Seattle Plastic Surgeon shows off a GREAT NON-SURGICAL RESULT – take a look at this.

And take a look at these photos.  Her skin quality is so much better and the shape of her jaw line and chin is so improved and her wrinkles —- what wrinkles?????  

Fill ‘er up even if it means saving up some hard earned $$$.

Seattle Plastic Surgeon, Dr. Lisa Lynn Sowder blogs about patient satisfaction with HA fillers such as Restylane, Perlane, Prevelle and Juvederm. 

I’ve been using these fabulous new facial fillers for many years now and have come to really, really love the way they rejuvenate the face without looking fake or tight or overdone. 

Here is one thing I have learned over the years:  patient satisfaction is directly proportional to how full their tank is filled.  The tank is your face and the fuel is the filler. 

Some patients will get to full with one syringe and some will require a half dozen.  It just depends on how many creases a patient has, how deep the creases are and how much fullness would benefit the patient.   And I am not talking freak show fullenss here.  This is Seattle.  I’m from Spokane.   I don’t do freak show. 

The big issue, of course, is the cost and these magical fillers are pricey.   Many patients are reluctant to spend the money ($2800 for 6 syringes!)  especially considering that these fillers are temporary.  But …….. it has also been my experience that these temporary fillers can often last 18 – 24 months even though they are advertised as lasting 6 months.  And ……….. patient’s who fill ‘er up usually need much less volume for subsequent “maintenance”  injections. 

“Fill ‘er up” patients are almost always thrilled and I know they will be back for more.  The patients who settle for just partial correction are rarely impressed and often don’t come back for repeat injections.

So if you need a lot to ”fill ‘er up”, save up and let me really do it right!  Thanks for reading!  Dr. Lisa Lynn Sowder

Seattle Plastic Surgeon, Dr. Lisa Sowder speaks the truth (in the nicest possible way).

It’s the nasolabial folds that make Mel look old.

I saw a very handsome male patient in my office this week who wanted to know why he looked older than what his birth certificate would suggest.  He had recently been mistaken for his daughter’s grandfather (ouch) at a restaurant.  He left the waitress microscopic tip and made an appointment with me.

The facial feature that aged him the most was his nasolabial folds, those parenthesis lines that run from the base of the nose to the corner of the mouth.  (When an stage actor wants to look older, the makeup person draws those lines in and presto, the actor looks 20 years older.)

The good news for my patient was that filling in those folds with a little filler would take years off his face with little to no down time.  Most hyaluroinc acid fillers in this area of the face last a year or more.

He did great with two syringes of Juvederm and did not look at all “done” (which is another advantage of fillers).  I encouraged him to go back to the restaurant with his daughter and let the waitress redeem herself.   He said he felt embarrassed by his tip but I’m sure the waitress was more embarrassed by her faux pas.  I hope they are able to work it out and move on!

I’ve already blogged about the “Lifestyle Lift”. See my blog of a couple of months ago, Today I will say a few words about the “Liquid Facelift” which must be getting some buzz lately because I’ve been getting some questions about it. Take a look at my lady here. The before photo on the left shows an old looking jaw line. The after photo on the right shows the jaw line looking more youthful. This was done using HA fillers which come under many brand names such as Restylane, Juvederm, Prevelle, Perlane, etc. I injected some of the deep creases around her mouth and I injected the indented area between her chin and her jowl, the so-called pre-jowl sulcus. This gives the illusion that the jowl has been tightened and pulled up. Even her neck looks a little better and I didn’t do anything to this area! This is a great non-invasive procedure for patients who want some facial rejuvenation without surgery. This is called a “liquid facelift” because the HA filler is sort of a liquid. I think I will rename it the Jelly Facelift because the filler has a consistency of jelly. This particular Jelly Facelift took about 30 minutes and it should last a year or more. Down time is minimal, usually a few days because of swelling and/or bruising. Nice, huh?