Myths about Facial Plastic Surgery

c y n t h i a m . g r e gg , md , f a c s
“The huge unanticipated plus was
the life-changing effect this has
had on the way I breathe. I do deep
yoga breaths now easily and fully.”
Myths About
Facial Plastic Surgery
D
health&healing • Volume 12
Number 5
22
from duke
to cary
r. Gregg is double board-certified
by the American Board of Facial
Plastic and Reconstructive
Surgery and the
American Board
of Otolaryngology—Head and
Neck
Surgery,
a Fellow of the
American Academy of Facial
Plastic and Reconstructive SurDr. Cynthia Gregg
gery, the American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head
and Neck Surgery, American College
of Surgeons, and the North Carolina
Medical Society.
Before opening her private practice
in Cary in 1999, she was an Assistant
Professor of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Duke University
Medical Center.
Dr. Gregg maintains a fully equipped
and accredited on-site surgical suite to
provide safe surgical care with anesthesia provided by board-certified anesthesia specialists. She performs the
full range of facial plastic surgery procedures, including eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty), endoscopic forehead and
brow-lifts, chin surgery (mentoplasty),
midface lifts, ear surgery (otoplasty), nasal surgery (rhinoplasty), Botox cosmetic, and facelift surgery (rhytidectomy).
For more information about the
practice, contact:
CYNTHIA GREGG, MD, FACS
3550 NW Cary Parkway, Suite 100
Cary, NC 27513
Telephone: (919) 297-0097
www.cynthiagreggmd.com
j
osh Sherrod will happily tell you it’s
a myth that cosmetic facial procedures have no health benefit.
“I wanted to shave down this bump
on my nose that I inherited from my
father,” he says (see photos), “and even
more importantly, I wanted to improve
my breathing. So I sought out Dr. Cynthia
Gregg, because I know she is in a class by
herself as a facial plastic surgeon, and she’s
also board-certified as an ear, nose, and
throat doctor.”
Mr. Sherrod, who is 24 and an avid
runner, is a microbiologist working in RTP.
“I always struggled with my breathing growing up, and I had allergy problems. When
I came to Dr. Gregg, she confirmed what
other doctors had told me: I had a slight deviated septum. I thought it would be great
to fix that and shave down my pronounced
bump into a more proportional look.
“The huge unanticipated plus was
the life-changing effect this has had on
the way I breathe. I do deep yoga breaths
now easily and fully. I go longer and faster
and better in my running. I would say my
breathing is 100 percent better since I got
this procedure.”
Milli m e t e r Su r g e r y
Dr. Gregg calls rhinoplasties “my
millimeter surgery, because simply changing the shape or moving the nose as little
as one to three millimeters can produce a
striking difference in appearance. When
someone’s nose looks as if it’s the product
of a surgical procedure, it’s usually because
it has been moved too much. That’s one
example of the art of facial plastic surgery.
It requires a lot of technical skill, and also
an artistic-aesthetic sense of proportion.”
Health&Healing: We’re talking about myths in
this issue. What are prevailing misunderstandings
in your work?
DR. GREGG: There are many. The face is
compartmentalized not only in terms of fat
pads, but also in terms of muscle mass and
fascia attachments of the skin to the bone.
He looks better and breathes better:
before and after Josh Sherrod’s
rhinoplasty procedure.
One effect is that you can pull in one place,
and it does not affect another place—even
though you might think it would. An important part of my work is making sure the
patient understands what is possible.
A patient may say they want to subdue
or remove the lines around their mouth.
It’s important to do the careful assessment
that will lead them to the best choice.
Perhaps it is a dermal filler. Perhaps they
actually need laser resurfacing. They simply may not need a face lift. Or perhaps
the very best approach is to do a face lift
that combines laser resurfacing of these
troublesome lines around the mouth.
There are many factors to consider before
final decisions are made.
I’m committed to assuring that together the patient and I have a deep understanding of what is possible and desirable
to achieve the common goal. Faces are
different and unique, of course, genetically,
ethnically, and in other ways. What works
with one group of patients may simply
be inappropriate with others. Thus, as we
move forward, everything we do is highly
individualized.
H&H: There are a lot of marketing terms in your
specialty area that can be confusing.
DR. GREGG: That’s true. The word plastic
derives from the Greek word plastikos,
which means to shape or mold. Some
people think we can make these cosmetic
changes without scars, because we use plastic. That of course is not true. The simple
truth is that you cannot remove skin without a scar. That myth plays into the concept
of the weekend face lift—and there really is
no such thing.
There are a lot of confusing marketing
terms, and I encourage my patients to look
through those terms to the basics—the
anatomy involved. Anatomically, what is
a procedure changing? Is it the mid-face,
where the apples of the cheek sit? Are the
apples to be raised slightly? Or is it a neck
lift? It’s best to think about the nature of
the anatomical change, rather than what a
particular procedure may be called—such as
a mini-face lift, a mid-face lift, or a weekend
lift. Think anatomy: what will change?
H&H: There is sometimes misunderstanding about
how long a facial plastic surgery procedure will last.
DR. GREGG: Yes, that’s important. Only a
very small percentage of people ever do a face
lift more than once. If it’s done well the first
time, there is almost never a need to repeat
the procedure. It’s really a lifetime improvement. If you are now 45, and you enhance
upper and lower eyelids, when you are 65
you are going to look better having done this,
although you have aged 20 years. It’s like reversing the hands of the clock on aging, even
as you still go forward. If you have twins in
their fifties, and one does a procedure and the
other doesn’t, the one with the procedure will
always look better than the other, even as they
both age at the same time.
H&H: There’s also a general belief—perhaps a
myth—that facial plastic surgery is only for the
wealthy.
DR. GREGG: In fact, the greatest percentage
of the work that I do is with working women. Our Academy did a study that concluded
that 86 percent of those getting facial plastic
surgery procedures are of that same group:
working women. Many want tune-ups and
touch-ups to enhance their careers.
H&H: What else comes to mind in terms of myths?
DR. GREGG: There’s a lot of confusion
differentiating Botox from dermal fillers.
Some people believe that Botox freezes up
the face, and they might as a consequence
be numb after Botox injections. Botox is
not a numbing agent. It simply relaxes the
muscles of the face, and it’s not permanent. In three to six months, those muscles
resume their regular function. Botox is
highly individualized. It has to be tailored
very carefully to the needs and wishes of
the client. Doing that successfully is very
technique-dependent. h&h
Originally published in Health & Healing in the Triangle, Vol. 12, No. 5, Health & Healing, Inc., Chapel Hill, NC, publishers. Reprinted with permission.