Plastic Surgery in Men

Plastic Surgery in Men
While men still make up a minority of patients having
plastic surgery and office-based cosmetic procedures, those
numbers have been steadily increasing since 2000. Men are
becoming more common in the plastic surgeon's office,
although most still desire a good degree of discretion and
privacy. The top male cosmetic procedures in my experience
include liposuction, rhinoplasty, gynecomastia reduction,
blepharoplasty and Botox®.

It is no surprise that liposuction remains the top
procedure for men given the number of potential body areas
and that it can be done in both young and old alike. Unlike
women, however, most male liposuction is done primarily in
the abdomen, flank, and neck areas. Even in relatively lean
individuals, fat collections at the side of the waist and
flanks are common as one ages. Today's liposuction
techniques have been refined to produce better results with
less rippling and etching procedures for those leaner males
who want an easy way to the 'six-pack' abdominal look.

Male rhinoplasty has been a mainstay plastic surgery
procedure for men for many years and remains a popular
operation for the teenage and young adult male. It is far
less commonly performed in the older male over 40 who have
come to accept their nose, no matter how disproportionate
it is to other facial features, and would feel very
'abnormal' if it were changed at this point in their life.
Rhinoplasty may frequently be performed with chin
augmentation if it will improve a man's facial profile over
a rhinoplasty alone by bringing the chin more forward.

Gynecomastia reduction is, in my opinion, the one male
plastic surgery procedure that is on the rise. Whether it
be a small protrusion of the nipple in a teenager, to a
more traditional larger gynecomastia in adolescents, to the
sagging and deflated appearance in the middle-aged and
older male, improvement in the male chest is sought out
like never before.now. Liposuction, nipple lifting and
reduction, and pectoral implants are potential methods for
male chest enhancement. Refined liposuction techniques,
known as etching, provides better definition to the
pectoral muscle outlines which can be combined with any of
the other chest contouring procedures.

Eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty) in the male remains a
common procedure. Most men wait until their eyelid problems
are more severe than many women as some aging around the
eyes is more accepted in men. There still remains the
senior male who only has his upper eyelids done due to
visual field obstruction.

Men increasingly are joining the Botox and Lipodissolve
injection therapy ranks as well as having other traditional
(e.g., facelift) and more exotic forms (e.g., pectoral or
calf implants) of plastic surgery.

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Dr Barry Eppley runs a private plastic surgery practice
through his hospital-based medspa locations at Clarian
Health in Indianapolis. To learn more about the latest
trends in plastic surgery, spa therapies, or skin care, go
to his daily blog, http://www.exploreplasticsurgery.com .