Sheryl Crow

I heard today that Sheryl Crow is being treated for breast cancer. I am a big fan of hers, and had the pleasure of seeing her perform at the American Music Awards in 2004. Apparently she is undergoing breast preservation therapy (the cancer surgeon cuts out the tumor but leaves the rest of the breast intact) combined with radiation therapy postoperatively. This allows the patient to keep most of her breast, and hopefully have a better cosmetic result than a mastectomy.
One in nine women will have breast cancer in their lifetime. Most of these can be found early and treated using breast self-exams and mammograms. A screening mammogram should be taken at age 35, with yearly mammograms after age 40.
There are a number of female pop stars who have survived or are fighting breast cancer (such as Melissa Etheridge, Kylie Minogue, and Olivia Newton John (my favorite), so Sheryl is in good company. I wish her the best.

Don Knotts

Don Knotts died the other day. I loved him as Mr. Furley on "Three's Company." He was the coolest anti-hipster of his day. Much better than Norman Fell's character before him. It's sad that both Don and John Ritter (Jack Tripper) are gone.
Well, what does this have to do with plastic surgery? Don always had very "buggy" eyes, which are a possible sign of Graves Disease. This is a problem with the thyroid that can cause people to increase the amount of fat behind their eyeball, causing the eyeball to stick out. The best treatment is to control the thyroid problem, but if it gets out of control, some plastic surgeons will break some of the bones around the eye to allow the eye socket to expand and the eyeball to drift back. It's a big surgery wrought with complications.
Did Don Knotts have Graves Disease? I don't know but he sure looked like it.

Stacy Keibler

Stacy Keibler was robbed tonight... She should have at least made the final two of the "Dancing with the Stars" finale episode, but was behind the 2 left footed, yet very popular Jerry Rice. Stacy has the distinction of being one of the only female wrestling stars who is not surgically enhanced. Well, she and the Fabulous Moolah I suppose.

Mariah Carey - breast implants?

Mariah Carey is busting out... I have always been a Mariah Carey fan (except for the brief "Glitter" period). I liked her most when she first appeared on the scene with "Vision of Love." Back then she was in her early twenties, in great shape, and appeared very natural. In the last few years, she has gained a bit of weight and it seems that her breasts have at least doubled in size. She appears to have had a breast augmentation, with the implants placed below the muscle. This accounts for the space between her breasts, and the fact that she really can't move them together to get midline cleavage, ala Dolly Parton. This is a classic sign of breast implants placed under the muscle. I tend to place the implants both above and below the muscle, depending on the wishes of the patient. Mariah has also either had her implants upsized recently, or her breasts have grown as she and her career have.
Photo credit: hollywoodtuna.com

To view a video of a breast augmentation I performed on Fox News, click here.

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Burt Reynolds

What else is going on with Burt Reynolds? It appears as though he has had an old-fashioned, skin tightening facelift. The face ages in a 3 Dimensional fashion, with both sagging skin AND loss of volume. The traditional facelifts like the one that Burt appears to have had focus only on tightening the skin (performing only a 2 Dimensional surgery, not 3-D). This can make someone's face look thinner, tight and pulled. You can see that his face is now quite a bit thinner than it is in the "Before" photo. A better surgery for Burt would be the Volumetric Facelift, which combines tightening sagging skin with addition of volume back in the cheeks and smile lines. In this way, Burt wouldn't look as feminized and thin-faced as he unfortunately does now.
One way to improve how he looks would be fat grafting, or transfer, which would help fill in the areas of his face which have thinned, or lost volume with time. Unfortunately, the man once voted "sexiest man alive" likely wouldn't be anywhere near that list today.

Burt Reynolds

What's the deal with Burt Reynolds? The man who was once voted the "Sexiest Man Alive" by People Magazine is now a far cry from what he used to be. Burt appears to be another classic example of 3-Dimensional Facial Aging treated by 2 Dimensional Techniques. The "Before" photo shows a younger Burt, rugged-looking and handsome. The "After" photo is a more recent photo, and appears to show a number of facial cosmetic surgeries, likely performed using old-fashioned 2 Dimensional Techniques. I'll start with his eyelids and forehead today, and follow up with his probable facelift tomorrow or Tuesday.
He appears to have had an old-fashioned browlift where the eyebrows are pulled too high. When this occurs, it is usually done with a long incision from ear to ear which allows removal of a large amount of the scalp. This pulls the eyebrows higher, but appears too high in his case. In addition, he appears to have had an upper blepharoplasty (upper eyelid lift) which has made his eyelids appear a bit beady. The most state-of-the-art browlift is done using endoscopy, or fiberoptic scopes and very small incisions. Patients heal much faster and without the long scar and bald areas which can occur with the older techniques. The Endotine system is the most technologically advanced system that will help hold the brow in place to heal. Unfortunately, many plastic surgeons do not use this because of its cost.
It is very important for a plastic surgeon to avoid feminizing a male patient, like Burt has become. Pulling the brows too high and removing too much upper eyelid skin may be forgiveable in a female, like most of the contestants of "the Swan", but in a male makes him look too effeminate. That is one reason why Burt doesn't look as rugged and manly as he did in the early 80's. "Less is more" is definitely a lesson Burt's plastic surgeon should have learned, in my opinion. More on the face later...

Survivor and bad breast augmentation

Almost every season there is a Survivor contestant who has breast implants. Initially it is often difficult to tell if a certain person's breasts are fake or not, but after the contestant gets deep into the competition and invariably loses a considerable amount of weight, the implants begin to obviously show. Some breasts begin to show ripples from the saline implants, while others just remain large as the contestant's body whittles away to skin, bone, and implants. The show "Survivor" appears to have a thinly veiled strategy of placing young, attractive people in hot, humid climates such as Panama or Marquesas. I suppose will get better ratings than placing old, unattractive people in the middle of Iowa. By the way, my favorite of the above contestants is Erin, who was in the show several seasons ago (the last one above with the brown bikini).

Lil Kim

How do you spot an obvious breast job? Lil Kim shows us how.
Breast augmentation surgery is most obvious when a large, round, firm appearing breast is seen in someone who is small and thin. Breasts are made of fat and breast gland. As women lose weight (and decrease their body fat percentage), their breasts should also decrease in size as well, since the fat in the breasts should disappear along with the fat elsewhere in the body. That's the most likely reason behind the disappearance of Lindsey Lohan's breasts over the last couple years (although I hear reports she may have had a breast augmentation recently). Therefore, when a very thin person has impossibly large, firm, and round breasts, it's usually pretty obvious that they are fake. Unless she is my patient...

Photo credit: ejbdotcom.net

Pamela Anderson - Breast Implants and Plastic Surgery

Pamela Anderson's breasts have become a large part of her career. I have been interviewed by numerous media sources regarding the status of her breasts, most recently by Life and Style Weekly. Pam Anderson started out way back when with breasts likely in the C-cup range. While making it big on "Baywatch," her breasts increased in size along with her career to most likely DD range. In 1999, she had the implants removed and replaced with smaller ones, bringing her closer to a D. These smaller implants were then exchanged for larger ones soon thereafter. She currently appears to retain these larger DD implants, which after viewing several photos are likely in the 500-550 cc range, and possibly larger.
Why did Pamela return to the larger implants after decreasing in size? I have two thoughts on this.
First, Pamela's image is all about excess. She is the only mainstream Hollywood actress who has a porn star's body. She has tattoos, large augmented lips, massive breasts, and flowing blond hair. Her image is over the top, and carries through to most parts of her public life. Her boyfriends are "dangerous" rockers such as Tommy Lee and Kid Rock. She even released an erotica novel at a similar time as Jenna Jameson, the porn star who is on the verge of mainstream but never quite gets there, unlike Pam. It is possible that her breasts are essential to her image and career, like Angelina Jolie's lips, Cindy Crawford's mole, and Fergie's hump and bumps.
The second thought comes strictly from a plastic surgery standpoint. The changes a breast implant makes on a breast's skin is, for the most part, irreversible. It is possible that the larger implants stretched her breast skin to the point where the smaller implants did not fill them up very well, resulting in droopy breasts. The only ways to treat this are to perform a breast lift (which creates scars on the breast) or to replace the implants with larger ones to fill the breast skin better. I could not see Pamela undergoing a breast lift, because she would no longer want to be filmed topless, as these scars are usually very visible for a year or two. Therefore, it is likely she just had them replaced with what she had before.
Although most women I see are not interested in getting breasts her size, I do believe they work well for her.

To view a video of a breast augmentation I performed for Fox News, click here.

Teri Hatcher

Teri Hatcher, a classic example of 3D Aging... I was interviewed by US Weekly Magazine yesterday on whether certain Hollywood actresses have had plastic surgery done. One of them was Teri Hatcher. So did she have work done? You'll have to check out an upcoming issue of US Weekly to find out. The question I'd like to address now is: What plastic surgery should she have done?
Teri is a great example of 3D aging. Her face has deflated with age, as can be seen in the before and after photographs above. She had a much softer look 10-15 years ago, with more volume in her cheeks and under her eyes. Traditional plastic surgery techniques focus on only two dimensions, by pulling and tightening. As you can see, Teri's face hasn't sagged with time, it's deflated. Because of this, traditional plastic surgery such as facelifts and eyelid lifts would not make her look younger, they would only make her look tight, pulled, and different.
One of my specialties is 3D Plastic Surgery. The best surgery to make Teri look younger is Facial Fat Grafting or Transfer. I remove her own fat from her tummy or thighs, purify it, and then inject it into the areas of her face which have lost volume with age. This would be the best way to make her look more like her younger self. The surgery takes about an hour and involves no visible scars, and very little discomfort. It would definitely be the best way to take this "Desperate Housewife" and transform her back to "Lois Lane."

Face Transplant

The French Woman with the Face Transplant...Is this a face only a mother would love? While the media plays this as such a huge step for plastic surgery, I believe that it's more the morbid Hollywood fascination about this which attracts most people. Hollywood and the public are fascinated with looking like someone else. That's why the movie Face/Off with John Travolta did so well, and people are fascinated with the "lion woman" who has had WAY too much cosmetic surgery done.
During my plastic surgery residency, some surgeons I worked with performed a full face skin graft to a burn patient. Basically, they harvested a "face of skin" from her back and grafted it to her face. The darn thing unfortunately died off, leaving a scarred mess. Hopefully the Face Transplant woman will stop her smoking, as this can cause her face to literally turn black and die, leaving her with a mess similar to the burn patient I've described. Then maybe her mother may not even find her easy to look at...

Thread Lifts and Dr. 90210

Do the thread-based brow lifts work? Yesterday I watched a TiVo'd Dr. 90210 episode from 2 weeks back where Dr. Jason Diamond performed a browlift on a woman using threads. In the television show, the facial cosmetic surgeon described how these sutures work to lift the brow to a nicer position and are the newest, best thing going today. These threads can perform a brow lift without REAL surgery! Sounds too good to be true, right?
Unfortunately, it is. He subsequently wrote an article in this month's Plastic Surgery Products magazine describing how these thread-based lifts do not work. He's performed over a dozen of them, virtually all with zero visible results. He concluded his article by stating that these suture brow lifts do not work. In addition, he included the photos of the very same patient on Dr. 90210 whom he recently used to show the entire viewing public how great this procedure is! Now I suppose that this must show truth in advertising, as ONE of the two claims must be true. Either it is the best new procedure going today, or a complete sham. I would bet on the latter. It just shows that while you can't necessarily believe everything you see on TV, you CAN necessarily believe everything you read...

Debbie Gibson

Out of the Blue... Debbie Gibson returns to the entertainment world with "Skating with Celebrities." I was disappointed last night to find that the former teen pop star had been booted from the show a week ago. She has undergone quite a change in the past 15 years, and some have attributed it to some well-done plastic surgery. In my opinion, many of her changes can be due to plain getting older. She is no longer wearing the goofy hats, and has gotten a thinner face. The face will often thin as a person gets older, usually by the time he or she hits their mid-thirties. This 3-D aging process is described on my practice website. She also doesn't display as much of a gummy smile as before, and may have had some liposuction under her chin. In addition, her nose looks a bit more sculpted, likely from a rhinoplasty. All of these changes can be natural, but I would make the assumption that a bit of liposuction, a rhinoplasty, and a gummy smile repair may play a part.

Patricia Heaton

Patricia Heaton from "Everybody Loves Raymond" is a good example of plastic surgery done well. The above photos are an after and a before. She has admitted to having several procedures done, including a tummy tuck (abdominoplasty) and breast lift. Patricia had several children and breast fed them, causing her body to change dramatically (as happens with more women than men may think). Unfortunately, the tummy tuck and breast lift are not perfect surgeries because they create significant scars. In Patricia's case, they have worked very well to give her a very nice, red carpet-ready figure. The surgeries take about 3 hours each, and have a downtime for most people of about 2 weeks. Now, everybody loves Patricia's new body!

To view a video of a mommy makeover I performed on Fox News, click here.

To read a post I did on Patricia Heaton's belly button (or lack thereof), click here.

Lisa Rinna

What has happened to Lisa Rinna's lips? The above photos are an after and a before. Many of you may have seen her on "Dancing with the Stars" recently. Although I think she has a great figure and dances well (Stacy Kiebler does leave her in the dust), I cannot get over how bad her lips look. It appears to me that she has had gortex implants placed into her lips, with one large piece on either side of her cupid's bow (the middle bow-part of the upper lip). Gortex can make the lips look unnatural by creating a stiffness which is obvious when she speaks. The other problem is that her upper and lower lips are out of proportion. The easiest way to spot a pair of unnatural lips is to compare the upper and lower lip sizes. The lower lip should be about 1.5 times the size of the upper lip. In Lisa's case it is 1:1.

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Johnny Depp

There are rumors circulating that Johnny Depp has had a threadlift procedure. This is a type of mini-facelift using small permanent sutures which pull up the neckline and cheeks. The best results I have seen last only about a year, however the sutures are permanent. I haven't been able to see anything different about him lately, but it is not surprising even if he had that completely unreliable procedure done.

Jessica Simpson

Jessica, Jessica, Jessica...
Recent photos have surfaced which show Jessica Simpson's new lips. I was interviewed about her lips by the celebrity magazines In Touch, Life and Style Weekly, and US Weekly, as it seems that in her post-Nick Lachey life, she has spent a bit more time with her plastic surgeon. It is already pretty apparent that she has had her breasts and nose done, but now she has focused on the kisser. It appears that she has had Restylane injections to her lips, and did not think twice about going out in public soon thereafter. Restylane is one of the newest injectable fillers, and is made of hyaluronic acid, a substance naturally found in human skin. It lasts anywhere from 4-8 months, and is used to fill in wrinkles or the lips. I charge approximately $500 for a 1 cc syringe, which is usually enough to get a nice improvement in the lips or smile lines. I would estimate that she had anywhere from 1-2 cc injected. Those lips are made for talkin'!