Dr. Clayton Frenzel discusses popularity of TUBA breast augmentation on The CW33 News

At his Dallas cosmetic surgery practice, Dr. Clayton Frenzel was recently featured on the CW33 News sharing the secret of a no-scar breast augmentation, otherwise known as trans-umbilical breast augmentation or TUBA.

TUBA Breast Augmentation aka "belly button" breast augmentation

TUBA, often called the “scarless” or even “belly button” breast augmentation, is an effective method of breast implant placement that’s introduced through the navel, and produces attractive results with scars that are literally invisible.

Forest Park Medical Center surgeon Dr. Clayton Frenzel uses an endoscope to guide the empty saline implants through two tunnels into the chest–when in place the implants are filled with sterile saline to the size and shape the patient wants.

Dr. Frenzel performing a TUBA procedure

Implanting around the breast or through the armpit can leave visible scars.

Dr. Frenzel said he used to perform the TUBA procedure as many as twenty times a month in California and now it’s growing in popularity here.

“It’s a lot more popular for the younger girls,” Dr. Frenzel said. “The girls between 18 and 25 or 30, once you get in the girls that are 30, 35 or 40 a lot of those patients are choosing silicone for some reason.”

Dr. Frenzel said the procedure takes about an hour with most patients getting back to normal in about a week.

Watch the full story here.

To setup a one-on-one consultation with Dr. Clayton Frenzel for the TUBA procedure, please call the Advanced Cosmetic Surgery office at (817)342-0232 or click here to schedule online.

In Texas, medications like Botox can only be obtained by a qualified physician (with a medical license). Within a doctor’s office however, the treatment can be delegated to and then administered by, anyone.

Because the market for Botox and cosmetic procedures can be very lucrative, there is a strong allure for physicians with inadequate training to begin offering these treatments. Currently there are no regulations pertaining specifically to the training and qualifications of those who administer a cosmetic injection. Such regulations would also apply to treatments like Juvederm, Sculptra, Radiesse and other popular wrinkle reducers.

The medical board will discuss a regulation that would allow only doctors, nurses and physician assistants to administer a controlled substance such as Botox.

Everyone has a different perception of beauty and he considers it part of his job to dispel some of the myths and misconceptions surrounding this elusive ideal.

Although American society usually cites a pretty face, gorgeous eyes, and a nice figure as just a few of the hallmarks of beauty, Tornambe argues that each and every one of us has different ideas about these features. Blonde or brunette? Blue eyes or green eyes? It can be hard for women to find their own beauty in this storm of opinions.

Tornambe rails against the beauty authorities, such as the movie industry, fashion designers, and style experts, who dominate current American notions of beauty:

“The standards and criteria of beauty set by our society have been manipulated and bastardized and are wrong, absurd and unrealistic. Our role models have become 20-something starlets and fashion models whose photographs have been carefully orchestrated, airbrushed, Photoshopped and drastically altered. In person, these people do not look like their photos!”

Women feel inadequate against these fictions, Tornambe says, and so “we must change our perception of beauty and choose realistic role models.” He calls for the recognition of beauty in age and the elevation of older actresses such as Betty White, Helen Mirren, and Penelope Cruz into beauty symbols for today’s disheartened women.

Ultimately, Tornambe says, women must take account of their physical health, psychological health, and personal appearance, and understand these as parts of their personal beauty. Women should seek out and accentuate those parts of themselves that make them beautiful. Cosmetic procedures such as facelifts and breast augmentations can only help in the long term when women are prepared to be beautiful on their own terms.

Interestingly, with a recent trend toward greater specificity in cosmetic surgery for ethnic groups in large cities, it seems that more of the country’s minority women are choosing lines and shapes that suit their unique styles, rather than the cookie-cutter shapes that you can find in Hollywood and magazines. Women are becoming increasingly aware of their unique features and needs, and expressing their own ideals of beauty, instead of trying to assimilate to a mold.

However, cigarette smoking has been proven to increase the risk of complications across a wide variety of surgical procedures, from lifesaving surgeries to cosmetic procedures like facelifts. “Compared with nonsmokers, smokers who undergo surgery have longer hospital stays, higher risk of readmission, are more likely to be admitted to an intensive care unit, and have an increased risk of in-hospital mortality,” write the British researchers who authored the study.

Surgeons know that surgery is riskier for smokers, but nobody is certain how long it takes for cessation of smoking to translate into postoperative benefits. This latest study challenges the old assumptions that one could quit smoking several weeks before surgery and thereby reduce the associated risks.

The study authors call for further research on the effects of only a few days’ abstinence from smoking, since their analysis did not account for the symptoms of short-term tobacco withdrawal over that short a time.

According to the article, there’s a few reason for this trend. Dr. Steven Margolis, a cosmetic surgeon in New England, said some of his patients turn to liposuction in January after a frustrating year of not losing weight, and another surgeon, Dr. Gregory Antoine, said that women come to him in January to get liposuction so that they look good for summertime.

Timing cosmetic procedures early allows for plenty of recovery time before the summer season for procedures such as breast augmentation and liposuction.

Cosmetic surgeons and spa owners also said that they’ve found men are increasingly giving a cosmetic procedure as a gift for their wives or girlfriends who want to start off the New Year with a fresh body or face.

“It’s the same reason health clubs are busy in January. They get up their resolve and they say this is the year they want to do it, and, of course, they want it done right away,” said Cheryl Clarkson, who owns spa centers in the Boston area.

Dr. Frenzel offers an array of cosmetic surgery procedures for those who want to start the New Year with a new look, as well as non-surgical procedures, including Botox, CO2 laser resurfacing and laser vein treatment.

Several cosmetic surgery specials are currently available at Advanced Cosmetic Surgery; view the specials page for more information.

“What we [plastic surgeons] focus on is the aging of soft tissue – how skin and fat ages,” said Dr. Robert Shaw, a co-author of the study.  “Those aren’t the only structures in your face. Bones provide scaffolding and your muscles, fats and skin drape over bones.  If you tighten skin, but the scaffolding has deteriorated it’s not going to bring patients back to a youthful look.”

The researchers analyzed computed tomographic scans of the facial bones for three age groups: young (age 20 to 40); middle-aged (41 to 64); and older (65 and up). Twenty women and 20 men were analyzed in each group.

Measurements revealed differences in the facial bone structure between age groups. The eye socket area became wider and longer in both men and women as they aged, and the bones in the brow, nose, upper jaw and lower jaw shrank.

Wrinkles probably occur from a combination of bones and the skin losing elasticity, according to Dr. Shaw. “The skin aging is a big part of it,” he said.  “It’s not just using creams; it’s taking care of yourself for bone health and skin health.” He suggested keeping up on calcium to maintain bone health.

The researchers believe that by using materials and techniques for skeletal augmentation, plastic and cosmetic surgeons can improve the outcomes of facial rejuvenation. “Skeletal augmentation offers a permanent rejuvenation of the facial skeleton and may be performed in conjunction with soft-tissue redraping,” they wrote.

Dr. Frenzel offers several facial rejuvenation procedures, including face lift, brow lift and cheek augmentation.

While traditionally used on the body, liposuction may be an option for necks with too much fat, especially if the person has elastic skin that can bounce back afterward.

For those with neck “bands”, injecting Botox in the neck muscle can make them less conspicuous in a patient with great skin tone, according to Dr. Rod Rohrich, chairman of the plastic surgery department at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. However, like for wrinkles on the face, Botox results last about three to four months and will require upkeep.

For others, a neck lift remains the best and long-lasting option. It may involve one or both of the following procedures:

• Cervicoplasty to remove excess skin
• Platysmaplasty to remove or alter neck muscles

According to the Times, surgeons report that men seem to get more isolated neck lifts than women. “Usually with women, they are getting a face- and neck lift,” said Dr. Felmont Eaves, the president of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. “In men, we don’t have exact statistics, but it’s pretty common to see them come in just for the neck.”

“There’s no way a man’s neck, with all that tissue hanging down, can be graceful,” said Dr. Phil Haeck, president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, who has done two neck-only lifts for every three face lifts in his practice this year.

Learn more about neck lifts at Advanced Cosmetic Surgery in Arlington, Texas.

Facelifts, injectables, and body contouring are three of the procedures where they are predicting growth.

As the economy improves, the demand for facelift surgery will increase, as those who have been putting off the surgery may be more likely to get it in 2011, according to the society.

Already the most popular non-surgical procedure according to ASAPS’s 2009 statistics, injectables (such as Botox, Juvederm and Restylane) will continue to grow in popularity as they evolve and new products become available on the market.

Body contouring procedures will also be on the rise as more obese people may turn to weight loss surgery given the health dangers of obesity. That will lead to an increase in body contouring cosmetic procedures to tighten and remove excess skin after dramatic weight loss.

The society also predicts that more patients will be seeking “posterior body lifts, buttock lifts and surgical and nonsurgical buttock augmentations to shape and augment their buttocks” thanks in part to celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Beyonce who have made it a “must-have accessory.”

The society sees change ahead in fat reduction techniques. While liposuction will remain the standard in surgical fat reduction, new non-surgical techniques will continue to be developed, including freezing, zapping and lasering fat, as possible alternatives to surgery.

Unfortunately, the society also sees consumers looking for bargains on cosmetic procedures. Procedures, such as “discount injectables” bought overseas and cosmetic procedures performed by untrained practitioners will lead to an increase in cosmetic surgery “horror” stories. Always research your cosmetic surgeon to ensure he or she is well-trained in cosmetic surgery.

Read the full list of predictions at surgery.org.

“Implications from this correlation found in our study include possibly improving implant volume predictions preoperatively, leading to improved efficiency, outcomes and reduced reoperation rates,” the authors wrote. They also said that the patients’ BMI could potentially provide an additional data point on which to make operative planning decisions.

The researchers looked at 100 breast augmentation cases in three cities in order to gather demographics of these patients, which they said was lacking from other research. Breast augmentation surgery has been on the increase in the past decade — according to statistics from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, there has been a 45% increase in women seeking breast augmentation since 2000.

The study looked at 100 consecutive breast augmentation cases at each location; they were retrospectively reviewed, and data was gathered on height, weight, body mass index (BMI), age, the number of children the patient had and implant volume.

The three geographic group medians were significantly different for weight, BMI and implant volume. BMI was lowest in the Canadian city and highest in Temple, Tex. Temple patients had the smallest average implant size, significantly lower than the other two cities.

The study also looked at the data for all 300 patients as one group. On average, the breast augmentation patients studied were 34 years old, 5’ 4” tall and 128 pounds.

Dr Frenzel specializes in breast augmentation surgery, offering the traditional surgery, TUBA breast augmentation, and breast augmentation revision surgery.

Before and after photos of a Lap Band patient (image courtesy of Allergan.com)

Allergan Inc. announced that an FDA Advisory Committee has recommended with an 8-2 vote that the FDA extend the currently approved use of the company’s Lad Band® System, used for weight loss surgery, to patients that have a body mass index below 40.

The Lap Band, which is an inflatable silicone device that gets placed on the upper portion of the stomach, limiting the patient’s intake of food and suppressing hunger, is currently indicated for patients with:

• BMI of 40 or higher
• BMI of 35 or higher combined with a health problem such as diabetes or high blood pressure

The change would make the Lap Band available to patients who are at BMI of 35 or higher or patients with a BMI of 30 or higher and at least one additional weight-related health problem.

The FDA committee’s decision came after a five-year study of 149 obese patients treated with the Lap Band that found over 80 percent lost at least 30 percent of their weight after one year.

The FDA will make a final decision on the wider use, but the agency typically follows the advice of its advisory panels, according to an msnbc article.

Wider approval could make millions more people eligible for the Lap Band surgery. About 15 million Americans are candidates under the current guidelines for use and about 27 million more fit under the broader group, Allergan said.

To learn more about the Lap Band procedure and to discuss whether you are a good candidate, contact the Advanced Cosmetic Surgery office of Dr. Frenzel to schedule a consultation.