What’s New in Cosmetic Surgery for 2017

It’s amazing what advancements take place each year in cosmetic surgery. This part year has brought about two major breakthroughs, PicoSure and SculpSure. 

The PicoSure laser is a gamechanger in facial procedures. Almost all women over the age of 30 develop irregular areas of increased pigmentation on their face. As they continue to age, this will extend onto the neck and chest area and also the hands. This is often even more pronounced in the Asian population. Traditional laser treatments have included CO2, IPL and Fraxel lasers. These are very helpful with white skin but the problem is these treatments all cause a tremendous amount of redness and inflammation, requiring missing many days from work and other life activities. In addition, on Asian or light brown skin, they can cause hyperpigmentation.

The Picosure laser allows for dramatic improvement in hyperpigmentation on the face, neck, decollete  and hands, regardless of skin tone – and there is very little to NO downtime! I’d recommend planning on three treatments per area, spaces one month apart.

The other huge breakthrough, for the body, is SculpSure. This is the first treatment modality that lets you melt fat in just 25 minutes, using 4 paddles (cell phone size). You should plan at least two treatments, spaced six weeks apart. Studies by Cynosure show that up to 24% of fat can be reduced in the area. This is a very impressive amount, considering no incisions are needed and you can do this on your lunch break or on the way to the gym. I even did this on myself (see my photos here) to show that it really works. By using heat, it avoids many of the problems that occur with freezing (as with CoolSculpt – uneven fat removal, significant pain, ineffective in many patients, significant nerve damage – causalgia).

Another shift we are seeing is the greater recognition that excellent, pharmaceutical-grade skin care is an integral part of looking younger and healthier. These types of products are only going to be available from a physician’s office and can’t be purchased online or at high end stores. Even with the best laser treatments, you will need excellent skin care to maintain this result.

A few predictions:

• I believe the Brazilian Butt Lift, which is usually achieved by fat transfers, will be found to have a higher complication rate than the public realizes. I have seen fat transfers performed in women with low body fat. The problem is that about 50% of the fat will often not survive (fat needs to acquire a blood supply to live or it just melts away). Therefore, these women will pay a lot of money but will have little to no change in the appearance of their buttocks. I also believe more women experience infections, oil cyst, and fat loss than is presently recognized.

• I believe that the number of facelifts performed will decrease over time as more women choose to delay their facelifts by using fillers, botox and facial lasers like Picosure. Additionally, procedures like Smartlipo can decrease the fullness and tighten the neck/submental area in many of those women between the ages of 35-55 years old.  Ultimately, they may feel the need for a facelift to to tighten the neck, but this will likely be pushed off in many women to a much older age.