Worldwide, recipients of plastic surgery procedures have sent their post-surgical reactions (and thanks) to Stuart Linder, M.D. (who blogs as Dr. Body) and to

Jointly, Drs. Face and Body have 60 years of experience performing cosmetic plastic surgery patients on 10,000 patients, many of whom have traveled to Beverly Hills from foreign lands.

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Dr. Face (Dr. Kotler): I received an interesting letter from a potential Italian patient. The man is very good at crunching numbers about the cost of plastic surgery.

Dr. Body (Dr. Linder): What did he have to say?

Dr. Face:  He has in mind coming here for a rhinoplasty and tells me it costs less for him to fly to Beverly Hills, have surgery, recover for ten days and then fly back home rather than have a similar surgery in Switzerland…..which is two hours from his home.

Dr. Body: And so the relatively weak dollar has spoken!

Dr. Face: What has your patient mail revealed lately, doctor?

Dr. Body: Well, I hear from former patients frequently although none are as good with an adding machine as your Italian correspondent.

Dr. Face:  Such as?

Dr. Body: Listen to this one: D.A., a Canadian woman from Alberta, sent a note saying how she was hesitant at first to cross the border after she had a botched breast augmentation near her home. But she came to Beverly Hills for a revision breast enhancement anyhow. After she healed, she wrote, and I quote: “I’m so glad I made the trip! I’ve got the hottest tatas ever!”

Dr. Face: I received a similar letter from a former rhinoplasty patient, Salome S. who flew here from Ethiopia. After going back home, she sent a note saying, “The hands of god must have guided you, as I feel so blessed!” I’m glad she was so pleased with nose surgery but, really, we don’t anoint people, we just do cosmetic plastic surgery!

Dr. Body: A flight from Ethiopia had to involve several stops at least. I received an extremely praiseworthy note from S.N., a woman from Singapore who came for a Beverly Hills breast lift and tummy tuck. She wrote: “I would make the 20-hour flight again to repair what having three children had taken away…”

Dr. Face:  20 hours in a plane! She should be anointed!

Dr. Body: L.K., another breast revision patient had breast enlargement in Hungary, her home country, but she did not like the results because one breast was higher than the other. After revision surgery in Beverly Hills, she sent back a note saying “her girls” are now bigger and they look the same.

Dr. Face: I saw another Italian patient for rhinoplasty who has no gripes at all about airplanes, probably because she is an attendant on international flights.  She writes that she thinks of us every time she looks at her nose in the mirror. Plus, when she tells friends about her nose job, they always tell her how natural her results looks.

Dr. Body: Here’s another good letter: A.M. from Puerto Rico had one of the most unusual complications known in breast surgery. She had three previous breast augmentations in her home country when the implants rolled together to form what is sometimes known as a “uniboob.” Medically, the condition is known as symmastia or a double bubble breast deformity. Look at her before and after breast surgery revision pictures and you can see how rare the condition is. I might also add – with all modesty – it is equally rare to find a breast revision surgeon with symmastia repair experience.

Dr. Face:  We also have some international patients from Indonesia, Kuwait and a few other nations who have second homes in Los Angeles or Beverly Hills. They frequently have cosmetic surgery for themselves, their teens and other family members while visiting. Some live here half of each year.

Dr. Body: What types of services does your office provide for international patients?

Dr. Face: Because California law and good medical ethnics require doing surgery only on healthy patients, we must have a physical exam completed before surgery. But it can be done from the patient’s home nation. International patients always enjoy looking at before and after facial plastic surgery pictures, too.

Dr. Body: Same for us, our patients must have a physical exam, too. Do you also do “virtual exams” so that you give patients a brief look through email, Skype or over the phone?

Dr. Face:  Indeed we do, doctor! And that will be the topic – Virtual Exams – of our next blog post.

Read how cosmetic plastic surgery appointments work for Dr. Kotler’s Out-of-Town Patients.

Learn how international patients can make arrangements for plastic surgery with Dr. Linder.

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