Botox, Dermal Fillers, Face Lift, Injectables, Plastic Surgery
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Cosmetic plastic surgery and its future - at least, the short term future - may be on display in New York City where the nation’s first walk-in Botox clinic has opened.
Does plastic surgery have a McBotox or a Starbucks-like future in the greater Los Angeles area? Only time will tell. But the Botox clinic in the Big Apple looks good to people who are pinching their pennies.
The clinic, SmoothMed, is staffed by two plastic surgeons. One told the New York Times he doesn’t think of the clinic as a McBotox but “Botox-on-the-go.”
Patients can make an appointment but the doors are also open to passersby who were shopping at nearby Bloomingdale’s and decided to stop in to eliminate a few facial wrinkles. (Read more about Botox.) Appointments usually last a little under half an hour with follow up sessions taking about 15 minutes.
However, wrinkle removal is not the be-all and end-all of speedy rejuvenation procedures.
Smoothmed is also cashing on another noteworthy trend in plastic surgery as more patients put off plastic surgery in favor of facial injectables. So the clinic also offers shorter, less pricey treatments like:
But there may be danger in the glitter!
A successful outcome for an injectable procedure is something plastic surgeons know as “highly provider dependent.” That means it requires years and years of experience working with tiny needles and injectables to be effective and safe. You may not find that at a shopping or mini mall.
So be sure and ask the person who actually wields the needle about his or her level of training and experience.Your best bet? A board certified plastic surgeon!
Ever tried Botox? Leave a comment and tell us about it!
California Surgical Institute @ January 6, 2009
Breast Augmentation, Liposuction, Plastic Surgery
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Cosmetic surgeon Bill Johnson, M.D. in Dallas, Texas, blogs that he has noticed many of his women patients who had liposuction also grew larger breasts, even though no breast augmentation surgery was done.
When Dr. Johnson looked over his medical records, he found larger bust lines in 48 percent of women patients who had liposuction below the waist. About six months are required for the effect to show, he found.
The surgeon told Dallas TV channel 5 the breast increase was usually about one cup size and that if he took two pounds of fat from, say, a patient’s saddlebags, it was 50 percent likely to appear on her breasts, later on.
Although the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (ASAPS) says there is no evidence to show the effect really works, another cosmetic surgery and dermatologist, Eric Finzi, M.D., Ph.D., wrote an article about the same effect in a professional magazine for doctors.
Dr. Finzi noticed some of his liposuction patients were reporting larger breasts as a side effect. So he studied the medical records of 95 women liposuction patients.
He found 43 percent of those patients later reported an increase in breast size from one to two cups — although they did not gain weight anywhere else.
The liposuction/breast augmentation study was printed in an August, 2003, issue of the physician’s journal, Dermatologic Surgery and concluded: “Cosmetically significant breast enlargement is a common occurrence after tumescent liposuction surgery.”
Of course, nobody can promise a bonus breast enlargement because doctors aren’t quite sure why it happens.
Dr. Finzi did notice one common thread: heavier patients who more total fat removed were more likely to have the bonus breast augmentation. But, as in Dr. Johnson’s patients, those patients did not gain weight. In a few cases, a few lost some pounds after surgery.
Other than that, Dr. Finzi does not know why liposuction causes breasts to grow.
Did you ever have liposuction? Were there any surprises later on?
California Surgical Institute @ January 5, 2009
Plastic Surgery
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The first lady of plastic surgery, Joan Rivers, has written a new book which is a mostly serious, believe it or not, guide to:
- Tummy tuck
- Eyelid lifts
- Other plastic surgery procedures
In an interview with the New York Times Magazine, Joan wisecracks: “I’ve had so much plastic surgery, when I die they will donate my body to Tupperware.” (Read more about the plastic surgery book interview.)
Pretty funny, Joan. But the jest is a bit off.
We’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: the plastic in plastic surgery does not refer to actual plastic. The word comes from the Greek, plastikos which means to mold or to change.
Joan’s book is titled, “Men are Stupid….And They Like Big Boobs: A Woman’s Guide to Beauty Through Plastic Surgery.” (Simon & Schuster, NYC, December 2008).
In the interview, Joan reveals she has actually had:
- Two face lifts in 75 years
- Lip augmentation every six months
- Liposuction just on her thighs.
Ms. Rivers also finds Barack Obama’s ears annoying and that “he should have had them pinned back years ago.
“..he represents my country now - pin back the ears!”
Because she is one of the few celebrities who has always been open about her plastic surgery, Joan dedicates the book to women who have had cosmetic plastic surgery in secret.
The book is funny and really sounds like a Joan Rivers standup routine in Las Vegas. But at the same time, she offers sound advice in chapters on:
- Botox
- Finding a fully trained and experienced plastic surgeon
- Facial fillers like Restylane
- Face lifts
- Breast augmentation
- Rhinoplasty
- Liposuction
Here is a snippet from her book, illustrating a lesson everybody should take to heart! Joan writes:
“You’ve heard plenty regarding plastic surgery train wrecks like Tara Reid and Courtney Love, about how people with all the money in the world make such bad choices when it comes to picking their doctors? The reason is simple: They don’t do their homework.”
Read more about how to find a qualified plastic surgeon.
California Surgical Institute @ January 4, 2009
Breast Augmentation, Plastic Surgery
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Plastic surgery has not entirely disappeared from television, viewers from the greater Los Angeles area are saying.
One world traveler blogged that people she met in Southeast Asia were not real sure where Southern California was until she explained Orange County is there.
“And then everybody replies, ‘Oh, The O.C! Do people really have as much plastic surgery as the Real Housewives?’”
(Read more about that blog and the O.C.’s plastic surgery connection.)
If you follow The Real Housewives of Orange County, you already know the season opener contained something new: a character, 30-year-old Gretchen Rossi, who does not have breast implants. (Quips another character, Jeana Keough: “There are no real breasts in Orange County.”)
Could be. But we do know the upscale, reality T.V. housewives have had breast augmentation, along with:
- Breast lifts
- Botox
- Eyebrow lifts
- Facial fillers
- Rhinoplasty
One of the characters, Tamary Barney, was pushing 40 and decided she no longer needed the large, D-cup implants she got at age 20. So, she replaced her implants with smaller C-size implants, to flatter her small frame and reduce pain in her neck and back caused by the large bust line.
Redoing a breast procedure is part of breast revision surgery.
It only happens in rare cases, but even in the best hands, things that can go wrong after any breast augmentation, include among others:
After many years, implants can break and leak
When too much scar tissue forms around the implant
The implant falls out of its pocket, making the bottom of the breast too big
Many surgeons say a common reason for breast revision is just after healing when the patient decides on a larger size
Knowing exactly what to do in rare cases is another reason to contact a board certified plastic surgeon. What is that, you ask? (Read our post about what it takes to become a board certified plastic surgeon.)
California Surgical Institute @ January 3, 2009
Botox, Liposuction
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The current economy is certainly causing many more people to have frown lines on their faces.
While 4.7 million used the wrinkle eraser Botox in 2007 to remove some of those lines, the future looks rosy with new substances that may come into use during 2009.
Here are a few:
Reloxin: tests are going well in France on this substance which is very much like Botox. Known as Dysport, it’s used in 23 nations and does the same thing as Botox - relaxes facial nerves that cause deep wrinkling and frown lines. What’s new? It acts quicker and lasts longer than Botox which has yet another competitor in testing: PurTox.
Revance Therapeutics, Inc. is developing a gel containing the same substance as Botox and Reloxin. The difference? This substance is spread on, not injected into, the skin. (Read more about Botox competitors.)
Plastic surgeons may get an upgrade for Liposuction treatments, too.
A new type of fat removal treatment based on freezing fat cells is now undergoing testing. Known as cryolipolysis, the method involves placing a metal plate on fatty areas for five to 20 minutes and reducing the temperature…but not enough to damage skin.
U.S. studies are being held at Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital. So far, doctors have learned the method has the most effect in thick, fat areas with less effect in lean areas. The major difference? This form of liposuction would not break skin.
Yet another form of liposuction farther out on the horizon is blasting fat cells with jets of high-pressure water.
According to Walter Tork, M.D. at the World Congress on Liposuction the new technique, Water Assisted Liposuction (WAL) is faster, causes less bleeding, bruising and nerve damage. Moreover, the technique is based on the water pressure surgeries of internal organs, first used in the 1980s.
Dr. Tork claims 100 human cases of WAL under his belt.
Human Med of Schwerin, Germany, maker of WAL equipment, says it hopes to have a U.S. presence in 2009.
California Surgical Institute @ January 2, 2009
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