Clevens Face and Body Specialists' Blog

 If you’re a mother, your children have no doubt been your number one priority since the minute they were born. Now it’s time to focus on yourself, feeling great about your post-pregnancy body when you look in the mirror, and enjoying going shopping for clothes again.

Beauty magazines, social media channels, and even medical literature have recently seen a spike in the topic of the “jawline.” Eye-catching photographs of celebrity profiles and their chiseled jawlines have made their way into mainstream media, from health and fitness blogs to plastic surgery websites. Even make-up techniques have evolved to include contouring tricks that appear to “enhance the jawline.”  For men, a jawline boost may come from grooming the facial hair in creative ways. Why the sudden focus on this border between our faces and necks?  

Tummy tuck, or abdominoplasty, is a popular cosmetic surgery procedure for both men and women to restore their body and get a smoother, more toned appearance in their midsection. Patients typically seek out this popular body contouring option to address sagging, loose skin and muscle weakness that may be a result of weight changes, pregnancy, or the effects of aging. 

The area that surrounds the mouth, also known as the perioral area, is the first thing patients notice about themselves when it comes to aging—and for good reason! There are many factors involved in this aging transformation: resorption of bone, aging skin, gravity, and fat degeneration. 

Whether through surgery or diet and exercise, losing a massive amount of weight is a very exciting time and a huge accomplishment. You may also find that even after planning your gastric bypass or other weight loss procedure, and putting in the effort required to lose a massive amount of weight, your journey is not yet complete. Many patients who have lost a great deal of weight find they’re left with excess skin. This loose skin can make it difficult to exercise or wear certain types of clothing, and the skin folds can even become irritated or painful. Additionally, patients often say when they look in the mirror after losing weight, the loose skin on their body doesn’t reflect how they feel inside as someone who is now more active and fit. That’s why, following massive weight loss, many patients seek out a board certified plastic surgeon for advice on body contouring to remove excess skin and restore their appearance. 

You love the way your body looks in the mirror, but you dream of sculpting the perfect washboard abs you’ve always wanted. If only there was a treatment that could contour your body to perfection without the need for surgery, downtime, and spending countless hours weight training at the gym, right?

Whether you are aware of it or not, your face is constantly expressing your emotions on a daily basis. The features of your upper face can tell a story: Did you have a good day at work? Are you well rested? How stressed are you? The process of aging holds the power to sometimes hide your true feelings and convey a message that isn’t really you. 

Do you sometimes feel like the outside does not reflect what is truly on the inside? If so, you may want to continue reading this article!

Protruding ears are one of the most common inherited deformities in the head and neck. Although some cultures view it as a sign of good luck, most others associate it with strangeness, oddity, or feelings of anxiety.¹ 

Protruding ears affect people in all age groups. Starting from a young age, children are often teased at school for having protruding ears.² Having this trait can limit a teenager from being social, and may prevent them from doing normal activities like going to a party on the weekend or applying for a public job. Some people even choose specific haircuts to hide their ears. Additionally, there are many stereotypes associated with prominent ears. If you’ve noticed, old-school cartoons depict characters of less intelligence with prominent ears. The media often chooses a person with protruding ears to show an odd or “goofy” individual. 

The eyes are thought to be the first facial feature one sees when assessing beauty. They are the key attribute that helps promote facial harmony and balances the upper face with the lower face. The eyes often convey the initial sense of emotion and can instantly change the world’s perception of you. 

The eyebrows play a fundamental role to help shape your eyes. We use our eyebrows to express a number of emotions: raising them when we are surprised, contracting them when we feel anger, or lifting one up when questioning a thought. 

Today we live in a world of plenty. We can select from hundreds of kitchen appliances, meticulously organized in the digital shelves of the Amazon marketplace. We can choose from at least 10 non-dairy options for milk, and even then we must choose the size of the container we would like. Hair products and body lotions seem like an endless stream of choices at the store, not unlike the movies and shows we can select straight from the comfort of our home. 

What about choosing the right person for a cosmetic facial procedure? Who do you turn to and why?