Facial Plastic Surgery for Residents of the East Bay - Fremont, San Jose, Pleasanton, Danville, Walnut Creek, and Oakland

There are two main sources seeking advice for facial plastic surgery. Some visit us at Fremont Plastic Surgery for creative options as to how to beautify their noses (please see rhinoplasty), or pin back their ears, or augment their chins or cheeks, or add fullness to their faces or lips. These are patients dissatisfied about a particular facial feature that has caused consternation for them usually since childhood or early adulthood.

Other patients are interested in turning back the clock and recapturing younger images of days past. They typically feel younger than how they appear to themselves when looking into a mirror. Some strive to keep business opportunities open as they compete against younger colleagues in an upwardly mobile work environment. Whatever the motivation, when you consult Dr. Okamoto, he will analyze your face and will offer his views as to how your changing facial characteristics are displaying age. Sometimes the forces of age are more noticeable in one particular area, like the forehead or eyelids, and this can be remedied by concentrating on this zone with an appropriate surgical plan, such as a brow lift or blepharoplasty. More often, multiple facial-neck areas are simultaneously losing their tone or drifting downward with gravity. In this case a brow lift, blepharoplasty, and facelift and sometimes other ancillary facial procedures would be recommended at the same time.

Fremont Plastic Surgery, under the guidance of Dr. Eric Okamoto, serves the Greater East Bay triangle from San Jose to Oakland and to those in the San Ramon Valley in cities, such as Walnut Creek, Danville and Pleasanton, and can provide an in-depth and thorough consultation on all facial plastic procedures.

Brow Lift

Often a patient will come to Fremont Plastic Surgery with the notion that her upper eyelids have become too droopy. During the consultation, she is shown that the problem actually is caused by a descending forehead. Frequently, the upper eyelid problem is totally relieved by performing a brow lift. Multiple goals are addressed with raising the forehead. Horizontal lines across the forehead and vertical lines between the brows are improved, sometimes totally eliminated. The brow is returned to a position above the orbital rim trying to maintain the feminine arch toward the outside of the female brow and raising it more evenly across the forehead for males. Those muscles causing the frown lines above the nose are detached and partially excised in an effort to take away that stern appearance that many patients display before their operations. By accomplishing these measures, the results in creating a youthful look are generally very successful for our patients.

Face Lift

Although this is commonly referred to as a "face lift," the facial zones for improvement target the mid-face (cheeks), the lower face (jaw line) and the neck. Perhaps, it would be better named a "mid-face/lower face/neck lift," but it is usually called simply a "facelift." So what does Dr. Okamoto appraise when he determines that a facelift might be an indicated procedure? He will go through a typical checklist and point out these things to you. Has your cheek fat descended creating hollowed-out lower lids? How deep are your nasolabial folds, the grooves from the base of your nose to your outside lips? Do you have a jowl that has disrupted the streamlined jaw line that you had in your youth? How much sagginess, fat, and banding is present in your neck? Remediation of these problems are the multiple goals for face lift surgery.

Blepharoplasty (Eyelid Surgery)

Those seeking cosmetic advice for the aging face often come in focusing on their upper eyelids, lower eyelids, or both. Once the eyelids are brought into perspective with other age-related changes in the surrounding areas, attention is given to the causes contributing to the droopy look for the upper lids or the bagginess for the lower lids. Excess skin is trimmed and fat is usually removed or transposed during these operations. Lid tightening procedures are often included in the surgery of the lower lid.

Other Facial Plastic Procedures

Multiple other cosmetic facial options are available. Sometimes they are incorporated with the other operations previously discussed. Often they are performed as singular procedures. A few of them are usually conducted in the office.

• Skin Resurfacing – laser resurfacing and dermabrasion both serve to diminish facial wrinkling or to smooth out irregular surfaces.
• Cheek Implants – this is a procedure to give fullness to the cheek area where it is deemed deficient.
• Chin Implant – a procedure for those with weakly projecting chins.
• Fat Injection – done independently or in conjunction with facial rejuvenation procedures to augment facial areas where fullness is lacking.
• Lip Augmentation – this is a topic with many options, among which are fat injections, but the full array of possibilities must be discussed at the consultation.
• Otoplasty – when ears protrude too far away from the head, there are various techniques to draw them closer.
• BOTOX® Cosmetic – this is a muscle paralyzer that is utilized commonly to diminish facial lines caused by overactive muscles.
• Restylane®, Collagen, Captique® and other fillers – facial wrinkles and depressions are often amenable to a list of "fillers," which are injected into or under the skin for an effect lasting for a variable amount of months depending on the type of filler utilized.

If you're considering a facial rejuvenation or enhancement procedure, contact us for information or to arrange a consultation with Dr. Okamoto.

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