DON’T ALLOW MARKETING TO GET AHEAD OF SCIENCE Google the term “stem-cell face-lift” and you’ll get dozens of pages of results — including several for doctors advertising their version of the procedure. Here we definitely see marketing get a head of science. In May 2011, the task force (a collaboration between the American Society for Plastic Surgeons and the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery) issued a position statement on the topic. After going through thousands of peer-reviewed articles published in medical journals on the use of stem cells in aesthetic procedures, they found only about a dozen that provided [...]

What makes perfectly happy patients seek treatment elsewhere? I must say that I am fortunate to have very loyal patients who keep coming back to me year after year, but having said that I must admit that once in a while I am surprised to see that a patient has had a treatment done elsewhere. Most of the time this is a filler or a Botox treatment that the patient was offered by their dermatologist while they were being treated for something else and the patient decided to have that treatment done at that location as a matter of convenience. [...]

It used to cost millions to get your genome mapped. Today here in New Jersey it can be done for only a thousand dollars and in one hour. Today medicine can be personalized to each person and his or her genome. There are medicines that don’t work on some people. It is now possible to determine this before starting the treatment. I predict that personal medicine based on the human genome will become routine in less than a decade. I also predict that it will be used in plastic surgery to predict the efficacy of the treatments in our specialty. [...]

Cosmetic Surgery New Jersey Recently, I answered a question in the section "Ask the Doctor" for New Jersey Health and Life Magazine about what type of doctor to go to for cosmetic surgery. I said, go to a plastic surgeon because they are the ones in charge of the human appearance. Well, I have been thinking about my answer. I didn't have much time to reflect before responding and I felt a bit guilty of my self-serving recommendation. I began wondering if I should call back the editor and change my answer. Then, I thought more about what my answer [...]

01/01/2012 This is a question that thousands of people ask themselves every day. The number of doctors and even non-physicians providing these services is multiplying at an alarming rate and there seems to be no government regulation controlling the situation. Every specialty is offering cosmetic procedures in order to boost their income and the public is confused about who to trust. I would like to give a few examples. We all know that after a car accident, one would bring the vehicle to a body shop for repair. We might also get some references to make sure that this body [...]