This article is based on an expert interview with JoAnna Nguyen, MD, conducted by wikiHow Staff Editors. Dr. Joanna Nguyen is a Board-Certified Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon based in Los Angeles, California. Dr. Nguyen holds dual degrees in Psychology and Biology with a Specialization in Neuroscience from Boston University and completed her medical training at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. She then went on to complete comprehensive training in plastic surgery at the University of Southern California. Dr. Nguyen is a practicing plastic surgeon in Los Angeles, California and specializes in eyelid surgery, labiaplasty and breast augmentation. She is a diplomat of the American Board of Plastic Surgery.
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All types of plastic surgery involve some kind of recovery period, but what exactly that recovery looks like varies depending on the procedure. The recoveries for facial and abdominal plastic surgery share some similarities, but there are also some important differences you’ll want to be aware of. Don’t worry—in this video, plastic surgeon JoAnna Nguyen breaks down the main similarities and differences between the two.
In general, every surgery has similarities in that there's an acute inflammatory swelling phase, and that can decrease as time goes on. With swelling, you want to basically help the swelling go down with the motion of gravity. So with facial procedures, there tends to be less swelling because your head is elevated at all times when you're walking around, and there's just a lot of lymphatic drainage and blood flow to the face compared to the rest of the body. There are more small compartments in the face as opposed to the abdomen, which is just larger compartments.
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