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Do Breast Implants Have An Expiration Date?

I read someone said she had to get her implants re-done 20 or so years later. I thought that getting breast implants was a one-time thing. How long do breast implants last?

Breast implant surgery is definitely not to be considered a “one time thing.” That is one good finding that came out of the breast implant craziness of the 1990′s in the US; the time at which the FDA banned silicone gel implants and demanded studies.

Interestingly, the implants themselves are not always the problem that leads to re-operation. It can be the body’s reaction to them. Silicone gel breast implants in particular can Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Truth in Cosmetic Surgery*

Dealing With This Canadian Pharmacy Is More Trouble Than It’s Worth

Looking to obtain a break on my practice’s botulinum toxin of choice (Myobloc) I yielded to curiosity and ordered from a Canadian Pharmacy…Northwest Pharmacy.com. I figured we would try to break the price point of this popular product. Thankfully I used my credit card.

Botulinum toxin must be kept cold to retain its potency. We traditionally receive this product on dry ice and have never had much of a problem with effectiveness. I was promised by the pharmacy rep that this product would arrive cold within 2-5 days of shipping. Only after I gave her my credit card information did she share with me that the product would be coming from Great Britain. This was not welcome news. I was reassured that the product would be cold and usable.

The product arrived Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Truth in Cosmetic Surgery*

Infection From Plastic Surgery: Who’s To Blame?

When things are done properly, infection is pretty uncommon in a plastic surgery practice. Surgery and infection are unfortunately related however and will co-exist at least occasionally even when everything is done correctly. This is just a fact of life.

People interestingly enough seem to believe that an infection is evidence of malpractice. Infection can be present when malpractice has occurred but by itself is not evidence of anything.

Minor infections can often can be treated and cause no long term problems. More serious infections can Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Truth in Cosmetic Surgery*

The Problem With Dermal Fillers

From Forbes:

But today, a range of dermal fillers can be injected into those crow’s feet, marionette lines, thinning lips and furrows between the brows, taking years off the face–and all can be done during your lunch hour, with no invasive surgery and little recovery time.
Source: forbes.com/2009/05/26/dermal-filler-cosmetic-forbes-woman-well-being-facelift.html

I love how the press tends to make it seem like Dermal Fillers are the solution for which we have all been waiting. They make it an issue of just “choosing the right one.”

The issue here is that dermal fillers Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Truth in Cosmetic Surgery*

Plastic Surgeon Discusses Safety And Effectiveness Of New Anti-Wrinkle Product

The FDA has granted a license to the maker of laViv which is said to improve the appearance of smile lines without freezing the muscles of your face. Have you heard of this new drug? Does it work like it claims? Are there any side effects that are worrisome?

Source: dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2028456/New-biological-wrinkle-cure-touted-alternative-Botox-frozen-face.html

Maybe.

As we have discussed before, FDA approval is not a stamp of approval that a drug is effective. It just means that as far as current studies show, it is not harmful. Some drugs are FDA approved for years until later the FDA reconsiders and removes them from the market. Look at the relatively recent removal of Darvocet from the market after many years of FDA approval.

LaViv is an interesting concept. Read more »

*This blog post was originally published at Truth in Cosmetic Surgery*

Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

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How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

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