out other tips to get the best healing from chemical peeling and laser resurfacing.

Subcision is the process of elevating the tissue under the skin and scarred areas, to allow the depressed scars to elevate to the more normal unscarred skin. This is the first step in making the scars look better. The depression in acne scars can cast a shadow in this area, the darkness clues people on the status that the particular area is not like the rest (ie it looks like a scar).  After the scar is more elevated then you can proceed to polish the skin level to get it to look more like normal skin. The polishing step is when we decide to do laser resurfacing and dermasanding. Dermasanding is the process of dermabrasion with medical grade sterilized sandpaper.  This is a more accurate way of doing dermabrasion in Dr. Young’s opinion. It also avoids spreading infection to the people around.

Thanks for reading

Our team at Aesthetic Facial Plastic Surgery!

Plastic Surgeon: Questions from a potential medical student interested in becoming a doctor and plastic surgeon.

Thursday, January 12th, 2012

This is what someone wrote me with questions regarding becoming a doctor. We thought it would be interesting for some of our readers:

1. What made you choose this profession? I lost my mother to cancer which initiated my decision to become a doctor. It was too depressing to do cancer work for me so I decided to do something more light hearted with facial plastic surgery.

 

2.What is the best thing/experience of a doctor? Making people happy.

 

3. What is the worst? We always do the best we can. Medicine is a complicated profession. Although we use the best technology and latest and proven techniques, sometimes, although not common, people aren’t happy. You can’t make everyone happy as hard as you try. I’m not sure if any person, business, or corporation can make everyone happy.  You just have to keep trying your best, hope for the best and try to turn everything into a positive in some way.

 

4.How long does it take to become a basic doctor? 4 years undergrad, 4 years medical school, 5 years head and neck surgery residency, 1 year fellowship in facial plastics. At a minimum, you need around 11 years after high school. I took 16 years after high school to complete all my training.

 

5. Is physics needed in becoming a doctor? Yes, it is part of the biology degree I needed for premed.

 

6. What is the average percentage throughout grade 11 and 12 you need in high school to become a doctor? You probably need at least a 3.5 gpa to get into a college. But I wouldn’t give up if you don’t.  This will allow you to get into a college. Then in college, I would think you need at least a 3.5 to get into medical school.  But really it will make it easier if you have a gpa that is above a 3.6. I had a gpa of 3.61 in high school. And then in college I had a 3.72 but my premedical classes gpa was higher in college. But in medical school, I was one of the top 2 students for the first couple of years of medical school which earned me the Mcgraw Hill Award. I was also alpha omega alpha honor society in medical school which is awarded to the top 5–10% of the students in your class. In head and neck residency at USC, my yearly exams were always in the 90-95th percentile. During my fellowship board exam I scored the number one score in the country on the written exam.

 

7. What is the starting salary? Hard to say. Starting around 90,000 I would think for a primary care doctor. But it goes up later. Surgeons start around 150k at least.

 

8. Could ones salary raise depending on the number of patients? Of course. One’s salary is often times based on your production. This is what you will find in any sector.

 

9. How do i begin a career as a doctor as above. Do well in high school, then in college, then in medical school. I would consult with your school’s administration. I would research it on the internet as much as possible. I would call undergrad colleges, medical schools. There are resources out there for people like you.

 

10. What is the estimated tuition/ financial expense in becoming a doctor? Undergrad around 20-40 thousand. Medical School can be much more. My tuition in medical school was around 40k for each year for everything. You get paid in residency a small amount like 24k a year.

 

 

Thank you for your time.

Seattle Facial Plastic Surgeon Releases New Webpage specialized for the Seattle Area

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

In an ongoing effort to continually improve our patient’s experience, we are constantly updating our website with informative information. We recently started specific topics on certain areas of the face and certain procedures. One example of this is the issue on facial swelling after a facelift. This page is our start of trying to help the many people out there that might be having swelling after a facelift. We advocate the options of steroids injections or oral administration and we discuss the times and situations when you use either or neither. We discuss using a wrap to help you with your swelling in certain defined areas that are having this issue. Also we discuss the use of tape to help with the fine tuning of how you heal. Revisional surgery is always considered. Re doing the liposuction, carrying further tightening, are just some of the options that we can consider.

In addition to the above, we are also specifically addressing the different topics on facial plastic surgery for the Seattle area through additional pages found under our Seattle Facial Plastic Surgeon home page. We are updating these pages with before and afters, frequently asked questions, helpful links to help you understand the procedure, and also the links to the specific areas of concern as we just touched on in the topic on swelling after a face lift. More of these topics will be added to help face lift patients and patients from other facial plastic surgery procedures around the world.

Please contact us if you have a specific question or would like additional topics added to our website with this link. Plastic Surgery Contact.

Thanks for reading

Our team at Aesthetic Facial Plastic Surgery!

Seattle Face Lift Webpage Released

Saturday, December 31st, 2011

We recently updated our page on face lift from our Seattle / Bellevue based office. There are some helpful links to our procedures including face lifts, eye lifts, fat injections, brow lifts, and the YoungVolumizer, the breakthrough incision less face lift. What is the best thing for you. Dr. Young’s ideas are based on results, natural results and constantly improving the way we do things in facial rejuvenation. It started with his theory on facial beauty called the Circles of Prominence. During his training in Los Angeles, he noticed that some of the results from facial plastic surgery were not natural. Facelifts look pulled and stretched. Eyelifts were leading to people looking different from how they used to look when they were younger. This instilled Dr. Young to find out why. He discovered that much of what was out there describing what was beautiful in the face was relatively sparse. Even today’s plastic surgery textbooks, and other book on beauty still use theories from the 1400′s to describe beauty. Those theories are largely based on Leonardo da Vinci’s theories on beauty that are now referred to as the neo classical canons. They are founded on Roman theories and hence are termed “neo”.  These theories however are based on external landmarks that we just don’t spend that much time looking at when we see and analyze a face.  A new theory must be based on what we spend most of our time looking at. Dr. Young discovered, not surprisingly, that there was something in the eyes that was important for a new theory to be correct.  You can read more about Dr. Young’s theory on facial beauty here.

So what procedure should you choose. Well, if you want to look more like what you looked like when you were younger volumizing will play some role no matter what. The question is whether you changed your appearance over time. If you changed from your facial structure from a grape to a larger grape, you may have extra tissue that will need to be removed. This is where a face lift, neck lift and liposuction can help with.  But if you didn’t change much and just lost volume as you aged, then volumizing might be the main way for you to rejuvenate your face. Dr. Young has a way of determining what is best for you through his theory. Within the middle part of the face, Dr. Young believes that mid face lifts, and lower eyelid lifts are rarely the best option / choice. Volumizing is almost always the best way to rejuvenate this area. The one area that volumizing is the weaker choice is for the jowls, and neck laxity. The double chin, and neck banding are better treated with a neck lift and volumizing will not help much. For the eyes, if you don’t mind a more scultped look then an eyelift might be the better choice for you for you upper eyelids. Also if you didn’t like your eyebrows at the position that they were when you were younger, then volumizing might not be the best choice here and browlifting might be better. Just remember that a browlift will change the way you look but it can improve your eyebrow position.  But don’t do a browlift to return to a younger age and the way you looked when you were younger.

Dr. Young has a nice video on Introducing his Breakthrough Incision Less Face Lift, the YoungVolumizer.

You can visit his new page on Face Lift here (Seattle Face Lift) as well.

Thanks for reading

Our team at Aesthetic Facial Plastic Surgery!

Seattle Acne Scar Treatment Webpage Released

Monday, December 26th, 2011

We have made a new webpage on Seattle Acne Scar Treatment  on our website www.drphilipyoung.com. We added some new pictures / photos and some links to help people understand a little more about how we are treating scars that were created by Acne. We would also like to explain a little about our thought process when it comes to treating Acne Scars.

Acne is a process that can affect all layers of the skin. The process originates from the hair follicle. The hair follicle depending on the point of the growth cycle that it is in will have a certain length that it goes in the skin. At times, the hair follicle will be very deep and sometimes less deep. The point is that when acne erupts, the process can extend deep into the skin and affect all the layers even the area deep to the skin. When scars form from Acne, they also affect all the layers of the skin. So the scarring is really pervasive. That makes treating acne difficult as well. When it comes to excisions, acne scarred skin is less pliable and it doesn’t stretch as much. This makes for a more difficult time with healing. Better results are harder to achieve. So you want to heal your skin. We believe that you have to prep the skin before you actually do other things like excisions, subcisions, punch grafting, flap reconstructions, and deep chemical peeling.  We have a 3-4 step process that we like to do for people. It entails 1. tissue grafting, 2. more invasive work such as excisions, subcisions, deep chemical peeling, punch grafting, flap reconstructions, 3. More refinement, 4. co2 laser resurfacing and dermasanding. Our goals are to heal the skin first, treat the skin with more invasive procedures to get the scarred skin to the same level, repeating the second step until the goals are reached, then refining our results with a polishing technique that entails co2 laser resurfacing and dermasanding.

You can go through our webpages with this in mind to better understand what we are aiming to do.

Thanks for reading

Our team at Aesthetic Facial Plastic Surgery!

Post Care For Your Fillers

Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

Congratulations on having your filler placed! After the procedure, there can be swelling, bruising, lumps and bumps. These gradually decrease over the course of the week and usually improve a lot over the first three days.  We usually suggest manual massage for the first 2 weeks over the areas that are more raised, noticeable or incongruent with the surrounding structures.  If there are still some issues, you should make an appointment at 2 weeks and we can help resolve things for you.  For Restylane, Juvederm, and Perlane, there are enzymes that can be injected to smooth away certain areas.  Also, you can always inject more product to improve the appearance as well.

It is okay to put make-up on after your filler procedure but if you are particularly red it might be better to wait at least 1-2 days.  It is always good to avoid high dose vitamin E, herbal medications, supplements (like fish oil, omega-3’s), anti inflammatories (like naproxen, Aleve, ibuprofen, Indocin, piroxicam, sulindac, ecotrin, Bayer, aspirin, Motrin, Excedrin), and other blood thinners 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after your procedure.  We have a list of medications and things not to take before your procedure on our resource page on our website. Avoiding blood thinners will help in preventing increased bleeding during and after your procedure.  Excessive bleeding can create a lot of complications during your recovery and procedure.

Immediately after your procedure you should try your best to ice the areas of injection for 15min every hour.  Icing is best the first 2-3 days. You can use ice but do not directly apply the ice to the skin.  There should always be something in between the ice and your skin so you don’t freeze or damage your skin.  Plastic zip lock bags are great for this purpose. Frozen peas and cucumbers in a zip lock bag are a common recommendation. Commercially prepared icepacks are also very commonly prescribed.

For the first 48 hours it may be prudent to avoid hot showers (use luke warm water), hot and spicy liquids, foods.  Try to keep things cool for the first 48 hours and limit your activity if possible. For the bruising you can alternate between warm and cold compresses but you should consult our Office before doing so.

If you have increased redness, swelling, or tenderness 2-3 days later this could indicate an infection and you should call us immediately at 425-990-3223 and possibly come in to see us.  We will do everything we can to take care of you. We would like you to make a follow up appointment at 6 months for us to assess your progress.  This is also the ideal time point to re-inject more product and get even longer lasting results based on scientific study.  Please contact us anytime via email or calling us. We would like to be of any help during your journey towards facial rejuvenation.

Your Team at Aesthetic Facial Plastic Surgery

Healing your body and mind

Friday, December 9th, 2011

Once you have the procedure you waited a long time for, it is time to be patient and wait, again, for your body to heal.  Unfortunately, a surgeon’s scalpel is not a magic wand and healing will occur at different rates for different people.  You must allow yourself to heal and be aware it is natural to be impatient for the results and a little anxious because you often look worse before you look better.  Being aware this can happen will help you understand these normal feelings.

 

Sharing your experience with friends and family can help give you a support system during your recovery, but realize they may unintentionally make you question your decision with concerns during your recovery.  While you may think that you are looking pretty rough around the edges, we may tell you that you are healing beautifully.  Trust us.  We will share with you if there is a concern, so if we tell you that everything is healing normally, it is.

 

Your healing will depend on many things such as your general health, your willingness to follow instructions, and your mental attitude toward recovery.  While I can perform the surgery, I cannot “heal” you.  It is up to you to be an active participant in your recovery process to help your body heal the best that it can.  Following all of our instruction is very important, as is working with us to address any complications that may arise.  Even surgeries that are done exactly right can have complications during recovery.  It has to do with the human factor.  We are not machines and every person can react differently and heal differently even when the surgery is done exactly the same.  Every surgeon has unexpected results from time to time.

 

It is important you approach your surgery and especially your recovery with the mindset that we are a team, and you are an integral part of that team.  We must trust each other to be working for a common goal, your successful result.  As the surgeon, I enjoy my work and strive to achieve an ideal result during every surgery for every patient.  I have rigorous standards that my staff must meet in order to be involved in your care.  I am looking forward to working with you to achieve a great result and do not anticipate any post-operative problems.  I will do everything I can to make sure that you are happy with your result.

 

Dr. Philip Young, MD

 

The YoungVolumizer and its future in facial rejuvenation

Tuesday, November 29th, 2011

This blog is to discuss why we think the YoungVolumizer will play a huge part in facial rejuvenation in the future. Here is an example of a patient who received the YoungVolumizer. This will help in the reading below:

YoungVolumizer Before and After

YoungVolumizer Before and After

 

When Dr. Young was training in Los Angeles, he noticed how the most famous and wealthy people were looking odd after facial plastic surgery. Now if the people in the know and the people with all the resources in the world were getting odd results, what would it be like for the average person. I would say not likely much better. Dr. Young tried to find out why. Through his search he discovered that some of the most basic things in plastic surgery needed some improvement. At the core of this was our blue prints for our goals in plastic surgery. Facial beauty and the knowledge of what makes a face beautiful is like an architectural plan is to a builder. Dr. Young found that our ideas on facial beauty were incorrect and flawed. Even today in 2011, our most dominant theories on facial beauty is based on Leonardo da Vinci’s theories of Facial Beauty that were founded back in the 1400′s. Recently, we have shown that these theories were incorrect. So plastic surgeons never really knew what made a face beautiful or not.  Dr. Young thought that this was a serious fact that we needed changing immediately. He then went on a journey to find out just what made a face beautiful or not. During those years of research he discovered his theory on facial beauty called the Circles of Prominence. Also during this time of about 8-10 years, Dr. Young was also discovering the benefits of facial rejuvenation through volumizing of the face. The culmination of the two lead to the YoungVolumizer, the breakthrough incision less face lift. This may sound too good to be true so you can find out more about this procedure on our website www.theyoungvolumizer.com. But, this procedure, has made a difference in many people’s lives and you can read about our testimonials for the YoungVolumizer.

Why is this procedure so important? Well it all has to do with how we age. Ideally, it is most advantageous to reverse aging in the exact order that use to get the person where they are at in the current moment.  If you try to reverse aging in a different order you get unnatural results. This is what happened in the past with traditional procedures. A large part of aging is from a volume loss. This face contracted in and down. The goal of volumizing is making the face younger by directing it up and out.  Most traditional procedures tended to make the face up, backward and more inward.  It brought the face nowwhere near the point that it used to be.  That lead to the pulled, tight and unnatural look.  You can get more of a visual representation of this in our Introduction to the YoungVolumizer here.

Notice in the above picture, how we have made the face amazingly smaller as well.  We did this by adding a lot of volume. How did we do that? Well that is our secret. You can find out more by coming into to discuss your needs through a consultation if you would like. We hope that this article will give you some hope on making your face look more rejuvenated.  We are confident that we can achieve many of your facial rejuvenation goals and we look forward to talking with you in the near future.

Thanks for reading

Our team at Aesthetic Facial Plastic Surgery!

 

Benefits of Plastic Surgery

Monday, November 28th, 2011

I recently came across this positive article regarding the benefits of plastic surgery. Often plastic surgery is looked at in a negative way but who are we to tell someone they cannot be happy with the way they look.

Plastic surgery is currently experiencing unprecedented popularity with continuing advancements of technologies for the diverse array of procedures. This has inevitably led to superior results with reduced complications and side effects, leading to a higher degree of customer satisfaction. Consequently more and more people are feeling the immense benefits from improving their image through plastic surgery.

Unique Prerequisites

Whether a person opts to have plastic surgery on their face, hips, breasts or thighs the aim is to sculpt the body in a way that looks natural, the physical and external benefits of plastic surgery can be multi-faceted. Surgeons aim to correct this by taking each individual’s body into consideration before deciding on a desired result.

Many find that they are more outgoing, personable and confident when they become accustomed to their transformation and this heightened sense of self-esteem can be a benefit that lasts a lifetime.

The first thing that many people notice after plastic surgery is that their bodies seem more proportional or balanced. Often a nose may appear too large for a particular person’s face, or a bust that is too large or too small can blur all an individual’s other features making them seem disproportionate.

Rejuvenation

Aging and sun-exposure can also takes it toll on men and women, sometimes making an individual seem older than they actually are. Facial rejuvenation procedures like face-lifts, facial implants, dermabrasion, chemical peels, and Botox injections can restore your once youthful appearance, and replenishing your vitality.

The physical and external benefits of plastic surgery can be multi-faceted. Surgeons aim to correct this by taking each individual’s body into consideration before deciding on a desired result.

Synergies

The wonderful thing about plastic surgery is that the direct benefit is external, but more importantly it will greatly improve your external condition – your inner beauty will be magnified with your newfound self-esteem, confidence and assurance.

Water Ripple Effects

The physical result of plastic surgery produces a healthier look and the ramifications are immense, as this healthy look will often permeate to the patient’s entire lifestyle. People who have surgeries like liposuction and breast reduction usually feel more comfortable in their clothes, that their new bodies allow them to participate in physical activities that they wouldn’t have considered before surgery. Plastic surgery can open new doors to people who have previously lived their lives sheltered. They find themselves participating in activities they never would have in the past such as swimming or aerobics, due to their renewed confidence.

The wonderful thing about plastic surgery is that the direct benefit is external, but more importantly it will greatly improve your external condition – your inner beauty will be magnified with your newfound self-esteem, confidence and assurance.

Heightened Sense Of Self-Esteem That Lasts A Lifetime

Whether a person chooses to undergo plastic surgery to improve their lifestyle or to improve their look, there will always be emotional benefits when a person is finally able to feel comfortable in their body. Many people find that they are more outgoing, personable and confident when they become accustomed to their transformation and this heightened sense of self-esteem can be a benefit that lasts a lifetime.

 

The YoungVolumizer the Breakthrough Incision Less Face Lift

We are releasing a new co2 laser resurfacing live video demonstration

Sunday, November 20th, 2011

We are releasing a new co2 laser resurfacing live video demonstration. Come see our new video and learn more about cO2 laser resurfacing. We also have very informative pages on laser resurfacing if you are planning to have this with your doctor that would be helpful in preparing for the pre procedure time period and after the procedure.

Laser resurfacing involves using a laser monochromatic light (co2, erbium) to remove the top layers of your skin. This action leaves the remaining skin cells located within the hair follicles to “resurface” the areas that have been removed from the laser resurfacing process. In that process you get a renewal of brand new skin over the treated areas. The healing that takes place (under cover) over the next year, leads to an increase in collagen production under the skin cells that tightens the skin layer and reduces fine wrinkles. This gives you an overall improvement to your skin. The lasering of the top layers also removes unwanted skin pigmentation issues, DNA damaged skin cells in the more superficial layers, and other damaged cells and tissue elements. The end results that is achieved is fresh renewed skin with more even pigmentation, decreased fine wrinkles, and more even texture.

Thanks for reading

Our team at Aesthetic Facial Plastic Surgery!