Realistic Expectations When Seeking Cosmetic Surgery
April 5, 2013 - Rhys Branman, MD
Cosmetic surgeons are always talking about realistic expectations. What exactly does that mean, you might ask. Here is an interesting term that may help explain. The "range of believability" is the concept. What do you believe can be achieved? When a person first seriously considers seeking cosmetic surgery, it may feel as if new potentially liberating options have opened up. On the other hand, it may feel scary. These feelings describe a range of expectation, or belief about what is possible. Just from that range of possible feelings, you can see that cosmetic surgery is an emotional issue. It's easy... 
We all know that researching your cosmetic surgeon is critical for the outcome of your procedure and safety. Elective surgery involves some risk, just as any other surgery does. Of course you want the best outcome as well. One thing you should do is ask how often and how recently your surgeon has performed the procedure you are seeking. Another thing you will want to do is to look at his or her portfolio, the before and after pictures of patients he has operated on. But how do you know what to look for in these pictures? First of all,... 
Lip augmentation is a deceptively complex subject. Most patients would love to have a permanent solution to full sensuous lips, but the lips are a very sensitive area. Most often it is simpler to use injectable fillers for better results. So although there are many choices, I prefer injectable hyaluronic acid or Silikon 1000. The hyaluronic fillers I prefer are Juvéderm® or Restylane®. For a more permanent solution, I prefer Silikon 1000 to lip implants. One would think lip implants would be an easy solution for lip augmentation, however lip implants can be a bit hard and stiff, and patients... 
You may have noticed the statistics are in on the new international survey of cosmetic procedures performed globally. The ISAPS (International Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons) International Survey on Aesthetic/Cosmetic Procedures Performed in 2011 recruited almost 1000 surgeons to participate in a survey. This survey resulted in the numbers of procedures that were most popular in more than 25 countries. The United States recorded the most procedures, however this number may be reflecting the fact that the United States had the most surgeons who responded to the survey, 5,950. Brazil followed closely at 5,024 surgeons responding. China was third with... 
Some say the sexiest part of the body is the breast, others say the buttocks, and others say the face! When ranked by women, cosmetic procedures most wanted to improve their sex life, breast augmentation comes out on top, followed by lip enhancement, and liposuction, then the famous Brazilian Butt lift . . . of course these were American women. How about in men? Strong arms? Strong chin? Full head of hair? But are anyone of those parts of the body the sexiest? Not sure? In a recent poll, only 53% of people rated the brain the sexiest part of... 
Companies constantly develop new cosmetic surgery products with names designed to catch your attention when they are splashed over the media. For instance, you may have heard of Zeltiq or Liposonix, new non-invasive liposuction techniques. The process of Liposonx uses focused ultrasound to heat the fat to 131 degrees Fahrenheit, which is then said to be removed by a process of phagocytosis where the white blood cells ingest foreign particles, the fat in this case. Whereas, Zeltiq or Cool Sculpting involves freezing the fat cells, which cause their death. The fat cells are then processed out of the body in... 
We have seen ads online offering dermal fillers for sale at cut rate prices. So have unscrupulous, and untrained people who are quite willing to make a buck offering you their services. Advertisers like this are not authorized to distribute legal products in the United States. Often the drugs are counterfeit, in other words, you don't know what you're getting. Also, anyone can buy them. A number of arrests have been made of people representing themselves as doctors for giving illegal injections over the past couple of years. The United States is tougher on injectable fillers than other countries. For... 