Facelift takes 7 years off your face! I summarize a recent article from a peer reviewed journal published on Feb 20, 2012.

I used to use a large number of saline filled breast implants (silicone filled implants are far more common now). These are silicone implant shells, which are filled, at the time of surgery, with ‘normal saline’. Normal saline is a 0.9% salt water solution which is typically used whenever you see an intravenous solution going directly into the blood stream (the hanging bag with the tube going into a vein like you might see in the movies). Some of the older implants will sometimes have a leak develop, usually at the valve structure, and then the implant can empty out, either partially or completely. Patient may notice that one of their implants is getting smaller, sometimes very gradually, and sometimes very suddenly. We know that all implants will eventually break. How long they last will depend on many factors, and sometimes they may fail within just a few years. Most [Read more...]

The breast implants sold in Canada today are among the most studied medical devices in history. In fact, breast implants have undergone more clinical study than most heart valve replacements! Implants are made from a silicone shell, and may be filled with either a silicone gel or saline (a salt water solution, similar in composition to your bodies salt content). Silicone may raise fears, but in practical terms, silicone is one of the safest, most inert substances for medical devices. That is why it is used in most joint replacements and pacemakers as well as hundreds of other medical devices. Furthermore, silicone is used as a lubricant in most syringes, such that you do get a little bit of silicone injected every time you get an injection (a flu shot, for example). Diabetics, who inject themselves with insulin several times per day may inject a significant amount of silicone every [Read more...]

People look at your eyes first. That is a good place to start when you are looking at having cosmetic surgery.

Breast implant infections are rare complications of surgery. Usually, this means that the implant has to be removed for several months before it can be re-inserted. However, there is a special technique that can sometimes be used to benefit patients with this problem.

You can have a ‘free’ consultation with my highly experienced, highly trained Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Registered Nurses who can provide you with valuable, unbiased information. These nurses have been trained by me and have many years of experience in the clinic AND in the operating room. They have seen thousands of patients go through the process from the initial consultation, through the surgery and recovery periods, to years and years of followup care, and they know what works. They can offer you some practical woman to woman information, and they can show you photographs of other patients (who have agreed to allow their photos to be shown) but they cannot make a diagnosis for you (that is, after all, my job!!). They are paid a salary, not a commission, so they do NOT have an incentive to book you for something that you don’t want. They are NOT sales people, [Read more...]

Hyaluronic Acid (HA) Although the name is scary, hyaluronic acid (HA) is actually the name given to a natural compound found practically everywhere within the human body. It was first described many years ago by Meyer and Palmer, examining the jelly found inside the eyeball. The jelly like substance in the eye is primarily composed of hyaluronic acid, after which it was named (hyalos means vitreous in Greek, and thus the vitreous humor in the eye was named for this). It is also found in the skin, and its function there is to maintain the softness and moisture in the skin, and in the cervix, where it forms the mucous plug that must be penetrated by semen to effect pregnancy. In fact, hyaluronic acid has many functions in the human body apart from its physical properties of maintaining and bonding water. That is why we often recommend treatments with HA’s [Read more...]

Please note that I have NEVER used PIP brand implants on my patients, ever!