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Reasons why Your Skin Needs Help!!

Spring is just around the corner, and we will help you get your skin looking its best as you get ready to bare a lot more of it!
From the latest laser procedures and dermal fillers you can find at our office, to our extensive line of SkinCeuticals products, we’ve got the stuff you need.
We’re stuck in that crazy phase where winter is almost over, but it’s not quite spring. It’s kind of like when Britney Spears was not a girl, not yet a woman. One day it’s sunny, and the next day it’s snowing. One week it’s 60 degrees, the next week it’s polar vortex status, and the frequent changes absolutely wreak havoc on our skin. Sigh.

Reasons why Your Skin Needs Help!!:
If your skin is dry and dull: No matter how much the temperature drops, your skin still needs a boost in cell turnover.
Rule #1: Don’t stop resurfacing. I don’t mean abrasive scrubs—the appropriate and consistent “resurfacing” products will keep your skin looking dewy, hydrated, smooth, and glowing without creating microscopic tears and abrasions. Think retinoids and acid combinations such as glycolic, salicylic, and azaleic acids. If the weather is really cold, then dial down on frequency or strength, but do not stop resurfacing. I also recommend using a proteolytic enzyme once or twice weekly. Proteolytic enzymes are “smart exfoliators” since they only digest dead or diseased cells and cannot disturb healthy, newer cells. Even very sensitive skin types can tolerate proteolytic enzymes.
Rule #2: Adjust your hydration. Oftentimes, individuals simply trade up from a lighter moisturizer to one that is heavier. Think layers—when you layer clothing, instead of just one heavy outer garment, you stay warmer because more heat is trapped between the layers.  Likewise, when you layer hydrators you trap more moisture, prevent moisture loss, and provide a more effective barrier against the elements. Try a lighter serum or cream that is packed with peptides and anti-inflammatories under a heavier barrier cream, topped by sunscreen.
If your skin is oily: The typical conundrum here is that the skin is oily, but actually looks dull and surface dry, primarily due to wind and colder temperatures.  You’re not necessarily producing less oil, but it’s getting trapped in the dead surface layer and your skin appears duller and even your pores are more noticeable.
Rule #1: Exfoliate. Here again, the key is resurfacing. A resurfacing product, with the right combination of acids, will remove the dead surface skin without abrasion and keep your pores unblocked and looking smaller and more refined.
Rule #2: Do not abandon your acne meds. If you have breakouts, select a product that is non-drying and treats acne and aging at the same time. Once or twice a week an enzyme mask or a Retinol mask will provide further skin refinement and help make skin look dewy and luminous instead of simply oily.
If your skin has redness: Stop aggravating, start soothing!
Rule #1: Anti-inflame. Skin that has persistent periods of redness and little red capillaries may be experiencing mild to moderate rosacea. The causative factors in rosacea are varied and complex. However, it is believed that individuals with this tendency produce more of a type of inflammatory protein. The key here is to use products with lots of anti-inflammatory properties such as green tea, red tea, and ascorbyl palmitate.
Rule #2: Be gentle. Your skin also needs lots of barrier protection to prevent moisture loss and enable your skin to more effectively defend itself from transitional elements. Select products according to how dry or oily your skin is. Remember to lay lighter serums under more protective creams.
Rule #3: Sunscreen is an absolute must! The sun’s rays can still penetrate, even on the gloomiest day and UV rays equal inflammation, which sets up conditions that cause and exacerbate rosacea type tendencies.

This information is brought to you courtesy of Dr. Mark Bishara and The Paragon Plastic Surgery & Med Spa in Mansfield and Southlake, TX

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Breast Implants


In 2012, more than 330,000 women in the United States elected to have breast augmentation surgery; worldwide, that number exceeded 1.5 million. Although media coverage suggests otherwise, only a minute percentage of the women who get breast implants are actresses and models. They come from all walks of life; they include policewomen and CEOs, teachers and soldiers, young mothers and nurses.
About 30 percent of the women who get breast implants are in their 20s. They often report being self-conscious about their lack of development or embarrassed about their breasts being asymmetrical or uneven. About 35 percent are women in their thirties, many of whom lost breast volume after childbirth. Some want to recapture their pre-pregnancy breast size, while others liked the breast fullness they had during pregnancy and want to recreate it with implants.
Whether women are having cosmetic breast surgery (augmentation, lift or reduction) or reconstructive surgery after a mastectomy, their goals are similar: They want to look feminine, natural and proportional. They want their clothes to fit better.
In consultation, women ask dozens of questions about the safety, durability and longevity of saline and silicone gel implants – the two types that are approved for sale by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

This information is brought to you courtesy of Dr. Mark Bishara and The Paragon Plastic Surgery & Med Spa in Mansfield and Southlake, TX

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Does a Nose Job Affect the Voice?


NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – People who had rhinoplasty sounded a bit more nasal five months after the surgery, according to a new study from Iran.
The results from 27 surgeries showed that “the voices changed in statistically significant ways, but the changes were subtle,” Dr. Kamran Khazaeni told Reuters Health.
Khazaeni, a surgeon who specializes in ear, nose and throat procedures, worked on the study at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences in Iran.
The 22 female and five male patients “noticed changes, but overall, they were satisfied,” Khazaeni said. Patients ranged in age from 18 to 45 years old.
A team of linguists and speech pathologists detected more pronounced nasal sounds in test words like “man” and “namak” post-surgery after listening to voice recordings of the patients. Persian, the official language of Iran, has no nasal vowels, but does have nasal consonants – like the “m” in “man” and the “n” in “namak” – said Khazaeni, explaining why the group focused on those two words.
The results were confirmed with patient self-assessments and a computer program that analyzes acoustic sounds.
About one in 560 Iranians had cosmetic nose surgery in 2011. By comparison, about one in 1,250 U.S. men and women had the same procedure in 2012, according to national surveys from both countries.
Writing online January 28 in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Khazaeni and his team say that if rhinoplasties can change vocal sounds by narrowing a person’s nasal cavity, people who rely on their voice for professional reasons should be made aware of this possible risk.
But Dr. Steven Pearlman, a facial plastic surgeon based in New York City who was not part of the current research, disagreed, at least in cases where patients are singers.
“The better trained the singer is, the less the nose has to do with it,” Pearlman said.
“I’ve operated on patients who are rock stars, Broadway stars and opera singers,” Pearlman told Reuters Health. “And in the classically trained American style of singing, you sing from the chest and the throat, not the nose,” he said, adding that speaking is different from singing and perhaps Middle Eastern methods of singing rely more on the nasal cavity for sound.
Regarding the study, the idea and goal were good, “but the execution was limited,” Pearlman said.
An important missing element is nasal airflow measurements taken on each patient before and after the surgery in order to detect changes in how air passes through the nose.
“Without this measurement, you may have airflow changes, but you don’t know,” he said.
The study raises interesting questions, such as why these results are being seen in Iran and not in North America, said Dr. Minas Constantinides. Anecdotally, of the more than 2,000 rhinoplasties he has performed, Constantinides said only one patient expressed concerns about more voice nasality after surgery.
Constantinides practices facial plastic surgery in New York City and is secretary of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. He was not involved in the new research.
“I don’t think these results can be broadly applied to rhinoplasty,” he said. But, the current study “raises enough questions to bear being repeated” with larger groups of patients at a medical center in the U.S., he said.
“Rhinoplasty is one of the hardest procedures to do in facial plastic surgery,” Constantinides said.
“Patients understand that surgery always has some risk attached to it,” he said. “However, voice change is not something that patients need worry about in competent hands.”

This news is brought to you courtesy of Dr. Mark Bishara and The Paragon Plastic Surgery & Med Spa in Mansfield and Southlake, TX

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Hair Restoration Shows Tremendous Increase

A recent survey conducted by the International Society of Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) showed that men and women around the world are seeking to correct hair loss while they’re younger rather than putting it off until later in life.

Since the ISHRS starting tracking data on hair restoration in 2004, the extrapolated worldwide volume of surgical hair restoration procedures performed from 2004 to 2012 increased 85 percent.  What explains this tremendous increase in people seeking help for hair loss, even during tough economic times?  We believe the unprecedented growth and increased popularity in hair restoration over the past decade can be directly attributed to the continual refinements and advances in this type of surgery – together with proven medical therapies – that produce natural-looking, permanent results.
Other key findings of the survey include:

  • The number of women undergoing hair restoration surgery worldwide increased 20 percent from 2004 to 2012
  • Patients aged 30 to 49 sought treatment for hair loss more than any other age group
  • In 2012, ISHRS members chose John Mayer and Sofia Vergara as the celebrities with the best hair

In our practice, we offer patients some of the latest techniques in hair restoration surgery and proven medical treatments that can help men and women permanently restore thinning hair.  If you are interested in hair restoration treatments, including robotic hair transplants, and the latest treatment options, we would be happy to speak with you or invite you for a consult at our office.  Please call our office at (817) 473-2120, visit our website at www.MarkBisharaMD.com, or click on the link below.
Get our Free Guide on Robotic Hair Restoration

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Beauty, not disease, motivates teens to wear sunscreen

After offering information about UV light and sun-protective behaviors, the two health-ed videos diverge: one describes the increased skin cancer risk of UV exposure and the other describes effects on appearance including wrinkles and premature aging. Which of these two videos do you think caused teenagers to use more sunscreen six weeks after it was shown?

A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatologyshows that while teens who watched both videos learned and retained the same amount of knowledge about UV light and sun-protective behaviors, only the teens who watched the appearance-based video (and not the health-based video) actually changed these behaviors.
“We see this anecdotally in the clinic. The teens who come in, often it’s because their parents are dragging them. A lot have undergone tanning or never wear sunscreen. You can tell that when we talk about the skin cancer risk, it doesn’t faze them. But when you talk about premature wrinkling and aging, they listen a little more closely,” says April W. Armstrong, MD MPH, investigator at the CU Cancer Center and vice chair of Clinical Research at the CU School of Medicine Department of Dermatology.
The current study aimed to quantify this observation. First, Armstrong and colleagues went to local high schools to recruit 50 subjects. All subjects completed questionnaires demonstrating their baseline knowledge about UV light and use of sun-protective behaviors. Then subjects were randomized into two groups, one of which viewed the health-based video that emphasized skin cancer risk, and the other of which viewed the appearance-based video that emphasized cosmetic changes due to UV exposure. Six weeks later, all subjects again completed questionnaires that showed the knowledge they retained and changes in sun-protective behaviors.
“Interestingly, we didn’t see any difference in teenagers’ knowledge — no matter if they had watched the health-based or appearance-based video, students learned and retained the same amount of information,” Armstrong says.
However, despite knowing the skin cancer risk from UV exposure, the group that had watched the health-based video showed no statistically significant increase in their sun-protective behaviors. On the other hand, the group that had been shown the appearance-based video reported a dramatic increase in the use of sunscreen.
“For teenagers, telling them UV exposure will lead to skin cancer is not as effective as we would hope. If our endgame is to modify their behavior, we need to tailor our message in the right way and in this case the right way is by highlighting consequences to appearance rather than health. It’s important to address now — if we can help them start this behavior when younger, it can affect skin cancer risk when older,” Armstrong says.

This information is brought to you courtesy of Dr. Mark Bishara and The Paragon Plastic Surgery & Med Spa in Mansfield and Southlake, TX

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