Over a period of time, there occurs damage to cells and tissues of the body. Various factors such as aging, forces of gravity, extremes of weather, prolonged exposure to Ultraviolet Rays of the sun, repeated pregnancies, obesity, fluctuations in weight and various systemic diseases contribute to this damage, which leads to progressive deterioration in the appearance of a body. However, loosely, all these changes may be classified as those of an aging face and body.

A person maintaining a healthy lifestyle can to some extent, delay this relentless process. She should maintain an ideal weight for her height and age. A person should avoid significant, sudden and multiple changes of weight. One should avoid exposure to extreme weather conditions. One should use a good sunscreen with spf>25, to protect the skin from ultraviolet rays of sun. One should drink plenty of liquids and have a balanced diet with sufficient compliment of vitamins and minerals.

1. Procedures for Face

2. Procedures for Hair Restoration

3. Procedures for the Body

4. Procedures for Breasts

5. Genital Plastic Surgery

Procedures in cosmetic surgery attempt to slow, halt and in many cases reverse the effects of this damage, thus resulting in an improved appearance. For face, the procedures are Surgical Face Lift operation, Thread Lift, Lipoinjection and Liquid Facelift.

Surgical Face Lift

Surgical Face Lift is considered the Gold Standard. It causes a significant reduction in signs of aging in face and neck. It also takes care of excessive and hanging skin folds and platysmal folds at neck, which are not addressed by other techniques. The results are long lasting. However, it involves incisions around temporal region and ear and a significant recovery time of 5-7 days. The cost of the procedure is around Rs 1-1.5Lacs. A surgical forehead lift can restore the appearance of youthful, unlined forehead and lift the sagging eyebrows at the same time.

Thread Lift

Thread Lift involves insertion of long lasting surgical threads from the areas of skin laxity to temporal or postauricular region, thus lifting and fixing the tissue in an upward and backward direction and thus causing tightening and rejuvenation. The procedure is done under local anaesthesia and patient can go back to work same evening or next day. The effect lasts 3-4 years and procedure can be done at a cost of around Rs 75000/-.

Lipoinjection

Lipoinjection involves harvesting fat with thin cannulae from fat deposits at abdomen/around the hips etc and after refining, injecting this into areas of loss of fat/ volume at face. This transfers not only the adipose cells, but also adipose derived stem cells (fatty tissue has around 5lac stem cells per 100mls, which is 100 times higher than in bone marrow). This results in a return of youthful appearance and rejuvenation of face. The effect is long lasting. The patient can go back to work in 3-4 days. This procedure can be done under local infiltration anaesthesia and cost may be around Rs 75000/-. Lipofilling however may be unable to address the problem of hanging skin and neck folds.

Liquid Facelift

The liquid face-lift uses fillers that are designed to refill areas where you have lost volume. Such areas are under eye hollows, depressions at cheek, nasolabial folds, marionette lines and eyebrows. Most of the fillers used nowadays contain hyaluronic acid, which replaces the exact body tissue, which decreases with aging. At the same sitting, botox is used to reduce or eliminate major lines such as frown lines on forehead and crow’s feet around the eyes. The combination of these two techniques in Liquid Face Lift results in elimination of hollow areas, smoothing out of fine and major lines and results in a lifting effect and a youthful appearance. As it involves only injections, it is essentially a lunchtime procedure and as such, no recovery period is required. Some signs of aging which result from sagging of skin such a Jowls and Vertical folds at neck known as Turkey Gobbler folds cannot be corrected by this. The procedure costs around Rs 60-80000/- depending on amount of injectables used.

Botox needs to be repeated every 4-6 months and fillers, at around 1-1.5 years. The patient can go back to work immediately. There are a number of other methods which are combined with above or used in isolation to improve the appearance of face. These are Blepharoplasty (For eyelids), Liposuction, double chin correction, Rhinoplasty (for improved appearance of nose), facial implants or bone grafts, corrective jaw surgery, creation of a dimple in the cheek etc.

As we age, hairline recedes and there is general thinning of hair. In males, there may be male pattern baldness in which hair are lost at font and vertex, while those at sides and back are retained. In females, though the frontal and temporal hairline is maintained, there is a generalized thinning. Follicular Hair Grafting with strip method (FUG) or Follicular Unit Extraction (FUE) can fill in the bald areas, resulting in significant improvement. The procedures cost Rs 75000/- to 1.5Lacs depending on the area to be filled. It is a daycare procedure and is done under local anaesthesia. For generalized thinning and female pattern baldness, a recent procedure is Platelet Rich Plasma Injection (PRP). In this procedure, around 10mls of blood is taken and processed in blood bank to enrich platelets to around 5 times of normal concentration. Platelets are small cells, circulating in blood and contain a number of growth factors. These induce the hair follicles which are producing small villus hair, to produce stronger hair with thick shaft and to enter active growing phase, thus resulting in improvement.

Liposuction is a method, in which narrow calibre cannulae are introduced through small incisions (usually in hidden areas), into the areas of fatty deposits and fat is dislodged and removed with the help of suction. The technique was introduced in early 1980’s and has gained popularity. For several years, it has remained the most commonly performed cosmetic surgical procedure. The technique is typically used for patients, who are within 10-15% in excess of their ideal body weight, are otherwise healthy and have tried dieting and exercise. Liposuction is a body shaping technique that is often mistaken for weight reduction technique, though some weight loss invariably occurs after the procedure. Since, there is a targeted fat removal, post-operatively, the patient appears to be in much better body shape than a similar weight person, who has not had the procedure. Some of the common techniques are Tumescent Liposuction, Power Assisted Liposuction, VASER and Laser Assisted Liposuction. A good amount of body shaping can be done. One of the recent derivatives is “six pack plasty”. Cost of Liposuction varies from Rs 60,000/- to 1.5Lacs, depending on the area and technique (VASER) involved. Whenever there is excessive body weight, combined with hanging of folds, some form of skin and fat excision is done. Sometimes, liposuction is also combined. Tummy tuck (abdominoplasty), body lift, breast lift, thigh lift etc are procedures, which are used to solve this complex problem. The costs of these procedures varies from Rs 75,000/- to 1.5Lacs. Implants can be used to augment buttocks, pectoral areas (chest) and calf. The procedures cost from Rs 1-1.5Lacs. Buttocks can also be augmented with fat transfer (Brazilian Butt Lift). In this procedure, fat is gently harvested from other areas such as flanks, thighs, hips, abdomen, with the help of thin cannulae, via liposuction. This fat is then refined and injected into desired area with thin cannulae, via droplet technique. This can be done in most patients, except those, who are thin and hence, do not have sufficient fat for transfer. This procedure costs around Rs.1.5Lacs.

This procedure is carried out in women, who feel their breasts to be of inadequate size. It is also carried out in cases of asymmetry, where one breast is smaller than the other and in certain surgical conditions such as tuberous breast. It is also done in cases of large benign tumours (noncancerous tumours) of breast, where the removal of tumour leads to significant reduction in size of the breast. Attainment of perky and full looking breasts is now a reality, thanks to the advances in science. For those women who desire this, the procedure of breast augmentation makes them feel more confident and complete. The breasts are augmented with the help of cohesive silicone gel filled or saline filled implants. This is a safe procedure and does not interfere with breast feeding. The procedure of breast augmentation with implants costs around 1.1 to 1.5Lac Rs depending on the type of implant. For women, who have larger than normal breasts causing neck, shoulder or back pain and other symptoms, the procedure of breast reduction restores the breast to normal. This procedure costs around Rs 1-1.2Lacs.

Liposuction of pubic area, Lipofilling of Labia, Lifting the sagging pubic area, often in combination with “Tummy Tuck” can restore the female genital area to it’s youthful state. One of the recent procedures is Grafenberg (G) spot augmentation, which can help a woman reach orgasm during intercourse. The procedure costs around Rs 50,000/-. Reconstruction of Hymen (Hymenoplasty) and Vaginal Tightening are other commonly done procedures. These procedures cost around Rs 60,000/- to 1Lac. In males, those suffering from impotence, which is refractory to non surgical methods and medicines, can be helped with penile implants. The cost of this surgery is around Rs 1.2Lacs (inclusive of non inflatable, semi rigid implant). Apparent penile length and girth can also be improved with plastic surgery procedures. These procedures cost around Rs 75000/-to 1.25Lacs.