If you’re like most women, you want to avoid joining the likes of certain celebrities tagged with the label “pillow face” by the media.

“Pillow face” is a direct play on the puffy, unattractive result of using too much facial filler or transferred fat. Another term often used to describe this overfilled look is “chipmunky.”

We begin to experience loss of volume in the face in the mid-20s, and by the mid-40s some noticeable wrinkling and loss of skin elasticity have left their mark. Intended to plump up areas of lost volume and restore a youthful fullness, injectables like Juvederm®, Sculptra™, Restylane®, and Radiesse® can be very effective if administered correctly. Injectables allow you to turn back the clock temporarily, without committing to surgical procedures like face lift or eyelid lift. There’s little or no downtime and the injection process if virtually painless. It’s also markedly less expensive.

Despite the many benefits of facial injectables, overfilling can completely undermine the original purpose of using facial fillers — to create a more attractive look. With facial fat transfer, some doctors like to overfill in anticipation of fat loss, but when fat loss is marginal, the artificial-looking pillow face results. The dreaded pillow face can bring unwanted attention and make you even more self-conscious than you were before seeking treatment. It is important that you maintain realistic expectations about what facial fillers can and cannot do and understand the effects of overfilling.

The key to avoiding pillow face lies in choosing a skilled medical expert that you can trust. If you’re thinking of enhancing your appearance with facial fillers, make sure you do your research and choose an experienced Bay Area cosmetic surgeon like Dr.Robert Aycock. Dr. Aycock tailors his facial treatments to each patient and works to achieve beautiful results that are subtle and natural looking, not painfully obvious.

Dr. Aycock has spent his professional career studying the elements of beauty, including ideal facial proportions and the concept of facial balance. He knows what works for each patient and he is able to use his keen insight to create positive changes using a variety of facial fillers. He’s worked with each one of these fillers and researched their effects. He takes your personal ideals and combines them with classic standards of beauty to create a final appearance that is youthful and classy.

Trust Dr. Robert Aycock and his experienced team to give you personalized, natural-looking facial filler results. To set up a personal facial rejuvenation appointment, please contact Dr. Aycock at (925) 937-8377.

Unhappy with your nose? Maybe you feel it’s a bit bumpy, large, or asymmetrical and distracts from your other facial features. Perhaps the tip is too bulbous, the bridge too flat, or the nostrils too small. If you’ve suffered a nose injury in the past, it may look a little “off” and seem to stand out. Some patients seek nose surgery just to improve breathing. Whatever the reason, a skilled rhinoplasty surgeon like Dr. Robert Aycock can help you reshape your nose to a more pleasing, attractive shape.

Designing a New Nose

There are a wide variety of changes Dr. Aycock can make to help you achieve your ideal nose shape. Most common is the removal of excess cartilage and bone to create a subtler, smoother appearance. For patients who wish to enhance a particularly small nose, Dr. Aycock can add tissue to reach the perfect size and shape. Above all, Dr. Aycock will make certain that airflow is optimal and functionality of the nose is not compromised by your physical alterations.

It does help the team if you have an idea of what you’d like your new nose to look like, but don’t feel you have to have an exact depiction in mind. Dr. Aycock will show you a variety of before and after photos to get a feel for your preferences. You’ll start by discussing the aspects of your nose that you are not too fond of and go from there.

Rhinoplasty Steps

On surgery day, you’ll be sedated using general anesthesia. Dr. Aycock will begin the rhinoplasty reshaping by making incisions and pulling back the nasal skin to access the tissue underneath. The nose structure is gently altered according to exact specifications, followed by a redraping of the skin.

Finally, Dr. Aycock sutures the incisions and applies a nose splint to protect the area. The team will let you know exactly what to expect during the healing process and provide explicit instructions to ensure a safe and productive recovery.

Find out how cosmetic surgery can help you get the nose you’ve always wanted. To set up a personal rhinoplasty appointment, please contact Dr. Aycock at (925) 937-8377.

If you’re self-conscious about thin or sparse lashes, you might consider a few new treatments designed to help women enhance eyelashes. As one of several nonsurgical facial enhancements we offer at the office of Dr. Robert Aycock, lash enhancement is quickly becoming one of our most popular makeover selections. We currently offer two options for eyelash enhancement: Obagi ELASTILash® and Latisse®.

Obagi ELASTILash

ELASTILash from Obagi, a leader in skin enhancement formulas, is a new eyelash growth enhancer that has been very successful in helping women achieve noticeably fuller, longer, and thicker eyelashes. In as little as 4 – 6 weeks, patients can enjoy the benefits of more attractive lashes with the added advantage of lash strengthening. Nonallergenic ELASTILash has undergone rigorous scientific testing and is considered safe or use on all skin types. The special ingredient of peptides provide the necessary plumping benefits once only available with temporary mascara.

Latisse

The highly publicized, FDA-approved Latisse is being prescribed across the country as an effective treatment for inadequate eyelashes, a condition called eyelash hypotrichosis. Latisse enhances lash appearance by stimulating growth, both to produce length and thickness. This treatment also helps darken lashes for a more dramatic result. Apply Latisse once a day for results that appear in as little as 8 weeks.

Choosing Your Treatment

There are some subtle differences between the two treatments that you should understand before making a decision. While Latisse requires a prescription, ELASTILash does not. Also, there are some side effects present with Latisse that have not been shown with ELASTILash — in some cases eyelid or iris darkening has been reported after use. We are happy to share all of the specific details with you during your visit.

Schedule a personal lash enhancement consultation with one of our Aesthetic Nurse Specialists for more information on both options and a professional recommendation regarding your best option. To set up an appointment, please contact Dr. Aycock at (925) 937-8377.

Nicknamed the “Vampire Facelift,” the FDA-approved procedure Selphyl is designed to minimize facial wrinkling without surgery using a patient’s own blood. After Selphyl physicians draw blood from the arm, they use a centrifuge to separate the platelets from the red blood cells, mix the platelets with a fibrin mixture, and inject the mixture into the wrinkled facial areas. The platelet mixture stimulates collagen growth and attracts stem cells to the target area, which then become new skin cells. The resulting skin should become smoother and appear less wrinkled within a few weeks.

Results can be comparable to injectable fillers, but what sets it apart from other facial injection treatments is the extraction and injection of a patient’s own blood. The blood drawing process can make some patients feel a bit uneasy, but many feel it is worth the effort since the procedure is much less invasive than facial plastic surgery. Some patients are also attracted to the natural aspect; since the blood comes from a patient’s body, there’s no worry about allergic reactions or other concerns related to animal or synthetic injectable materials.

Although many have reported positive results after Selphyl, calling it a “facelift” is a bit misleading. One word of caution: If you are scheduling your Vampire Facelift hoping to see dramatic results comparable to those of a surgical facelift, you may face disappointment. If you’re looking for long-term wrinkle reduction, Selphyl results typically only last around15 months and will need to be performed regularly.

Some physicians feel the nickname is a bit of a turn-off for potential patients, and many cosmetic surgeons are hesitant to offer a new treatment that hasn’t been around long enough to have a stable safety record. Another downside is the cost, which can set patients back as much as $1,500 per injection. For a more cost-effective, proven nonsurgical wrinkle reduction alternative, keep in mind that facial fillers like Juvederm®, Fat Transfer, Radiesse®, and Sculptra™ can give you results that last 6 months to a year or more.

Dr. Robert Aycock can perform a thorough skin evaluation and discuss a wide variety of anti-aging options to help you choose the best course of action. If you’d like to schedule a facial consultation, please contact Dr. Aycock at (925) 937-8377.

The Allure of Lips & Lashes

Long lashes and full lips — two classical symbols of beauty that have withstood the test of time. Your cosmetic options for enhancing your lips and lashes are safe, FDA-approved treatments that offer quick results with minimal or no healing time necessary. Dr. Robert Aycock can help you improve the look of lips and lashes just in time for Valentine’s Day, with results that require little if any effort to maintain.

Latisse® for Lashes

Whether you were born with sparse or short lashes, or you’ve noticed thinning or lash loss over time, Latisse® from Allergan can help improve both fullness and length. Guided by Dr. Aycock’s careful instructions, you apply the Latisse® formula directly to the lash area. It works by increasing the length of the growth cycle of the eyelashes, thereby producing additional growth. No numbing is needed, but ongoing use is required to maintain results.

Luscious Lips

It’s a snap to get gorgeous, full lips with lip augmentation in the form of synthetic lip implants or injectable fillers. Dr. Aycock will explain the differences and help you choose the right method for your needs.

Lip Implants

PermaLip™ is a biocompatible, flexible silicone lip implant that can give you plump, youthful lips that are highly kissable, too. As the name implies, these implants are permanent, and there’s no risk of leakage or rupture. After you’ve chosen the ideal thickness and shape, Dr. Aycock inserts your implants in a short 30-minute procedures using only local anesthesia.

AlloDerm® is an FDA-approved implant material made from actual human collagen that can be used to create subtle or dramatic improvement, depending on your goals. During a quick surgical procedure that requires only local anesthesia, AlloDerm® is inserted into the upper and lower lips.

Lip Fillers

Injectable fillers such as Restylane® or Juvederm® are a very effective and natural-looking option for patients who desire more temporary lip augmentation and a noninvasive method.

Find out how easy and affordable it is to sweeten your look — whether you’re spicing things up with your sweetheart or hoping to find one! You can contact Dr. Aycock online or call him at (925) 937-8377 to schedule your Valentine’s Lip & Lashes Makeover.

That’s a great question and one that is asked by many men and women like you who want to improve their appearance so they can look as young, vibrant, and exuberant as they feel. There are a wide variety of advanced cosmetic body contouring procedures out there to help you achieve tightening and firming. They are especially beneficial for those areas of the body that are resistant to exercise efforts, altered by pregnancy, or naturally flabby or saggy. State-of-the-art surgical procedures like Liposuction, Tummy Tuck, Buttock Lift, Leg Lift, Arm Lift, Breast Lift and Post Bariatric Surgery can pick up where Mother Nature left off and provide you with just enough enhancement to give you that extra “wow factor.” As you are researching your options, remember that starting with a highly skilled cosmetic surgeon is crucial in your final result.

Dr. Robert Aycock is one cosmetic surgeon in the Bay Area who is being widely talked about for his dramatic tightening and firming results. He’s known for not just performing standard body contouring procedures with precision, but also for his innate ability to accentuate his patients’ natural beauty with body plastic surgery that is very individualized. For instance, if you are hoping to improve the appearance of sagging skin in the upper arms, localized fat in the lower tummy area, and cellulite in the upper thighs, Dr. Aycock can put together a custom-tailored body makeover combination designed to address all three issues in one surgery. His results are centered around accomplishing your contouring goals by making slight changes that greatly enhance your figure and ultimately improve your confidence.

If you’re seriously interested in the benefits of body contouring, talk with Dr. Aycock about the incredible changes that are possible and you won’t be disappointed. He offers many cosmetic procedures for toning and firming. His experience, reputation, and great results make him easy to trust.

The team is really helpful during personal consultations — they’ll listen to your goals carefully and then make recommendations to give you the results you want. Also be sure to take a look at Dr. Aycock’s before and after photos to help you decide on your ideal procedures. You can contact Dr. Aycock online or call him at (925) 937-8377 to schedule your cosmetic body contouring orientation. They’ll take excellent care of you.

“Those forehead wrinkles weren’t their yesterday, were they? And where’d those crow’s feet come from? My arms never used to flap like that when I wave…”

If these notions sound familiar and you’re concerned about signs of aging on your facial and body skin, it may be time to consider the incredible perks of cosmetic surgery. Dr. Robert Aycock is a skilled cosmetic surgeon who understands that his patients want to fight signs of aging with natural-looking enhancements. That’s why he takes the time to create personalized cosmetic changes that will not only rejuvenate your appearance, but also do so in a subtle, sensitive way. You want people to notice, but keep them guessing as to the source of your invigorated appeal.

Every one of our surgical anti-aging solutions is tailored to fit your unique appearance goals. We can review the physical traits that make you self-conscious and design an anti-aging program to target one or several areas of concern.

Anti-Aging Procedures Available

• For sagging skin on the thighs, arms, or buttocks, the leg lift, arm lift, and butt lift can improve the appearance of flabby skin and slim these areas.
• The neck lift takes care of loose skin, wrinkling, and fat deposits that typically appear after age 40.
• The eyelid lift is a very effective treatment for drooping eyelids that can make you look older than you are.
• The facelift and the midface lift are ideal for addressing multiple facial aging issues at once, including wrinkling, loss of elasticity, deep creases, and more.
• Lip augmentation is a popular way to treat loss of volume and wrinkling of the lips due to aging.

See how easy and affordable cosmetic skin improvement can be. If you’d like to discuss your surgical options for younger looking skin, please contact our office in the Bay Area today.

As you get older, skin loses those essential natural substances that are responsible for providing a full, plump, fresh facial appearance. Sunken cheeks, thinning lips, and a receding chin are all normal signs of aging. The good news is that you don’t have to just sit back and watch these changes occur.

With advanced facial augmentation procedures from Dr. Robert Aycock, you can combat facial fat loss and achieve a more youthful and attractive look. Cheek, chin, and lip augmentation are also good solutions for people who are not necessarily losing facial volume due to aging, but wish to enhance their genetic facial structure by strengthening these features.

Cheek Implants

Cheek implant surgery, or cheek augmentation, is performed to improve cheek contours and enhance facial symmetry. It may be performed to create the look of high cheekbones or to help diminish the appearance of other features that are overly prominent, such as a strong chin or large nose. Pre-formed implants are positioned under the soft tissue and held in place by this existing cheek tissue.

Chin Implants

A weak chin can be a source of self-consciousness for some people, and it is especially noticeable if other features are strong. If your chin seems small, a chin implant can help bring a sense of balance to your facial appearance and even minimize the look of a large nose. Pre-formed chin implants are inserted under the chin or inside the lower lip.

Lip Augmentation

If you’re tired of trying to fake full lips with lip-plumping glosses, augmentation can provide permanent, full, pouty lips. Patients with small, deflated lips, asymmetrical lips, wrinkling, or drooping can choose from synthetic implants or biological fillers to create a natural-looking lip enhancement. Lip enhancement injections (Restylane® and Juvederm®) will need to be repeated to maintain results, whereas synthetic implants (PermaLips™) and biological grafts (AlloDerm®) are permanent.

Keep in mind that you can combine augmentation procedures for a more dramatic result and reduced recovery time. If you’re ready to discuss the benefits of volume-enhancing implants, please contact Dr. Robert Aycock in the Bay Area today.

Your delicate skin is often the first place that telltale signs of aging appear. Sun exposure, stress, lack of proper hydration, and genetics all affect the quality of your skin. If you’re looking for a way to combat wrinkling, discoloration, and other skin problems, investing in nonsurgical skin rejuvenation can be easy on your wallet while producing instant rewards.

Dr. Robert Aycock offers a bounty of solutions for improving skin tone and texture. Consider any of the following options as a cost-effective way to enhance the appearance of your skin and look years younger.

• Laser resurfacing uses focused beams of light from Sciton’s Contour Tunable Resurfacing Laser (TRL™) for safe laser treatment. These treatments are useful in minimizing  the look of irregular contours and other issues. The Sciton laser system utilizes Full Field Resurfacing (Contour), MicroLaserPeel™, and Fractional Resurfacing (ProFractional™) with TRL technology to smooth lines and tighten skin. Sciton laser treatments like the MicroLaserPeel™, ProFractional Therapy™, BroadBand Light (BBL™) and SkinTyte Photofacial Therapy™ provide a painless way to refresh facial, neck, extremity and body skin without surgery.
• Spider vein treatment is conducted using three methods — sclerotherapy, laser light, and Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) — to reduce or eliminate the look of spider veins caused by weight gain, aging, pregnancy, medication, and genetics. Patients with dark skin tone or very tanned skin are generally not good candidates for treatment of veins with laser therapy.
• Laser hair removal is effortless with the Sciton Profile ClearScan™ and BroadBand Light Hair Reduction procedure, which targets underarms, face, legs, back and most other skin surfaces.
• BOTOX® Cosmetic and Dysport™ are nonsurgical wrinkle treatments that can be done on your lunch hour and is great for targeting wrinkling around the eyebrows, neck bands, lip lines, and crow’s feet.
• Chemical peels and facials refresh your appearance by removing top layers of old skin to reveal new skin underneath. Choose from a variety of types, including Intraceutical® Oxygen Facials, Vitamin C Facials, Glycolic Facials, Pumpkin Enzyme Peels, and Vitalize Peels® for gorgeous, glowing skin.
• Juvederm®, Juvederm® Ultra Plus , Restylane® and Perlane® are injectable gels which treat nasolabial folds, thinning lips, and facial wrinkles. Injectable dermal filler delivers a high concentration of hyaluronic acid to minimize facial wrinkling.

• RADIESSE® is an injectable filler that uses calcium hydroxylapatite for correction of moderate to severe facial wrinkles and folds such as nasolabial folds.
• Sculptra® Aesthetic is intended for use in people with healthy immune systems as a one-time treatment regimen of up to 4 injection sessions that are scheduled about three weeks apart for the correction of shallow to deep nasolabial fold contour deficiencies and other facial wrinkles. Sculptra® combats facial fat loss by improving skin’s volume in areas that have lost their “plumpness.”

Frequently, our patients combine nonsurgical skin therapies to get the best results possible. Let Dr. Aycock help you develop a personalized skin treatment plan that addresses your unique skin issues and respects your time and budget constraints. To set up your personal consultation, please contact our office in the Bay Area today.

Body contouring offers many different ways you can reinvent your shape, including breast enlargement, a surgical method for enhancing breast size and creating a more voluptuous figure. If you are considering this procedure, Dr. Aycock would like to help you understand the differences between your implant options before you make a final decision.

The type of breast implants you choose will affect the final result in both appearance and feel. Viewing a variety of breast enlargement before and after photos can help you see how saline an silicone differ from an aesthetic standpoint. Rest assured that Dr. Aycock will thoroughly review your choices and explain the benefits in detail, while also recommending which implants will help you meet your appearance goals.

Saline or Silicone?

Saline and silicone are the two most prevalent types of implant materials available today. Both options come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and textures, and both are approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in the body. Various profile options (low, moderate, moderate plus, and high profile) affect the implant’s projection and determine how high the implant protrudes from the ribcage. When you visit us for your breast augmentation consultation, we’ll show you the various implants and further explain the advantages of each.

Your New Implants

Your ideal implants should be chosen based on several factors, including the volume of your natural breast tissue, your desired final appearance, your skin elasticity, and your frame size. Dr. Aycock will show you results of breast augmentation procedures using various volumes and help you get an idea for the affects of the different styles and textures. Special “sizer” bras can also be worn to help you envision the various implants’ final appearance.

Physician Guidance

As you approach your decision, Dr. Aycock can be a strong resource. During his many years of performing breast augmentation, he’s helped countless Bay Area women achieve the breast improvements they’ve always dreamed of, and he will direct you to the implant options that complement your figure.

Dr. Aycock dedicates a large percentage of his time to the art of breast surgery: He currently serves as Medical Director of the Breast Center of Northern California and was given the honor of NOVO-2008 “Distinguished member of the National Council of Leaders in Breast Aesthetics.”

San Francisco surgeon Dr. Aycock would like to meet with you to discuss your breast implant options. Please contact our office to schedule your personal breast augmentation consultation.