Category: injectable fillers

Injectable Fillers and the Theory of Persistence

The use of injectable filler materials, despite their relative recent popularity, have been around for a long time. From 1981 to 2002, the only FDA-approved filler was bovine and human-derived collagen. This seemed a perfectly natural filler material as that was ideally what one wanted to replace. But their short persistence and the need Read More…

Case Study: Breast Reduction in Older Women

Background: A large breast size is well known to put a strain on back, shoulder, and neck muscles. The constant pulling of the breast weight across the shoulders strains the entire upper body. This is magnified when the large breast also have a large amount of ptosis or sagging, as most large breasts do Read More…

Plastic Surgery’s Did You Know? Barber Poles and Plastic Surgery

The history of the barber pole and its classic red and white stripes is well known. The original barber-surgeons of the Middle Ages and Renaissance provided a variety of medical services such as cutting hair, tooth extractions, minor surgery and blood letting. It is the practice of blood letting that epitomizes the classic spiral Read More…

Drug Levels and Blood Loss After Liposuction and Abdominoplasty

Liposuction remains one of the most common body contouring operations in cosmetic surgery. While often viewed as ‘simple’ with little recovery and promising dramatic results from the perspective of how it is often marketed and promoted, liposuction is a very invasive procedure that induces a lot of tissue trauma. The small size of the cannula Read More…

The Evolution of Over The Counter Topical Skin Care

Topical skin care has come a long way since the days of my mother’s Ivory soap and Noxzema. Beyond the explosion in available products from drug stores, retailers and doctor’s offices, the potential capability and claims of contemporary skin products at times seem extraordinary if not unbelieveable in many cases. But the hope that Read More…

Fibrin Glue In Facelift Surgery

Today’s plastic surgeon is awash, no pun intended, in a variety of topical and wound healing liquid and semi-liquid agents. Many of these are patient-derived and are extracts of either blood or fat. Stem cells are the most noteworthy of present but they are far from the first. One of the ‘oldest’ is that Read More…

Botox for the Gummy Smile

While a smile is a critical human expression that exposes one’s pearly whites, too much tooth and gum show is deemed undesireable. Known as a gummy smile, it is technically defined as any gum show that exceeds more than 2mms above the tooth line when smiling. While that is a good quantitative measurement of Read More…

The Use of Synthetic Implants In Rhinoplasty

The need for augmentation and support in rhinoplasty is common. Whether it is building up the dorsum, adding supporting to the columella or reconstructing the middle vault with spreader grafts, adding volume is a common cosmetic and reconstructive need. The need for volume is most magnified in many ethnic rhinoplasties where an entire dorso-columellar Read More…

Case Study: Octogenarian Facelift

Background: Aging of the face is inevitable and is always dramatically seen in the lower face and neck. Sagging of the jowls and neck occurs as the ligaments weaken and the skin stretches. While initially seen as a little bit of jowling and loose neck skin it can eventually progress to a full blown Read More…

Fat Injection Grafting to the Breasts

The presence of excess fat in most patients and its easy availability by liposuction extraction has led to the widespread use of fat injections for soft tissue augmentation. One of the most interesting and exciting areas of the use of fat injections is for breast enhancement. (FIBE) While most commonly perceived as a potential Read More…