KRISTINA: Today I’m having septoplasty, rhinoplasty and an endoscopic brow lift. About I think 18 years ago I had a nasal polyp removed because they thought that was the reason I could not breathe very well through my nose and it really did not have any affect. Within five years of that I figured out that the septum was deviated and I thought about having it repaired but a lot of time went by and I decided to get it done.
DR. NASSIF: When I met Kristina one of the things we talked about was really improving her nasal obstruction. That was something that really, really bothered her. Her septum was severely deviated and also the middle aspect of her nose called the middle vault was very crooked.
KRISTINA: Not being able to breathe through my nose has affected my athletic performance and also I was sleeping with my mouth open. I never wanted to sleep in public and I felt like if I had my mouth closed I would suffocate.
DR. NASSIF: Our goal was to perform more of a functional surgery. She did not want her tip changed. She did not want her profile changed. She just wanted to breathe better.
KRISTINA: I first came to Dr. Nassif because I had a friend at work that had her nose done here. I was very impressed by him. He is comfortable to be around. He definitely knows what he is doing. He explains himself well. I was nervous about anesthesia and having anything done at all. If he recommended anything else I wanted to get it done now because I do not want to have anything done again.
DR. NASSIF: We discussed eye rejuvenation. She has very low flat eyebrows. Our goal was to improve them moderately. We do not want to be too drastic with the brow lift but we wanted to elevate her eyebrows, remove a little skin from her upper eyelid and also take care of her lower eyelids. Let me get the nurse because you are ready to go in.
KRISTINA: I am here on the morning of my surgery and I am anxious. I know that every precaution is going to be taken and I am going to do the best I can but I know there is some risk. Yes, I’m excited!
DR. NASSIF: With Kristina our initial procedure performed was harvesting of the abdominal fat. A very small incision was made in the belly button and we took a little bit of fat. It just gives us enough fat to use for fat grafting. Then we performed the endoscopic brow lift. Now we make five small incisions, sometimes only three incisions, in the hairline. We pass a little TV camera called an endoscope and instruments to surgically release and loosen up the muscles and the tissues that are holding the eyebrows down. By doing this we are able to elevate the eyebrows to a more natural and rejuvenated position. To keep them in place we use little stitches to stitch up the temporal area and then we will also use something called an Ultratine device that we drill a little small hole into the bone and we put these little devices underneath the scalp. There are like little tacks on it and those tacks help keep the scalp lifted up. These Ultratine devices dissolve and go away in approximately nine months. We only need fixation or something to hold up the eyebrow for a period of about eight weeks before everything heals in place.
With her upper blepharoplasty we are taking a small amount of skin from her upper eyelid, removing it and then stitching it back together to give her a small, minimally visible scar.
Following the upper blepharoplasty, we performed a lower fat repositioning procedure. By making an incision inside the eye we take the fat that is closer to her nose in her lower eyelid and move it over to the area where it is hollow. Essentially we are taking the area that looks full and moving that fullness into the area where it is hollow and depressed. The reason why we do not take out fat in this area is because that would cause significant hollowness in the whole entire region.
After the fat repositioning we took some of the fat that we harvested from the abdomen and we injected it in the lower eye, the corner of the eye called the lateral canthus and the upper brow region.
We are about to start the septoplasty. At this point I am going to remove some of the deviated septum and we are going to remove the cartilage that is deviated but we are going to put it back in. We are not going to leave that out for good. We are going to use it and put it all the way back in. I am very happy with that.
DR. NASSIF: Hello young lady! Everything went perfect. Your eyebrows went perfect. Your eyes went perfect. We did fat repositioning and grafting. We did everything. Your nose is nice and straight. Everything went absolutely perfect!
Hi Kristina! At three months Kristina looks great. Her upper eyelids, her brow, her lower eyelid; everything looks fantastic! I am very, very happy to see how her eye area is healing. In regard to her nose, she can breathe better.
KRISTINA: It has been a little bit of a slow recovery but it has been going well and it feels better. I am breathing easier. That was my main goal.
DR. NASSIF: I think if you breathe better you can have a better night’s sleep, you could stop your snoring, you can exercise better and breathe through your nose and your mouth. If you have nasal obstruction, you want to take care of it. How is your breathing on the left?
KRISTINA: It is much better. The endoscopic brow lifts got rid of some of the wrinkles and opened up my eyes a little bit. Initially the results were kind of dramatic and now they are more subtle, which I am more happy with.
DR. NASSIF: I want to take some photographs of you.
We rejuvenated the entire lower eyelid area to make it softer, natural and full. Volume is good. If you are too hollow on your lower eyelid area it is going to make you look older.
KRISTINA: I did not really share with anyone what I did besides having my nose corrected. I think they think I look younger but they just think it is from the swelling from the nose surgery, which I am happy to have them think because I do not want everyone to know.
Dr. Nassif is a great surgeon and he was very interested in having a good outcome so I have been very impressed with him.
DR. NASSIF: We are finished. We are extremely happy. She is happy and this is a home run!
KRISTINA: If I had to do it over again I would not add anything. I am happy with the way it turned out.
