Minor Plastic Surgery Procedures That Make a Big Impact on Your Looks

You don’t have to do a drastic plastic surgery procedure to improve your looks. In fact, sometimes quick and minor plastic surgery procedures can make a big difference in how you look. If your goal is to look younger or refreshed, it’s all possible with these procedures below. And the beauty is that 4 out of 5 of them are non-surgical treatments, a total plus for those who are hesitant about going under the knife.

5 minute nose job

Ever wanted to do something about your nose but got scared off from the thought of surgery? Well, you’re in luck. You can reshape and change your nose’s appearance, all with the use of dermal fillers within minutes. It’s called the 5 minute nose job. The results aren’t permanent—they last for about 1 to 2 years—but you’ll get a good sense of how your nose looks like if you ever decided to undergo surgical rhinoplasty.

Dermal fillers

Dermal fillers and Botox may sound like they’re the same thing, but they’re not. Dermal fillers like Juvederm and Restylane add volume to the face and hands. Botox, on the other hand, reduces the appearance of wrinkles by temporarily weakening the muscles that control facial animation.

You can enhance and improve your looks in a few ways with dermal fillers. Are you bothered by sunken cheeks? Fillers can restore volume for a fuller and softer look. Do you have gaunt hands that look like they need to be plumped up? Again, fillers can solve the problem. The results will last anywhere from 1-2 years.

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

Lip augmentation

Sometimes a minor tweak is all it takes to really change your looks. (Example: Kyle Jenner’s enhanced lips that sparked a huge trend on emulating her full lips). So how do you get it yourself? Lip augmentation is usually performed through the use of dermal fillers and sometimes the use of a patient’s own fat. A lip augmentation is a fairly quick procedure—it’s over in a couple of minutes.  

Fat grafting

Fat grafting allows you to have fat from one area of your body which can be transferred to a preferred site for more volume and shape. The fat can be transplanted to several areas like the breasts, butt or face. The major advantage of this procedure is that it allows you to remove unwanted fat from one area and have it in an area where you want volume.

VolumaLift

The Volumalift can give you results similar to that of a facelift, but without the need of surgery. This procedure involves the use of various soft tissue fillers which are injected to different areas of the face. The Volumalift helps restore volume for patients who see loss of volume in their face due to age, weight loss and other factors. This non-surgical procedure can be completed in 30 minutes.

Promotion: Get a Volumalift with up to 4 syringes of filler and up to 60 units of Botox for $1,999. The actual value is $3,500. Book your appointment online or call us at 1-877-695-2835. 

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.

Stretch Marks: 4 Things People Get Wrong About It

Source: Stretch mark photo from BCOG.com

Oh sweet, sweet stretch marks. They’re large and coloured in bold shades of red, purple or white. They hang around on tummies, thighs and hips permanently. They’re reliable little scars because they’ll always be there on your body even when you don’t want them to.

Stretch marks are basically the best self-esteem destroyers, especially when beach season rolls in and everyone’s half naked. Tons of people have them and I could say without real statistical evidence that they all despise them. I’m sad to say that stretch marks cannot be rid of permanently. But there are ways to reduce the look of it. Before seeing how you can treat stretch marks, learn more about stretch marks before you try to conquer this annoying problem.

Stretch Marks Are Usually White or Silver

When stretch marks are just starting to appear on your body, they can look red or purple. Purple or red stretch marks occur when your skin is expanding and when there are micro tears in the skin’s collagen and elastin. With more blood vessels in your injured skin, that’s why stretch marks appear red or purple. These colours could last for months or years after the stretch marks first showed up (Awesome. Not.)

If you have older or mature stretch marks, they look white or silver. This happens after blood vessels fade and when there’s no longer an inflammatory response. More mature stretch marks have less collagen and elastin compared to non-affected skin.

Getting a Good Tan Removes Stretch Marks

Tanning won’t remove your stretch marks. White and silver stretch marks don’t tan the same way as unaffected skin. The first layer of your skin turns darker, but your stretch marks will stay the same. The colour doesn’t change, so white stretch marks stand out even more against tanned skin.

Plus, if you are basking in the sun, make sure you’re wearing SPF sunscreen. Too much sun exposure can damage your skin’s collagen and that’s’ the last thing you want if stretch marks are your concern.  

Weight Loss Gets Rid of Stretch Marks

Stretch marks are considered scars so they’ll still be there when you drop pounds. Stretch marks usually occur due to a few things that cause the skin to stretch: pregnancy, weight gain and weight loss.

Thin People Are Immune to Stretch Marks

It doesn’t matter how big or small you are—people of all sizes can have stretch marks. When people go through puberty, a stage where hormones are rapidly changing, stretch marks can form. Even if a thin person has an impossibly fast metabolism and never gains weight, hormonal imbalances causes stretch marks.

Body builders who are notoriously fit and built can also sport some stretch marks. These marks are usually seen on the upper chest or shoulder areas.

Source: SpaMedica

Reduce Your Stretch Marks With These Treatments

Physcians use fractional lasers and radiofrequency devices such as Enerjet. During this treatment, the Enerjet applicator is applied on the skin where the stretch marks are. The Enerjet propels solubilized soft tissue fillers like Restylane and Juvederm across the skin.

This product is evenly distributed within and under the stretch mark to make them smooth and tight. There aren’t any needles used and there’s no pain. It’s a 30-45 minute treatment depending on how much needs to be treated.  

Different methods and devices are used to reduce the looks of stretch marks. A series of treatments need to be performed for the best results. These programs usually take 3-6 months to finish since each treatment is separated by a few weeks. Expect to see 30-75% improvement in your red, purple or white stretch marks.

Curious for more information? Read more on stretch mark reduction treatments.