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Category Archives: Anti-Aging Treatments
Now Is Not the Time to Forego Self-Care
- Monday, 15 June 2020 07:15
- Keystone Cosmetic Surgery Center
- 0 Comments
Me Time. Is this a term you’ve heard or read about in recent years? It is one aspect of the acclaimed self-care everyone’s been talking about. Self-care is largely misunderstood. Many people perceive self-care as bubble baths and massages only. From this perspective, there is a strong chance that self-care will seem selfish. This is what family therapists and psychologists see all the time: people who need a breakthrough but cannot take a break from their busy lives to achieve that.
Self-care is something we all need and it’s often the very thing we avoid. This can be especially true when we hit bumps in the road of life, as we’ve done in the first half of 2020. In just a matter of months, many parents have gone from working full time away from home to working at home while also overseeing children who are doing schoolwork at home. All of this coincides with the general nervousness that uncertainty brings. To think of Me Time at a time like this may sound counterintuitive. Here’s why it’s not.
Your Me Time Isn’t Just for You
It’s easy to think of Me Time as selfish when we only look at the word “me.” We invite you to see how investing in your own relaxation can serve everyone in your life. When we Me Time, we can:
- Process daily stressors better
- Sleep more soundly
- Feel more energized
- Think more clearly
- Have more emotional resources to give our attention to others
- Teach our children the value of acknowledging and attending to their needs
- Boost our immune system
- Minimize anxiety and depression
Me Time Can be Easy
If you’ve not developed a practice of self-care, you may not know where to start. Many people find that they have no ideas at first. A few suggestions include:
- Go for a walk in nature. Being outdoors amongst trees or in a field or near the water can be not only refreshing but healing during difficult times.
- Go to bed! Whether you need some extra sleep or you’d like to read a book, it is beneficial to set an early bedtime at least once a week. If necessary, trade days with your partner.
- Get moving. That walk in nature is one way, as is dancing in the kitchen, swimming, hiking, and going for a bike ride. Physical movement is an excellent way to release stress.
- Get beautiful. The work-from-home situation that many people have found themselves in can lead to the blues. Regardless of what we do on a daily basis, we like to feel good and feeling attractive feels good. Whether your beauty includes doing your hair differently, putting on makeup, painting your nails, or visiting us for a convenient cosmetic treatment doesn’t matter. It’s all about what brings you joy.
If a professional facial or body treatment sounds like the perfect investment into You, we’d love to serve you. Call our Hazleton or Pottsville office today to schedule a visit.
There’s No Such Thing as Once-and-Done When it Comes to Beauty
- Friday, 14 February 2020 06:59
- Keystone Cosmetic Surgery Center
- 0 Comments
Hundreds of patients come through our offices each month seeking to address cosmetic concerns. Often, they relate to the signs of aging, such as sagging jowls, hooded eyelids, and lines and wrinkles. When addressing these concerns, it is important that patients understand the nature of aging. Not only how it affects appearance by why. When we start at the root cause of cosmetic aging, we can better understand why no singular treatment, even surgery, can correct all problems.
The Traditional Approach to Beauty
Historically, the signs of aging have been topical solutions. Ancients used milk baths to promote beautiful skin. More recently, science has developed more powerful topicals such as medical-grade retinoids, hyaluronic acid, lasers, and other high-tech energies. In every one of these instances, the skin can look a little better and become a little stronger. However, long-term beauty is only possible with maintenance. This is why.
Aging does not happen on the surface of the skin. It happens in the dermis, where cells called fibroblasts live. Fibroblasts make collagen and elastin, proteins that then form the skin’s foundation. Collagen is a firming protein, whereas elastin is flexible and allows the skin to stretch and contract. These are vital characteristics that, when lost, lead to sagging, rough, deflated skin. Up until about age 30, our fibroblasts are humming right along, making all the collagen and elastin we need and then some. After that age, these cells go into relative dormancy. When they do, the body’s use of 1 to 2% of existing proteins each year sends us into depletion, where we begin to see the signs of aging.
To truly meet the skin’s needs over time, our job is to keep those fibroblasts stimulated. This means maintenance because no treatment can wake up fibroblasts for good. Each treatment that is performed can stimulate fibroblast activity that lasts up to six months. However, depending on how severe the signs of aging are when treatment begins, several sessions may be needed just to restore an optimal baseline.
If you’ve ever wondered why beauty treatments are “sold” in packages, this is the reason. Beauty isn’t once-and-done, so your treatments can’t be, either. To learn more about the services we offer, contact our Pottsville or Hazleton office.
Is the Facelift Outdated?
- Sunday, 15 April 2018 07:23
- Keystone Cosmetic Surgery Center
- 0 Comments
One cannot argue the fact that aesthetic medicine has evolved by leaps and bounds in the past two decades alone. Before the development of injectables and energy-therapies like radiofrequency, the way to treat lines and wrinkles, sagging skin, and other signs of aging was through surgery. For the sheer fact that the surgical facelift has been around so long, we have all had the opportunity to see this technique go too far.
Some of our favorite celebrities look very different from their norm due to surgical lifting. These cases are few and far between, and yet they are what get our attention – and what creates apprehension about facelift surgery. When we couple exaggerated examples of bad plastic surgery with the immediate availability of injectable treatments, we may easily form the opinion that the facelift is outdated and unnecessary. Here, we want to explore the validity of this theory.
Injectables for Facial Rejuvenation
There are so many injectables on the market today that we can correct a much wider range of concerns than was possible twenty years ago. Botox can smooth those frown lines and crow’s feet, and can even lift the sagging brow. Where Botox leaves off, we’ve got dermal fillers to pick up the slack. Products like Juvederm Voluma have become the go-to for facial contouring, from the jowls to the cheeks and even to the nose. Why wouldn’t this be enough for every person?
Surgical Lifting Has Value
The surgical facelift may be necessary for some situations. This procedure moves tissue into a position that reinstates the youthful contours of the face. In so doing, the surgical facelift achieves longer lasting and more noticeable results. Through refined technique, the facelift of today is much gentler, much more subtle and natural-looking, than those that may have been common just a decade ago. This procedure intends to lift tissue and skin in a conservative manner that complements the bone structure of the face.
Ultimately, our job is to meet your needs and preferences. Beautiful rejuvenating results can be attained with facelift surgery and, in many cases, with injectables or radiofrequency. The final decision is all yours to make; we’re here to provide you with the details you need to feel confident in that decision.
To learn more about surgical and non-surgical facial rejuvenation, call our Pottsville or Hazleton office.
What You Can Do Now for Great Skin in the Future
- Thursday, 30 November 2017 07:58
- Keystone Cosmetic Surgery Center
- 0 Comments
Great skin. We may not look at our beauty concerns and say that they are related to our skin, but most of them are. The signs of aging, such as the formation of jowls or the flattening of the cheeks, are all related to how the skin ages. Primarily, it is the loss of collagen and fatty tissue in the face that leads to many of the concerns men and women express as they get older. This is why our knowledge and attainment of professional skin-boosting treatments is integral to younger looking skin now, a year from now, and ten years from now.
In our cosmetic surgery practices, patients from Philadelphia and surrounding areas can benefit from personal care and non-surgical treatments that boost the appearance of the skin. Some to consider before the busy holiday season includes:
- Customized chemical peels. Chemical peels are spa-treatments that are customized to achieve the exact intensity of peeling needed to achieve the desired result. If you’ve got a special event in a week, a mild peel may be ideal to restore a healthy glow to your skin. If you’ve got more time to invest in recovery, a deep peel may be ideal for the most dramatic improvements, which can include reduced lines and wrinkles and tighter, smoother skin.
- Laser treatments. There are various lasers used in aesthetic medicine to enhance the appearance of the skin. Most work by gently heating and ablating superficial tissue. The result of laser treatments may be heightened radiance, smoother texture, and the reversal of sun damage. Laser treatments are commonly performed on the face, neck, chest, and hands.
- A gentle rejuvenating treatment, microneedling sounds much harsher than it is! This technique makes tiny pinhole channels in the skin at varying depths to incite collagen proliferation. With more collagen flowing through the epidermis, the skin appears smoother, tighter, younger.
Professional spa treatments aren’t just relaxing; they are intended to slow the aging process on the skin, so you look radiant years from now. Learn more about available treatments by speaking to a member of our staff.