Cosmetic Surgery Center, Dallas | Dr. Rai

According to clothing experts, there are five types of female shape and females all fit into one of them. It’s the bone structure which determines which shape you have, not any aging or weight gain. When you know which one you have, you are better informed for clothes shopping and can choose your clothing for a more flattering effect.

• The Hourglass Shape -- has a waist at least ten inches smaller than either the shoulders or the hips. Soft fabric and gentle gathers are suggested to flatter this shape.
• The Apple Shape -- is round with not much difference between the shoulders, waist and hips. Wear loose clothing and avoid designs which emphasize the waistline.
• The Inverted Triangle Shape -- has wide shoulders and narrow hips. It is best flattered by simple designs on the upper body and interesting prints and details on the lower body.
• The Rectangle Shape -- is a boyish shape with the shoulders and hips about the same and the waist just a big smaller. Tailored clothing flatters this body shape, and empire lines which draw attention to the bustline.
• The Pear Shape -- has a thick waist and small shoulders compared with the hips. You can use shoulder pads and clothing with shoulder details to help improve the balance.

If you have indeed gained weight and created a pear shape that way, liposuction is a good way to correct it. A tummy tuck might also help if pregnancy has left you with sagging abdominal skin. Liposuction and tummy tucks are easily done together and this often gives the best results.

If you would like to know more about how your particular body shape can be improved, please contact our cosmetic surgery office today and we will be glad to set up a free consultation for you.

Health insurance does not typically cover any cosmetic procedure unless there’s also a convincing health reason for the procedure. An example of that would be a rhinoplasty done both for recontouring of the nose and improvement of breathing such as correcting a deviated septum.

There are some ways of reducing your potential surgery costs.

1. Choose a fully-qualified cosmetic surgeon who has experience in your particular procedure. If you choose an inexperienced or poorly-qualified surgeon you risk having a poor outcome which would require further surgery for correction.
2. Follow your chosen surgeon’s instructions to the letter. All pre- and post-surgery instructions are given for good reasons – because they will enhance your cosmetic outcome and shorten your recovery period. Violating them is just asking for problems. Examples would be taking aspirin right before your surgery – aspirin thins the blood and makes bleeding more likely – or removing dressings too soon, which could invite infection.
3. When inquiring about your potential cost, make sure to get a final total. There may be a basic cost plus several extra costs such as charges for medications, anesthesia or follow-up visits.
4. Look into what is offered by third party financing companies. Dr. Rai works with CareCredit and you can read more on our Cost page. For those who qualify there are low- and no-interest loans, easy terms and choices of repayment period.
   

Considering cost in isolation is not very realistic. When you buy something like a refrigerator, would you decide based on cost alone? Surely you would consider the size and design of the refrigerator and its various benefits and features in relation to its cost. If you really want a good fridge, the cost is worth it.

So with a cosmetic surgery – if you really feel it will enhance your appearance and hence your self-confidence and quality of life, its cost is worth it. The first step is to become more informed about it so that you will know what you are paying for.

To schedule a free consultation with Dr. Rai about any procedure which appeals to you – BOTOX® treatments, breast enlargement, or a Tummy Tuck, for example – please call or email our cosmetic surgery office today.

Pregnancy and childbirth make a lot of changes in a woman’s body. Breastfeeding makes more changes. By the time it is all over, many women look in the mirror and wonder who that person is, so different does she look from their previous image.

A Mommy Makeover is designed to restore as much of your previous shape as possible. Your Mommy Makeover would be customized for your particular issues and problems, and would be carefully planned between you and Dr. Rai.

In the news recently have been reports about Tameka Foster, the wife of R&B artist Usher. She went to Brazil for abdominal liposuction only two months after giving birth to her fifth child. Before that surgery began, she suffered a cardiac arrest and other problems from the anesthesia. She came close to death, but has recovered and will be discharged next week.

Some women have been less lucky and have died. Perhaps the reason this woman went to Brazil for her liposuction was that no accredited U.S. plastic surgeon would do the procedure so soon after her childbirth. It takes some time for the body to recover.

• The blood needs more than two months to change from its elevated blood-clotting condition and blood clots traveling in the circulatory system are a well-known cause of death because they can become stuck in the lungs, heart or brain.
• The uterus needs time to recover, different timeframes according to whether you had a vaginal birth, a C-section, or any pregnancy complications. It may need well over two months.

Don’t Rush Into Your Mommy Makeover

Give your body time to recuperate and relax after the tremendous hormonal and other changes wrought by pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding. In many cases the body will lose extra fat by itself without any cosmetic surgery. If you give it some help with exercise and good nutrition that may be just as successful as having surgery.

However there are many women who are not able to shed the abdominal fat and do come to us for a mommy makeover. Dr. Rai will take time with you to discuss all the options, benefits and risks. He will study your medical history and listen to your goals and worries. He does not rush into any type of cosmetic surgery, but always makes sure his patients understand the procedure they want and accept the risks.

All surgery carries risk. Reaction to anesthesia is a possibility that cannot be foreseen, although the anesthesiologists who work with Dr. Rai are highly experienced and very attentive to their patients. They would catch any such reaction very quickly.

If you would like to know more about Mommy Makeovers and the procedures such as a Breast Lift that may be part of them, please call or email our cosmetic surgery office today for a personal consultation with Dr. Rai.

When the economy slows down and shrinks, as it has been doing lately, discounts become more frequent and more attractive. You may have seen some advertising for low-price BOTOX treatments or cheap skin treatments using dermal fillers like Restylane®.

Perhaps you have also seen recent news about Heparin imported from China which caused deaths and various furniture items made in China which injured babies. It need not be China who exports defective products to the U.S. They could come from anywhere.

When the FDA approves a medication or a treatment substance like BOTOX, it approves a specific form of it, tested in specific ways in a certain sequence of test phases, all supervised by FDA officials. So BOTOX or Restylane made in a different way or under less safe conditions is not included in what the FDA approves for U.S. consumption.

Certainly there are generic versions of medications that we can buy at a cheaper price in a drug store or supermarket. These have also been vetted by the FDA. Unlike medications, cosmetic substances do not have legal, cheaper versions. FDA-approved drugs and devices are sold to all physicians at set prices. There are no bona fide sources for a cosmetic surgeon to obtain the genuine items at a low price and then pass the discount on to clients.

Substances are imported illegally into this country all the time – products made with sub-standard ingredients, in unsafe environments or by untrained workers. Why risk your good health by using them when the real thing is available?

Dr. Rai keeps to the highest standards of client safety and product purity. We offer both BOTOX and Restylane and we recommend them both as excellent ways to rejuvenate the face. If you would like to know more about them, please contact our cosmetic surgery office today and schedule a personal consultation.

The term anesthesia was coined by Oliver Wendell Holmes in 1846 and comes from two Greek words meaning “without sensation”. An anesthetic is not the same as an analgesic. We buy many analgesics over-the-counter, such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen and they block the sensation of pain. There are also prescription analgesics. Anesthesia is a broader term and comes in several forms or levels.

General Anesthesia

A general anesthetic blocks all sensations – pain, itch, pressure, hearing, sight, etc. It renders a person unconscious and blocks memory of the surgery. That person cannot breathe on their own and must be given oxygen. They must be monitored by an anesthesiologist to make sure the vital signs are within safe parameters.

The anesthesiologist calibrates the dosage, administers it, and monitors the person until they can be pronounced sufficiently “awake and alert” to go home, or to be no longer monitored. General anesthesia can be inhaled through a mask or given through an intravenous (IV) line.

Sedation

A sedative is a calming agent. Alcohol is perhaps the most familiar of them. Consciousness is not lost but is depressed. Dosage must be carefully watched as too high a dose will slur the speech, interfere with reflexes, impair judgment and make walking difficult.

A very high dose can cause total unconsciousness and even death, by stopping the person’s breathing and by reducing the blood pressure so low that the heart cannot maintain adequate blood circulation.

Sedation is often combined with a local anesthetic as an alternative to general anesthesia. The local anesthetic is injected and the sedative given through an IV line into a vein. This is usually minimal sedation which keeps you relaxed but allows you to respond to doctor or nurse requests.

Local Anesthetic

A local anesthetic blocks pain sensations in the specific area where it is injected but does not affect the overall consciousness.

When you have a cosmetic surgery done at the Cosmetic Surgery Center in Dallas, Dr. Rai will discuss anesthesia with you beforehand and you can determine together which type will work best. Please contact our office for your free cosmetic consultation.

The February issue of the journal Ophthalmology has the findings of a study done on how people judge age and fatigue. The participants were 47 college students in the Boston area. They were asked to look on a computer monitor at photos of 48 older people and rate either the age or the fatigue level of each person. The monitor was set up to track where their eyes focused.

Study Results

When they analyzed all the data, researchers found that the students had looked at:

• The eyes 46 percent of the time
• The nose 19 percent of the time
• The forehead 13 percent of the time
• Between the eyebrows 11 percent of the time
  

The eyes are considered to be just 21 percent of the face. But in this study they received more than twice that percentage of focusing time. Areas near the eyes received the rest of the students’ attention. These reported percentages total only 89 percent, so evidently some other areas received 11 percent of focusing time.

In commenting on these findings, the study organizer, one Dr. Peter Rubin who is both a plastic surgeon and an associate professor of ophthalmology, remarked that a lot goes on around the eyes. Eyelid skin is the thinnest on the body which makes any puffiness visible, makes them susceptible to sun damage, and causes them to change readily with age.

Probably most people would consider these results to be rather obvious. Of course we look at a person’s eyes to assess their fatigue level. And if age or fatigue has made their eyelids droop or swell, or created dark circles beneath their eyes or left wrinkles on the forehead, of course our glance is drawn to those signs if we’re asked to assess age or fatigue. Perhaps there’s some value in assigning percentage figures to each facial area.

At the Cosmetic Surgical Center we offer eyelid surgery, also known as blepharoplasty. It does indeed give a fresh and youthful look to the eyes. It removes excess fat and skin, removing the droop and puffiness and creating a more alert look. We also offer BOTOX treatments for frown and forehead lines and brow lifts to raise drooping eyebrows.

If you would like to know more about these procedures and how they might benefit you, please call or email our cosmetic surgery office today for a free consultation.

With the economic downturn and rounds of layoffs happening, non-invasive cosmetic procedures have become more popular. It seems that to reduce their chances of being laid off, some people try to avoid taking time off work, such as the week or two of recovery time which would be required after a facelift.

The so-called "lunchtime" procedures -- which are completed in an hour or less -- are most often requested. This includes dermal fillers such as Restylane and Sculptra, and BOTOX (R).

Other procedures which involve short recovery times are also in demand, such as injectable breast enhancers, and SmartLipo which works on small areas of the body.

How BOTOX Works

BOTOX works by temporarily paralyzing the muscle where it is injected. It blocks the chemical bringing messages from the brain that tell the muscle to contract. The muscle receives none of those messages and therefore does not contract.

That gives a cosmetic advantage when it is injected into the corrugator muscle which frowns, or the frontalis muscle which raises the eyebrows and forms horizontal lines in the forehead.

BOTOX For Health Reasons

Paralysis of a muscle is a very useful thing in treating some health conditions.

• Migraines can be treated by paralyzing the muscles around certain nerves in the head. This keeps the nerves free of any pressure or strain.
• Urinary incontinence has recently been treated by paralyzing the bladder muscles. This relaxes the bladder and increases the amount it will hold.
• Guillain-Barre syndrome has been helped in cases where eating triggered tear production. BOTOX prevented the lacrimal glands (under the eyebrows) from creating unnecessary tears.
• Muscle spasms have been reduced or prevented in conditions such as cervical dystonia, crossed eyes and overactivity of various eye muscles, and Bell’s Palsy.
  

At the Cosmetic Surgical Center we offer BOTOX injections for cosmetic enhancement and will be glad to give you a personal consultation. If you would like to know more about all the options for facial rejuvenation, please contact our cosmetic surgery office today.

As cosmetic surgery continues to expand its offerings and become better known to the general public, more men are becoming interested in improving their appearance. The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery collects statistics each year as to how many times each cosmetic procedure is performed.

For 2007, liposuction was the most popular male procedure, with 57,980 procedures and BOTOX(R) was the most popular non-invasive procedure. BOTOX attained that top place for all age groups of women, men, and women and men combined.

One of the procedures that has been increasing in popularity with men is the chin implant. A receding chin is seen as weak and may make the nose seem overly large. It can also give the neck a “fleshy” look. The secret of facial attractiveness is balance.

A chin implant can remove the diagonal contour that runs from the lower lip back to a receding chin and then down any extra fat over the throat. By giving the chin a more thrusting shape it creates more of a right angle below the chin and gives the face more definition.

The Procedure

Before anything is done, you and Dr. Rai would discuss the options and get everything clear. Together you would determine the size and shape of the implant and which type of anesthetic to use. Usually a local anesthetic is used although general anesthesia can be used if you would prefer it.

The procedure takes about one hour.

• A small incision is placed inside the mouth, which means there will be no scar visible on the face.
• A pocket is created over the front of the jawbone and the implant is inserted inside it.
• Dissolving stitches are used to close the incision.
• To give support and reduce swelling, the chin is taped.
  

We will make you comfortable afterwards in our recovery room and monitor you. You will need a ride home and we will check your condition carefully before you leave. Dr. Rai will give you detailed instructions on self-care and you will be back for a follow-up appointment within a day or two.

Please see our male Chin Implant Gallery for the excellent results you can obtain from this cosmetic procedure.

To learn more and find out if you are a good candidate for a chin implant, please contact our cosmetic surgery office and schedule a consultation with Dr. Rai.