Mommy Makeover
Having a baby changes your life and also your body. A mommy makeover helps bring your body back to its pre-baby ways. There are several different modalities to help with the many stresses pregnancy can bring. Stretch marks, skin laxity, that extra abdominal pooch, or the spider veins that pregnancy can cause all can be addressed at Advanced Dermatology.
Nine months of your beautiful baby growing in your stomach can unfortunately lead to stretch marks. Although we all try to prevent stretch marks during pregnancy, often times it is predetermined genetically that we are going to get them. Luckily there are products that can improve these unappealing marks. Topically we can start using retinoids such as Kinerase® Tretinoin or SkinMedica® TNS Body Lotion. Retinoids help stimulate collagen to help smooth out the textural changes of stretch marks.
Along with stretch marks, pregnancy also comes with cellulite. DermaQuest DermaFirm is a topical treatment that improves the appearance of cellulite. DermaFirm works by increasing microcirculation, which then decreases edema in the tissue. This gives the skin a smoother appearance. It also helps decrease fat storage, thus helping prevent more cellulite. DermaFirm is a great topical that can be used alone or in conjunction with Tripollar and/or Coolsculpting by ZELTIQ.
Lasers also play a pivotal role in the treatment of stretch marks. The unsightly redness of the stretch mark can be successfully treated with the pulsed dye laser. This laser targets the blood vessels and blood supply that creates the redness that you see in the stretch mark. After several treatments that take place over one month intervals you gradually see the redness fade and also the texture improve as the laser also helps stimulate the underlying collagen.
Even after we lose the baby weight often times we are left with stomachs that are no longer tight, and now have undesired laxity. The Tripollar Apollo radio frequency helps with this laxity. Radio-frequency works by heating up the underlying collagen, which in turn causes tightening of the collagen fibers. Results are noticed after several treatments that occur once a week over a six to eight week period. Maintenance treatments are required every 6 months. The beauty of this treatment is its safe on all skin types, and its safe and painless to do even in the summer.
The pooch that is left over after having a baby, is the hardest for us to get rid of with just diet and exercise. As hard as we try, sometimes we just can’t get rid of that stubborn area. A nice non-surgical approach to treat this area is using FDA approved Coolsculpting™. Coolsculpting™ isolates areas that aren’t amendable to diet and exercise such as the abdomen, love handles, and back fat. By using suction and cooling the skin to the freezing point of fat, we are able to cause apoptosis or cell death to the fat cells while not damaging the external skin. The cells are then naturally eliminated from the body. Results are seen over several months and there is no downtime involved. Coolsculpting™ is safe to do one year post-partum.
Last, but not least, you may have noticed that your spider veins worsened while you were pregnant, or that now you have veins that before you never had. There are several treatment options for spider veins. First it is important to determine if there is an underlying problem with the deep veins that need to be addressed before treating the spider veins. Dr. Rosen can perform ultrasound on your legs and determine if underlying disease is present. Once this has been addressed we can treat the spider veins with either sclerotherapy and/or laser. Treatment can begin several months post-partum and we can improve the appearance of your legs.
Having a child definitely changes your life and your body. Luckily Advanced Dermatology can address the many changes pregnancy does to your body with the Mommy makeover. Schedule a consultation to determine what treatments are right for you.