dr. gregory chernoff

Losing an abundant amount of weight is a rather large accomplishment. Whether it’s via weight loss surgery, or simply by your own doing, it’s an achievement everyone should be proud of. However, with massive weight loss also comes a whole new look to your body. Procedures to take off extra skin are usually a must. Yet, there is another procedure that is done quite often too: breast reduction.

A new study suggests that women who have their breasts reduced after their weight loss are more likely to be happy with their results. Of course, this doesn’t mean that all women should or must wait for a breast reduction. In fact, large breasts can cause pain and even make it hard to exercise. However, the chances are much higher for disappointment in shape and size of the reduced breasts once a woman reaches their ideal weight.

In a recent study, more than a third of the women who had their breast reduced prior to weight loss were unhappy with the final result. Half of the women planned to undergo a breast augmentation to find their perfect breast size and shape to suit their new bodies. Many more said they would if it was covered by insurance. A third of the women who did not opt for a breast reduction before weight loss were unhappy with their overly large breast and half of the women said they were planning on having a breast reduction, while others said they would if they could afford it.

The general consensus is that you’re most likely better off with a breast reduction after weight loss, though some women were perfectly happy with their breasts before and after. It truly varies from patient to patient and must be talked about extensively with their doctor so that the best option can be ascertained.

To your health and beauty,

Gregory Chernoff, M.D.

The attempt to lose and keep off weight is a problem many Americans struggle with. In fact, two-thirds of adults and one-third of children and adolescents are now considered overweight or obese. By these standards, normal weight no longer exists. However, if you’re lucky to harbor only small amounts of fat, you probably are a candidate for liposuction. A simple procedure performed at my Indianapolis plastic surgery practice, liposuction re-contours your body into the shape you’ve always wanted.

Unfortunately, most Americans are nowhere near their ideal weight; therefore they cannot undergo such a procedure. Instead, dropping weight is left up to the specific person. However, statistics show that doing so is not such an easy task. In fact, twenty five percent of men and forty three percent of women attempt to diet each year. Approximately five to twenty percent actually succeed in actually losing, and keeping off, the weight.

But before we blame dieters for not being able to go through with their plans, we must take into consideration that scientists now believe that the brain has a lot to do with overeating. In fact, the urge to eat is not so much wired into our stomachs, but in our brains. How many times has your stomach made clear that it was full, only to have you continue eating what’s in front of you? How often have you not been tempted to eat a burger until you saw someone else eating one? It seems that our brain is much more powerful than our stomach when it comes to delicious food. We can be as regimented as possible, and the brain can still talk us into sampling some tasty treat.

With this in mind, scientists are hoping to find a trigger in the brain that causes us to eat so much. If a trigger does exist, scientists hope to find a way to turn it off in order to regulate our over consumption. If this does occur, America could have a fighting chance in getting healthy again.

To your health and beauty,

Gregory Chernoff

Have you ever noticed that people age differently? Some may just have good genes. Some may be “cheating” time and having work done, such as certain procedures my Indianapolis plastic surgery practice perform. But not everyone wants to, or even can, undergo a treatment such as Botox or laser skin resurfacing. Nor is everyone about to undergo a face lift or brow lift just for the sake of beauty. The truth is that where you live could either be preserving your skin or pushing it into early wrinkles and pigment spots.

A recent study has established a strong association between residing near a busy highway, or heavily traffic-filled area, and early skin aging. The study itself was conducted over twenty years and analyzed two groups of people from Germany: one group residing in heavily industrialized areas, and one  group living in sparsely populated rural areas. Due to the research, airborne particles from car exhaust are now ranked third place as the most potentially modifiable factor to cause early skin aging. It falls right beneath ultraviolet radiation and tobacco smoke. Unfortunately, not everyone can relocate to a new home, while managing your exposure to the sun and smoke is a much easier task.

This is not the first offense car exhaust is guilty of when it comes to our health. In fact, its threat is more than skin deep. High exposure to traffic-related airborne particles has been known to impair cognitive function in the elderly and inhibit lung function. As of right now scientists have ongoing studies trying to determine whether this exposure has a hand in causing Alzheimer’s disease too.

We may not always be able to choose where can to reside, but if you must live in an area with high traffic you may want to consider taking extra care of your skin. My Indianapolis plastic surgery practice is also more that capable and more than happy to help as well.

To your health and beauty,

Dr. Gregory Chernoff

My Indianapolis plastic surgery practice has seen all types of patients. But nothing compares to the amount of older patients I’ve seen walk into my office lately. In fact, this spike reflects the American Society of Plastic Surgeon’s statistic saying there was a two percent increase in patients over 55 last year. I can only imagine that it has increased again this year.

In Indianapolis, procedures like face lifts, neck lifts, brow lifts, and liposuction and treatments like Botox are just as popular with my younger patients as well as my gradually growing older patients. These clients have seen plastic surgery become accepted, and have finally willed themselves to not feel ashamed for wanting to look young. Plastic surgery is no longer taboo like it used to be, so older patients are ready to the take the plunge they’ve always wanted to.

Many of my Indianapolis plastic surgery patients over the age of 55 frequently mention how outspoken older celebrities have also helped them in embracing cosmetic procedures. They see how happy celebrities, such as Sharon Osbourne, openly admit to having work done, proud to have had help in looking the way they look. With society being so accepting, it’s only natural that more people, no matter their age, would consider cosmetic surgery.

In my opinion, you are never too old to want to look your best. If there are no serious risks for the patient, then there is no particular reason that a procedure should not be done. Wanting to look good is a universal feeling.

To your health and beauty,

Dr. Gregory Chernoff

It’s natural to start losing your hair, yet we don’t always do it gracefully. In fact, many young people that start losing their hair early have been known to do everything in their power to salvage the hair that is left. My Indianapolis plastic surgery practice performs scalp reductions as well as hair replacement procedures to combat just this.

But what if your whole body, especially your head, couldn’t grow hair at all? This is what people living with Alopecia deal with every day. And with hair becoming more of fashion statement each day, with all the new styles and colors, their only option is a wig. What would you do if you didn’t have hair to style, or even brush?

However, new research shows a glint of hope for a possible cure for Alopecia. Two teams, one at the University of Oxford, England, and one at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine have discovered how hair stem cells in mice and rabbits communicate with each other. These stem cells have the ability to communicate with each other to generate a robust hair growth by cycling through an active and dormant state. This lack of communication is partially why Alopecia occurs in people in the first place.

If doctors can only learn how to nurture an environment that allows this communication, a cure to Alopecia could be in sight. With USC’s Stevens Institute for Innovation already applying for a patent on the composition and method to modulate hair growth, this is only the first step.

To your health, beauty and healthy hair growth,

Dr. Gregory Chernoff

In Indianapolis, face lifts and Botox are quite popular for combating the aging process. In fact, many cosmetic procedures occur because a patient wants to get rid of wrinkles or simply look and feel younger. But aside from the standard procedures mentioned previously, there isn’t much anti-aging processes that work without the help of a plastic surgeon. However, it seems that there may be a more natural way to combat age if you are not ready to take the plunge into cosmetic procedures, such as the ones I perform every day at my Indianapolis plastic surgery practice.

There are a lot of anti-aging skin creams out there that supposedly work, and some actually do, but the most common ingredients in these creams that do really work are antioxidants. But a new ingredient, the leaf bud of poplar trees, could be the ingredient to push antioxidants out of these creams.

Poplar trees have already been used to combat colds, sinusitis, sunburn and arthritis. But after further study conducted by researcher Xavier Vitrac, the poplar bud has shown that it contains a healthy dose of antioxidant activity. When put to work on some cells in the laboratory it was found that anti-aging effects did occur. Vitrac says that the antioxidant activity was so promising that this extract has a lot of potential to be utilized in cosmetic formulas.

This is great news for those that are not yet ready to undergo Botox injections or a face lift. It is also great news for people who would rather use something natural to combat those pesky wrinkles. But remember, better results are more likely to come out of a cosmetic procedure over a simple cream applied once a day. Whichever you choose, however, is up to you. What’s most important is that you feel good about yourself and your age.

To your health and beauty,

Dr. Gregory Chernoff

My Indianapolis Plastic Surgery practice frequently performs liposuction on patients seeking a finishing touch to obtain their sexy silhouette. Whether it’s because a client has an area of fat that is determined to stay even after a lot of hard work, or a client simply wants some help with shaping their body, liposuction is a great way of getting rid of the last remnants of fat. Lipo isn’t a weight loss surgery, but a body contouring procedure meant for patients that are already very close to achieving their ideal weight.

Many of my clients, prior to their liposuction procedure, are concerned about whether or not the fat will return and ruin their new bodies. The answer to this isn’t a simple yes or no, but a yes AND no answer.

The truth is that the fat does have a tendency to come back. A new study recently reports that after liposuction, fat usually returns within a year. It doesn’t, however, return to any liposuctioned part, instead finding other parts of the body to settle in. This means any part of the body that has been liposuctioned will retain its post-op shape. I have seen this for myself in my Indianapolis liposuction patients.

Obesity researchers aren’t surprised by this new report whatsoever. In fact, this study on liposuction patients simply backs up what has already been found in animal data when fat was surgically removed. The goal is no longer to find out if fat returns, but why the fat returns in the first place. Currently the most popular hypothesis is that the body, maybe even the brain, is so used to having the fat that its removal causes the body to regulate itself.  This could explain why weight tends to come back even after a diet.

So does this mean that lipo is futile? Of course not! As previously stated, lipo is more of a body sculpting procedure than a weight loss one. Those recommended for lipo should already be close to the weight they want to be; within 25 lbs is best. In this case a ton of fat isn’t even being taken out, meaning there is less fat to worry about returning. It’s also always smart to get into healthy eating habits and exercising regularly to ward off any pounds being put back on. But whether or not any fat returns, your beautiful shape will still remain as well as your satisfaction.

Will you still consider getting liposuction even though fat does return to other parts of the body?

To your health and beauty,

Gregory Chernoff, MD

I perform cosmetic surgery on teens in my Indianapolis plastic surgery practice. They are always focused on "quality of life" issues, such as rhinoplasty for teens with noses that are outside the normal appearance, like a big hump or a nose that's off-center, etc. I also do breast reductions for teenage girls who are teased or who have discomfort because of overly large breasts, as well as breast reductions in teenaged boys suffering from gynecomastia. I routinely do ear-pinning on kids of all ages, including teenagers, for children whose ears stick out. On a rare instance, I also perform a breast augmentation on a teenaged girl whose breasts are very asymmetrical, ie, one breast is much different in size than the other one, as this can be very embarrassing in a swimsuit or even in a t-shirt.

The media often makes us believe that many teens are undergoing cosmetic procedures, inasmuch as Bristol Palin, who isn't yet 20, has just undergone "reconstructive" (her words) cosmetic surgery–in actuality, it looks like she had a chin implant and some lipo of the cheek area which is probably not essential but I have to admit, she does look better.

The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery released their statistics of all kinds of cosmetic procedures for 2010, as they do annually. This is what they had to say about the most popular procedures performed on our teens:

• Laser hair removal (51,000 procedures last year)
• Skin treatments (including 16,200 chemical peels and 10,400 microdermabrasion treatments)
• Ear surgery (10,700 procedures)
• Nose jobs (9,100 procedures)
• The study also showed that teenage cosmetic surgery is actually down from previous years–in fact, over 300,000 cosmetic procedures were performed on the under-20 crowd 10 years ago, but last year only about 125,000 were done. Whether that's just a reflection on 2010′s dismal economy, I don't know, but one hopes it might be due to some discernment on the part of parents.

I'd be very interested in your opinion about cosmetic surgery for teens. What do you think? Is it always something the kids should learn to live with, ie, big noses and some of the above items I mentioned, or should parents relent and give cosmetic surgery to their children? I know of one surgeon in the NYC area who advocates a breast augmentation for girls graduating from high school, as a "graduation gift." What do you think of this? 

To your health & beauty,

Gregory Chernoff, MD

Although silicone injections are illegal in the US, many women still receive them. If you ask two or three of your closest beauty-savvy friends whether silicone can be used to augment the lips, buttocks, face, hands or breasts, I’m betting they will say yes. Unfortunately, liquid silicone is often used off-label or on the black market by unqualified providers. You can see from the photo at left that Priscilla Presley’s face was nearly ruined from silicone injections that her doctor told her were “better than Botox.”

Silicone injections first became popular in the 1950s, when they were injected into breasts as a sort of augmentation-without-an implant.  Unfortunately, the injections caused infections, deformities and bumps and were eventually banned by the FDA. Because micro-droplet injections for scars are not banned by the FDA, however, some physicians continue to inject silicone.

Because it lasts forever, silicone does not adapt to aging tissue. The only way to reverse the damage incurred—with a surgical procedure, which might not remove all the silicone or correct the visible effects. Lisa Rinna recently underwent surgery to remove the silicone in her lips, which were injected in the ’80s.

Our plastic surgery practice has a plethora of FDA approved dermal fillers in Indianapolis. Collagen lip augmentation is a much more reliable result than silicone ever was. Sculptra Aesthetic is another option—not for the lips, but an excellent filler for the cheeks and other facial areas.

If you hear from a friend or family member that they are considering silicone injections, please share this blog post with them. It could save them a great deal of discomfort, wasted money and very disappointing results.

To your health & beauty,

Dr. Gregory Chernoff