When you look at yourself in the mirror do you see dark circles, deep hollows, and tired looking eyes? If your hectic schedule puts extra stress on you and it’s showing, you can refresh one of the most underestimated areas of the face… to restore some youthfulness to your features: the tear troughs.

What are Tear Troughs?
The tear trough is the area under the eye that extends from the inner corner of the eye, arching down in a semicircle. The technical term is the nasojugal groove. When the tear troughs are sunken, they can cast shadows under the eyes that look like dark circles. This gives the face a worn out appearance. This sunkenness also ages the face by creating a visible separation from (this should be the smooth transition) the lower eyelid to the cheek.

What Causes Tear Troughs?
The skin under the eyes is very thin and delicate. It shows signs of distress more easily than thicker skin. It is also more prone to the aging effects of gravity. The tissue laxity and volume loss under the eyes, as we age, leads to the tear trough becoming more prominent. Also, as fat gets displaced from behind the eye, or possibly increases and bulges under the eye, this can accentuate the aging of the eye area.

How can the under eye be rejuvenated?
Try
get more rest
cut down on salty foods
minimize exposure to environmental pollutants

avoid rubbing your eyes so much

Options I offer to rejuvenate the eye area:
Rejuvenate with HA – Hyaluronic Acid Fillers
There are surgical options to reversing tear troughs, but more people prefer to try non invasive treatments first. This has led to the use of hyaluronic acid (HA) fillers, such as Restylane, Juvéderm. When injected on top of the orbital bone, the HA filler attracts water to restore volume. This gives the eyes a fresh, rested appearance – usually the next day after treatment. Results last 6 months to a year, and most people go right back to their daily routine with no downtime or recovery.

Side Effects? Some minor bruising or swelling is common with most injections. This can easily be lessened with an ice pack, and covered by Iredale mineral makeup.

Rejuvenate with HA – Hyaluronic Acid Fillers
There are surgical options to reversing tear troughs, but more people prefer to try non invasive treatments first. This has led to the use of hyaluronic acid (HA) fillers, such as Restylane, Juvéderm. When injected on top of the orbital bone, the HA filler attracts water to restore volume. This gives the eyes a fresh, rested appearance – usually the next day after treatment. Results last 6 months to a year, and most people go right back to their daily routine with no downtime or recovery.

Side Effects? Some minor bruising or swelling is common with most injections. This can easily be lessened with an ice pack, and covered by Iredale mineral makeup.

Subtle Solutions for Significant Youthfulness
Filling the Tear Trough is becoming more common as more patients are realizing that facial rejuvenation can happen from restoring volume loss in subtle areas such as the earlobes, temples, chin, melolabial folds and tear troughs.  One can definitely see a more rested, fresh, and youthful appearance for the whole face by applying HA fillers to rejuvenate the area under the eyes.
Ready to get your face refreshed for Spring. Call today to schedule a consultation to review your options now. Treatment now means you will be getting “rave reviews” from everyone you meet. Be ready for year end school event, work/career conventions, family reunions and more. They will all wonder…but no one will ever know…except you!

Steven Davison M.D.

Board Certified/Plastic/Reconstructive Surgeon

The past year was filled with nude lips and scaled back lashes. The no make up look reigned supreme in 2015. But makeup lovers will be excited for 2016, as the trends have changed and the nude make up look is out. Bright bold red and sultry deep colored lips are en vogue. Create a flirty feminine look with bronze highlights to your cheeks and feminine pinks or peaches for the eyes.

Lovely Full Lips
More attention than ever will be brought to your lips this year. If you’re going to be on trend with the bright candy apple reds and sultry plum hues, you’ll want to make sure you’ve got full, luscious lips to show off. We can help you with Juvederm injections to proportionately plump and femininely fill your lips. These bright colors aren’t forgiving if you’ve over filled your lips, so go with clean lines and an expert injector, like myself, who knows how to create the perfect lips for a harmonious face.

Bronze Goddess
A bronze glow looks healthy and youthful. This bronzer trend can save your skin from sun damage. Use bronzer to get that sun kissed look instead of worshipping the sun, which results in sun spots and an older looking complexion. Also, you can give your cheeks a little help with a liquid facelift. Voluma expertly injected into the cheeks replaces lost volume so your cheek color and contour pops even more. It also results in a slight lift to the mid to lower face that can result in lightening the nasolabial folds and smile parenthesis lines.

Bright Eyes
In the spring you’ll be seeing lots of sunset hues of pink and peach. These flirty and feminine colors complement many skin tones and eye colors. You’ll also see bright blue eye shadows, liners and even mascaras that are playful and certainly can make a statement. If you’re attracting attention to your eyes with bold blues, you’ll want to be sure to smooth out crows feet. Since these wrinkles are cause by muscle movement, it’s best to first relax the muscles with Botox. Then if you want an even greater smoothing out of this area, you can add filler, such as Juvederm.

Makeup as Skincare
While you can’t replace good skincare, such as moisturizers, retinol and other powerful antioxidants, with makeup, I do encourage women to look at makeup as part of their skincare. Throughout the day, before it comes off at bedtime every night, it should be adding to the health of your skin, not taking away from it. This is why I recommend the Jane Iredale makeup line, especially to any of my patients who want to cover bruising or redness after procedures. Here are some highlights of this outstanding cosmetics line:
-uses the highest quality ingredients available to ensure satisfaction with performance, coverage, application and texture
-high performance mineral based formulas that don’t run, crease or smear
non comedogenic…does not block pores

-earned the Skin Cancer Foundation Seal of Recommendation, showing evidence that its products sufficiently and safely aid in the prevention of sun damage to the skin
-products are clinically and dermatologist tested for safety and allergies
-includes anti irritant, soothing ingredients to contribute to skin health
-uses a combination of natural preservatives, never parabens
-product guaranteed to be 100 percent free of animal testing
-no measurable amount of heavy metals in any product including lead and mercury

Being on trend with make up is great, but looking young and healthy is timeless. To schedule a consultation on how we can help you look your best in 2016, visit www.davinciplastic.com.

Steven Davison M.D.

Board Certified Plastic/Reconstructive Surgeon

Everyone takes photos to capture holiday memories…so this is the time to put your best face forward and be “picture posing saavy” for socialite magazines and social media like Facebook and Instagram.  We are seen by hundreds, possibly thousands, of people on Social media venues.  To help you with this…a few tips from photography experts, as well as some of my own advice on how to look great in photos.

Be a picture posing pro… Tips to help you look great in photos:

A Perfect Pout… along with bright pearly whites you must have shiny lips or your smile won’t look as good as it could.  Also, thin lips can add years to perceived age and distort facial balance and harmony. But good news….You can get that plush pout with JUVEDERM. This HA injectable instantly increases lip volume… and in the hands of an Expert Injector, like myself, precise application achieves natural, sexy, supple lips you’ll  really want to show off.

Eyes Youthful and Bright… You’ve heard it said that you should smile with your eyes. Well this is true! And if you’ve got some crow’s feet and forehead wrinkles, you can take years off your eyes with a little BOTOX to smooth out those creases.  Your forehead is part of your “T zone” and often looks shiny in pictures. Remember to apply a light dusting of translucent powder to prevent that shine.

Do Away with the Double Chin…
One of the most common picture blunders is to accentuate the double chin. This unflattering profile can show up in photos even when you really don’t have a problem here. Voluma is great to restore volume and contour to the chin.  Then…you just need to use “slimming poses” such as tilting your head down and angling your chin a tiny bit.

One solution for accentuating your real chin would be to use injectables like VOLUMA to restore volume and contour to the chin area. You can also trick the camera into slimming down your face by slightly tilting your head down and angling your chin out just a little bit. This will give the perception of a sharper jaw line and higher cheekbones.

The Three “P’s” of Pictures: Position, Posture and Pose…
– Position yourself in the middle of a group photo. The people on the end always look bigger.
– Good posture makes you look thinner and your stomach flatter. Simply stand up straight, lengthen your neck, roll your shoulders back, and lift up your chest.

– Pose in a natural, slimming position by resting your weight on one leg. Rest your hand on the hip with shoulder and elbow pointed back or allow your hands to fall naturally at your side while slightly lifting your elbow back and away from your body. This prevents the illusion of a “fat arm” that happens when the arm is pressed against the body. This will prevent your hands from looking larger than normal.

-Follow these tips and look years younger in photos!  Call to schedule your appointment today! www.davinciplastic.com

Steven Davison M.D.

Board Certified Plastic/Reconstructive Surgeon