Blepharoplasty is a procedure to remove fat-usually along with excess skin and muscle-from the upper and lower eyelids. Eyelid surgery can correct drooping upper lids and puffy bags below your eyes - features that make you look older and more tired than you feel, and may even interfere with your vision. However, it will not remove crow's feet or other wrinkles, eliminate dark circles under your eyes, or lift sagging eyebrows. While it can add upper eyelid crease to Asian eyes, it will not erase evidence of ones ethnic or racial heritage.

Blepharoplasty can be done alone, or in conjunction with other facial surgery procedures such as facelift or browlift.

Laser skin resurfacing is performed by Dr. Blum using a high energy pulsed carbon dioxide (CO2) laser. Applying laser energy in quick, intense bursts, the physician can actually vaporize unwanted tissue and smooth surface indentations. In some cases, the procedure is used after a facelift or eyelid surgery to eliminate remaining lines. In each case, the number and duration of treatments vary depending on the specific condition being treated.
Treatable conditions with laser skin resurfacing include:

Compared to a chemical peel, dermabrasion or other forms of laser treatment, this procedure offers:

(Upon joining Lifestyle Lift Centers, Dr. Blum discontinued offering this procedure.)

The most common of all plastic surgery procedures, rhinoplasty can reduce or increase the size of your nose, change the shape of the tip or the bridge, narrow the span of the nostrils, or change the angle between your nose and your upper lip. It may also correct a birth defect or injury, or help relieve certain breathing problems.

Dr. Blum can perform the Rhinoplasty at our attached AAAHC certified surgery center. The surgical procedure takes about two hours. During the surgery the skin of the nose is separated from its supporting framework of bone and cartilage, which is then sculpted to the desired shape. The skin is then redraped over the new framework.  90% of the time there is no external incision -- all the incisions are within the nose.  Occassionally a small inverted V incision is required under the nose on the columella.  This heals with a barely detectable scar.

When the surgery is complete, a splint is applied to help your nose maintain its new shape. Nasal packs or soft plastic splints also may be placed in your nostrils to stabilize the septum. Nasal packs will be removed the nest day. All splints and stitches will be removed within one to two weeks.

(Upon joining Lifestyle Lift Centers, Dr. Blum discontinued offering this procedure.)

Ear surgery, or otoplasty, is usually done to set prominent ears back closer to the head or to reduce the size of larger ears.  Ears are almost fully grown by age 4, and the earlier the surgery, the less teasing and ridicule the child will have to endure.  Ear surgery on adults is also common and there are generally no additional risks associated with ear surgery on an older patient.

The surgery is an in-and-out procedure.  General anesthesia is generally required for children.  Sedation and local anesthesia is used on adults.  There is very little pain associated with the procedure and the scar is hidden behind the ear.

Ear surgery can correct these problems:

• Abnormally large or protruding ears
• "Lop ear," when the top seems to fold down and forward.
• "Cupped ear," which is usually a very small ear.
• "Shell ear," when the curve in the outer rim, as well as natural folds and creases, are missing.
• Large or stretched earlobes.
• Large creases and wrinkles in the ear.

BROW LIFT (Surgery of the Forehead)

(Upon joining Lifestyle Lift Centers, Dr. Blum discontinued offering this procedure.)

While no one is immune to the effects of aging, a forehead lift, also known as a brow lift, can minimize some of the most visible signs—drooping eyebrows, "hooding" over the eyes, forehead furrows and frown lines that come with age.

In a forehead lift, the muscles and skin that cause the problems are removed or altered to smooth the forehead, raise the upper eyelids and minimize frown lines. The result can be a more alert, more animated, more youthful appearance.

Recent advances in plastic surgery have made the forehead lift a relatively simple procedure with results that last from five to ten years or longer. It can be done alone, or in conjunction with other procedures, such as facelift, eyelid surgery, or nose reshaping.  

Reconstructive Surgery is the basis of Plastic Surgery. It is from the methods developed to repair defects caused by injury, surgery, acquired and genetic defects that the principles of aesthetic cosmetic surgery were born.

INJURY

From fractured facial bones to noses bitten off by the neighborhood dog, many techniques and technologies are available to the plastic surgeon.  The methods include simple scar revisions (including the most common procedure of this category: split earlobes) and closed reduction (alignment) of fractured bones to complex rearrangement of skin, muscle, cartilage and bone, and to fixation with metal plates and screws and implantation of artificial supporting substances.  The possibilities are endless, and the topic too large to cover in this web page.   

POST SURGICAL DEFECTS

Skin cancers represent a multitude of challenges for the reconstructive surgeon.  On the one hand, it is important to remove a comfortable margin of normal tissue when removing a cancer, on the other, form and function remain important to the patient.  Knowledge of the aesthetics of the face is balanced with knowledge of function in reconstructions.  Many of the defects that Dr. Blum must repair in his practice are complex and extensive.  He works closely with Moh's surgeons in Sacramento, fixing the defects caused by their exacting, but sometimes remarkably deforming, procedures.  A large Moh's defect from the exact and complete removal of a nasal cancer is illustrated below. Reconstruction was with a forehead flap. 

GENETIC AND ACQUIRED DEFECTS

This also represents a large category of topics.  Cleft palate and hare lip patients present with associated deformities.  Although Dr Blum does not do the primary surgeries for these problems, the cosmetic and functional defects related to the nose are dealt with.  Hemi-facial atrophy (marked asymmetry between the two sides of the face) can  be treated with a variety of techniques.  

 CHIN (& OTHER FACIAL) IMPLANTS

Silastic and other non reactive materials are used to make solid implants that most commonly are used to build up the chin as a primary procedure, or to correct "witch's chin" deformities in the aging face.  These are very well tolerated.  Chin implants, especially, because of the thick pad of soft tissue that makes up the presenting part of the chin, are not usually detectable by self palpation or by appearance once healing has occurred.  Any other defect of the skeleton of the face can be helped with this type of implant, but most other areas have thinner skin and the implants must be placed judiciously to prevent visible and palpable abnormalities.