Plastic Surgery Articles: What’s New and Useful
Many American plastic surgeons, like the eminent Beverly Hills board-certified plastic surgeon Stuart Linder, M.D. (who blogs as Dr. Body) and the equally eminent Beverly Hills board-certified facial plastic surgeon Robert Kotler, M.D. (Dr. Face) are also scientists and researchers who study the rejuvenation arts and print scientific articles about plastic surgery in the professional press that covers the field.
Both are also voracious readers of those publications and do their best to help patients – and even other doctors – understand the importance of new findings.
They often summarize their readings and findings in News & Views, reviews of the latest articles from the professional press.
While many more professional news reviews will follow from time to time, here is just one.
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Dr. Face: (Dr. Linder)Everybody is interested in identical twins. But did you know that many, many twins have been studied before and after plastic surgery? One famous study compared twins who lived a healthy lifestyle with twins who smoked, drank, spent too much time in the sun and partied unto the wee hours. Guess which twin most needed facial plastic surgery?
Dr. Body: (Dr. Kotler) Probably the “bad” twin. But do I sense something new in the works about twins and plastic surgery?
Dr. Face: Indeed you do, doctor. As you may know, surgeons have always debated which particular surgical procedure yields the best and most long-lasting results. To find out, four plastic surgeons operated on four sets of twins back in 1995. Each surgeon used his own favorite surgical method which included neither unorthodox nor experimental approaches.
Dr. Body: Good idea for a study. What did they find?
Dr. Face: Plastic surgeons followed the twin patients at professional meetings in 1996, 2001 and 2005. At the last comparison, all of the twins looked good although nobody could answer the question, “Was it the surgeon or the technique?” The twins still look like each other, even after plastic surgery.
Dr. Body: What conclusions did you draw?
Dr. Face: That experienced plastic surgeons who perform a lot of procedures, say. at least two times a week of one particular procedure, get great results, even if they are using a different procedure.
Dr. Body: Very interesting! In what publication was the study printed?
Dr. Face: Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Volume 123, # 3, March, 2009.
Dr. Body: The article on twins I read was in the same magazine a month later. 186 sets of identical twins filled out a lifestyle questionnaire and provided photos. A panel of experienced cosmetic plastic surgeons then analyzed everything and presented their conclusions.
Dr. Face: What was found?
Dr. Body: Of the leading most important lifestyle factors – things like marriage, body mass, sun exposure and even hobbies – cigarette smoking was fingered as one of the most significant. Because you could compare a subject to another person who is a genetic match, it was shown that every ten years of smoking equaled a two and one-half year older appearance.
Dr. Face: Another good reason not to smoke! If one twin smoked for, say, 30 years, he or she would look seven and one-half years older than the non-smoking twin. That is significant for somebody in the late 40s or 50s.
Dr. Face: Another important finding was that sunscreen did offer some protection from sun damage. Also, the study showed that women who had hormone replacement therapy after menopause looked younger than twins who skipped that therapy.
Dr. Body: For people who want to look that study up, how can they find it?
Dr. Face: Just ask the medical librarian for Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, volume 123, #4, April, 2009.
Note: Dr. Body is a leading breast surgery revision specialist while Dr. Face specializes in revision rhinoplasty surgery.
