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 any “real clinical data on aesthetic use,” Dr. Rubin said. “Very little of this research has been done in randomized controlled settings.”

Stem Cells that are present in fat grafted material are credited to be the cause of  improvements noticed in wound healing and in radiated skin after fat grafting. Dr Rafizadeh does fat grafting to the face and uses fat grafing as an adjuct to a facelift procedure, but he wouldn’t call that a stem cell face lift.

For now, the task force is urging caution on all aesthetic stem-cell procedures, and a hearty dose of “let the buyer beware.” The report states “the marketing and promotion of stem cell procedures in aesthetic surgery is not adequately supported clinical by evidence at this time.”

Stem cells in fact can differentiate into other body organs, therefore if stem cells would really work to rejuvenate the face they could also cause abnormal growth of other types of organs like bone or muscle  in the face.  So be careful. If you need a facelift  go for a consultation with a plastic surgeon like Dr Rafizadeh who would not experiment on you with such serious matter as stem cell transplant, without having adequate scientific knowledge of the subject.

Below is a link to the position paper on the the subject by the american society of plastic surgeons:

http://www.plasticsurgery.org/Documents/medical-professionals/health-policy/guiding-principles/Joint_Stem_cells.pdf