I am part of a journal review group in Beverly Hills where the top Plastic surgeons, Facial Plastic surgeons and Occuloplastic surgeons from Beverly Hills and Los Angeles get together to review the latest information from around the world related to the field of Plastic Surgery.  At the last meeting on Janurary 27, we discussed rhinoplasty techniques, eyelid techniques and liquid facelift or non surgical facelift techniques.  The main filler we discussed was Sculptra.  Sculptra is a filler that lasts about 1 to 2 years and therefore has the same longevity as Radiesse.  I have a lot of experience with both Sculptra and Radiesse and have been very pleased with the results of the liquid facelift which is a great procedure for the appropriate person.  The liquid facelift can give a nice rejuvenation to the hollow lower eyelid and cheek region as well as fill some of the lines and shallow areas of the face.  We can combine Botox and lasers to give a more comprehensive improvement to the face. These results are not as long lasting or as powerful as a surgical facelift but there is less healing time and less cost involved.

I am performing a full face rejuvenation on a lovely lady in her early 60’s which will be featured on the Early Show.  This woman has felt invisible as she has aged, meaning she does not receive attention from people because of her tired appearance.  She also has had trouble dating because she has no self esteem because of her appearance.  I will be performing a browlift, upper and lower eyelid rejuvenation ( blepharoplasty), facelift, necklift, fat transfer to the face and rhinoplasty.  I will then perform the E-Matrix laser in the office for her 3 weeks after her surgery.  I expect this procedure to change her life and give her her self esteem back.  I have been told this story will be aired over several segments and I look forward to helping her.

I have many Middle Eastern patients who fly to LA and NYC to see me, people from Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, and Israel.  This would obviously make my services more accessible to those people who can’t travel as readily and I have really enjoyed all my patients from that part of the world.  They have been some of the nicest people I have taken care of and I would not expect that to change if I go to Dubai.  I will keep updating the status of the trip on my blog as I make more decisions.

 Another implant form is injectable liquid silicone which does give a permanent enhancement but this is very controversial since the silicone can migrate and cause problems years after the injection.  In this case the only treatment is surgical extraction which sometimes cannot even be done so this is a very risky option. 

There are surgical lip lift techniques like the subnasal or bullhorn lip lift as well as the VY-plasty all of which are great options for a certain subset of people.  Fillers including autologous fat, hyaluronic acids ( i.e. Restylane, Juvederm), Radiesse, Collagen and others are all temporary forms of lip augmentation and need to be done repeatedly.

There is now a very safe, solid but soft silicone lip implant that gives a permanent augmentation and avoids the risk of stiffening because there is no tissue in-growth.  This is the perfect option for someone who is in search of fuller lips and does not want to undergo repeated injections with fillers.  This also avoids the risk of liquid silicone because there is no liquid in this implant risking leakage or migration.  Up until now injectable fillers were the gold standard for pretty and sexy lips but now the silicone lip implant offers a permanent option that will most likely become the option of choice for many people as this becomes a more widely recognized procedure.  This procedure is done in the office under local anesthesia and takes about 20 minutes to perform.

The deep plane facelift is the best facelift for the middle third of the face and this is the first facelift technique that I perfected years ago.  Since then I have perfected many other facelift techniques to address different aspects of the face.  The midfacelift or cheeklift is an excellent way to correct the middle third of the face and it gives even more correction then the deep plane facelift but like any lifting technique the downside is that it is not permanent. 

 Cheek implants are notorious for being difficult to make perfect and therefore not many surgeons perform them.  I have been doing cheek implants for many years and I honestly have had extremely high success rates with these.  However, I was never perfectly thrilled with the implant design until now.  There is a new implant called the midface implant and I am very excited about this implant.  I have had extremely happy patients with this and I love the design and shape of this implant.  This gives a permanent result that I think will make the full facial rejuvenation procedures even better going forward.

The nonsurgical nose job is a procedure that I continue to do for the appropriate candidates.  I was at a medical meeting recently where one of the lectures was on the nonsurgical nose job.  I discovered that this doctor who was giving the lecture trademarked the name nonsurgical nose job a few years ago and now it can no longer be used without his permission.  I at first laughed at that notion.  I have no doubt that he saw one of the shows that I did and got the idea from there.  I am not sure how the law works but I hope that I don’t get into trouble for mentioning the name nonsurgical nose job in this blog.  I have a video copy of all of the media that I did on this procedure 7 years ago and I wonder if I would be violating the law if I put them on my website now.  I probably won’t put that information on my website because I don’t think it merits special attention at this point because there are so few people who are actually good candidates for the procedure and it is so limited in what it can accomplish but wouldn’t that be something if I legally couldn’t display or mention something on my website that I first exposed to the public?  I have never considered myself to be a good business man.  I am a doctor first and foremost and my craft is what I spend all my time thinking about and perfecting and this is just another perfect example of exactly that.

Who would have ever thought to trademark the name of a procedure that you didn’t develop?