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Beauty
Choose your plastic surgeon wisely!

Dubai has the largest number of plastic surgeons by population than any other city in the world. With all this choice, it’s no wonder potential patients are confused about what to base their decision on. You obviously can’t choose a surgeon based on price – your safety is important, as is getting the result right the first time, so you don’t have to face revision surgery. Worryingly, some people select a plastic surgeon based on recommendations by celebrities or social influencers. The surgeon offers money and free services to get such an endorsement. Of course, recommendations from friends, or the sterling reputation of a surgeon or the medical practice he or she works for, are great places to start. However, you should investigate the surgeon’s background and continue to evaluate him or her during the initial consultation. Before we get into training and skill, there are two vital elements that people often forget.First, your surgeon should have an artist’s eye. Cosmetic surgery is a mixture of art and surgical knowledge, so you need a talented surgeon who is able to analyze your individual body shape, not just general anatomy. Second, the surgeon should be aware of and respect the differences in ethnic and cultural beauty standards, so you get the result you have in mind – this is particularly important in a multicultural society like ours. Make sure your surgeon doesn’t rush you during the consultation. She or he should spend enough time with you to understand your concerns fully and to discuss all your options, both surgical or non-surgical. Through these discussions, you will work together to find the best solution for you. If you decide that surgery is your best option, then it’s time to evaluate your potential surgeon’s breadth of knowledge in that specific procedure. No single surgical approach suits all patients and your surgeon should have mastered more than one. In breast-enhancement surgery, for example, the many decisions to be made include whether it should be done with an implant or fat, or both; with or without a breast lift; the implant pocket could be below the muscle under the gland, dual plane or subfascial; and implants come in different shapes and sizes. Another point to check is that the surgeon is up to date with the latest clinically proven technology, and has access to this technology where they practice. Today, we surgeons are dependent on high-tech machines because they help us to give our patients the highest quality result with the shortest downtime. We also need an excellent anesthetist and support team. Also, check how much experience your surgeon has. Surgical skills plus advanced technology ensure the highest quality and satisfactory results, but long experience means better safety and fewer chances of complications. Finally, the most important factor is to evaluate the honesty of your surgeon. He or she is the person who will advise you whether or not to have surgery, and shouldn’t do any intervention if it is unnecessary. It’s important that you feel comfortable with them and that you can trust them.

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February 02, 2019
Sahar Al Kazzaz
Plastic Surgeon
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Beauty
You look older than your age? We can help!

At some point, it's hard to ignore the vivid signs of aging you see in the mirror; little wrinkles around your eyes or lips, age spots, maybe some sagging skin. There used to be a few options for turning back the clock without going under the knife. But today, you can soften the effects of time on your face with many nonsurgical cosmetic procedures. 1. Wrinkle Remedies: If forehead creases are bringing you down, injections of botulinum toxin (Botox, Dysport, and Xeomin) can provide a temporary fix. They're made with a purified version of the toxin from botulinum bacteria. In tiny doses, this toxin relaxes the clenched facial muscles that cause crow's feet, frown lines, and the like. The shots take only a few minutes and cause very little pain. Wrinkle Remedies: Before and After These treatments usually take 3 to 7 days before you start to see results. You'll notice smoother skin where you got the shots. As the muscles slowly are able to contract again, lines and wrinkles reappear. To keep them away, you'll need injections every 3 to 6 months at first, and less often after that.   2. Chemical Peel: Chemical peels use an acid solution to remove old, dead cells from the outer layers of skin. The solution often has a mix of glycolic acid, lactic acid, salicylic acid, phenol, or trichloroacetic acid (TCA). It can take about 15 minutes to apply, and you might feel some stinging and irritation. Over the next few days, your skin's upper layers will peel, revealing newer, smoother-looking skin. Chemical Peel: Before and After A series of peels can reduce age spots, fine lines, acne scars, and wrinkles caused by sun damage or aging. Mild treatments, like the one shown here, have more subtle results. You can have one every few weeks until you get the results you want. Deeper peels cause swelling and crusting at first but have more dramatic results in the end. You can get moderate to deep peels again in 6 to 12 months. 3. Microdermabrasion: You may have heard of dermabrasion, a procedure that sands away the top layer of skin. It can treat severe sun damage, but it causes bleeding and needs a week of recovery time. Microdermabrasion is a nonsurgical option. Often called a "power peel," it blasts the skin with tiny crystals that exfoliate the outer layer. This can reduce fine lines, brown spots, and mild acne scars -- usually with little recovery time. Microdermabrasion: After As microdermabrasion exfoliates, it sucks the powdery dead skin cells from your face (shown on left). Right after, the new skin looks pink and feels tight, like a sunburn (shown on right). It usually gets better in about 24 hours, leaving subtle improvements in tone and texture. It can take up to 10 sessions, a few weeks apart, before you can clearly see the differences. 4. Thermage: For saggy, crepe-like skin, Thermage can come to the rescue. This device uses radio-frequency energy to heat your skin. The heat prompts your body to make collagen, which tightens skin. Thermage can be painful, but one treatment is usually enough for good results. Thermage: Before and After Droopy eyelids respond especially well to Thermage. You won't see results until 4 to 6 months after the procedure, but the difference can be dramatic. 5. Nonablative Laser:  Nonablative lasers get under the skin's surface without damaging the outer layer. They help your skin make collagen, reduce fine lines, and improve tone and firmness. The procedure can be painful, so your doctor will put medicine on your face to numb it. Because nonablative lasers don't damage surface skin, you won't need as much recovery time as for other treatments. Nonablative Laser: Before and After Nonablative laser therapy is a good option for people who want to improve skin tone and texture without taking time off from work. You might have mild redness after a session, but it will get better quickly. For the best results, plan on four to six treatments with a few weeks in between. Nonablative Laser for Melasma: Nonablative lasers are especially good at treating melasma, the splotchy brown patches that often happen during pregnancy.  6. Diode Laser Basics People with severe acne can get dramatic results from diode lasers. They can destroy the oil glands that feed acne. Like nonablative lasers, they get under the surface without damaging the skin's outer layer. The main side effect is red, inflamed skin, but it won't last long. You will need some time to recover, though. 7. Intense Pulsed Light (IPL):  Like lasers, IPL goes below the surface to a deeper layer of skin called the dermis. Short pulses of light heat and destroy cells to start renewing your skin. Unlike a laser, IPL uses a broad spectrum of light that can treat different kinds of blemishes at the same time. The treatment is usually painful, so ask your doctor how you can be more comfortable. IPL: Before and After IPL can reduce the redness that comes with rosacea or lighten dark circles under your eyes, which are caused by clusters of blood vessels showing through the skin. A few sessions will vaporize the blood vessels, leaving the surface unharmed. IPL can also remove unwanted color patches (like melasma and age spots) by destroying pigmented cells. It also prompts the skin to make collagen, which fights fine lines and wrinkles. 8. Cosmetic Filler: Cosmetic fillers are substances that smooth wrinkles and folds by bulking up the tissue underneath. Doctors inject them directly into problem areas. Collagen is the oldest and best-known cosmetic filler. Newer options include hyaluronic acid, calcium hydroxylapatite, poly-L-lactic acid, polymethylmethacrylate beads (PMMA), and ordinary fat that comes from your own thigh or belly. Cosmetic Filler: Before and After The results of hyaluronic acid injection, shown here, can last 9 months or longer. The effects of collagen injections vary, but you may need more every 3 to 6 months. Changes also vary if you inject a wrinkle with fat cells -- they can be long-lasting or fade in 4 to 6 months. Results from PMMA are often long-lasting. Cosmetic Filler for Dark Circles: Before and After Fillers can also mask tired-looking "bags" and dark circles under the eyes by filling in the hollow area around the eye socket. This strategy fights shadows, puffiness, and a sunken look to your eyes. Cosmetic Filler for Lips: Before and After Many of the same cosmetic fillers doctors use to treat wrinkles and dark circles can also plump your lips. Collagen and hyaluronic acid injections last for a little while. You can get long-lasting results with injections of fat cells into the lips. Making the Decision Nonsurgical cosmetic procedures are not without risks. You might have an allergic reaction to anesthetics on your skin or injectable fillers. Chemical peels, microdermabrasion, and lasers can cause scarring or make your skin lose color. But they're often less risky than cosmetic surgery. Talk to me, your dermatologist, about what to consider before you schedule a procedure.

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February 02, 2019
Shanmugam Pillai
Dermatologist
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Therapies
Benefits of Acupuncture for Children

In recent years, acupuncture has increasingly been integrated into pediatric health care. Acupuncture for children is becoming an increasingly effective treatment for headaches, stomachaches, back pain, depression, and many other frequent health concerns. Traditional Chinese Medicine and more specifically, Acupuncture is suitable for children of all ages, from newborn through to teenage years. Increasingly more parents are turning to Acupuncture as an effective and necessary method of reestablishing and maintaining health within their children’s constitution. Pediatric TCM includes Acupuncture, moxibustion, Chinese herbal medicine, and dietary therapy. CHASLU DUBAI and our Specialist Acupuncturist from China, Dr. Jun Huang practices a very gentle system of pediatric acupuncture that can have multiple and important medical benefits to our children. Dr. Jun manages to stimulate the body’s energy system and restore health, whereas children are responding very quickly to this treatment. Children tend to enjoy the sessions because they are not uncomfortable or frightened. A child may come for acupuncture if they suffer from a wide range of conditions including Allergies Asthma Attention problems Bedwetting Chronic stuffy or runny nose Colic Challenges at puberty Constipation Diarrhea Digestive problems Ear infections Excessive Crying Epilepsy Eczema and skin conditions Hernia Hyperactivity Irritability Learning difficulties Poor immune system Sleep difficulties Stammering/stuttering Urinary tract infections Weak constitution

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February 01, 2019
Jun Huang
Acupuncturist
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Beauty
Why Toothpaste can be bad for you?

The next time a patient innocently asks me, “What’s the best toothpaste to use?” I’m going to unleash a whole Chunky Soup can of “You Want The Truth? You CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!!” Gosh, that’s such an overused movie quote. Sorry about that, but still. Get this, people of the world. Your dentist and dental hygienist have never seen a tube of toothpaste that singlehandedly improves the health of all patients in their practice, and the reason is simple: Toothpaste is cosmetic We brush our teeth so that our mouths no longer taste like… mouth. Mouth tastes gross, right? It tastes like putrefied skin. It tastes like tongue cheese. It tastes like Cream of Barf. On the other hand, toothpaste has been exquisitely designed to bring you a brisk rush of York Peppermint Patty, or Triple Cinnamon Heaven, or whatever flavor that drives those tubes off of the shelves in the confusing dental aisle of your local supermarket or drugstore. Toothpaste definitely tastes better than Cream of Barf. And that’s why you use it. Not because it’s good for you. You use toothpaste because it tastes good and because it makes you accept your mouth as part of your face again. From a marketing perspective, all of the other things that are in your toothpaste are in there to give it additional perceived value. So let’s deconstruct these ingredients, shall we? 1. Fluoride. This was probably the first additive to toothpaste that brought it under the jurisdiction of the Food & Drug Administration and made toothpaste part drug, part cosmetic. Over time, a fluoride toothpaste can improve the strength of teeth, but the fluoride itself does nothing to make teeth cleaner. Some people are scared of fluoride so they don’t use it. Their choice. Professionally speaking, I know that the benefits of a fluoride additive far outweigh the risks. 2. Foam. Sodium Lauryl Sulfate is soap. Soap has a creamy, thick texture that American tongues especially like and equate to the feeling of cleanliness. There’s not enough surfactant, though, in toothpaste foam to break up the goo that grows on your teeth. If these bubbles scrubbed, you’d better believe that they would also scrub your delicate gum tissues into a bloody pulp. 3. Abrasive particles. Most toothpaste uses hydrated silica as the grit that polishes teeth. You’re probably most familiar with it as the clear beady stuff in the “Do Not Eat” packets. Depending on the size and shape of the particles, silica is the whitening ingredient in most whitening toothpaste. But whitening toothpaste cannot get your teeth any whiter than a professional dental cleaning because it only cleans the surface. Two weeks to a whiter smile? How about 30 minutes with your hygienist? It’s much more efficient and less harsh. 4. Desensitizers. Teeth that are sensitive to hot, cold, sweet, or a combination can benefit from the addition of potassium nitrate or stannous fluoride to toothpaste. This is more of a palliative treatment when the pain is the problem. Good old Time will usually make teeth feel better, too, unless the pain is coming from a cavity. Yeah, I’m talking to you, the person who is trying to heal the hole in their tooth with Sensodyne. 5. Tartar control. It burns! It burns! If your toothpaste has a particular biting flavor, it might contain tetrasodium pyrophosphate, an ingredient that is supposed to keep calcium phosphate salts (tartar, or calculus) from fossilizing on the back of your lower front teeth. A little tartar on your teeth doesn’t harm you unless it gets really thick and you can no longer keep it clean. One problem with tartar control toothpaste is that in order for the active ingredient to work, it has to be dissolved in a stronger detergent than usual, which can affect people that are sensitive to a high pH. 6. Triclosan. This antimicrobial is supposed to reduce infections between the gum and tooth. However, if you just keep the germs off of your teeth in the first place it’s pretty much a waste of an extra ingredient. Its safety has been questioned but, like fluoride, the bulk of scientific research easily demonstrates that the addition of triclosan in toothpaste does much more good than harm. Why toothpaste can be bad for you. Let’s just say it’s not the toothpaste’s fault. It’s yours. The toothpaste is just the co-dependent enabler. You’re the one with the problem. Remember, toothpaste is a cosmetic, first and foremost. It doesn’t clean your teeth by itself. Just in case you think I’m making this up I’ve included clinical studies in the references at the end of this article that show how ineffective toothpaste really is. • You’re using too much. Don’t be so suggestible! Toothpaste ads show you how to use up the tube more quickly. Just use 1/3 as much, the size of a pea. It will still taste good, I promise! And too much foam can make you lose track of where your teeth actually are located. • You’re not taking enough time. At least two minutes. Any less and you’re missing spots. Just ’cause it tastes better doesn’t mean you did a good job. • You’re not paying attention. I’ve seen people brush the same four spots for two minutes and miss the other 60% of their mouth. The toothbrush needs to touch every crevice of every tooth, not just where it lands when you go into autopilot and start thinking about what you’re going to wear that day. It’s the toothbrush friction that cleans your teeth, not the cleaning product. Plaque is a growth, like the pink or grey mildew that grows around the edges of your shower. You’ve gotta rub it off to get it off. No tooth cleaning liquid, paste, creme, gel, or powder is going to make as much of a difference as your attention to detail will.

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February 01, 2019
SMDC - Specialized Medical and Dental Center
Health and Wellness Partner
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Therapies
Check how Traditional Chinese Medicine can beat Diabetes!

Diabetes can, indeed, become a life-threatening disease. According to an estimate, about 4-10 % of individuals in the USA, Canada, Europe and parts of Asia lose their lives every year due to this disease. Diabetes has two types; Type 1 is called diabetes mellitus and is common in children and youngsters. It is an insulin-dependent type. On the other hand, Type 2 diabetes is common in old age individuals who fail to build proper bloodstream into their bodies and cannot produce enough natural insulin. Acupuncture Treatment: It is noticeable that diabetes is a long-lasting disease and is also known to be the silent killer. Acupuncture helps in treating patients with diabetes. It involves a specific type of treatment which can treat the victims of this disease in a better way. During the acupuncture treatment, fine needles are used for restoring the flow of Qi in the body. This treatment mainly focuses on the regulation of blood circulation and improving the performance of pancreas. Typically acupuncture treatment takes six to ten visits to the patients to get cured. However, in the case of seriousness, the treatment period might take even more time. Natural therapies: Natural therapies involve massage of diabetic patients and the use of Chinese herbal medicines, for more effecting results. Some of the natural dietary supplements are also good for treating patients with Diabetes 1 or 2. Finally, basic principles of good health like eating right, exercising regularly, and maintaining a healthy weight can be as effective as Acupuncture Treatment in the management of type 2 diabetes for most people.

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January 31, 2019
Jun Huang
Acupuncturist Practitioner
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