Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery offers New Years Resolution tips to help you prepare forand maintain beautiful plastic surgery results.

Will 2012 be the year you finally go for that facial plastic surgery procedure you’ve been thinking about? As 2011 comes to a close and the economy continues to recover (albeit slowly) people everywhere are ready for a fresh start – and a fresh look to go with it. If a youthful new look is on your list of New Year’s resolutions, Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery has a few tips for that will help you prepare for and maintain your beautiful results.

By far, the most common New Year’s resolutions are to lose weight, get more exercise and stop smoking.

“Each of these is a huge recommendation for patients preparing to undergo facial plastic surgery or even less invasive cosmetic procedures,” says Dr. Phillip Garcia, founder of Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery and Reviva Medical Spa. Here’s why:

Losing weight typically improves a person’s overall health. But great weight loss can leave facial skin loose. Skin can be stretched only so far for so long before it loses its ability to snap back, and weight loss shows first in the face. If your slim-down plans are significant, lose that weight before you schedule your facelift for the best, most permanent results.

Smoking can dehydrate your skin, leaving it looking dull. It also is associated with lung and heart conditions that increase a patient’s risk of peri-operative and post-operative complications including anesthesia-related problems. Nix the habit before you undergo your facial cosmetic procedure and you’ll not only be happier with your outcome, but you’ll be safer throughout the procedure and healthier afterward. Plus, you’ll heal faster and you’ll be less prone to scarring.

Plenty of exercise; a nutrient-rich diet low in fat, salt and sugar; and lots of water will help keep your face hydrated and healthy. Like an artist starting out with a tight, smooth canvas, your plastic surgeon will have an easier time with your procedure if he can start with smooth and well-hydrated skin. Your results invariably will be better and you’ll heal faster if you go in with healthy skin.

Other tips for maintaining your new look include regular facials and taking vitamin and mineral supplements. Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery offers a variety of prescription skincare systems and a patented line of anti-aging vitamins and minerals, including supplements that designed to help you prepare for your surgical procedure and maintain the results. Patients who take these supplements report less bruising and swelling, and shorter recovery times than those who do not.

Resolve to be your most beautiful you this year! Call Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery at 904-247-8522 to schedule your consultation today.

Baby Boomers are more likely to go rock climbing than sit in a rocking chair. And they're getting plastic surgery to help them look as lively as they feel.

These days, Baby Boomers just might be the coolest cats in town. They’re working out, launching new businesses, burning up the dating scene and looking as gorgeous as ever. For some that means indulging in a little plastic surgery to help them age gracefully.

A recent survey highlighted primary trends emerging among the Boomer generation:

1. They’re living longer. Medical advances and the easier-than-ever access to medical and health information is helping Boomers long outlive the life expectancies of prior generations. Well, why live longer if you can’t enjoy it? Boomers increasingly are reflecting upon their lives and reinventing themselves at each milestone year, setting new goals and taking up new hobbies or even launching new businesses. Seems the rocking chair has gone the way of the dinosaur.
2. They’re technologically and socially connected. Yes, Grandma is on Facebook. And she’s not there just to keep up with the grandkids. She’s got her own extensive list of Facebook friends, thank you very much. And her status updates just might make you blush. Statistics show that seniors are the fastest-growing segment signing up on Facebook and other social networking sites. Of course, since Grandma likely doesn’t have to get up and go to school or work in the morning, she’s got lots of time to meet and mingle with her Facebook friends off-screen. Seniors are on the social and dating scene like never before.
3. They’re competing and winning in the workplace: The financial crunch is affecting everyone, including seniors. But rather than stick to the jobs they’ve held for decades, many seniors are taking advantage of that milestone-year reinvention and going back to school in huge numbers. Many are enrolling to update their skill sets in an effort to land promotions at work. Others are ditching their old skill sets in favor of whole new ones with plans to switch career fields or launch new businesses of their own.
4. They’re aging gracefully. Those top three trends fold nicely into the proudly-going-gray movement. To help boost their success on the social scene, in the dating game and at work, seniors increasingly are undergoing plastic surgery and other cosmetic procedures designed to help them look as lively on the outside as they do on the inside. Mind you, they’re not interested in the wind-blown, trout pout look of those who overdo it in an effort to shave decades off their looks. Today’s seniors are proud of their age and don’t care to look too much younger. They simply want to look their best at the age they are and they’re accomplishing that with expertly performed facelifts, brow lifts and eye surgeries or with less invasive procedures like Botox, Restylane or chemical peels.

If you’re a Boomer with an unbridled passion for life and want a look to match, contact Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery. Jacksonville’s top facial plastic surgeons can help you continue to look gorgeous throughout your golden years.

Prepare now for a beautiful start to 2012.

New year, new decisions, new look – that’s the hallmark of every January 1. But don’t wait. Begin preparing now for your beautiful new look via plastic surgery, Jacksonville’s top facial plastic surgeons say.

“Plastic surgery isn’t a one-day deal,” says Dr. Roberto Garcia of Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery in Neptune Beach near Jacksonville. “Preparing your skin and body in the weeks and months prior to a surgical procedure like a facelift, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle afterward, can greatly increase your chances of healing quickly, healing well and loving your results.”

Dr. Garcia recommends these tips to help you prepare for your facelift or other plastic surgery:

• Begin eating and drinking healthily now. Healthy, hydrated skin heals quicker and better.
• Nix smoking and heavy alcohol intake at least two weeks before and two weeks after your surgery. The effects of smoking and drinking alcohol can slow healing.
• Let your doctor know all of the medications and natural supplements you’re taking or have taken over the past year. Some can dangerously interact with anesthesia and medications your plastic surgeon may administer or prescribe. Others can thin blood and cause excessive bleeding. Others, like Echinacea, can contribute to allergic reactions.
• Begin and maintain a skincare regimen.
• If you have short hair, grow it out a few inches to help cover incisions while they heal.
• Plan to have day-to-day chores and activities, like cooking, cleaning and caring for children and pets, handled for you during the week after your facelift or other facial plastic surgery.

Planning and scheduling your facial plastic surgery now can help ensure a beautiful start to 2012. Call Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery, Jacksonville’s only plastic surgery practice boasting a JCAHO-certified office-based surgical suite, at 904-247-8522 today.

Your skin can take a beating in the fall and winter months. Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery offers tips.

Cooler temperatures are sneaking up on us. Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery in Jacksonville offers tips for protecting and pampering your skin throughout the fall and winter season.

1. Hydrate your skin: A hallmark of the fall and winter seasons is a drop in humidity. Unfortunately, this seasonal change alters the skin’s natural PH level and makes it more susceptible to moisture loss. Keep your skin hydrated from the inside and out. Find a hydrating moisturizer or mask that works well with your skin type. Drink lots of water and juices and fill up on fruits and vegetables. This is particularly important if you plan to undergo a surgical procedure such as a facelift during the fall and winter months. The healthier and suppler your skin is, the better your facial plastic surgery results will be.
2. Exfoliate: Gently exfoliate your skin once or twice a week to remove dead, flaky skin cells. Look for products with natural, grainy ingredients like oatmeal, ground almonds, sugar and sea salt. Once or twice a month, opt for a professional facial treatment designed to exfoliate, hydrate, tighten and smooth your skin.
3. Swap lotion for cream: Creams typically offer more potent moisturizing ability than do lotions. The heavier oily barrier reduces water loss from the outermost layer of your skin, protects skin from the cooler, drier temperatures and aids in restoring moisture balance and elasticity.
4. Switch to a cold-processed, unscented soap: Heat-processed soaps loaded with dyes and fragrances can strip your skin of essential oils, leaving it dry, dull and cracked. Cold-crafted soaps create a glycerin byproduct that acts as a humectant to draw moisture to the skin.
5. Don’t slack on sun protection: Although the temperatures are frigid, the sun still shines. And it still pounds down on your skin with harmful UV rays just like it does during the summer. That’s why some of the most common skin cancer sites are areas of the body exposed year-round, like your face, ears and the left arm of drivers. Keep on using sunblocks with the same vigilance you do during the hot weather months.

For more ways to keep your skin and face looking youthful, vibrant and healthy visit Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery near Jacksonville.

Before & after results of the revolutionary new Contoura procedure available only at Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery near Jacksonville.

Imagine looking years younger in less than an hour with no downtime and a lot less out of your pocket than you’d imagine. Sound too good to be true? Not when you visit Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery in Jacksonville and ask about the new Contoura procedure.

Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery’s Dr. Phillip Garcia and Dr. Roberto Garcia are undisputed leaders in the plastic surgery and facial rejuvenation fields, having developed multiple specialized procedures and a patented line of vitamin supplements designed to facilitate pre- and post-operative health and keep skin looking young and supple. Now, they’ve developed the Contoura procedure, a proprietary combination of facial rejuvenation and skincare procedures that immediately shave years off your look. Contoura addresses signs of aging in the face including sagging jowls, deep creases around the mouth, flattened cheeks and sagging around the eyes. The Drs. Garcia are the only plastic surgeons in the Jacksonville/North Florida and South Georgia areas that perform this procedure.

The Contoura procedure is performed at Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery’s Jacksonville-area JCAHO-certified surgery suite under local anesthesia. Most procedures take just under an hour to complete and results are almost immediate. There is no downtime and most patients return to their normal routines the very next day. All this at a fraction of the price you’d pay for a facelift.

To find out if the Contoura procedure is right for you, contact Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery at 904-247-8522 or via our convenient online email form.

Did you know that your nose can droop, making it appear longer as you age? Consider rhinoplasty, Jacksonville plastic surgeons say.

Did you know that after everything else on your body has hit its peak, your nose, chin and ears keep on growing, some say? That’s why plastic surgery such as rhinoplasty for the aging nose also is growing.

Candidates for nose surgery aren’t just self conscious teens and 20-somethings worried about significant “nasal protuberance.” They’re also middle-aged and older patients who feel something is “off” with their noses’ appearance. Many report being confused that their noses seem bigger or lower than in years before. Either may be true, plastic surgeons say. While there is debate in the medical community as to whether the nose actually continues to grow throughout the entire lifespan, there is no doubt that gravity takes its toll.

As we age, collagen and elastin in the skin breaks down, sapping the skin of its strength and suppleness. The pull of gravity eventually wins out. For your nose, this means a drooping effect that makes the nose look longer and lower than before. The same thing happens to our ears and jowls.

Now for the good news: If changes in your nose’s appearance have scenes from “Pinocchio” running through your mind, Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery can help with an expertly performed rhinoplasty.

“Jacksonville patients who undergo rhinoplasty of the aging nose see the nasal tip restored to its youthful position,” says Dr. Roberto Garcia, noting that treating “nose droop” typically is easier than the traditional nose job. That’s because a full rhinoplasty often involves breaking the nasal bones, whereas rhinoplasty to correct an aging, drooping nose can be done with cartilage grafts instead. This allows for a shorter recovery time.

Rhinoplasty for the aging nose often is performed along with a facelift, neck lift or eyelid surgery, as part of a total facial rejuvenation. To schedule a consultation, call Jacksonville’s Garcia Facial Plastic surgery at 904-247-8522.

Summer break is a great time for educators, college students and busy parents with school-age children to schedule plastic surgery and other cosmetic procedures.

For college students, busy parents and teachers, the summer break is a great time to schedule plastic surgery or a chemical peel. Jacksonville-area plastic surgeons always see an uptick in business over the summer. With upwards of a dozen colleges and universities in the Greater Jacksonville area, plus one of the nation’s largest K-12 school systems, many of our potential patients studying or working in education look forward to a little downtime in the summer months.

For many, summer break is the perfect time to undergo that plastic surgery or chemical peel procedure they’ve been thinking about. Any invasive or intense procedure requires a few weeks of recovery time during which it’s critical to take exceptional care of your skin and to limit movement and activity. The few weeks or months off from teaching, attending classes and carting kids to and from school allows instructors, students and parents the time to focus on preparing for their procedures and caring for themselves afterward.

Among the most common summer break procedures are facelifts, eyelid lifts, rhinoplasty procedures (nose jobs) and deep chemical peels:

• Facelifts: Facelift patients typically are able to safely apply makeup and return to normal daily activities within two weeks and are fully healed in a month to four months, depending on the intensity of the procedure.
• Eyelid Lifts: Stitches are removed or dissolved typically by the fifth day and bruising clears around the fifth or seventh day. Most patients return to work after just a week of downtime.
• Rhinoplasty: Most of the swelling inside and outside the nose after nasal surgery will go away within a week after the surgery. Patients typically are able to breathe through the nose two or three days after the surgery. All splints and tapes are removed seven days after the operation and Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery follows patient’s results for a full year following the procedure.
• Deep Chemical Peels: Deep chemical peels penetrate into the deepest part of the dermis, rearranging collagen, melanocytes and skin support structures. Swelling (particularly around the eyes and lips) can persist for up to seven days and your skin may be pink for two to three weeks following the procedure.

Of course, recovery time depends wholly upon your strict adherence to your doctor’s instructions for post-procedure care. Skipping steps or trying to return to normal activity too early can cause problems that will significantly lengthen your healing time or cause permanent scarring.

If you’re considering plastic surgery or a chemical peel, Jacksonville’s Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery will help you through the entire process, from preparing you for your procedure in the weeks before to performing multiple follow up checks to make sure your skin is healing beautifully. Contact Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery in Jacksonville at 904-247-8522 or via our online email form.

One of the common questions we get from clients is whether they should choose dermal fillers or a full facelift. Jacksonville’s Drs. Phillip Garcia and Roberto Garcia each have years of experience in helping clients decide which facial cosmetic procedures are best for them, based upon their current looks, goals for their new looks and their lifestyles. Often, the choice between a dermal filler or a facelift is an easy one.

The trick is to understand exactly what is accomplished with dermal fillers and what is accomplished with facelift. Jacksonville patients sometimes think that the two will deliver similar results, but that’s not at all the case. Skin around the mouth adheres directly to the muscle, lacks fat and moves with speech, eating and emotion. Skin on other facial areas, including the cheek, jowls and neck, have a layer of fat between the skin and muscle. As we age, the fat disappears and skin begins to hollow or hang.

Dermal fillers like Botox, Juvederm and Restylane simply plump and smooth areas of the face that have developed wrinkles or lost some volume. They’re effective for filling in wrinkles of the forehead and nasolabial folds and for adding volume to the lips. Trying to accomplish this smoothing and plumping with the lifting and pulling that a facelift involves will leave you with a less natural look – including that dreaded “trout pout.” But no amount of dermal filler will lift sagging measures of skin best remedied with a facelift.

A facelift smoothes the face by removing excess skin left sagging by disappearing facial fat. Jowls, multiple cheek wrinkles, heavy nasolabial and neck folds, or hanging skin are best addressed with an expertly performed facelift.

Jacksonville’s Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery can help you decide which facial plastic surgery or noninvasive cosmetic procedures are best for reaching your goals. Contact us at 904-247-8522 or via our online email form.

Baby Boomers are driving a new trend in plastic surgery and cosmetic procedures for men, Jacksonville's Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery says.

Surgical and cosmetic procedures for men are on the rise according to statistics recently released by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Overall, cosmetic plastic surgery procedures in men jumped two percent in 2010 compared to 2009. However, the numbers were much higher when zeroing in on particular procedures. Facelifts for men led the charge, jumping an impressive 14 percent.

ASPS’s statistics show that men underwent more than 1.1 million cosmetic procedures, both surgical and minimally invasive. But six of the top ten procedures that men chose last year are surgical ones – a significant turnabout of the previous trend toward less invasive cosmetic treatments. Men increasingly are embracing plastic surgery as a way to remain competitive in the workplace, boost their confidence when it comes to dating, or simply to keep looking on the outside as young and active as they feel on the inside.

“Baby Boomers hitting retirement age are the new face of the male plastic surgery trend,” says Dr. Roberto Garcia of Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery near Jacksonville. “They’re still healthy, active and sharp minded. Those who are retiring are looking forward to enjoying all the free time they’ll have on their hands and want to look great doing it. Others feel they’ve got a few more years of competitiveness in them and are opting to delay retirement. Those guys know they’re competing with younger coworkers climbing the ladder, so they want to go head-to-head with them on all the factors that determine career success – including looks.”

For the best in cosmetic procedures, men in the Jacksonville area turn to Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery. Board certified plastic surgeons Drs. Phillip and Roberto Garcia specialize in facial cosmetic and reconstructive surgery, plus a full battery of minimally invasive procedures designed to help you continue feeling confident and competitive. Call 904-247-8522 to schedule a consultation today.

Men’s Top Ten: Fastest-Growing Male Cosmetic Procedures (by percentage increase)

1. Facelift – 14% Increase
2. Ear Surgery (Otoplasty) – 11% Increase
3. Soft Tissue Fillers – 10% Increase
4. Botulinum Toxin Type A (Botox) – 9% Increase
5. Liposuction – 7% Increase
6. Breast Reduction in Men – 6% Increase
7. Eyelid Surgery – 4% Increase
8. Dermabrasion – 4% Increase
9. Laser Hair Removal – 4% Increase
10. Laser Treatment of Leg Veins – 4% Increase

Significant weight loss can leave patients feeling great about their bodies, but distressed about the effect on their faces. Face lifts and neck lifts can help.

Following significant weight loss, many people are thrilled with the way their bodies look, but dismayed by the lingering effects of obesity on their faces and necks. Fortunately, these aging effects can be addressed with a neck lift or face lift. Jacksonville’s Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery has helped hundreds of patients with recent weight loss to restore a firm, youthful look to their faces.

Morbidly obese people typically have large round faces and full, heavy necks as a result of excess fat. When a significant amount of weight and fat is lost, loose, sagging skin often remains on the face and neck. This can cause an aged look. Sagging facial skin creates heavy folds and lines that resemble aging wrinkles and cause shadows on the face, and can extend below the angle of the jaw. A heavy cheek also can blend into a sagging neckline, creating a “turkey neck” look.

The solution can be an expertly performed neck lift and/or face lift. Jacksonville’s Dr. Phillip Garcia and Dr. Roberto Garcia perform these procedures weekly, using incisions hidden behind the hairline and ears and under the chin. Excess skin is removed and remaining skin is smoothed over the facial bones and features, creating a smoother, younger look. Though recovery times vary with each patient, most patients are able to resume much of their daily lives within about two weeks after surgery.

For more information on neck lifts or face lifts, Jacksonville’s Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery can be reached at 904-247-8522 or via our online email form.