Feeling as Good as you Look
By Drs. Deborah Ekstrom and Juris Bunkis
As plastic surgeons, we spend our career helping people look as good as possible. Feeling our best encompasses more than just our outward appearance; it’s about holistic well-being encompassing physical, mental, and emotional health. Here are several steps individuals can take to feel their best:
- Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT): Hormonal imbalances can significantly impact mood, energy levels, and overall well-being. BHRT can help restore hormonal balance, potentially alleviating symptoms such as fatigue, mood swings, and decreased libido. All of our hormone levels start to wane in our 30’s. BHRT is worth considering if you want to fee and function more like you did in your youth.
- Therapy for Internal Issues: Seeking therapy or counseling can be immensely beneficial for addressing internal struggles, past traumas, or mental health conditions like anxiety or depression. Therapy provides a safe space to explore emotions, develop coping strategies, and foster personal growth.
- Financial Stability: Financial stress can take a toll on mental health and overall quality of life. Taking steps towards financial stability, such as budgeting, saving, or seeking financial advice, can alleviate anxiety and provide a sense of security. Do what you can to put your financial affairs in order to allow you to live without financial stress.
- Intimacy: Building intimate connections with others is essential for emotional well-being. This includes fostering meaningful relationships with friends, family, or romantic partners. Open communication, empathy, and spending quality time together can deepen these connections and contribute to overall happiness.
- Self-Care: Engaging in regular self-care practices, such as exercise, meditation, adequate sleep, and healthy eating, is crucial for maintaining physical and mental well-being. Prioritizing self-care allows individuals to recharge, manage stress, and cultivate a positive outlook on life.
By addressing both external and internal factors, individuals can cultivate a sense of well-being that goes beyond physical appearance, ultimately leading to a happier and more fulfilling life.
Why not feel as good as you look?
A little time and effort allows us to eat healthy, whether we have room for a large vegetable box or a hydroponic Tower Garden for tighter spaces
Spotlight on Plastic Surgery – Ins and Outs of Body Contouring Surgery
By Dr. Deborah Ekstrom
Body contouring issues may include excess skin, localized fatty tissue deposits, poor symmetry (breast as an example) or mal-proportion and body imbalance. Sometimes these occur in combination.
Examples of challenges patients face include excess skin after pregnancy or weight loss (or just with aging), anywhere from the face to the leg area. Unwanted fatty deposits can occur under the chin and in the neck, thickness of the chest, deposits of fatty tissue in the upper arms, abdomen, flanks, and inner/outer thighs.
Suction assisted lipectomy (liposuction) is a well-known treatment and permanently removes fatty tissue in a way that dieting or Ozempic/Wegovy cannot, since those approaches only shrink the size of fat cells but do not remove them permanently. It is untrue that your body tries to gain weight in the areas that you had liposuctioned! That being said, liposuction is not a free ticket to indulge and gain weight and it is not a weight loss technique.
Sometimes suction assisted lipectomy and skin removal are needed in tandem, such as upper arm tucks and inner thigh “lifts.” If BMI (body mass index) is elevated and the patient wants to decrease risk before a tummy tuck, liposuction can proceed a tummy tuck by several months. Not only is risk decreased but contour and ultimate body satisfaction are enhanced.
Breasts can be “lifted” or reshaped (mastopexy), and/or augmented, tummies tucked and flattened (abdominoplasty), upper arms restored to normal contour (brachioplasty), and floppy or jiggly inner thighs tightened (thigh lift or thighplasty).
Buttocks can be repositioned higher and excess mid-back skin or bra roll skin can be tucked and tightened. To assist in contour (if adequate donor material is present) fat grafting to the buttocks can provide a fuller curve, or buttock implants can create fullness (or both can be used in a composite buttock lift), just as can be done with the breasts.
Sometimes, patients embark on a full body makeover for a strong boost in body confidence and well-being.
Overall, the transformation in appearance and in body confidence is the thing that makes the work in this field so gratifying for all of us at Salisbury Plastic Surgery in Massachusetts, and Orange County Plastic Surgery in California. Your satisfaction is our satisfaction!
This patient underwent a full body makeover after losing 128 pounds. She had an abdominoplasty, breast augmentation, mastopexy, fat transfer from the hips and thighs to the buttocks, brachioplasty, and a bra roll excision (Actual patient of Dr. Deborah Ekstrom).
If you want to see if you can have any part of your body improved, contact us for a consultation:
For CA, please call 949-888-9700 or visit www.orangecountyplasticsurgery.com
Or for MA location, call 508-755-4825 or visit www.salisburyps.com
You can write to
Dr. John Compoginis at Contact Us Form
Dr. Staci Compoginis at Contact Us Form
Dr. Deborah Ekstrom at Contact Us Form
or Dr. Juris Bunkis at Contact Us Form