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Out Of Town Patients

As awareness about the importance of cosmetic surgery procedures grows, many patients are now willing to travel out of town in order to obtain the best in class treatment from a reputable surgeon. Virtual communication means have made it easier to have long distance consultations so that the patient may only visit once for their actual surgery procedure. 

plastic surgeon Dr. David Kim provides cosmetic and reconstructive procedures for the breast, body, and face to patients in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, CA, and surrounding locations. 

Virtual Consultation  

While you are always welcome to have an in-person consultation with the surgeon even as an out of town patient, it may not be feasible for many patients to travel from afar for the pre-surgery consultation. Therefore, at Beverly Hills Plastic Surgery, you can schedule your virtual consultation with Dr. David Kim.  

Your surgeon and their team will make sure your pre-op consultation via phone and email is as productive and useful as an in-office consultation. Prior to the consultation, your patient coordinator will assist you to complete patient forms and send them over along with your medical history.  

You will also have to provide photographs of your areas of concern, and Dr. Kim will evaluate them ahead of your scheduled consultation. Based on your detailed consultation and the information you have provided, Dr. Kim will prepare a customized surgical plan for you. 

Scheduling Your Surgery 

Following the consultation, you can take your time to evaluate your options and make up your mind about going ahead with the procedure. If you have any doubts or concerns, feel free to communicate through your patient coordinator and make a salient decision. Once you are ready, your patient coordinator will help you schedule the surgery date.  

You will also receive a set of instructions to follow prior to and following your plastic surgery procedure. You may also have to submit the results of a few medical tests and blood work, depending on your health status and the type of procedure you plan to undergo. 

Arriving for Your Surgery 

Your patient coordinator will guide you about the hotels in Beverly Hills and assist you with your bookings if needed. You should plan to arrive a day in advance for your surgery so that you can make yourself comfortable in the new place. It would be ideal to have someone accompany you on the surgery day and stay with you for at least 24 hours post-surgery to provide physical and emotional support.  

You should be prepared to stay in town for a few days for early recovery before you can travel back to your home. This time period can vary according to the procedure, but in general you can expect to stay in Beverly Hills for about a week after your surgery.  

Hotels in Beverly Hills 

Airport 

Closest airport to Beverly Hills is Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Distance from Los Angeles International Airport to Beverly Hills is 9.1 miles.  

Cosmetic surgeon Dr. David Kim receives patients from Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, CA, and nearby areas for poignant and reliable plastic surgery procedures.  

Schedule a Consultation with an Expert

For more information on the surgical and non-surgical procedures and treatments by Cosmetic Plastic Surgeons Dr. David Kim and Dr. Eugene Kim.  Click here to contact us today.

Serving Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Orange County, Southern California and surrounding areas.

Breast Implant Replacement Surgery

Breast implants are not meant to last forever. The FDA says that most women who undergo breast augmentation cosmetic surgery may require a revision procedure at some point in the future.  

However, it is impossible to predict the exact timeline. In 2011, an FDA study found that only about one in five women with breast implants would need a removal or removal within the first 10 years of her primary surgery. 

This is encouraging data, particularly because it pertains to about a decade ago. The quality of implants and surgical techniques have dramatically improved over these years, and now the chances are that implant failure rates would have gone down further.  

You can safely expect that for a vast majority of patients, breast implants will last without any complication for at least 15 to 20 years or more. plastic surgeon Dr. David Kim provides cosmetic and reconstructive procedures for the breast, body, and face to patients in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, CA, and surrounding locations. 

Why You May Need Implant Revision at Some Point? 

The key to longevity of your breast augmentation plastic surgery results is the skill and experience of the surgeon who performed the primary procedure. However, in the long run, complications such as implant rupture or capsular contracture could still manifest itself. These will have to be corrected through breast implant removal or exchange surgery.  

At some point in the future, you might end up choosing to have your breast implants removed or replaced purely for aesthetic reasons. You might have a need for smaller or larger sized implants to fit your changed figure in the future.  

Weight fluctuations, pregnancy and aging effects could also affect your breast appearance at some point, and you may want to have your implants removed or replaced, or undergo a breast lift to restore a more youthful shape. 

Rupture of Implants 

If your saline breast implant is ruptured, it will deflate quickly, and the changes to your breast shape will become noticeable. If a silicone gel implant is ruptured, you may not even come to know about it until you have an MRI. In any case, once the rupture is diagnosed, you will need an implant removal or replacement plastic surgery. 

Capsular Contracture 

The natural scar tissue that develops around your implant may sometimes start becoming harder without any known reason. This will cause your implant to contract and you may feel tightness and pain in the breast. In most cases, this will require you to undergo a breast implant removal or exchange procedure.  

Other Causes 

At some point, you may feel that your breasts appear asymmetrical. In some cases, the implant may shift from its position or become deformed, causing a visible distortion to the breast appearance. Implant rippling may occur in some cases, which will show on the surface of your breast skin. In all these situations, you may need to have your implants removed or replaced.  

Cosmetic surgeon Dr. David Kim receives patients from Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, CA, and nearby areas for safe and routine plastic surgery procedures.   

Schedule a Consultation with an Expert

For more information on the surgical and non-surgical procedures and treatments by Cosmetic Plastic Surgeons Dr. David Kim and Dr. Eugene Kim.  Click here to contact us today.

Serving Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Orange County, Southern California and surrounding areas.

Facelift surgery has been around for more than 100 years, and with each generation, the results have grown subtler and more natural-looking. The “windswept” look of facelifts past has fallen out of favor, replaced by today’s naturally youthful look — done with such artistry that friends and family members who aren’t in the know often can’t tell what gives your face that new sparkle.

Early Facelifts

Medical historians believe surgeons developed and performed the first facelift between 1901 and 1906, though records are incomplete. From what we can tell, these early facelifts were simple skin excisions: A doctor removed a strip of skin at the edge of the face and pulled the remaining skin tighter to reduce sagging and wrinkles. Advances in reconstructive surgery during World War I pushed the procedure a few steps forward. Facelift surgeons in the 1920s separated the skin from the underlying layer of fat before tightening it, preserving facial volume, and giving somewhat better results. Doctors also refined the placement of incisions to make scarring less visible.

Improvements in the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s

The next significant improvements in facelift surgery came in the 1960s and ‘70s when pioneering surgeons began to sculpt the facial tissue below the skin as part of the procedure. At first, in the 1960s, they modified the volume of the fat just beneath the skin. Over time, they began to go deeper, until, by the late 1970s, some began to work on the superficial musculoaponeurotic system (SMAS), which includes the muscles and connective tissue that cover the bones of the face. This milestone marked the first significant change in facelift surgery in 70 years.

By the 1980s, the most advanced plastic surgeons were approaching facelifts from the inside out — lifting and reshaping the underlying facial muscles to provide a younger-looking structure for the smoothed skin on the surface. They also introduced new methods to reshape fat and tighten skin along the jawline for a more complete effect.

This shift to include the underlying SMAS in facelift surgery marked a distinct turning point in facelift results. Skin-only facelifts had required extra tautness, and the stretched results were sometimes all too obvious. Reshaping the foundational musculature of the face required surgeons to remove less skin to provide lift and remove wrinkles. So the results were both more natural-looking and longer-lasting.

Today’s Deep Plane and Volumetric Facelifts

The best plastic surgeons today still resculpt the underlying SMAS as part of a full facelift procedure. They also go even deeper to release the SMAS from the ligaments below them and elevate the facial tissue by resuspending it slightly higher on the face. This “deep-plane” technique gives a naturally younger look to the face, restoring contours that have fallen with age.

Today’s plastic surgeons have other techniques in their toolkits, too, to add volume to areas of the face that have started to sag or become hollow and gaunt-looking. It’s a natural effect of aging to lose volume in our cheeks, for example, or under our eyes. The fullness and softness of our younger faces tend to thin and drift down as we grow older. So the plump cheeks we had at age 18 can become drooping jowls or a hanging chin in our 50s. Today, a facelift can correct these volume changes by including fat transplants or dermal fillers.

The best surgeons now customize your facelift by combining the latest surgical techniques with volumetric procedures to produce subtly beautiful results. And with advances to minimize incisions, reduce bruising, and promote faster recovery, you’ll be able to show off your results without as much downtime.

Learn How Today’s Facelift Can Make You Look Years Younger

Dr. David Kim at Beverly Hills Plastic Surgery has developed an impeccable reputation for stunning, natural-looking facelift results. Contact our practice today at (310) 746-5475 or send an online request to schedule a consultation.

Capsular Contracture Surgery

Breast implant rupture and capsular contracture are two different medical complications that could necessitate a breast implant removal plastic surgery. An experienced surgeon will first determine the cause of the implant failure, and then prepare a customized surgical plan for implant removal or replacement.  

plastic surgeon Dr. David Kim provides cosmetic and reconstructive procedures for the breast, body and face to patients in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, CA, and surrounding communities.  

Candidacy 

You may be a candidate for breast implant removal surgery for one of the following reasons: 

Incision Placement 

Depending on how your primary breast augmentation cosmetic surgery was performed, your surgeon may be able to use the same incision site for your implant removal. This will minimize additional scarring. But if you have chosen different sized implants to replace your old implants, a new incision may have to be created.  

In most cases, the incision will be placed underneath the breast crease or around the areola border to keep the scarring as discreet as possible.  

Surgical Procedure 

Breast implant removal surgery is usually an outpatient procedure, which will take about one to three hours, depending on the situation. You will probably require general anesthesia, which means the procedure must be performed at an accredited surgery center.  

It is best to have a family member or friend accompany you for surgery, and they can also drive you back safely after the procedure and post-op monitoring is completed. The surgeon will perform the procedure according to the customized surgical plan discussed with you at the time of pre-surgery consultations.  

In many cases, the surgeon may decide to remove the implants along with the capsular scar tissue that envelopes the implant. If your skin has become stretched and the breasts tend to sag after years of implantation, your implant removal may be combined with a breast lift cosmetic surgery to restore the firmer and lifted appearance of the breasts.  

En Bloc Capsulectomy 

In a few cases, your surgeon may perform a specialized breast implant removal procedure called en bloc capsulectomy. In this case, the implant will be removed while it is still contained with the scar tissue capsule. The complete capsule will be carefully excised from your breast pocket with the implant intact inside it.  

The surgeon may have to decide on en bloc capsulectomy only after the incisions are placed and they are able to examine the condition of the capsular tissue and the breast pocket. You will have to discuss this possibility in advance at the time of your initial consultation.  

Recovery  

Recovery in case of breast implant removal is similar to that of your primary breast augmentation surgery. Most women are able to go back to their normal routine in one to two weeks. Cosmetic surgeon Dr. David Kim receives patients from Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, CA, and nearby areas for dependable and proven plastic surgery procedures.  

Schedule a Consultation with an Expert

For more information on the surgical and non-surgical procedures and treatments by Cosmetic Plastic Surgeons Dr. David Kim and Dr. Eugene Kim.  Click here to contact us today.

Serving Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, West Hollywood, Orange County, Southern California and surrounding areas.