Joan Rivers Plastic Surgery: From Overlifted to Overfilled

Joan Rivers, From Overlifted to Overfilled

Joan Rivers has been the poster child of bad plastic surgery for quite some time now.  She was one of the most overlifted individuals that anyone has ever witnessed, but I believe that she may have gone overboard in the other direction, which is overfilling. The LA Times recently stated that Joan Rivers, now 78 years old, had her 734th cosmetic procedure.

Like anything in cosmetic surgery, taste and discretion using artistic judgment are paramount when working on the sensitive nature of the face.  Just because fat grafting maybe a good thing, it certainly can be a bad thing in the wrong hands making people look overbloated, unbalanced, and unnatural.

Samuel M. Lam, MD, FACS is a board certified plastic surgeon in Dallas, Texas. To see more celebrity plastic surgery blog posts, or to learn more about Dr Lam’s plastic surgery procedures please call (972) 312-8188 to schedule a consultation. If you would like to ask Dr Lam a question about facial plastic surgery please visit our Plastic Surgery Forum.

Dr Samuel Lam Featured In NewBeauty Magazine
National Glossy Magazine Heralded As The Ultimate Cosmetic Enhancement Guide.

Samuel M. Lam, MD, FACS, is featured in the Winter/Spring 2012 edition of NewBeauty magazine, which is due on newsstands in January 2012. The featured article discusses some of Dr Lam’s facial rejuvenation procedures and techniques that minimize pain and downtime such as fat grafting, and facial fillers including Botox, Restylane, and Juvederm.

Readers looking for the latest in “must-have” beauty products, anti-aging strategies and cosmetic enhancements turn to the pages of NewBeauty®. The world’s most unique beauty magazine, NewBeauty is the ultimate aesthetic resource for “everything beauty,” covering subjects from advancements in facial fillers to the most luxurious spa treatments to the newest wrinkle-reducing serums and everything in between. NewBeauty’s reach beyond print—to online and retail—cements its reputation as a beauty brand powerhouse among readers, marketers and medical professionals.

Since its launch in January 2005, NewBeauty has fearlessly enabled an open and ongoing line of communication about cosmetic enhancements between consumers, manufacturers and medical professionals. Let’s face it: More than 12.4 million surgical and nonsurgical cosmetic procedures were performed in 2010—a number that continues to rise. Yet no other publication approaches the subject with NewBeauty’s dedication to fairness and accuracy. Issue after issue, NewBeauty fills the void for reliable information on all types of aesthetic procedures in light of the growing interest and surge in cosmetic-enhancing treatments. Informed, enlightened and inspired readers are empowered to make the best decisions to reach their beauty goals, be they topical, surgical or minimally invasive.

To ensure the accuracy of information in NewBeauty’s pages, the publisher established the Editorial Advisory Board, comprised of recognized experts in their respective fields. Each article and advertisement has been carefully reviewed by at least two members of the Advisory Board, assuring readers that the information provided is fair, accurate and reliable. In its Beauty Experts Guide, NewBeauty only profiles physicians who are board-certified plastic surgeons, facial plastic surgeons and dermatologists, as well as cosmetic dentists who have met rigorous standards and demonstrate extreme due diligence in their respective fields.

With a distribution of approximately 500,000 copies per issue, NewBeauty is available for purchase at 40,000+ retailers in the United States, including major bookstores like Barnes & Noble, as well as airports, supermarkets and newsstands.

Sandow Media Corporation is a cutting-edge publishing company built around a single philosophy: “Always exceed expectations.” Based in Boca Raton, Florida, Sandow Media Corporation is defined by an unrelenting drive to innovate. Founded in 2002 by Adam I. Sandow, Sandow Media specializes in high-end consumer books and magazines in the categories of travel, shelter and beauty.

Dr. Samuel Lam is a board-certified plastic surgeon in Dallas, Texas. His practice, Lam Facial Plastics, specializes in facial rejuvenation, fat grafting, facelifts, brow lifts, eye lid lifts, chin augmentation, cheek augmentation, hair restoration, rhinoplasty, lip augmentation, lip reduction, Otoplasty, and facial fillers including Botox, Restylane, and Juvederm. For more information about Dr Samuel Lam please call 972-312-8188.

Kenny Rogers and Bad Blepharoplasty and Browlift Surgery

Obviously, there is quite a bit of brouhaha about Kenny Rogers’ facial work. His alien appearance has clearly become the poster child for bad facial plastic surgery. If you are wondering what I see as far as his bad work is concerned, I can break it down into three obvious problems, each of which compounds the other and together make for a really artificial appearing look. His brows are clearly way higher than they should be. This is why I think brow-lifts fundamentally are flawed procedures, and I do not perform them any more. Second, the eyelids have been over hollowed out, i.e., all the skin and fat have been removed and now his upper eyelid shape appears scalloped out. Finally, his canthus (the area where the upper and lower eyelid meet on the outer side) has been shortened, blunted, and tucked upwards. Out of all these three things, I know that most people see the first two as the real problems. However, the canthal distortion in my opinion is truly what creates the most unsightly change to his face. With all three present, you have a trifecta of unnaturalness.

Kenny Rogers and Bad Plastic Surgery

How would I propose to fix this situation?  There is no easy answer.  However, I would consider adding fat back into the brows in order to correct all three problems.  First, fat would refill a hollowed out eyelid.  Second, by adding fat back into the upper eyelid and lower brow, the stark transition of a very high brow becomes less obvious.  Finally, fat transfer can be used to fill out farther beyond the canthus so that the eye once again looks longer and less rounded.  Although this is an imperfect procedure in a case like Kenny Rogers, it offers the best hope in correcting all three of his cosmetic problems.

Samuel M. Lam, MD, FACS is a board certified plastic surgeon in Dallas, Texas. To learn more about Dr Lam’s facial rejuvenation procedures including blepharoplasty, and brow lifts please call (972) 312-8188 to schedule a consultation. If you would like to ask Dr Lam a question about facial plastic surgery please visit our Plastic Surgery Forum.

Avoiding Bad Eyelid Surgery: Preserve the Canthus At All Costs

I oftentimes hear a patient come to me to say, “I don’t want to look like celebrity…” who has had too much surgery done or a friend that has been subject to similar bad work.  If the surgery has to do with the eyes, there is almost always some component of distortion of the outer eye canthus (where the upper and lower eyelids meet) that causes the observed problem.  I truly believe that canthal distortion accounts for the majority of unnatural identity changes that occur following eyelid cosmetic surgery.

This blog article will discuss what causes canthal distortion and how to prevent it.  The cause of canthal distortion is simply put lower eyelid surgery that tucks or manipulates the outer canthus.  This onerous result arises from cutting the lower-eyelid skin, which causes a loss of tone and strength to the lower eyelid that must be reconstituted.  Subsequently, the canthus must be suspended to the lining of the bone so that the lower eyelid then does not sag.  Unfortunately, swelling during the surgery and variable scarring after the procedure can cause the canthus to drift either too far in, too far out, too far up, or too far down; any direction of which can cause an unnatural distortion and result.  Just take a finger to the outer canthus (again where the upper and lower eyelids meet on the side closer to the ear not the nose) and pull up, down, in, or out and look at the way that it completely changes the way that you appear.

Corrective fat transfer to correct bad previous eyelid surgery that distorted the can thus and bad cheek implants (removed) that distorted the cheek areas.

How do I avoid this complication?  Simply put, I never cut on the lower eyelid skin except in major trauma cases, which fortunately I do not do anymore.  I prefer to use fat grafting to manage the aging lower eyelid with or without non-incision based eyebag fat removal, Botox, and/or skin laser treatments.  However, despite all of these treatments methods I entirely avoid cutting the lower eyelid skin and thereby almost entirely eliminate risk of cutting on the outer canthus and the related problems that can ensue.

Samuel M. Lam, MD, FACS is a board certified plastic surgeon in Dallas, Texas. To learn more about Dr Lam’s eyelid cosmetic surgery, and fat grafting procedures please call (972) 312-8188 to schedule a consultation. If you would like to ask Dr Lam a question about facial plastic surgery please visit our Plastic Surgery Forum.

Eyebags, Shorelines, and Rocks

When we talk about eyebags, we are focused on the obvious, which is that there is a protuberant bag of tissue. However, is this really the case in the majority of situations? My answer is no. What I oftentimes see is that the lower orbital bony rim becomes exposed over time so that what we have instead is a hollowness and exposure of bone immediately below the perceived fat bag. Sometimes, yes, there is an obvious fat bag protuberance but I think this is more oftentimes not the case. An analogy to understand this better that I have heard from an esteemed colleague of mine is that when we are young the shoreline is high (i.e., we are replete with fat in our face) but as we get older the shoreline recedes exposing the rocks on the shore (i.e., the so-called eyebags).  Instead of removing the rocks, it might be better to increase the shoreline.  What is meant by this is that instead of removing the fat bags, I prefer to fill the hollowness around it so that the eyebag literally disappears from view. In about 1 in 20 cases I combine a traditional fatty eyebag removal (without an incision by the way) with fat grafting placed into the bony orbital rim.  In general, I rarely if ever only remove the fat bag, as I believe that it is insufficient to get the best results and sometimes can make someone actually look older by making them hollower.

No eyebags were removed, just fat added to the bony orbital rim.

Samuel M. Lam, MD, FACS is a board certified plastic surgeon in Dallas, Texas. To learn more about Dr Lam’s fat grafting procedures please call (972) 312-8188 to schedule a consultation. If you would like to ask Dr Lam a question about facial plastic surgery please visit our Cosmetics Surgery Forum.