Reflections on Beauty

We live in a cost-conscious time. All of us want to get the best value for the dollar, whether that’s in a purchase of laundry detergent or in plastic surgery. However, there’s a big difference between the two. A box of Tide is the same wherever you purchase it, but cosmetic surgery requires intrusion into your body and can have unexpected consequences in the wrong hands, particularly procedures such as liposuction.

Recently, the news has reported that a Manhattan-based Dominican Republic physician has been advertising cheap plastic surgery. Although the patients were examined in a Manhattan office, they flew to the Dominican Republic for the actual procedures. There were complaints that his patients developed severe infections and disfigurement. Because he is not licensed here in the US, he has been charged for unauthorized practice of a profession by the Attorney General’s office in New York state.

It’s extremely important that you closely examine the background of any surgeon you choose to perform cosmetic surgery on your body. While flying to another country may offer savings, the cost of airfare, hotel, meals and the need to bring a companion can outweigh any potential savings. Further is the potential for severe consequences such as infection, disfigurement and even death. Even in the US, where surgeons are held to a very high standard in their operating facilities this still leaves room for cut-rate physicians bent on doing thousands of surgeries at cheap prices to cover their overhead. Many don’t even carry malpractice insurance.

Dr. Chasin has extensive training in Aesthetic Medicine and has studied under some of the country’s most prominent physicians. He serves as a nationwide lecturer and teacher,  is often seen on national and regional television and is frequently quoted in magazines and journals.

Dr. Chasin is a Diplomate of the American Board of Laser Surgery, a Fellow of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery, and a member of the International Society of Cosmetic Laser Surgeons, the American Academy of Cosmetic Family Medicine, the American Society of Cosmetic Dermatology and Aesthetic Surgery, the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery, the American Society of Liposuction Surgery, the American Academy of Aesthetic Medicine, and the International association of Physicians in Aesthetic Medicine.

You cannot put a price tag on training and experience. You wouldn’t let an unqualified person work on the electrical systems in your home; why do so with your body and your health?

A Canadian study followed both women with and women without breast implants over many years to discover whether breast implants inhibited the ability to identify breast tumors and, therefore, increased the risk for women with implants to experience poor cancer survival rates.

In fact, the study not only showed that women with implants already have a lower rate of breast cancer as compared to peer groups in the population, but that both women with and women without breast implants have similar outcomes when diagnosed with breast cancer. This is further reassurance for women who fear that implants will hide tumors on mammograms.

Whether or not you have breast implants, we recommend regular mammograms, especially if you have a family history of breast cancer. Detection is vital to your health and well-being!

Long term studies are always interesting because they typically offer a lot of data and can show how trends change over time.  In a 25-year study of 26,000 liposuction procedures, 82% of patients reported satisfaction with the outcome of their procedures. The study was performed by four Cali, Columbia, plastic surgeons to determine if the new technologies and instruments used in liposuction have contributed to a higher level of satisfaction.

Although satisfaction rates over time have remained approximately the same, the study’s authors did find that the traditional tumescent liposuction method carries an increased risk of post-surgical seromas (mass or swelling caused by accumulated fluid) when compared with laser liposuction.  They also determined that ultrasonic assisted liposuction (or UAL) had a significantly higher instance of side effects than other techniques, which led the study authors to abandon that procedure in the study.

At Reflections, we find many of our patients prefer laser liposuction to traditional tumescent liposuction because there is typically far less downtime and bruising associated with laser liposuction.  They can get back to their busy lives more quickly after the procedure, which is an important consideration to many of our patients.  The Columbian study didn’t take these lifestyle factors into account but, if they had, we feel their findings would echo what we’ve seen here.

The study found that the safety of liposuction procedures (both traditional tumescent liposuction and laser-assisted liposuction) have continued to improve over time, reducing the risks of side-effects while still delivering the very satisfying aesthetic results that you see in our liposuction photos.

Looks like things are headed in the right direction.

22CJY2PCWH8Z