There has been significant growth and acceptance of botox usage for both women and men. According to The American Society of Plastic Surgeons, there has been a 73% increase in Botox related treatments and a 70% increase in fillers for patients. Much of this being a part of the Wedding Scene and “ Groom Boom”. I chatted with renowned plastic surgeon, Doctor Smita Ramanadham, MD, in New Jersey, to learn more about how both bride and groom can benefit from this trend and feel their best for the special day:
Meghan Forte: How do you think that having these various procedures, such as Botox or rhinoplasty, would boost one’s confidence before their wedding?
Doctor Smita Ramanadham: I think that every bride and/or every groom wants to look and feel their best before their wedding day, especially for not only the event of the day but also for photographs/pictures that they’re going to look back on with their kids and their grandkids. I think if there are any areas on their face or body that they may be a little insecure about or have been bothered by, oftentimes we see patients come in to rejuvenate those areas and refresh those areas, or address some little concerns here and there, just so they do feel their best on the day of.
Meghan Forte What is the recovery time for some of these procedures on average?
Doctor Smita Ramanadham: It really depends on what the procedure is. When we talk about surgery, that’s something that we’re doing 6 months or a year beforehand. Because that would give you the most amount of time to heal, for the swelling to go down, especially on the face. You’d want to be more around that 1-year mark. You’d want to give that area time to settle out and to heal. The body, I would say more around that 6-month mark, would be more appropriate. The longer time you give yourself, the better. When it comes to non-surgical procedures, that sort of depends on what we’re doing. If we’re doing something that requires multiple treatments, such as microneedling, or lasers, chemical peels, those are things that you want to plan ahead. So, if you know you need three sessions, each session is about 4-6 weeks apart, then you really want to be starting those 3-4 months prior to the wedding. That way you can get all your treatments in, and then you’ll also have time to see some of those results after the third one. The Botox and fillers, I usually tell patients the best time is around one month before, and that gives you flexibility in the sense that with Botox and fillers, I always have my patients wait a whole two weeks for everything to settle out, for the Botox to kick in, finish working. And then for fillers, for any swelling or bruising to resolve, to really give yourself time. But, if at that two-week mark, if you make adjustments, if you want a little bit more filler, or if you want a little bit more Botox, we’ll have time to do those dose adjustments so then you’re ready for your big day.
Meghan Forte: With the ‘Groom Boom,’ what have you noticed towards evolving societal perceptions or societal norms, surrounding male appearances and self-care?
Doctor Smita Ramanadham: I think in general, it’s not just surgery for women or Botox and fillers for women. And I think social media has to do with this too, sort of making it a little more mainstream and acceptable culturally. But you know, men have the same concerns that women have. And I think traditionally, the fear or hesitancy may have been, ‘If I get Botox or fillers, it will feminize me,’ or it will look unnatural, but I think the key is if you go to someone who understands, you know, I inject my male patients very differently than I inject my female patients because we want them to look natural and to still move the way they should be moving and their expressions to be the same and not over exaggerate or feminize anybody. So, I think that notion is a little bit more popular now, you can still address the concerns you have and still look how you do, not change your looks drastically.
Meghan Forte: Can you give an example of what type of question you would ask a male patient versus a female patient for the Botox treatment?
Doctor Smita Ramanadham: I honestly wouldn’t say that I ask them different questions. I ask all my patients what their goals are in their treatment. Whether it be if they want reduction of lines, or, especially for women, they might want a little bit of a brow lift, like a chemical brow lift that we can do, or a gummy smile. So, it’s really asking every patient what their goals are. And then, based on that, we make adjustments for if they’re male or female. For example, for brows. For a male brow, your eyebrows should be along the superior orbital rim which is the bone right above your eye. In general, for males, the brow should be in that position. For women, it forms an arc and sits about a centimeter above the bone on that lateral portion. We want to maintain that whenever we address areas with Botox or what-have-you. It’s differences like that between men and women that we want to maintain with our treatments.
Meghan Forte: How does the HydraFacial benefit the bride’s skin?
Doctor Smita Ramanadham: HydraFacial I think is a great treatment, and that’s something you can do two days or a day before the wedding to really give yourself that glow. I think, along with skincare in general, it clears out your pores, it exfoliates and boosts with various serums. If you combine that with dermaplaning, it’ll remove some of the hair and the peach fuzz that we have. It just primes the skin so well, so on the day of when you’re getting your makeup done, everything looks natural and has a beautiful finish. It looks beautiful in photographs and in person. So, HydraFacial is something that I definitely think is beneficial. Even if you do one treatment, right before the wedding. Of course, there are benefits of doing it regularly, and just maintaining overall skin health for the big day.
Meghan Forte: What would you say are some of the most popular, sought out wedding procedures for this trend?
Doctor Smita Ramanadham: In general, for both men and women, I would say at my practice I do a lot of neck liposuction, where they just want a little bit more contour along their jawline and their neck, that kind of procedure we do in the office. I see a lot of brow bone liposuction in women. Especially if their wedding dresses are strapless, that little bulge of fat in front of the armpit can sometimes be exaggerated by the dresses, so I’ll see patients who come in and just want some of that addressed with liposuction, so that’s something that’s common. I think Botox, across the board, is very common for both genders, and I do see a lot of gummy smile treatments. I would say that is more for our female patients, they want to smile. It’s a happy day for them and they don’t want to hide their smile because they’re worried about too much gum showing. Liquid rhinoplasties actually have become a lot more popular too, for our male and female patients. If there’s a little hump that bothers you, or you have some asymmetries, that’s something we can address just with fillers.
Meghan Forte: What is the facial Botox process like? What are some of the most common areas for Botox injections?
Doctor Smita Ramanadham: There are a variety of places we can inject Botox. Some of them are on-label, meaning they’re FDA approved for those locations, some of them are off-label used. But I would say in general, the forehead, the horizontal lines we have on our forehead. Patients have a common concern of those “11” lines between our eyebrows, when we furrow our brows. That’s a common place to inject. Crow’s feet, when you’re smiling and you see those little lines on the sides of your eyes. A lot of patients want that addressed. And, again, the goal with all of this is to be natural. So, you should still have movement, but you should have a softening of the wrinkles that form those movements. You know, we don’t want anyone to have heavy eyebrows or look surprised. The goal is for everything to be natural-looking. And some of the other places that we commonly inject, for a better smile, we do lip flips a lot as well, if they want just a little more upper lip fullness but they don’t necessarily want filler. Patients get it in their masseters, for that slimming effect of the jawline. So, there’s really multiple uses for Botox in the face area. But ultimately, the whole process would be, you want to come into the office and we have a discussion about what your goals are, whether you’ve had Botox before, and then we sort of take it from there to see what we can do to address some of those concerns.
Meghan Forte: How does a rhinoplasty benefit the groom for their wedding?
Doctor Smita Ramanadham: Either traditional rhinoplasty or liquid rhinoplasty, for grooms as well as for women, you know, the nose is the center part of our face, it is the most noticeable. So, if patients have always been unhappy with how that looks, if there’s a hump or asymmetry, or if they have a wide tip, those are all things that can be addressed with surgery. For a rhinoplasty, you really want to be thinking about this a year in advance. With liquid rhinoplasty, which is the non-surgical rhinoplasty, you have a little more wiggle room for that, you can do those 3-4 weeks before the wedding.
Meghan Forte: What can you tell me about your position on the advisory board for IT Cosmetics?
Doctor Smita Ramanadham: It’s composed of—I’m the only Board-Certified Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon—and there’s an Oculoplastic Surgeon and two Dermatologists. What I love about that is we are really involved with the marketing and product development teams for both the makeup and the skincare line for IT Cosmetics and their product development. The brand (which is why I really love being a part of it), focuses on using real skincare ingredients that you would find in medical-grade skincare, and incorporating that into their makeup and skincare line. So, you’re not only using your CC Cream to give yourself a nice look for the night, but it also has ingredients that will help your skin at the same time. It’s really neat to be involved from the initial conception of the product, and through the development of the product, and different ingredients, to be involved in every step until the product launches.
Meghan Forte: Do you think with new technology there are any future aspirations for wedding plastic surgery? Do you think it will change with technology advancing?
Doctor Smita Ramanadham: Yes, I think one of the great things about plastic surgery is that there’s so much innovation in technology behind the procedures that we do. It’s really shifted things from where, in the past, you only had surgical options to address concerns, but now with advancing technology, we’re able to shift some of those patients to non-surgical. Which I think is more appealing these days because everyone has very busy lifestyles and they don’t want the down-time and the cost is, in general, depending on what it is, tends to be a little bit less as well. So, they are okay with not getting the full surgical result but don’t have all the down-time and want a quicker recovery. The biggest thing that we’re seeing is those patients who are sort of in-between. Where, for instance, if they have a bit of skin laxity, and there aren’t great ways to address skin laxity. There are things we can do to improve it, but once it’s sort of loose, removing it is truly the only way to address it. But now, with some of the technology that we have been using, like radiofrequency…we are able to treat those patients that are right on the cusp and sort of avoid surgery but get a good result.
Thank you, Doctor Smita for informing our readers on the Wedding “Groom Boom”, for both women and men, and how to make an informed decision of what type of procedure would make one feel confident in seeking a consultation from Doctor Smita. Doctor Smita has locations in Montclair, New Jersey, and East Brunswick, New Jersey. Be sure to read along for more exclusive information on Doctor Smita’s blog, and follow her on social media.
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