CONSULTATION

The aging process is like a fingerprint. No two people age at the same level, same speed or in the same way. Dr. Alex De Souza believes that solitary treatments alone, such as BOTOX®, microdermabrasion and fillers, will not improve overall appearance on their own but must instead be used as one of several pieces of the puzzle. The necessary pieces, or treatments, are etermined during a free, onehour consultation, during which De Souza uses state-ofthe art technology to analyze the individual’s process of aging. Treatments used to reverse the clock and improve the skin’s appearance include the INVISILIFT®, skin tightening and skin repair.

The INVISILIFT® is a very popular procedure because it is minimally invasive, it has minimal down time and it produces very natural results. Because not all invisible lifts are born equal, this procedure is customized to each patient. The
lifts go from the eyes to the cheekbones or the neck and are used to hold your muscles in place and lift and reposition your facial structures for a more youthful appearance. The lift needs to be followed immediately by a tightening reatment because what keeps the structure in the right position is not the thread itself but tightening the skin.

Tightening of the skin, also called Thermage, can be performed in several ways. De Souza prefers the use of ThermaCool, a machine that uses radiofrequency to lift the skin and create contractions of the collagen fibers while remodeling those fibers under the skin.

After the lift and tightening, the final step is skin restoration which is done in two stages and which De Souza compares to remodeling the kitchen cabinets. Like cabinets, you cannot hang the new ones until you remove the old ones. He uses several types of procedures to remove blemishes and perfect the skin tone, including:

Unwanted hair removal, which is done with IPL (intense pulsed light) devices and is more effective, safer and less painful than laser removal; Fotofacials, which correct age spots, acne, sun-damage, rosacea and other pigment marks; filler injections, such as Restylane® and Radiance, which provide collagen to fill wrinkles, scars and other skin defects; minimal trauma microdermabrasion and chemical peels, which remove the top layers of the skin and stimulate new skin growth, correcting sun damage, wrinkles, large pores and skin tone; and sclerotherapy, which uses injections into the blood vessel to damage and destroy the walls of spider veins and varicose veins in the legs, face
and body. To build the new skin, he uses skin products from the Obagi and Seda skin care lines. Seda, developed in West Virginia, is the first cosmetic line to come from the state. Both lines of products give significant improvement of the skin condition. Other products can be associated with them such as hydroquinone, Retin A and multiple types of vitamins and topical antioxidants can be used to assist on the repair of the skin.

Aspect #1 is bone structure and the facial structure itself. What happens in the process of aging due to several factors is the bone structure shrinks and the soft tissue and flesh of the face become loose and does not fit on the bony structure anymore. This causes the double chin area, black eyes, roofing around the eyes, and sadness of the entire face. All those things are due to loose muscles and skin drooping over shrinking bony structure. On top of that, we believe that you cannot have a gift without a nice wrap and the skin is the wrap of the facial appearance and the condition of the skin is very important on your appearance. As a matter of fact, if you have a very successful conventional facelift, you still cannot have a very good appearance because damaged skin can be a significant factor in the aging process.
Therefore, when one considers a facelift or facial rejuvenation treatment, skin restoration is paramount. Therefore, when we address the face, we address in three separate aspects. We address skin restoration with skin repair due to years and years of damage. We also address the shrinking and the tightening of the skin and the muscle structure which is important and performed by a specific procedure called Thermage treatment. Finally, for bringing the structures to the right position, it is necessary to have a lift. Therefore, we associated a minimally invasive INVISILIFT® with tightening of the skin using Thermage and restoration of the skin using several types of lasers, modern, new generation of microdermabrasion and skin care treatment. Those procedures are the procedures that we consider restore and repair your face. In addition to those procedures, we include the procedures that mask and give it a final touch. Those procedures are BOTOX, collagen fillers and other procedures that although do not produce any repair, could improve the appearance and somehow cause benefits. Those procedures are also added in our package.
Although as a surgeon, I believe that a successful facelift is unbeatable. I agree with several patients that if they can avoid major surgery and produce several small procedures to obtain the results of facial rejuvenation, that would be the option of choice. There is less risk of complications, less costly, minimally invasive cosmetic procedure implies again and minimal down time. With the speed of life today in the 21st Century where everyone is busy, down time is very important. Therefore, we believe that although surgical treatments are fantastic, we feel there is a tendency for a patient to choose noninvasive procedures.

Please check our different packages which one fits you. We have three major packages.

Package #1 includes all the procedures described above. We use our INVISILIFT® with skin tightening treatments and the skin restoration program associated with multiple treatments to improve the appearance such as BOTOX, laser, hair removal, fillers and this package is called package #1.
Package #2 includes everything but the lift. We do tightening, skin restoration and finish touch with BOTOX, fillers, etc.; however, the lift would not be necessary and would be excluded.
Package #3 we perform the skin repair. Although this is a small procedure and less expensive, we feel it has a tremendous impact.
As a physician, this procedure has the benefits of producing healthy skin and several studies demonstrate that there is a decrease of skin cancer and other problems including keratosis and a multitude of problems can be avoided with good skin conditioning and repair. Therefore, it makes us feel good to be able to perform a procedure that makes your skin healthier and at the same time give you a better look.
The package for the skin is divided in two. We have a package that includes just the skin restoration but also there is a skin restoration associated with BOTOX fillers and even Thermage for tightening around the eyes. Those packages are customized and we believe once again that your aging process is as unique as your fingerprints and we would like to develop a customized package just for you.