Summer's Here: Doctor Shares Small Procedures With Big Effects

Summer is about many things including enjoying the sun, taking family vacations, making memories with your gal pals or other halves, and wearing your favorite summer dresses and bathing suits. Around this time of year, many women from busy moms to boss babes are prepping to look their best before the summer arrives so they can enjoy all the adventures the season brings confidently.

So whether you just want to freshen up a bit or rejuvenate for a special occasion, there's a number of minor beauty procedures that are highly popular with women producing results quickly and effortlessly. 

Fillers are a great way to freshen up your face before summer. As we age, volume loss and gravity is inevitable. Our faces can be naturally corrected with a variety of fillers. Today, there are many options when it comes to quickly restoring youth such as Voluma, Juvederm, Restylane, Vobella, Vollure, and Radiesse.

Each filler has unique properties that make it ideal for a given facial rejuvenation. For example, Voluma is a thicker filler that is excellent for defining facial structure whereas Juvederm or Vollure are thinner fillers and used best in areas of motion or where skin is thin. Depending on which filler and the quantity needed, treatments can be from $500 for a syringe to $1,200 if multiple syringes are needed.  

Even healthy and active women deal with stubborn fat and it can affect their overall confidence. Kybella and Coolsculpting are cutting-edge tools for getting rid of unwanted pockets of fat without going under the knife. They work in different ways and are used for different parts of the body.

Kybella uses an acid to target and burn off stored fat cells and is approved for fat underneath the chin (but can also be used off label on other parts of the body) while Coolsculpting freezes and permanently kills the fat cells and can be used on almost any body part. Common areas include flanks, abdomen, back, and arms. 

The benefits of both treatments is that they are non-invasive and do not require anesthesia. They can be performed in the office over lunch and there is really no downtime. These treatments both achieve permanent results. The cost of Kybella depends on how many vials are needed for a given area. Each vial runs about $500/vial and you usually need more than 1 more vial to achieve a noticeable result.

Similarly, Coolsculpting cost is based on number of applications used. This can start at $600 per applicator and can go up from there. Cost will vary widely and there are many centers that hold summer specials to help make this more cost effective. They both may require multiple treatments to get desired results and can take at 6 weeks or more to see a difference. 

Choosing the procedure that is right for you depends on your goals, age, and body type. Some things to consider when deciding which treatment is right for you are 1) How quickly do you want to see results? 2) How many treatments are you willing to do to achieve the desired result? 3) What is your budget? 4) How much recovery time is needed.

There are pros and cons for each procedure and the best way to figure out what will help you achieve the results you want is by scheduling a consultation with a plastic surgeon who can help you navigate through the options.

I always say that the cornerstone to a good surgical result is a healthy and fit body to start with. So start with something that doesn’t cost much and that is diet and exercise. 

Contributor:

Dr. Christie Prendergast is a board-eligible plastic surgeon in Orange County, CA who has spent the past 16 years learning all about the art of surgical beauty. She has lived all over the world which has given her an appreciation for the cultural and ethnic differences in beauty. There are many routes to becoming a plastic surgeon, and Dr. Prendergast chose the most thorough and demanding training process: completing entire residences in both general surgery and plastic surgery. She completed her general surgery at the University of California, San Diego and has advanced fellowship at the Aesthetic and Plastic Surgery Institute at the University of California, Irvine.