Thursday, March 29, 2012

If My Breasts Are Uneven After My Implant Surgery, Can I Have a Touchup?


Dr. Yoho and Judy Yoho enjoying some time away from the office


These cases are very individual. Many times the breast implant surgery is a compromise between creating scars on the breast by doing more incisions, and having the best shape. Each case is its own animal, so to speak, and we need to carefully evaluate and do a lot of thought before touching up breast surgery.

That said, if your breasts are significantly uneven after our initial surgery, sometimes a simple procedure is all that is needed to make them closer to perfect.

Touching up breast implant always involves further risk of capsule formation or hardening of the breasts. This problem probably increases with every additional surgery on the breast, and additionally, careful attention must be given to the original approach to the breast implant to be sure that we’re not cutting off additional circulation to the breast tissue. The rule of thumb is that if it’s possible, we need to use the same incisions as were used originally. We view these cases as a challenge, and we need our patients to have proper expectations about this sort of surgery. Particularly, patients need to understand the idea that a second touchup might be necessary in cases like these.

Generally, the implants are changed out with new implants if the implant space is entered.

Most of this depends on you: Your psychological setup about your expectations, your level of perfectionism, but most importantly, just what your breasts look like and how much breast tissue you have to work with over top of the implant.

Breast wishes,


________________________
Robert Yoho, M.D.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Did You Know That You Can Have Your Breast Implants Insured?



 No, this doesn’t mean that you’ll get a million dollars if one of your breast implants ruptures and you’re not as pretty as you were before. It does, however, mean that for ten years your surgeon will be paid to replace your breast implants if there’s a deflation or loss of volume in your implant. The insurance covers both implants, and you can get the other one replaced at the same time as the problem implant at no extra charge. The fee is just $100 and you have to turn in your insurance forms and pay your $100 within 30 days of your surgery in order to get this special coverage. We recommend it to all of our breast implant patients and we think it’s really worth the nominal fee.

Breast wishes,
______________________

 Robert Yoho, M.D.



Dr. Yoho’s New Skin Care Product

We have developed a new skin care product that is better than anything we’ve tried before, and we’ve been using it for our patients with sun damage and irregular skin and have found that it has impressive results for our patients. This new skin care has a special fresh ingredient without preservatives, so it has to be refrigerated. The product creates new collagen in the skin and turns over the surface skin in a way that makes your skin refreshed-looking and usually lighter in color (producing a more even appearance). 

Note that if you’re not using sun screen, any skin care or special products just won’t work very well. The sun is your enemy in this department. And if you don’t wear your sunscreen, no skin care which is supposed to improve your skin will stand much of a chance. 

We recommend Fallene brand sunscreen, which has both a chemical and a physical sunscreen product included. The physical sunscreen are tiny particles of metallic substance which will go on clear if you rub it into your skin, and this provides instant protection in addition to the chemicals which absorb the sun’s harmful rays.

Monday, March 12, 2012

Botox and the New Botox Medications

One of Dr. Yoho's daughters at the Louvre


Botox is one of the most popular cosmetic procedure options ever, and certainly there are more Botox treatments than any other kind of cosmetic surgery performed in America. Unfortunately, the material only has an affect for three to four months or a bit longer and has to be repeated, but the good side is that if you repeat it regularly for a year at three-month intervals to four-month intervals, less Botox is probably needed.

The other good news is that a cheaper Botox is available now and this is called Dysport. Despite claims of the manufacturers that one is superior to the other, we find these products in practice to be virtually identical, with the advantage of Dysport being a bit less expensive. Whether or not the surgeon passes this savings on to the patient is up to the individual surgeon.

Also, surgeons are ordering these products from outside of the country. This is actually against the law, but in practice, the material seems to be identical, although the bottles can be identified by someone who knows what they’re looking for. Dr. Yoho does not use out-of-the-country Botox or Dysport. 

The second piece of good news is that a new neuromuscular blocker or muscle relaxer is on the horizon and slated to be marketed this year, hopefully for a lower price even than Dysport. We would love to have a product that lasted longer, but we’ve heard no reports to the effect that this new Botox lasts any longer. Hopefully, though, we will be able to pass the price savings on if the new product turns out to be virtually the same as Botox or Dysport.

So don’t believe any claims that one of these things is better than the other. The skill of the injector, the amount used, and just where the material is placed are the critical variables in how long it lasts and what kind of a result you have. Remember to check with your administering surgeon or medical aesthetician two weeks later if you have any question or problem with your Botox or Dysport result. Often there will be a little irregularity in the response or a problem that can be fixed with a few units of additional material, and we do this for free.