When men talk about “goals”, most of us think they mean soccer goals, professional goals, or home-improvement goals. But according to the American Board of Plastic Surgery, a growing number of men have personal cosmetic goals, like a more balanced nose and a rejuvenated face. Drs. Phillip and Roberto Garcia of the Garcia Institute find that it is no longer just women who are motivated to look young and fit. Our youth-oriented culture is crossing gender lines and helping men feel more comfortable seeking cosmetic procedures.

The Garcia Institute has seen this changing face of plastic surgery locally. The average, middle-aged man is looking for more aggressive ways to look younger and more refreshed; facelifts and Botox are not exclusive to celebrities and high-profile professionals. While the American Society of Plastic Surgeons’ statistics on Generation Y confirm that more men are not ready to give up on looking young, many people still think women are the face of cosmetic procedures.

Not just skin deep…

Reasons for cosmetic procedures are not so superficial. Men turning to plastic surgery really want their look to reflect how they feel. Just because a man chooses to have rhinoplasty or eyelids tightening doesn’t mean he prioritizes looking good above career, family and relationships. Drs. Phillip and Roberto Garcia find that their male patients think looking good enhances other attributes they possess, such as vitality, fitness, fortitude and professionalism. When a man feels good about his appearance he is more confident in his work and happier in his relationships.

Aesthetics that matter…

The way we look communicates a great deal to the world. So what do men wish to say about themselves? An increase in men’s plastic surgery at the Garcia Institute suggests that men also have aesthetic goals and are admitting that there is always room for improvement. Although it is often thought that having cosmetic procedures means we are unhappy with ourselves, men tend to seek anti-aging procedures for healthy reasons and for reasons that benefit others.

Why not give yourself a gift before gift-giving season is in full swing? The chaos of the holidays is soon upon us and that means little time for indulgences. A barrage of parties and family photos often leaves us wishing we had spent a little extra beauty time in October.

Falling for beauty

Fall is the perfect time to address cosmetic stresses. Gravity, fatigue and sun damage from the year becomes evident and usually not easily covered with holiday makeup. The Garcia Institute may not be able to stop the natural aging process, but they are experts at restoring a youthful appearance. Surgical procedures like the facelift have dramatic effects on our appearance. At the same time, advanced surgical techniques have eliminated the “lifted” look and minimized the recuperation period.

Saving face

Drs. Phillip and Roberto Garcia use innovative lifting techniques and discrete incisions to reduce sagging and overall signs of aging. They understand the units of a face, how individual features work together for coherence. For a natural look that doesn’t scream “facelift,” they correct features of the face proportionally. The Garcia Institute has perfected the natural aesthetic; they favor techniques that help you return to a younger version of you, not an operated version of you. At your next holiday party, there’s no need to fear the question, “Have you had work done?”

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.

Holiday gift certificates for cosmetic procedures – both surgical and minimally invasive – are becoming increasingly popular. From Baby Boomers looking for a youthful lift to younger patients looking to delay the start of aging effects, Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery near Jacksonville treats all ages and all types of faces.

Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery near Jacksonville offers a full range of facial plastic surgery and cosmetic procedures.

If this will be your first foray into cosmetic procedures and you’re a little nervous about it, relax. Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery will help you feel at ease. First, you’ll be greeted by our friendly receptionists in our living room-inspired waiting room where you can enjoy a cup of tea or coffee. Your wait won’t be long. You’ll soon head into a consultation room with Dr. Phillip Garcia or Dr. Roberto Garcia.

During your consultation, we’ll discuss your goals for your new look, whether it’s a simple, minimally invasive procedure such a Botox injection or a more intense surgical procedure such as a facelift. We’ll listen to and address all of your concerns, go over all of your options and walk you through each step of the procedure you choose. Our goal is to make you feel comfortable and confident throughout your cosmetic procedure or facial plastic surgery, and that you are thrilled with your new look. Should you decide that a cosmetic procedure isn’t for you, you’ll get no pressure from us. Instead, enjoy a relaxing massage or pampering facial treatment by Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery’s Reviva Medical Spa.

To schedule your consultation, call (904) 247-8522 or reach us via our secure and convenient online email form. New year, new look, new outlook!

A new survey of British moms says that a full third of them find themselves feeling frumpy in comparison to their childless female coworkers after returning to work, and many of them are turning to plastic surgery. Jacksonville’s Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery and others here in the U.S. have seen the same increasingly over the past few years. Dubbed “Mommy Makeovers,” typical post-pregnancy plastic surgeries include body contouring and enhancements including breast lifts and augmentations and tummy tucks. And many moms who have successfully shed the extra pounds that often come with motherhood opt for facelifts to clear away the sagging skin that forms along the cheek and jaw lines.

“There is nothing as beautiful as the bond between a mother and her baby,” says Dr. Roberto Garcia of Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery near Jacksonville. “But both pregnancy itself and the stress of day-to-day life as a mom can affect a woman’s looks.”

Moms unselfishly devote their time and energy to their children, often putting off caring for and pampering themselves. Many eventually become distressed by what they see in the mirror – the physical toll that busily juggling parenthood, marriages and careers can take. Yet many feel that taking time away from their families to undergo and recover from cosmetic surgery would be a selfish, even vain act. However, study after study shows that having a positive self image yields many benefits. Women who feel attractive and confident invariably are more active and enjoy stronger, more fulfilling relationships with spouses, family, friends and colleagues.

If you’re a busy mother whose devotion to family has made its mark on your appearance, plastic surgery or a less-invasive cosmetic procedure such as Botox can help rejuvenate your look. Many moms schedule their mommy makeovers for January, when the stress of the holidays has passed and the kids are back in school. Not yet sure about undergoing a plastic surgery or other cosmetic procedure? Regular facials at Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery’s Garcia Reviva Medical Spa can help refresh and maintain your look while providing some coveted pampering and relaxation time.

Great moms deserve a great look. To learn all about your options for a rejuvenated look, from our Organic Passion Peptide Facial to dermal fillers to full facelifts, contact Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery at 904-247-8522 or via our online email form. Drs. Roberto Garcia and Phillip Garcia can design a course of treatment that helps you look your youthful best and get back to enjoying your family before they can say, “Hey Mom, what’s for dinner?”

Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery in Jacksonville offers tips for those seeking plastic surgery after a major life stress such as a divorce.

It’s a phenomenon that cosmetic surgeons nationwide are seeing more of: so-called “vengeance” plastic surgery. Jacksonville’s Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery sees it too and has a few words of caution for anyone considering it. Vengeance plastic surgery primarily is a response (by both women and men) to a divorce or breakup. It is particularly common among patients who have been with their spouses or partners for a significant amount of time and whose breakup comes unexpectedly. The most common of these patients is the middle-aged woman whose spouse proved unfaithful. In fact, in some markets, recent divorcees can make up a full third of a cosmetic surgeon’s clientele.

At the heart of this trend is the desire to heal and start a new life. What better way to do that than with a new, youthful look? Women in particular are concerned about the effects of aging and stress on their perceived desirability and often seek to recapture the way they looked when they met their partners. As the saying goes, “living well is the best revenge,” so victims of an unfaithful or abusive spouse or partner see regaining their youth as a way to more effectively move on with their lives and get a little emotional payback too.

That’s where things can get tricky with plastic surgery. Jacksonville’s Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery founders Dr. Roberto Garcia and Dr. Phillip Garcia know that a well performed cosmetic procedure can make a difference that goes far beyond skin-deep. Whether a patient seeks to rejuvenate her or his look with a little Botox or a full face lift, the results can have a profound emotional and psychological uplifting effect on a patient. It can also backfire if the patient has unrealistic expectations of how their lives will change post-surgery, leading to even more stress and despair.

If you’ve experienced a major life let-down such as a divorce and aim to start a new chapter with the help of plastic surgery, Jacksonville’s Drs. Phillip and Roberto Garcia encourage you to take full inventory of your motives and expectations before moving forward with a surgical procedure. No amount of plastic surgery will make a patient happier if expectations are off-base. Cosmetic procedures won’t heal relationships or change a cheater’s ways. However, plastic surgery can boost a patient’s self esteem and help her face life’s challenges with a newfound confidence. If you’re ready to make a new start and want to do it with a new, refreshed look, contact Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery (near Jacksonville in Neptune Beach) at 904-567-5354 or via our online email form.

At Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery, Jacksonville men and women achieve rejuvenated and youthful new looks every day. Like most of our colleagues, we see primarily female patients. But men increasingly are opting for facial cosmetic surgery to help them look younger, feel more confident and remain competitive in the workforce. Both Dr. Phillip Garcia and Dr. Roberto Garcia are board-certified facial plastic surgeons treating Jacksonville area men and women and have extensive experience with and insight into the differences that the two sexes face with plastic surgery.

Differences affecting plastic surgery for Jacksonville men include thicker muscles, different chemical reactions and a greater variance in exposed skin areas. The skin texture of a man’s chin and neck is more coarse than a woman’s, allowing for less scarring. Men’s visible scars from neck lifts and chin implants can be covered by sideburns and beards. Women have an easier time covering brow lift and facelift scars with their hairstyles than do men, particularly men with receding hairlines. Drs. Garcia carefully consider each of these factors when choosing incision points, particularly for male patients, as they typically continue to be more concerned about privacy than do women.

Risks of complications also differ between men and women. Men tend to bleed more than do women, increasing the risk for excessive bleeding or a hematoma (blood clot beneath the skin). Both are easily addressed, but recovery tends to be a bit longer in such cases. When it comes to skincare, men are cautioned not to shave for up to three weeks after a chemical peel. For both men and women, the skin may have a red tint and the face may remain swollen and sensitive for several weeks. A benefit for men is that this redness and swelling can be at least partially hidden by beards.

Drs. Garcia perform successful facial plastic surgery for Jacksonville for both men and women every day. Both are well aware of the differences that male and female patients face. If you are planning a facial plastic surgery, Jacksonville’s Garcia Facial Plastic Surgery is your top choice. Contact us at 904-567-5354 or via our online email form.

There are big differences in the way men and women experience plastic surgery. Jacksonville's Garcia Insitute explains.