Physicalbeauty, a shifting and subjectiveconceptis a crucial stake for many professionals in the cosmetic and beauty industry. A huge stake in a world whereplastic surgery has become accessible to many.

No one can deny that the way we look heavily influences our lives. Most people tend to take very seriously how others see them, and whether their image suits the beauty standards.

Being a good-looking person has undeniable advantages when it comes to job opportunities, professional success and more generally social evolution. The increasing instrumentalization ofthe body is not surprising, since the physical appearance plays such an important role.

It is obvious that the number of cosmetic procedures increases constantly, performed by a wide range of specialists (ophthalmologists, dermatologists or even gynecologists…)

The standards are changing, and nothing lasts for ever. We can all be beautifulin different ways, even if some beauty idealscontinue to prevail.

You should not forget that beauty ideals are mainly created by advertising industries and luxurystandards. It’s aproclaimed, imposed beauty, aiming to create desire and reinforce stereotypes. True beauty is a matter of soul, one that the cosmetic surgery will not artificially create, but emphasizein a natural way.

After a certain age, menopause not only causes mood swings, insomnia and weight gain, but it can also have damaging effects on the skin.

Deep wrinkles, bags under the eyes and dryskin are just a fewof the problems causedby hormonal changes at this age. During menopause, hormone levels acceleratethe skin aging, causing the skin to sag. The hyaluronic acid production is also decreasing, leading to dry skin.

The wisest investment you can do for your skin is starting a skin care program while you are in your thirties.

The skin’s ability to regenerateand replace collagen decreases,as estrogen levels drop. This is the actualcause of deepwrinkles on severalareas such as the forehead, the eyes and themouth.

The first dynamic wrinkles start showing up in the early thirties, so Botulinum toxin (Botox) can already be used in order to relax them.

On the other hand, the repeated use of dermal fillerswill stimulate the collagen production, which allows you to prevent deeper wrinkles that generally show up a few years later.

So these procedures are not only about making you look younger, but also about avoiding or delaying surgery.

Injecting fillers has become one of the most frequent procedures in cosmeticmedicine. While botulinum toxin corrects expression lines, peels smooth the skin and lasers restructure the dermis, injecting hyaluronic acid and other fillers allows the practitioners to reshape the face.

These injections have had quite an evolution, fromthe firstresorbable injectable products like collagen, until the hyaluronic acidthat we use today.

Using low-viscosity hyaluronic acid injections,we can easily correct wrinkles or redefine lip contour.

When thicker fillers started to be used, the purpose became correcting volume lossby injecting in deeper skin layers: hollow temples and cheeks, dark circles under the eye, the lower face slackening, deep folds, hollows caused by the loss of subcutaneous fat, etc …

At this point, a new approach in cosmetic medicine became possible: the face restructuring, which aims to give the face a younger look in a natural way, without exaggerating contours.

Hyaluronic acid has enormous advantages; it’s a fully resorbable, high tolerance product, perfectly integrated in skin tissues, with an immediate and natural effect lasting up to 18 months.

However, the fillers must be high quality products, used with the best adapted technique.

Cosmetic surgeons using needles are no longermere “wrinkle hunters”, as one colleague once said.

Today, surgeons have new, highlyevolved perspectives on what a juvenile looktruly means. They inject a whole seriesof products in orderto liftand remodel skinand thus to prevent aging.

Most consultations don’t last more than an hour and recovery times are also fast.

By the age of 50 or 60, most of us loseabout 20% of our facial bones and fat. As a result, our facelookssagging and emaciated.

Unlike more superficial treatments, the new treatments involve injecting hyaluronic acid under the dermal layer, in order to build a supporting tissue in the cheeks, nasolabial folds and, most effectively, the temples’ skin.

Aging temples will visibly ”melt” in time. These complexe changes are reasons enough to approach a face treatmentwith a global, 3-dimensional technique.

Thanks to several standardized, advanced techniques like ©ChicLift, the signs of aging are no longer inevitable.

Everyone wants to have this 20years old fresh look in their eyes, so it seems logical that many patients consult us with this idea in mind : getting a rejuvenated look of the eyes area.

Even more so since the eyes are a mirror of the soul…

New techniques and injectables have led to a holistic approach when it comes to treatingsigns of aging. However, the procedures involved in this approach are very little documented and there are no approvedrecommendations yet.

This is whyI wanted to provide a detailed and practical guide to restoring volume in the midface  and rejuvenating the eyes area, based on expert consensus recommendations,at a time where cosmetic surgery is losing ground to non-invasive procedures like injections.

The conclusion ?

Combining treatments like botulinum towin injections, Hyaluronic Acid injections and volumizing products undeniably provide an embellishment and rejuvenation effect inthis area.

Botulinum toxin injections have been used for 35 years nowand, when performed by experienced practitioners, they are completelysafe. Relaxingthe eyesmuscles with low doses oftoxin,will notchange the eyes’ expression but simply prevent, foras long as possible, the contractions that cause wrinkles.

Remember that each look has its own morphology and characteristics, which make a person’s unique charm and personality.

One last thing: did you know that researchers statedthat the eye structure and thepersonality could be related ? The genesequences involved in developing the iris also contribute to the development of the brain’s frontal lobe, which could be seen as the ”motherboard”of our personality. But this is a differentstory …

Turkish national congress for Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery.

From the 11th to the 14th of October was held the 39th Turkish National Congress ofPlastic and Aesthetic Surgeons, and I had the pleasure to participate to it.I received a very touching thank you letter that I share with you below. I’m taking this opportunity tothank Dr. ÖZMEN for his testimony and for attending this congress.

Training et Learning à Singapore : anatomy of the face and neck, Asian beauty, Botox and hyaluronic acidinjections. We provided excellence training for practitionerscoming from Dubai, Turkey, Lebanon, Kuwait, Taiwan, and Thailand…

I was very touched by the comment of one of these surgeons, Dr. Alice LIUI, from Taiwan:

Une séquence amusante publiée par une consœur d’Istanbul !

There is one procedure that is very popular among patients seeking to erase fine linesor spots and to restore the skin’s radiance: it’s calledpeeling.

It can be performed at different intensities, using always the same principle: a more or less deep exfoliation of the skin’s upper layers.

We use more or less concentrated acids,according to the type of treatment, and they all aim to refresh the complexion, to blur the spots and toerase certain scars.

This goes from a simple radiance boost to a complete lines and fine lines treatment.

You are wondering what the treated areas are? Actually, all of them. The uppereyelids, the fine lines around the eyes, the forehead, the cheeks, the “barcode” wrinkles around the mouth, the cleavage and even the hands!

The first step – preparing the skin: the patient must put on a special cream during 3 weeks before the procedure.

The second step – the peeling session in our clinic. After cleaning and degreasing the skin withspecific lotions, weapply the acid product for a few minutes, using cotton swabs. Then, the acid solution is rapidly neutralized with an alkaline lotion and rinsed with water. The procedure ends with a softening and hydrating cream.

No recovery time is needed, you can go back to your activity immediately. This peeling procedure can be performed at any time of the year, on all skin types.

For me, it all started with a focus on the human and culturaldiversity, during the30 years spent at the University Hospital of Nice where I treated patients with diseases or trauma of the face and neck. At many points ofmy career,I had to deal with difficult cases. I had to repair or restore the functions and then the naturallook, even when it seemed almost impossible.

Besides, I have always hada passion for getting to know different cultures around the world. It allowed me to train in treating all types of face,of any ethnic group from any continent.

This approach must be supported by high qualifications, as well researchwork like scientific articles and films published for highly rated medical journals (Plastic Reconstructive Surgery Journal / PRS Global open access, Dermatologic surgery …).

This passion forunderstanding and learning has given me the joy of creating the EIFFEL TOWER Nose Lift concept,which isa particularly effective and natural method for reshaping the nose, but also the HEART OF FACE conceptin 2006, which is the first rejuvenation concept emphasizing the beauty of the heart-shaped face, successfully adopted by fellow practitionersand by cosmetic firmsin Asia. We should alsomention the FACESCULPTURE, a global,anatomical and soft remodeling concept, using injections and a 3D technology; or the CHIC-LIFT (eye rejuvenation procedure usingsurgery or injections) in 2016 to name justa few…

The medical Botulinum toxin is manufactured industrially and it’s used as a treatment for strictly local purposes; it has been used for 25 years in neurology, ophthalmology and pediatrics in order to relax muscles that causeabnormal or painful conditions.

The Botulinum toxin blocks the muscle by inhibiting the release of a neurotransmitter responsible for transmitting information between the nerve and the muscle. The acetylcholine causes the muscular contraction; when blocked, the muscle can no longer contract. The botulinum toxin action does not alter the muscle or the nerve, and is fully reversible when the toxin is eliminated. This is the action and the product I use in our clinic for the Botox procedures.

I use it mainly fortreating expression wrinkles inthe upper face (upper third of the face). In this area, the skin and the muscle join, forming a tightcouple that results in theso-called “expression” wrinkles. The muscular relaxation becomes visiblea few days after the injections and it’sreversible; it lasts only 4 to 6 months, so the procedure will have to be repeated if the patientwants to obtain the same result.

Let’s not forget one essential thing: we must conduct an accurate analysis of the entire aging process of the face, because sometimes I might recommend the combined use of different products and techniquesin orderto achieve a more global action.

Thank you for botulinum toxin !
Date: 28 août 2014 20:13:47 UTC+2
Destinataire: doctor@raspaldo.fr
Objet: Thank you for BOTULINUM TOXIN

Hi Dr Raspaldo!

Thank you so very much for seeing me today and being so generous! Im very lucky! It was great to see you, and Im glad you are so well.

I hope you had a Cannes afternoon and got to see your daughters.

When you have a spare moment will you send me my images you took of my nose. I want to show mum.

Thank you very much again and see you soon!!

G

The skin around the eyeshas a very atypical structure that makes it particularly fragile. It’s aphysiological fact, and everyoneis concerned. The skin is twenty times thinner than the rest of the face. It is also less rich in collagenand elastic fibers, and has very little subcutaneous fat, which are the two elements that providedistension and relaxation.

Unfortunately,that’s not all: the blood and lymphatic circulation is lazier in this area.  The 22 musclesare constantly at work, 14 of themare activated every 10 seconds, not to mention the 28,000 daily blinks. The expressiveness of our face clearly influencesthe intensity and precocity of expression lines, but our life style also has an impact. The outline of the eye suffers heavily fromtobacco, pollution, intensive screen use and unhealthy eating.

Toomuch salt causes eye bags, whereasa lazy or excessively solicited liver is a source of bluish darkrings. The factis that as early as age 25, our eyes can start losing their fresh look.

Besides, the skull changessignificantly between 20 and 60 years. The lower areaof the orbits become larger, the boneslose density, the musclesweakendue to the billions of repeated contractions.

The eye becomes rounder,because the opening of the upper eyelids changes. The lower eyelid retracts, due to the receding tissues. At the same time, the fat in the orbital area moves towards the cheekbone. This is what makes us looktired and sad.

According to a study conducted on women, theirmain concern is dark circles (37%), wrinkles (34%), eyebags(15%) and drooping eyelids (9%). But all of these conditions have solutions that can be combined.