Dr. Kridel in Vogue Magazine, where he was
the only facial plastic surgeon noted for Texas.
Dr. Kridel voted top doc for women by H Texas Magazine.
Dr. Kridel named as a Super Doctor in Texas Monthly Magazine.
By Nicki Britton
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
French actress Anouk Aimée may have been optimistic about aging. "You can only perceive real beauty in a person as they get older," said the Academy Award-nominated lovely when she was in her mid-50s.
Americans less willing to embrace that thought spent $84 billion on cosmetic surgery last year.
Of the 9.2 million procedures performed, 7,5 million were minimally invasive injections and laser tratments, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. That´s a jump of 7 percent from 2003.
This increased popularity may be due to the availability of new treatments with fewer side effects, according to Dr. Ramsey Markus, assistant professor of dermatology at Baylor College of Medicine. "The new technologies are much less invasive," he said.
Markus cites the new Fraxel laser treatment, or FLT, on the market for about a year, as a vanguard therapy for reducing periorbital wrinkles (very foine lines around the eyes or mouth), resurfacing the skin and evening out skin discolorations from sun exposure, melasma or age spots.
Fraxel disperses laser beams over just a fraction of the face at one time. Markus likens it to pixels on a television screen. "If you take your TV screen with a bunch of pixels and you treat one out of every five pixels, over five sessions you´ll eventually treat the entire TV screen," he said.
According to Dr. Russel Kridel, a Houston-based facial plastic surgeon, the results can be dramatic. "It actually changes some of the collagen in the skin... and stimulates new cell growth," he said. And unlike recipients of other laser treatments, he said FLT patients can expect very little recovey time.
While Fraxel is effective at treating fine lines, deeper wrinkles respond better when injected with filters, he said.
New cosmetic procedures keep patients out from under the knife
Collagen, FDA-approved since 1981, remains popular; but Restylane, wich has been on the market about two years, shows promising results, according to Kridel. It´s made of hyaluronic acid, a lubricant already present in the human body. "Unlike collagen, wich is made of cowhide, this is the skin anyway," he said. That means a great reduced chance of an allergic reaction.
Because Restylane is hydrophilic, or water-attracting, it effectively plumps up up the skin around wrinkles. "It is great for getting rid of some wrinkless and filling them out so they´re flush with existing skin," said plastic surgeon Dr. Fred Aguilar of Houston. The effects can last up to a year.
Fat transfers are also effective tratments, said Aguilar. The patient´s own fat cat be removed from the buttocks and used to plump up the skin in another part of the body. "We can transfer fat ... to, say, the back of a woman´s hand to make her hands look more youthful," he said
If even injections or ñaser tratments feel too drastic, one company is offering a specialized facial cream toilored to an individual´s DNA
Boiscences corporation Dermagenetics claims to have identified five genes that contribute to have identified five genes that contribute to the makeup of the skin, said Mark Harlan, owner of the Timeless Benefits medical spa, wich administers the product. A DNA sample is swabbed from the customer's mouth and tested in a lab. If the patient, say, lacks the ability to producce sufficient collagen, the product is custom-designed to fill that void.
"If you take two or three people who grew up together, they'll age differently," he said."That´s due in part to the genetic makeup."
Some doctors are skeptical. "I think that´s a little bit over the top," said Aguilar. "In reality, there, there´s no cream we know of that will produce collagen."
Cosmetics makers are subject to fewer FDA restrictions and less rigorous peer review than prescription-drug makers. "They have to prove (a product is) safe, not effective," said Markus.
"Everybody wants something simple in a bottle, but it's not that easy."
"There is no miracle in a bottle," Harlam said. But, he said, this treatment is effective in reversing some fine lines and wrinkles. "It´s using science and technology to get to the source of people´s problems, as opposed to just addressing the symptoms."
Although Harlan does not have a medical degree, he said that Timeless.
