Cosmetic Procedures

6 Rules To Help You Choose The Best Filler For Your Needs

Bad cosmetic surgery is a common reality – articles and images are there to prove it all over Google. Truth is, many people go to the doctor’s office with a set mind – for instance, they’re thinking: “I just want my lips or my cheeks filled.” That’s just like a consumer going to the market thinking if they buy a head of lettuce, they’re going to be able to make a perfect salad. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple; many different elements need to be taken into account in order to achieve optimal results. Follow these six simple rules to avoid making costly and dangerous mistakes.

Rule # 1

When you decide to get injectable fillers, don’t think about it as a commodity. Rather than setting your mind on a specific brand or treatment, think of what’s going to work to make YOU look better. If you focus…

Instant Inch Loss? 7E Treatment Says Yes!

The woman above isn’t thinking about how many times she’s going to the gym this week. You wouldn’t be either if you were in the middle of a contraption-looking spa treatment that’s known to contour the body, reduce stress, help your body regain its natural strength, tighten and rejuvenate the skin, all while shedding inches of fat.

Enter: the latest slim-down spa session on our radar: the 7E Treatment, an FDA-cleared bio-electrical stimulation treatment for body contouring. According to the RejuvaLife Vitality Institute in Los Angeles, one of the few medspas offering the treatment: “Patients remain in a relaxed state while special waveforms contract and relax the muscles, providing immediate, long-lasting results. Patients benefit from immediate inch reduction and increased muscle strength.” They also report that patients feel completely relaxed during the treatment, putting them into a “zen-like” state of mind. When it comes to medical…

Lashes with Benefits?

It may surprise you to know that Latisse®, originally created to treat glaucoma patients but subsequently found to be a fabulous lash growth product, has some pretty impressive “side effects.”

Made from a compound called Bimatoprost, a version of Latisse® for hair growth on the scalp is now being explored, as well as using Latisse® for bushier brows, like those sported by Megan Fox or Kiera Knightly.  The future also looks rosy for Bimatoprost in the hair-loss industry, although treatments to regrow hair with Latisse® may be costly compared with current hair growth creams and hair replacement procedures.

The most exciting potential use for Bimatoprost is that it’s been shown to reduce fat in mammals. Imagine being injected and losing weight for weeks afterwards! Don’t start wolfing cheeseburgers yet, however, as it will take years for the FDA to approve it for that purpose. So, in the meantime, we’ll all get back…

Breast Augmentation without the Implants?

I’ve written about surgical fat transfer before. As in many cosmetic procedures, surgical fat transfer originated from a reconstructive procedure—primarily in breast reconstruction for mastectomy patients. It only makes sense that fat is a perfect filler. There’s absolutely no chance of an allergic reaction, as it comes from your own body. Plus, since it’s injected, there are no incisions.

Yet, already other doctors have voiced concerns about the long-term safety of the procedure, claiming that it may increase the risk of breast cancer and that the implanted tissue could harden, causing deformity and possibly masking tumors.

There is no evidence of any increase in breast cancer or that the implanted tissue will harden. We can increase a woman’s breasts up to 2 cup sizes when the breasts are properly prepared.

In a platelet rich plasma-infused fat transfer using Selphyl, a small amount of the patient’s blood is spun in a…

The 5-minute nose job

Walk down any street in Beverly Hills and I promise that within 5 minutes you’ll pass at least 10 people who’ve had a nose job. Beverly Hills is one of America’s top cosmetic surgery cities and rhinoplasty is one of the most popular procedures here.

Unfortunately, a rhinoplasty is expensive, might involve numerous revisions, and requires a fairly long recovery period during which it’s obvious to the world that you just had a nose job. Not to mention the whole general anesthesia issue.

There’s another option that’s gaining in popularity: the 5-minute nose job, AKA Nose in a Needle.

OK, it’s not exactly 5 minutes—maybe 10—but it is fast, vastly less expensive, much less risky, and the results are immediate with little down time. There’s no general anesthesia, no packing and no sutures. Instead of a scalpel, my tools are a syringe and natural dermal fillers. Unlike most cosmetic…

Solutions for Acne and Chickenpox Scars

Anyone who’s suffered with scars as a reminder of teenage acne, chickenpox or measles, knows the  embarrassment those scars and pock marks have upon them as adults.  Facial pits are the pits but modern skin laser and filler treatments can help them disappear or, at the very least, fade.

These kinds of scars can be filled with dermal fillers or smoothed down with microdermabrasion or laser resurfacing, depending upon the scar’s depth. The laser that I use the most, the Pixel, is very effective for acne scars and pock marks, as well as a variety of fillers. A combination of laser treatments and fillers provide an excellent solution with minimal or no downtime involved.

Pending Italian Breast Ban?

The Italian Parliament, concerned that 36% of Italy’s teenaged girls are displeased with their appearance, has proposed a ban on cosmetic breast implants for girls 18 and younger. The hope is that, by making it illegal to obtain breast implants before the age of 18, even with parental consent, the emphasis on physical perfection may be diminished a bit. Of note is that there would be no ban on breast implants inserted for medical reasons, such as tuberous breasts, for example.

The bill also provides for a breast implant registry, to track and trace breast implant problems, and enhanced privacy guarantees for cosmetic surgery patients.

I suppose we’ll soon  see an Italian stampede of 19 year old girls getting breast implants.

Move over Juvederm!

There’s a new filler in town. It’s safe, proven to work, hypoallergenic, cost-effective and the results last from 6 months to a year.  It’s made from your own cells but it’s not fat and it’s not stem cells. Give up? Read on…

Imagine (A) going to the doctor and (B) within 20-30 minutes the doctor has removed a little blood from your arm, spun it around in a machine to remove the concentrated growth factors (these are the potent ingredients in your own blood that will stimulate the production of very high quality collagen) and (C) injected it into the wrinkles or acne scar depressions. You leave the office and go about your day—no downtime.

Within 3 weeks you see visible effects as your own collagen begins to fill in the scar depressions and/or wrinkles. During this time your skin quality becomes more luminous and soft in texture. It…

Body-Jet: Not Your Everyday Liposuction

Imagine a liposuction method that’s kinder on your body and one of the most potent methods to yield ready-to-inject fat for fat grafting into your hands, face, breasts, into wrinkles and acne scar depressions. It’s here and we know you want to know about it.

As many of my readers know, liposuction was originally created back in 1974 by Dr. Giogio Fischer, an Italian gynecologist. Over the years it’s become more refined, to eliminate excessive bleeding, pain and rippling of the skin after the procedure. The tumescent technique ultimately enabled patients to benefit from liposuction under local anesthesia without the fear of undesirable skin depressions or excessive bleeding. I warrant that the Body-Jet is tumescent squared. Better than anything I’ve seen so far.

This is why I think Body-Jet is the best liposuction method available today

First, in traditional liposuction, the anesthesia is combined with the saline…

Could Green Tea & LED lights replace Botox??

German scientists claim that a combination of LED lights plus green tea extract cream will result in “less pronounced wrinkle levels, shorter wrinkle valleys, and juvenile complexion.” I don’t know about you, but having a more “juvenile complexion” sounds mighty good to me!

It’s been known for over 40 years that light therapy will heal wounds and I’m sure you’re familiar with light therapy for skin rejuvenation in the form of IPL (intensed pulsed light) treatments. However, high-intensity LED’s such as those in computers and auto tail lights, have been shown to reduce skin wrinkles if applied every day over several months. However, there’s a nasty side-effect with the high-intensity LEDs—they can generate byproducts that damage the cells. Again, science to the rescue—apparently when the potent antioxidant, epigallocatechin gallate, found in green tea, is placed on the skin in a cream form, it negates the side-effects of…