Eyelid Surgery: Your Questions Answered

Eyelid surgery (also known as blepharoplasty) can truly provide a complete makeover to the eyes, helping them look more awake and refreshed. Anyone, regardless of their age, can see eye bags or droopy eyelids. Dr. Mulholland answers a few questions related to their upper and lower eyelids. See if you’ve got similar concerns or questions in mind—hopefully these answers can help you decide on the next steps you’d like to take.

Read the full story here

3 Ways Eyelid Surgery Seriously Boosts Your Looks

Blepharoplasty (aka eyelid surgery) is one of the top most performed procedures in the world. This procedure that often takes an hour to perform can make a major difference in the appearance of patients. Someone might be interested in blepharoplasty for a couple of reasons: the surgery can remove heavy eyebags, improve droopy lids or provide a visible crease in the lids.

Blepharoplasty Removes Eye Bags

Nobody likes to look tired. Having heavy, protruding eye bags would certainly be the way to look exhausted every day. How does a person get eye bags in the first place? Permanent eye bags could be related to getting older or genetics. Other factors that lead to eye bags include:

•        Stress
•      Not enough sleep
•      Dehydration
•      A diet that contains high sodium intake

When your face loses fat volume, the eye bags stand out more because they’re not adjusting as your face shrinks. That’s because eye bags are actually pockets of fat that don’t shrink or enlarge when your face goes through changes related to aging.

Source: SpaMedica. This patient had blepharoplasty at SpaMedica to improve the appearance of her upper eyelids.

Upper Eyelid Surgery Improves Heavy Eyelids

It’s not just underneath the eyes that could make someone look sleepy or tired. Having heavy lids does the same thing too as it makes the eyes look more closed. Upper eyelid surgery can do a number of things like deepening the eyelid crease. Or, excessive skin tissue can be removed. This improves your overall appearance and benefits vision as well if that’s an issue. This procedure can correct upper eyelid droopiness (also known as ptosis).

When having blepharoplasty performed on your upper lids, your plastic surgeon will make an incision where a natural crease would appear and remove any excess fat and skin.   

Double Eyelid Surgery Provides Definition to Lids

Double eyelid surgery helps to define the upper eyelid. This procedure is often performed on Asians—that’s not to say that non-Asian people don’t have it done too—but it’s a popular procedure in Korea and Japan. Double eyelid surgery helps to create definition that suits the rest of a person’s facial features.  It can help make eyes look wider and bigger.  

Source: YouTube screenshots. Tyra Banks said this Asian woman had double eyelid surgery to look more Caucasian. 

People often say that the surgery is simply a way of achieving a westernized look, but that isn’t the case. After all, plenty of Asian people have natural double eyelids. Back in 2008 on her talk show, Tyra Banks had a Korean-American woman named Liz on her show to talk about her double eyelid surgery. Even though Liz said she wanted the surgery to correct her droopy and tired eyes, Tyra insisted that she must have done the surgery to “look more Caucasian.” No doubt, this segment of the episode caused a lot of uproar and controversy because of Tyra’s assumptions and her interjectory opinions.

How Long do Eyelid Surgery Results Last?

Eyelid surgery results can last for several years—anywhere from 10-15 years. For some patients, having a second blepharoplasty isn’t ideal. That’s because if too much skin is removed, they won’t be able to close their eyes. Instead, a brow lift should be performed when the patient ages and sees that their brow is dropping (which causes the appearance of excess skin on the upper eyelid again).

Get More Information on the Procedure

Take a look at before and after photos of past blepharoplasty patients at SpaMedica. Find out more information on the procedure on our blepharoplasty page. We’re here to answer any questions you might have, so don’t hesitate to leave a comment or call us!

5 Wrong Assumptions About Plastic Surgery

Like almost everything else in life, plastic surgery just happens to be one of the topics where people make assumptions. These assumptions tend to stem from word-of-mouth or just a lack of information. If you haven’t noticed, we’re all about talking about and debunking common plastic surgery myths here at SpaMedica. Below are a few widespread assumptions and comments that we hear about various procedures, so we wanted to share some insight and answers to them.

Assumption #1: Botox gives a frozen face

Botox has long had the reputation of giving people that frozen, startled look. A lot of people will think of celebrities who had not so great results after Botox injections like Nicole Kidman. That stems from overdoing the treatment which results in an unnatural appearance. Botox treatments shouldn’t erase all movement in your face—ideally, it’s meant to soften lines or wrinkles.

With your plastic surgeon, you’ll decide where you want to see improvements on your face. By injecting just enough units of Botox in your areas of concern, your end results should look natural and not frozen. And if your treatments are done well, no one should even know that you had anything done.

Assumption #2: I can use my friend or family member’s fat to transfer to my own body

Procedures that involve fat transfer like Brazilian butt lifts or fat grafting to the breasts require taking fat from one area and then transferring it to the butt or breasts. You can’t use someone else’s fat in these procedures. Your immune system simply can’t recognize another person’s fat and would reject their fat if this was attempted. Even if you have an identical twin, there’s still a possibility that the fat would be rejected. Another risk of using someone else’s fat is disease transmission.

Assumption #3: Men don’t get plastic surgery

Women are the ones who are always pegged as the ones who are most concerned with their appearance. With this mindset, the assumption is that women are the people who undergo plastic surgery. According to recent statistics from a RealSelf survey, men have been increasingly seeking plastic surgery procedures. 73% of doctors say their male patients have increased in the last year. 

These men are most interested in:

1. Botox and fillers
2. Eyelid surgery
3. Body contouring procedures
4. Male breast reduction

Men are now more open about wanting to maintain their appearance and will undergo treatments if they feel compelled to.

Assumption #4: Liposuction will help me achieve my target weight

Liposuction is often seen as a method to lose a lot of weight. That’s easy to assume, but it’s simply not the case. Liposuction is a body contouring procedure that removes fat from specific areas on the body for a slimmer looking physique. The procedure is ideal for patients who are at their ideal weight but still have some problem areas like love handles.

Source: SpaMedica. Before and after rhinoplasty at SpaMedica.

Assumption #5: I’ll see my final results right after my plastic surgery procedure

For many plastic surgery procedures, your final results won’t be seen immediately. That’s because there’s a recovery period where there’s swelling or bruising. Take for example rhinoplasty. This is a procedure where patients are required to take at least a week off from work to recover. Rhinoplasty patients should be aware that there’ll be ongoing improvements with their nose that can take up to 1 year to settle. The nose changes greatly over the course of 2-12 months, especially in the nasal tip area. After that, patients can see their final results.

What are some other assumptions you’ve heard about plastic surgery? Let us know and maybe we can address it!

How to Ditch Your Eye Bags for Good

Do you get told that you look tired more often than you like? Blame it on the lack of sleep or long work days. But even if you do get a full eight hours of sleep and you still look far from refreshed, maybe it’s because of your eye bags.

Why do some people have eye bags?

Eye bags are the puffy and sometimes dark pads underneath your eyes. While eye bags can be a temporary issue that goes away after a solid night of sleep, some people have permanent eye bags. Genetics and ageing are the main factors of this cosmetic problem.

When you age, the bone and fat of your face lose volume which all contributes to making you look older. Lower eyelid bags are actually fat and they don’t shrink or enlarge when you age. When you lose those supporting structures and tissue volume in your face, that’s when your eye bags stand out more.

Other causes of eye bags

•      Stress
•     Allergies 
•     A poor diet with high sodium intake
•     Dehydration
•      Lack of sleep

Some creams and anti-aging serums can benefit the skin around your eyes—if you choose the right one and use it for a long period of time. The skin around the eyes is the thinnest layer on our bodies, so it’s considered a highly sensitive area that’s prone to accelerated ageing. It’s best to start your eye skincare regime early (such as in your 20s and 30s) as a preventative measure.

Don’t have enough patience to wait around to see results? Then consider soft tissue fillers or surgery such as blepharoplasty. Soft tissue fillers like Restylane add volume to facial tissue to correct wrinkles and loss of volume. Restylane plumps the area around your lower lids to banish the appearance of eye bags. This treatment takes only 15-45 minutes to complete depending on where the filler is injected and how much is required. Results can last from 6 to 9 months.

Source: SpaMedica. Before and after photos of a patient who had blepharoplasty to remove her eye bags.

A permanent solution to treating eye bags is blepharoplasty, also known as eyelid surgery. Your plastic surgeon makes incisions below your lash line and then removes the excess fat and skin. This technique leaves you with no visible scars. After your surgery, the sutures are removed within 4-6 days. You’ll experience some swelling but that goes down gradually and can be covered up with makeup. You can see the final results within a few weeks.

So, you’ve got surgical and non-surgical options to treat your eye bags. Getting rid of your eye bags won’t only make you look years younger, you also won’t be asked if you had any sleep the night before.

20 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About SpaMedica and Dr. Mulholland

Ever wondered who visits SpaMedica and what kind of treatments they get? What's the average age of SpaMedica clients? What was life like for Dr. Mulholland before he became a doctor? All these questions are answered below!

1. SpaMedica has been in operation in Yorkville, Toronto since 1997.

2. About 70% of Dr. Mulholland’s patients are women

3. Most of these women are between ages 35-55

4. Dr. Mulholland says these women are not privileged housewives. They’re usually very outgoing or hardworking professionals.

5. 90% of Dr. Mulholland’s breast augmentation patients are over 35. They usually have a few kids and want to recapture their breast shape.

Source: SpaMedica. Before and after photo of a facelift patient.

6. Women over age 35 tend to seek non-surgical procedures like Botox Injectable, FotoFacials, Restylane, laser hair removal and leg vein treatments. The top 5 surgical procedures are brow and eyelid surgery, facelifts, breast augmentation, liposuction and tummy tucks.

7. Male clients want to look more youthful. They come in for facial changes such as jowl removal, facelifts, eyelid lifts and rhinoplasty. They seek liposuction to remove unwanted fat too.

8. Dr. Mulholland never operates on teenagers. “Generally the closer women are to age 20—before they’ve had some life experience—the less confident they are about body image. It’s hard to figure out who you are then, let alone confuse it with surgery,” he says.

Source: SpaMedica. Before and after photo of a Botox Injectable patient.

9. At SpaMedica, the average Botox Injectable patient is age 40.

10. Injections of Voluma fillers have become almost 25% of Dr. Mulholland’s job.

11. When it comes to older women, Dr. Mulholland says any insecurity is usually related to professional advancement. “Ageism is rampant in the workplace,” he says.

12. These patients usually want to increase their breasts to a small to mid-sized C cup.

13. According to Dr. Mulholland, Canadian women are at least a cup size smaller than U.S women.

14. Women under 30 usually see him to change their breasts, nose or get rid of unwanted fat.

Source: SpaMedica. Dr. Mulholland played professional hockey with Rogle BK in the Swedish first division. After his year in Sweden, he signed a professional contract with the Calgary Flames.

15. Before becoming a plastic surgeon, Dr. Mulholland was a professional hockey player.

16. Dr. Mulholland studied and completed his core general surgery and plastic surgery training at the University of Toronto.

17. Dr. Mulholland travels around the world several weekends of the year to teach physicians different non-surgical and surgical treatments.

18. He invented the Pan G Lift, a non-surgical treatment that provides results similar to facelifts.

19. He and his team have over 30 years of experience in hairtransplantation and have successfully placed millions of grafts. 

20. The original FotoFacial procedure was co-developed by Dr. Patrick Bitter, Jr. and Dr. Mulholland. This popular procedure is one of the most commonly performed cosmetic procedures in North America.

FotoFacial treatments use radiofrequency, intense pulsed light and infrared energy. They’re pulsed gently on the skin to target facial spider veins, fine lines, blemishes and brown spots on the face, neck, chest and hands.

3 Areas Where You Won’t Lose Fat Without Plastic Surgery

Losing weight is a tough feat that requires a lot of discipline, but what if you’re looking to lose fat in specific areas like your arms or neck? This is called targeted exercise or spot reduction—but according to science, it doesn’t work. You can’t choose specific areas like your chin to shed your fat. Factors like genetics determine where you’ll see weight loss on your body. So unfortunately, those obscure chin exercises like tilting your head up and down won’t help in getting rid of a double chin.

Intense workouts that help you shed body fat overall helps, but sometimes it doesn’t help in specific areas of the body and face. Below are some areas where fat builds up, but can’t always be reduced through exercise.

Source: SpaMedica. Before and after photos of a patient who had BodyTite liposuction to her neck and chin.

Chin

Ever had someone take an unflattering picture of you from a lower angle? It’s a pretty easy way to make you look like you have a double chin.

Looking like you have a double chin in photos might suck, but what if your double chin is just something you’ve always dealt with? Sometimes a double chin is related to carrying excess weight, but it can also be hereditary. If you see that a few of your family members also have double chins, chances are that it’s in the family.  Age is also another factor in having a double chin. As we get older, our skin and muscles loosen. When the muscles around the chin and neck loosen over time, the chin and neck lines aren’t as defined anymore.

What to do about double chins: Neck liposuction helps define your chin and neck area. Newer liposuction techniques like SmartLipo, BodyTite or VaserLipo reduces the amount of fat under your chin and tightens your skin all at once.

“These procedures are performed under local anaesthesia with light oral sedation and a very small incision under the chin. These various techniques use laser energy, ultrasound energy or radiofrequency electrical current to liquefy the fat internally and create some heat. It stimulates skin and dermal contraction,” says Toronto plastic surgeon Dr. Mulholland.

Source: SpaMedica. Before and after photos of a patient who had blepharoplasty.

Under Your Eyes

Spot reduction sounds like it can work (it doesn’t), but there’s no way you’re going to get rid of the fat under your eyes through targeted eye massages and exercises. Fat under the eyes can make someone look older or more tired than they actually are. This thought isn’t the same in all cultures—this article reports that people in South Korea have sought surgery to make their under-eye skin plumper. 

This trend called “aegyo sal” (it translates to eye smiles or cute skin) is believed to make a person look more attractive and youthful in Korea. That’s not quite the case in North America. People go through eye creams and procedures to reduce the fat or puffiness under their eyes.

What you can do about fat under your eyes:  Blepharoplasty, also known as eyelid surgery, can reduce the fat under your eyes. Incisions are made below the lash line for the lower lids and then excess fat and skin are removed. “If excess fat is only present in the lower lids, it may be removed through an incision inside the lower lids conjunctivum with no external incision or scar,” says Dr. Mulholland.

Source: SpaMedica. Before and after photos of a patient who had male breast reduction

Male breasts

Gynecomastia, also known as male breasts or “moobs”, is a condition where a man has excessive amounts of fat in the breasts. This happens due to different things like diet, environmental or hereditary factors. This swelling and enlargement of the breasts can be seen in newborn males, boys and older men. While this condition subsides for some boys, about 8% of boys continue to face this condition. Gyneocomastia isn’t life-threatening, but it can negatively affect a boy or man’s self-esteem.

What to do about male breasts: If losing weight doesn’t help, male breast reduction is a solution to gynecomastia. During this procedure, energy-assisted liposuction techniques like SmartLipo and VaserLipo can be used to reduce the size of male breasts for a flatter, more masculine looking chest.

Working out is great, no doubt. But sometimes, exercise just won’t cut it when you’re looking to cut the fat in certain body areas. Leave a comment here or book an appointment online if you have any questions regarding these procedures.

Botox: 3 Problems You Didn’t Realize It Can Treat

Source: SpaMedica. This patient received Botox injections to her crow's feet.

With selfies practically engrained in our culture now, plastic surgeons have seen an increase in patients coming in for non-surgical and surgical procedures over the past year. A study by the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery revealed that 1 in 3 plastic surgeons saw an increase in requests for procedures due to patients being more self-aware of their looks on social media. Keeping these observations in mind, the surgeons also noted an increase in rhinoplasty, hair transplants and eyelid surgery.

People want to look good—for selfies or to just maintain their youth—and they will do what it takes to achieve it. The latest statistics on plastic surgery trends shows that three quarters of all procedures performed in 2013 were minimally invasive. Unsurprisingly, Botox was the most popular non-surgical procedure performed. While most of these injections were most likely for cosmetic reasons, Botox can treat 3 other common problems millions of people deal with.

Botox Treats Migraines

If you’ve ever had a migraine, you know that they’re not fun or pleasant at all. Migraines differ from regular headaches in that the pain is much more intense and can involve nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to sound and light. Migraine episodes can last for a few hours.

The FDA approved Botox as a treatment option for chronic migraines in 2010. According to Healthline, injections can be made to specific points along the nose bridge, temples, neck, forehead and the back of the head. It can take from 10-14 days after the treatments to feel relief. Usually, Botox treatments for migraines are performed once every 3 months.  

Botox Controls Overactive Bladders

Some people have urinary incontinence, which is the loss of bladder control. This problem could be minor or severe. You could cough or let out a sneeze and that triggers urine to come out. Or, you could have a really strong urge to urinate without getting to the washroom in time. Things like childbirth, pregnancy and menopause can cause urinary incontinence. All this means that women are more likely to experience this problem more than men.

Urinary incontinence could be so problematic and embarrassing for some people that treatment is required. Botox injections to the bladder muscle temporarily treat these overactive bladder symptoms. Results last for about 9 months.

Source: YouTube. Dr. Mulholland talks about Botox and performs it on a patient in this clip.

Botox Reduces Your Excessive Sweating

Most of us sweat more than we would want to when it’s summertime. For some people, though, sweating excessively is a problem regardless of the season or weather. This condition is called hyperhidrosis—about 3% of the world’s population lives with this common condition.

Those who sweat excessively can see sweat in multiple areas of their body such as the armpits, hands, feet or forehead. To temporarily treat the sweating, an injection of Botox is inserted to the problem area. By doing this, chemical signals from the nerves that stimulate sweat glands are blocked. This 10-minute treatment can leave you sweat-free in that area for up to 6 months.

Get Free Botox

Botox isn’t just for pretty faces after all. Sure, it can temporarily erase some wrinkles here and there but there are tons of other things Botox can do for you. If you’ve been thinking about getting treatments, now is the perfect time to do it. 

We’re offering free Botox at SpaMedica. Buy any package (they're all 30% off) and receive 30 units of free Botox. This promotion runs until February 15, 2015 so book your appointment now.