Rejuvenate You: Virginia Plastic Surgeon Michael J. Brown, M.D., P.L.L.C

In an earlier blog, I wrote about making sure patients searching for cosmetic plastic surgery take time to learn about the procedures they are interested in and to be sure to select a board certified plastic surgeon with experience. To illustrate these points and how important judgement is, here are some current news stories dealing with cosmetic surgery complications.

A family medicine physician was sentenced to 9 months in jail for performing facial cosmetic surgery procedures on women which resulted in complications. He has been under investigation with the board of medicine and had a restricted license preventing him from performing cosmetic surgery. Despite this, he continued to perform facial and breast surgeries on people. He was convicted of aggravated assault and assault causing bodily harm. He was performing these surgeries and telling people he was board certified, but not by whom.

In Beverly Hills, a radiologist opened a liposuction center and was performing liposuction on people without training. He has a civil suit against him for allegedly allowing his girlfriend and another person to perform the surgeries. He was also using the fat to try and fuel his car, (also against the law). He has fled the country and now is practicing in South America.

In Oregon, a woman sued and won lawsuits against a dermatologist she believed to be a plastic surgeon based on the dermatologist deceptive advertising. She also sued and won a larger suit ($1.32 million) against the magazine publisher who allowed the deceptive advertising practices and even promoted that type of advertising. The verdict was affirmed by the state Supreme Court.

The point of these examples, is take time to Verify credentials. Do not believe what someone tells you or see in a magazine. Educate yourself, and select properly trained plastic surgeons with extensive patient examples and referrals. If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Never compromise or barter when it comes to your health or your body. It is a very precious resource.

According to the ASAPS, there were nearly 11.7 million cosmetic surgical and nonsurgical procedures preformed in the US in 2007. These are multi-specialty numbers and while impressive truely do not reflect the total numbers of procedures. Not all members respond to surveys, not all specialties performing cosmetic procedures are included and there members may be performing large numbers of procedures.

Breast augmentation is the number one plastic surgery procedure performed on women according to these statistics. There were nearly 400,00 breast augmentations last year. Liposuction is the number one procedure when the men and womens numbers are combined, with 456,828 procedures. Liposuction is the number one plastic surgical procedure in men. AFter liposuctions and breast augmentation, eye lid surgery was the most common procedure for both men and women. Botox and nonsurgical facial fillers are lead the non-surgical arena and laser hair removal is the most common laser procedure.

Women had 91 percent of cosmetic procedures. Since 1997, surgical procedures have increased 142 percent and non surgical procedures have increase 743 percent.