How Times Have Changed

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The Last Pair of Glasses you’ll ever buy!

Like most aging scientists Physicist Stephen Kurtin had about three pairs of glasses to take on and off during his normal work day. This irritated him so much that he started working on a pair of glasses that would allow him to see both far, near and middle distances with absolute clarity. Yes we have progressives but typically there is a lot of distortion and an extremely small sweet spot that you can see clearly from and in addition you had to raise and lower your head to find the right acuity.

Enter TruFocals (TruFocals.com) the first adjustable focusing eye glasses. It’s really remarkable so check it out on the web site. They are a bit pricey ($895.00), but not really when you consider a designer pair can be over a $1000.00, even a good pair at LensCrafter’s will cost upwards of $500.00. From my standpoint they would be perfect except that the shape has to be round in order for them to work. I mean who wants to look like John Denver or John Lennon.

What’s new in Brain Treatments

One of the most frustrating things to a Neurosurgeon is to try and find the exact outline of an irregular tumor in the brain. While MRI’s and CT scans help they are two dimensional tests, but now from the University of Washington comes the combination of a fluorescent dye and nano-particles hooked together and then injected into the blood. The tumor takes up the nano-particle dye so that when the surgeon goes in he can clearly see the boundaries between good tissue and tumor tissue.

While this may miss the microscopic spread it is still a giant step forward and then radiation can do the cleanup more successfully.

Along similar lines Wake Forest University has developed Nano tubes that can be injected into tumors and then expose the area of the skin over the tumor with Laser light which causes the nano tubes to heat up and kill the tumor from within.

All of this points to the future of surgery which will be with lasers, nano tubes, stem cells, or remote controlled nano robotic tumor eaters. The day of the surgeon cutting with a scalpel is limited.

The Military, War and Medicine

Plastic surgery as we know it today had its start during the Viet Nam war when surgeons attempted to put G.I.’s together with aesthetic results. Prior to that in WW1 the attitude of the surgeon was “if I can save you, be thankful, you are alive and the scars are part of war”. During the 60’s and 70’s giant strides were made to reduce the disfigurement that war wounds caused. Now the Military is trying to put together a whole new concept of war medicine. They are developing synthetic muscles that are stronger and better than our own, putting stem cells into wounds to heal them faster and better. Their motto will be to either replace or repair to get the soldier back in the field ASAP. They want to eliminate or drastically reduce long term disabilities. Remote robotic surgeries with the injured soldier in Afghanistan and the surgeon in Ohio are not far off.

Another Stem Cell Story

The Chinese have taken a stem cell from a mature mouse and created a live mouse from this stem cell. So what you say that’s already been done…. Yes but these mice were fertile. The real issue I think here is let’s focus on organ regeneration to replace a diseased one. Or learn to grow an arm that has been blown off in war or replace a hand that gets mutilated in a machine. All I think will be done in our life time.

How Times Have Changed

A few years ago the number one plastic surgery procedure was breast augmentation followed by lipo-suction. Today its Botox, Fillers, Chemical peels, Laser Hair Removal, and Laser resurfacing. Which by the way we do all of these.

Young Pharmaceuticals has come up with a cream for those dark circles under you eyes and it should be really good. The name of the product is KojiLac-Ci.

A recent review of all products used for lip augmentation which include the PTFE (gore-tex) implants, the solid silicone string implants, Hyaluronic acid and liquid Silicone found that the liquid Silicone given in the micro-droplet form had the best results aesthetically, and felt the most natural to both the patient and the significant other who had to kiss the injected person. Fortunately for us we have advocated and do just that for years.

Predictions from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery

1.Reloxin a new company offering a botulinum toxin will be out this year to compete with Botox. As many of you know Dysport is already out and appears to have some advantages over Botox. Price being one.

2. Non invasive fat removal devises will offer an alternative to liposuction. Zerona is already on the market and shows excellent promise.

3. More men are and will continue to get more aesthetic procedures.

4. The popularity of non-invasive procedures will continue to grow and manufacturers will continue to supply new products to meet this demand.

5. Over seas cosmetic vacations for cheaper prices will continue to decrease as the horror stories continue to accumulate.

6. As consumers become more sophisticated they will be not only looking to see if the surgeon is Board Certified but also looking into his past and his artistic capabilities.

Sculptra

After years of trials and comparisons Sculptra® has finally gotten its cosmetic approval. (Its been out in Europe under the trade name of Nu-Fill for more than 15 years and is one of the recommended fillers sanctioned by the European Body for Injectables) You will begin to see national ads, paper ads, and I am told a reduction in price by Sept 1. As many of you know it is used to fill the hollow cheeks, deep Naso Labial fold, and other parts of the face that lose their fat. My personal belief is that when this becomes more affordable it will be one of the best fillers we as cosmetic surgeons can use.

Really Cool

Nikon has come out with a pocket version COOLPIX S1000pj which will take digital pictures at 12 megapixals (that’s sharp as an ASA100
Old fashioned film). It can take pictures and video ….. and here is the best part , you can project your images and film on a 40 inch wide screen at 30 frames per second. And all of the soft ware is built in. Nothing to do with medicine but a really cool gift for someone (usually a man)on your list.

SUPER LASER SPECIAL

I HAVE FINALLY MADE MY LAST PAYMENT ON MY LASER AND TO CELEBRATE I AM GOING TO OFFER A 10% DISCOUNT ON ALL LASER PROCEDURES UNTIL THE END OF THE YEAR!!!
That includes
Laser Hair removal
Laser removal of Facial veins
Erbium Laser facial Peels
Thermascan- collagen and skin tightening procedure.

I hope all of you had a wonderful summer and have gotten your children in school without problems and hope to see you soon.