Experience Our Plastic Surgery Consultation

At our practice in La Jolla, plastic surgery is performed with the utmost precision and care. From surgeon to front office staff, every member of the Alexander Cosmetic Surgery team brings skill, talent and extensive training to deliver on patient goals. But as so many patients know, skill and training aren’t the only reasons to keep coming back to a practice for your cosmetic care.

The personable atmosphere and trust that the doctors and staff build with each patient must be above and beyond the normal doctor-patient protocol for a truly exceptional experience. We make the effort to get to know each patient on a personal level so we can better understand their needs, and that’s the difference that is essential for patient satisfaction. 

THE DIFFERENCE THAT MAKES US UNIQUE
At our office, plastic surgery is taken to a whole new level. The difference can be seen as soon as patients come in for their first consultation. With touch MD Consults, computer imaging, and a private entrance, our La Jolla office is already a treat. But after meeting the staff, patients have said that they feel a level of comfort that is hard to achieve in any doctor’s office.

Our staff is dedicated to providing compassionate and undivided care to each person who steps through the front doors. They want to get to know their patients, so that they can better understand their needs. They want you to trust them, because they believe in their ability to make you look your best. And they want you to be just as excited for the new you as they are. Offering innovative and effective cosmetic surgery procedures, Alexander Cosmetic Surgery seeks to deliver nothing but the best for its patients.

Check Your Plastic Surgeon’s Qualifications

There’s a lot more to finding the best La Jolla plastic surgeon than just looking at their office location or their procedure costs. The goal is not to find the cheapest or closest clinic, but rather to make sure that the surgeon you choose is the absolute best choice you can make. There are several ways to make sure your plastic surgeon is qualified.

CLAIMING SPECIALTIES

In California, a physician doesn’t need to be trained in a medical specialty in order to claim that they specialize in that field. This can make finding a truly qualified professional challenging, particularly since so many cosmetic procedures (especially laser-based procedures) may now be performed by any medical doctor or even by health professionals with only rudimentary training. It’s important to remember that, although they may be well educated and experienced, an internist, dermatologist, gynecologist or family practitioner simply doesn’t have the intensive training a plastic surgeon does.

CHECKLIST FOR SUCCESS

• Look for a plastic surgeon who is certified by the American Board of Plastic surgery, which holds very strict guidelines for certification. 
• The most qualified plastic surgeons will be happy to answer any questions you may have regarding their training and education and support your right to demand the highest quality care for your body. 
• You should feel free to compare different surgeons with regards to specialties, training, and other considerations before making a final choice. 
• In addition to online research, in La Jolla, plastic surgeons will be listed in the current Directory of Medical Specialists which should be available through the reference desk of your local public library.

Finally, you may contact the California Society of Plastic Surgeons during standard business hours. Their consumer information service will be able to refer you to multiple board-certified plastic surgeons in your area.

Are You a Candidate for Liposuction?

Many men and women exercise daily and eat all the right foods, yet they can’t seem to get the body contours and fit look they really want. While frustrating, their attempts at achieving a thinner, slimmer body aren’t fruitless. Liposuction in San Diego can provide women and men with the solution that they need. 

PHYSICAL HEALTH IS THE PRIORITY

Liposuction isn’t for everyone. Before coming in for a consultation, I encourage men and women considering this procedure to review their diet and fitness choices and consider their goals. Being physically healthy and at a stable weight are two key requirements for liposuction surgery. Physical health includes exercising regularly – even if exercise entails going for a 30 minute walk around the neighborhood – and eating right. Patients who smoke need to quit well in advance of their procedure.

REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS

Sometimes, people considering liposuction will have expectations that go beyond what the procedure is able to achieve. Liposuction can achieve dramatic body contouring results – that’s why it remains a top cosmetic surgery procedure year in and year out – but no surgery is going to make you look “perfect.” If you live a healthy lifestyle but still have some nagging pockets of fat, chances are good that liposuction can help you.

FOCUS ON BODY CONTOUR

Everyone has a thing or two they’d like to change about how they look. If you’re not happy with your body shape, it’s worth a visit to a qualified plastic surgeon. Skilled surgeons understand that physical cosmetic changes go beyond just how you look and also can have a positive impact on your self image. If you seek targeted improvement of your body contour, not a quick way to lose weight, then you’re probably a good candidate for liposuction.

Plastic surgery shaves about 9 years off your age.

Plastic surgery will likely make you look nine years younger than you really are, a new study suggests.

Researchers showed 40 medical students before and after pictures of 60 plastic-surgery patients.

When shown the "before" pictures, the medical students estimated the patients to be 1.7 years younger than their actual ages, on average. When looking at the pictures taken six months after surgery, the students estimated the patients to be 8.9 years younger than their actual ages — in other words, surgery took an average of 7.2 years off the patients' perceived ages.

"Studies have shown surgery helps people look more attractive, and that's fine, but that's very, very subjective, and it's in the eyes of the beholder," said study researcher Dr. Nitin Chauhan, a plastic surgeon at the University of Toronto. The new findings give surgeons another tool to use during the delicate task of telling patients what they can realistically expect to see after surgery, Chauhan said.

Patients' satisfaction with their surgery often depends on their expectations, so clear communication about a surgery's results is important. Surgeons generally have had to use somewhat vague terms, telling patients they will look "less tired" or "more youthful," but the new findings may offer a more specific way to explain to patients what they might expect, the authors wrote in the Feb. 20 issue of the journal Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery.

Which procedures take off the most years?

The 60 plastic-surgery patients, who were predominantly women, fell into three groups: 22 had undergone a face and neck lift only; 17 had undergone a face and neck lift along with an eyelid lift; and 21 had those procedures, plus a forehead lift.

The youthfulness granted by the surgeries differed depending on the group. After surgery, those who'd had only a face and neck lift were estimated to look 5.7 years younger than before surgery; those who'd also had an eyelid lift were estimated to look 7.5 years younger; and those who'd had face, neck and eyelid lifts along with a forehead lift were estimated to be 8.4 years younger after surgery.

Chauhan emphasized that the findings don't mean that having more procedures is better. "Patients come in with different sets of complaints, this will help in gauging what they want, and tailoring treatment plans to get them there," he said.

The patients in the study were between 45 and 72 years old when they had their surgery; their age at the time of their surgery did not affect how much younger they looked afterwards, according to the study.

The medical students were each given 30 pictures to rate, and no students were given the before and after photos of the same patient. In fact, the students were not told the photos were of plastic surgery patients, they were simply asked to look at the photos, and guess the subject's age, Chauhan said.

Though the costs of the surgeries can vary depending on a patient's geographic region, surgeon and after-surgery care, Chauhan said, face and neck lifts generally cost between $10,000 and $12,000, and eyelid lifts and forehead lifts each cost about $3,000 to $4,000.

Why we get plastic surgery

"There stems an innate desire to be as young and attractive as possible, which has been documented throughout much of the history of our species," the researchers wrote. But experienced surgeons know to temper what they say to patients, because of limitations in surgery's abilities to reverse the signs of aging, a complex process.

The researchers noted some limitations of their study, including the fact that one surgeon completed all of the plastic surgeries, and the study included only a limited number of plastic-surgery techniques. Future work should compare results among patients undergoing different surgical techniques, and also look at the combined effect of laser skin resurfacing, and other interventions.

They also noted that most patients don't want to look as young as surgically possible — most say they "want to look good for their age," rather than looking artificial, the researchers wrote.

"People don't want that red carpet, windswept look. They want to avoid the stigma of plastic surgery," Chauhan said.

The study noted that one of the researchers works as a medical consultant for the company Allergan, which produces Botox injections, among other products.

Pass it on: Plastic surgery generally makes people look about 7 years younger than they did before surgery.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/02/22/plastic-surgery-shaves-about-years-off-your-age/#ixzz1n6liRZ2M

Study: Liposuction Good for the Heart?

MYFOXNY.COM - Looking good may have never felt so good. New research suggests some cosmetic surgery may not only make you look better it might actually make you heart healthy, too. A nip here, a tuck there may have you looking your best, but could it actually be healthy for you too?

A recent study finds liposuction -- one of the most popular cosmetic procedures in the United States -- may also be good for your heart.

"The study found that patients who had liposuction experienced a significant reduction in triglyceride levels and white blood cell counts," said Dr. Adam Schaffner, Director of Plastic Surgery at the JUVA Skin and Laser Center in New York, referring to a new study presented by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. The study shows the affect of liposuction surgery on fat cells in the blood.

"In addition to improving the patient's appearance, liposuction can also help lower triglyceride levels and thus reduce a patient's risk of developing heart disease, diabetes or stroke," Dr. Schaffner said.

The new research would certainly be an added benefit for patients looking for a leaner, trimmer body.

Susan Gyrisko said she no idea about the study when she got her recent smart lipo procedure which removed fat from her waist. Susan was pleased with the results and then got some additional positive results from her doctor.

"He called me and said there was a study being done and my cholesterol numbers went down significantly following my procedure," Gyrisko said.

Prior to her surgery, Gyrisko didn't even know she had high cholesterol, yet after lipo her cholesterol dropped to a normal range.

But it was her triglyceride levels that really plummeted, before lipo her level was 128, after surgery her levels dropped to 68, a 46 percent reduction.

While the results of the study are interesting, further research needs to be done to confirm these findings and also look closer into the possible effect the removal of fat cells can have on cardiovascular and metabolic health.

Experts say it could take years to truly understand the potential health benefits of liposuction.

In the meantime there is no substitute for healthy eating and regular exercise.

Read more: http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/study-liposuction-good-for-the-heart-20111114#ixzz1dmmcTSeK

The True Price of Cheap Cosmetic Surgery

Cosmetic surgery that saves you money, uses only local anesthesia and lets you control the results: Sounds like a great deal, right? In reality, the new Awake procedures are a way for barely trained surgeons to profit from dangerous operations no hospital would let them do. SELF investigates the true price of "bargain" makeovers.

Paulette Hacker couldn't stop screaming. Lying on her side on a gurney, wearing only a bra and panties, she felt as if she were being stabbed again and again. In a way, she was. Through incisions in her upper back, a stainless steel tube called a cannula was suctioning out her excess fat.

"Please stop! You're hurting me!" she cried to her doctor. Because although Hacker's body was limp and her mind bleary from an unknown combination of drugs she'd been given through pills and a gas mask, the 38-year-old was awake partway through the second day of liposuction on her back, underarms, abdomen, hips and neck. That was the whole point: She was undergoing the new and aggressively marketed Awake cosmetic surgery, which is performed under local anesthesia.

"You can't scream, Paulette," a gruff voice answered her. Hacker hazily realized that the voice did not belong to her doctor; the man performing her operation was a stranger whom Hacker would later discover was a physician's assistant. According to Hacker, whose experience is also detailed in a Los Angeles Superior Court complaint, she could see people coming and going into the "operating room"—more like an oversize exam room—at the Rodeo Drive office of Craig Alan Bittner, M.D., a "liposculpture" practitioner in Los Angeles. (Through his attorney, Dr. Bittner strongly denies all of Hacker's allegations.)

"Move her into the TV room—she's making too much noise," a confused and terrified Hacker heard another voice say. Her gurney was rolled down the hall and into a second room, where she could see the assistant jab her while he watched a basketball game playing in the background on a wall-mounted television. The volume was cranked up loud enough to drown out her cries.

After the five-hour operation, Hacker says the assistant and an office clerk yanked her to her feet and squeezed her into compression garments. Dazed and sobbing, she struggled into her clothes and found herself face-to-face with a beaming Dr. Bittner. The doctor gently asked why she was crying, she says. Then he maneuvered her beside him and told her to smile for a photo.

Hacker had been excited to fly down two days earlier from Sacramento, California. The stay-at-home mom weighed 233 pounds and was trying to slim down; she'd lost 22 pounds on her own through diet and exercise—mostly jogging—and now felt she could use some help. But she'd never had elective surgery before and feared having general anesthesia.

Surfing the Web, Hacker had discovered the Awake procedure, which was advertised as a cheaper and more medically advanced alternative to lipo—and, for those inclined, to abdominoplasty and breast enhancement, too. The price was right: Awake lipo with Dr. Bittner would cost only about $700 for each body part, versus about $3,000 if she had regular plastic surgery. She found it comforting that the lipo would be performed in a doctor's cozy office, not in an intimidating outpatient surgical center or hospital. Best of all to Hacker, Awake ads promised that patients would remain lucid throughout the operation and even be able to interact with their doctor. "I liked the idea that I'd be awake and in control," Hacker remembers. "The surgery really looked like it was for me."

Full Article: http://www.self.com/health/2011/01/cheap-cosmetic-surgery

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Awake Mistake – Physician Scope Drift Is A Killer

There is a fascinating and terrifying article in the January, 2011 Self Magazine entitled “Under The Knife.” This article is about the latest and scariest trend in plastic surgery, “awake surgery.” It documents several mind-bending horror stories for awake liposuction, breast implant surgery, and tummy tucks, which are essentially power screaming torture sessions. Awake surgery is being promoted by a group of non-plastic surgeons who have learned these procedures during weekend courses rather than years of plastic surgery residency. Typically the patients are given a small amount of oral sedation such as Valium. Then a Lidocaine containing solution is injected into the area of liposuction or into the breast to achieve numbness. After that the procedure is undertaken by a doctor who uses more hope than skill. Supposed advantages are that this avoids the risk of general anesthesia, which can cause one death in 200,000 to 300,000 patients. Unfortunately, the amount of local anesthetic that sometimes has to be injected for this to work flirts with the level of known toxicity and can also cause death. Death from too much local anesthetic can occur hours after surgery because the local levels actually build up in the blood over time. So in other words, the toxic levels may begin to cause reaction hours after the patient has gone home.

The worst problem however is inadequate pain control. In the end, some patients simply feel more than others for reasons that are not clear. So some patients undergoing these awake surgeries will not know that they are going to feel significant pain until the pain starts. Once the patient has been giving the limit of local anesthesia and they are still experiencing extreme pain, two things can happen. Number one, the doctor continues and tries to ignore the patient’s screams, or, when the screaming is too much to bear the doctor stops and does an inadequate removal which will likely need to be repaired by a real Board Certified plastic surgeon.

In breast implant cases, this technique allows the practitioner to put the implant under the breast but not under the muscle. In order to release the muscle, which allows the implant to be inserted under, it takes general anesthesia. With an inadequate muscle release, the implants never settle and can often take on a funny shape. The article cites one case in Las Vegas where an implant actually began to work its way back out of the incision days later! That patient ended up needing emergency surgery where it was discovered that the doctor who placed the implants had done a butcher job on her and even left some random sutures in the pocket.

The other disturbing issue for these procedures is the amount of time they appear to take. Although technically it is safer to do a longer procedure under local then the six-hour limit which we accept for general anesthesia, there is no reason to keep the patient on the table for eight hours or spread a simple liposuction into two or three days which is apparently what these doctors do. In my hands a three area liposuction takes about three hours under anesthesia. A breast augmentation takes about 45 minutes. There is no reason at all why these should be expanded to eight hour torture sessions but for some reason, the skill levels or the difficulties presented by trying to do these surgeries under local appear to expand the surgical time by a factor of four.

Why is there this new interest in awake surgery? Well there are several reasons. Number one to do the awake surgeries you don’t need an operating room. You can do it in any old exam room. Number two it opens up the procedure is to family doctors, gynecologists, internists, and emergency room doctors who are struggling financially with insurance reimbursements. It doesn’t matter if they have often minimal or no surgical training or background. Number three monitoring of operating facilities is based on the level of anesthesia. So in other words, the less anesthesia you use for your procedures, the less oversight there is.

That is to say, if you have an M.D., you can do any surgical procedure in your office including a heart transplant if you do it under local. As soon as you do some sort of sedation you are subject to accreditation and oversight. Most of these offices that do awake procedures would never survive scrutiny in the light of day. Tiny cramped operating rooms, (and I use that term loosely), which are subject to contamination, lack of sterility, lack of gowning by the so-called surgeon and his staff are all issues. There is no accreditation or peer review. There is no one looking at these dirty deeds done dirt cheap.

Full Article: http://www.drkmd.com/2010/12/29/awake-plastic-surgery/

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