Personal Consultation

Our Pre and Post Operative Consultation Process

Our Consultation Process Sets and Delivers on Expectations

Motivation

Our consultation process at the Clinique of Plastic Surgery begins with an evaluation of your motivation for surgery. Realistic expectations and valid motives are important to any medical or surgical procedure. Wanting to look younger and more attractive or to increase your confidence professionally or socially are positive motivations for any type of aesthetic or reconstructive surgery. Using plastic surgery to offset low self esteem or to fulfill a desire to look like Angelina Jolie do not represent the best motives.

Fulfilling Expectations Honestly and Professionally

With so many options in plastic surgery, and its complexity, a consultation with a board certified plastic surgeon is very important!  Just as you would not consult a plastic surgeon for stomach problems or prenatal care, consulting internal medicine doctors or obstetricians for plastic surgery from liposuction to laser procedures is equally inappropriate. It is a matter of proper training and experience. And, no level of technology can offset years of training and experience. Board Certified Plastic Surgeons have experience in hundreds to thousands of plastic surgery procedures and have proven competency to demanding levels. They are the best of the best.

It is equally important that your physical characteristics are taken into account and are conducive to obtaining good results. Small procedures that specifically address problem areas, or a combination of them, can often deliver big results. Determining which areas need treatment takes years of experience and expertise. For example, with facial surgery, is it the eyes, saggy skin, fine wrinkles, or nasal-labial folds? Besides Dr. Drehsen’s signature Refresher Lift, there are at least a dozen features that can be improved with facial procedures such as a brow lift (forehead wrinkles and angry look), lower eyelids (tired look), upper eyelids (impaired eyesight or old look), neck plication (hanging neck skin or "turkey look"), TCA Peel (fine upper lip wrinkles), Fractional Erbium or Nd:YAG 1540 Lasers (age spots, acne scars, fine wrinkles), and so forth.

Visualizing Results

We perform a sophisticated computer simulation that approximates what you will look like after surgery.  While this simulation is not predictive of the actual results, it is highly indicative of outcomes, which are typically superior.

Why can’t the computer show actual results? In some ways the computer is one-dimensional. For example, a brow lift can take away frown lines to create a more relaxed, happier look. The computer can simulate raising the eyebrows up in one direction to illustrate a brow lift while a real life brow lift raises the forehead and the eyebrows in several directions in order to raise the eyes. So, while the computer can simulate the results of the procedure, in cannot take into account many of the extra intricacies our trusted surgeons have refined over the years. Skin tone may also not appear exact in computer simulations, but in some cases may actually be far superior after the procedure as compared to before.

The same is true of before and after photos.

The primary reasons are that, following surgery, skin tone typically improves:

• Wrinkles will tend to disappear because the skin surface is stretched slightly so as to do away with loose/hanging skin;
• Since the skin is displaced slightly relative to the underlying muscles, the old wrinkles have changed position giving them time to "heal" and fade away; and,
• Skin looks fresher and rosier after surgery because blood flow is increased, something that is not simulated by the computer.

The Post Operative Process

On the day of surgery, we take more pictures without makeup so that we have pictures that we can compare, also without makeup, a week to two weeks after surgery.

These pre-operative pictures are actually more important than the consultation pictures because without makeup, all the small wrinkles, folds, and skin blemishes are visible. These clinical pictures are the ones we use to determine the actual changes pre and post operatively.

A week following surgery, we take another set of pictures. These pictures are also taken without make up and are compared with the pre-operative pictures. Slight bruising and light scars will probably remain visible and can be camouflaged with makeup.

In facial procedures involving stem cell enriched fat injections; skin tone can appear more like the skin of someone thirty years younger. This effect is created by stem cells that we inject in the face (along with adipose, or your own fat, tissue), which creates new capillaries that increase the blood supply to the skin and creates this skin glow.

Finally, we take our last pictures between one and months following surgery. These are with makeup and are compared to the ones taken during the consultation.

As you can see in these pictures, the final results can be stunning. Although we cannot turn back the clock, our signature Refresherlift Face Lift procedure can make you appear to be up to 20 years younger.  Actual results are better than computer predictions because the computer cannot show changes in three dimensions.  Nor can the computer show the skin tone enhancement.

The Refresherlift Face Lift procedure used in our examples is not a gimmick like so many of these “lunch time procedures” that do nothing more than make you look unnatural, unsatisfied and poorer. Moreover, the Refresher Lift can only be performed by Board Certified Plastic Surgeons who have shown competence in facial cosmetic surgery.