Evaluating My Facial Skin Part One
Dr. Melody Lynd is a plastic surgeon in Campbell, California, with over 23 years of experience in plastic and general surgery. Renowned for her precision and compassionate approach, she specializes in cosmetic procedures, including facial enhancements, body contouring, and breast surgeries, as well as reconstructive care..... more
Knowing your skin is not important just for skin care, but also for predicting outcomes with facial surgery. I will explain this from my plastic surgeon's eye. But first, the story. "You have to try this skin care cream. It's the best! I look so much younger and brighter," exclaims your friend. "I was trying this other stuff and it dried out my skin. But, this is the game changer."
You purchase the cream. The next day you have zits all over your face. What went wrong? You have thick facial skin, with large pores, and run mostly oily throughout your face. Your friend? Normal skin, not too thin skin but pores not so defined. Take home message is what may work for someone's skin may not work for another's. So, what to do? How to evaluate?
First, how thick is your skin? I'm not talking sun damage leathered skin. Is your skin simply put "thick" with pores? Is your skin with small pores and more fine? Are you dry or oily. Maybe a mix of the two. I can tell you from a plastic surgery standpoint, these are very important evaluation points in the case of nose jobs and face lifts. In the former, even with addressing patient concerns, thicker porous skin may create to much weight on the underlying surgical repair leading to a not so satisfactory outcome. Same goes with facelift. You know I will talk about more of this in later blogs. For now, this is why understanding facial skin is important for both you and me. The final thing to note really is melanocyte content. In other words your genetics ie your ethnic makeup. This is very important with regards to acid treatments, laser, radiofrequency, and even basic skin care. Then again, I'm going to leave you hanging since I've already covered a lot of material and dive into this with the next blog..........
