I think most people are now aware of how sun exposure can cause skin cancers as well as wrinkles. If you are going to go outside, try to do it in the morning. Here’s why… The basic mechanism is that ultraviolet light (aka UV radiation) causes damage to your skin’s DNA. I have already posted previously on the dangers of using tanning salons that promote UV exposure, and that this artificial UV light is a risk factor in melanoma(1) (a very serious type of cancer, sometimes lethal), as well as non-melanoma skin cancers(2). This is especially a problem in young people, who are at greater risk. Your body does have a DNA repair process, that scans for and repairs errors, much like a disc checking program might check your hard disc for errors. The problem is that our bodies do not work at peak efficiency during the entire day: our [Read more...]

Q: Dear Dr.DeLorenzi: I’m thinking about to having a lower eyelid tuck. I am worried about possibility of lower white of eye showing , or my eye shape changing. How often does this happen? If it does happen, can it be fixed? What I want is to get rid of the fat bags under my eyes, and also get rid of the extra skin and wrinkles on my eyes. I am in my mid-50′s, and I also have a deep groove underneath the fat bags. Thank you. A: Hi there: What you are describing is called “scleral show”, and it is a sign of an poor result from eyelid surgery. ‘Scleral show’ occurs when lower eyelids have been treated with traditional lower eyelid surgery, often seen with ‘lateral bowing’. What does that all mean? The traditional (read “old way”) of doing eyelid tucks (blepharoplasty) was to cut away some skin [Read more...]

Facelift takes 7 years off your face! I summarize a recent article from a peer reviewed journal published on Feb 20, 2012.

You can have a ‘free’ consultation with my highly experienced, highly trained Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Registered Nurses who can provide you with valuable, unbiased information. These nurses have been trained by me and have many years of experience in the clinic AND in the operating room. They have seen thousands of patients go through the process from the initial consultation, through the surgery and recovery periods, to years and years of followup care, and they know what works. They can offer you some practical woman to woman information, and they can show you photographs of other patients (who have agreed to allow their photos to be shown) but they cannot make a diagnosis for you (that is, after all, my job!!). They are paid a salary, not a commission, so they do NOT have an incentive to book you for something that you don’t want. They are NOT sales people, [Read more...]

Hyaluronic Acid (HA) Although the name is scary, hyaluronic acid (HA) is actually the name given to a natural compound found practically everywhere within the human body. It was first described many years ago by Meyer and Palmer, examining the jelly found inside the eyeball. The jelly like substance in the eye is primarily composed of hyaluronic acid, after which it was named (hyalos means vitreous in Greek, and thus the vitreous humor in the eye was named for this). It is also found in the skin, and its function there is to maintain the softness and moisture in the skin, and in the cervix, where it forms the mucous plug that must be penetrated by semen to effect pregnancy. In fact, hyaluronic acid has many functions in the human body apart from its physical properties of maintaining and bonding water. That is why we often recommend treatments with HA’s [Read more...]