Despite what your mamma told you, it’s also what’s outside that counts. Looking your best helps you to feel your best. It also helps you to make the most of your opportunities both socially and at work. Diet, exercise, and ‘choosing the right parents’ are important contributors to achieving good health and appearance, and many people also include cosmetic surgery in their formula for success. The increasing popularity of cosmetic surgery has predictably provoked some negativity, and it’s worth reflecting on the justification of this criticism. Does cosmetic surgery ‘raise the bar’, so that average-looking people lose out to those artificially enhanced by surgery? Yes, but why should naturally-attractive people…

A recent patient was raving about the results of her arm lift (brachioplasty), and wondered why it was so hard to find an expert in a big city like Toronto. Brachioplasty is a procedure that often gets plastic surgeons in trouble. It isn’t a very common procedure, and so an inexperienced plastic surgeon may try to approach it like a ‘tummy tuck for arms’. This approach is certain to damage the many small nerves and lymphatics in the arm and will result in wound healing problems. If you see a surgeon to tighten up your arms, reduce excess fat, or both, make sure the surgeon has good experience with arm…

Most people who come to our North Toronto office expecting a tummy tuck to be ‘just’ a cosmetic operation, but the benefits are so much greater than just appearances. 1. Exercise and diet are frustrating if they just leave you with more loose skin. A tummy tuck will remove the loose skin and motivate you to continue to improve your health through proper diet and exercise. 2. Exercise is physically uncomfortable if you have loose skin flapping around, and compromised skin hygeine (including rashes and odour) can also make exercise unpleasant. 3. Improved self-esteem helps you to be more assertive in your relationships. 4. Women have expressed resentment of their…

Toronto is home to some of the top plastic surgeons in the world, and the technical skill available for cosmetic surgery patients is world-class. But the preoccupation of many surgeons with how high they can lift a brow or a jowl is preventing these surgeons from appreciating that our patients are seeking to look better, but not different. Particularly with facial rejuvenation surgery, appearing ‘done’ is not a worthy goal. We arent advocating ‘mini-lifts’, as these minimally-invasive procedures don’t maintain their effects over time. Instead, we focus on safe techniques that provide lasting but subtle improvements. Our favourite thing to hear from our patients is that everyone is complementing them…

Private offices have some distinct advantages over hospitals for cosmetic surgery: 1. The medical and nursing staff are specialized in cosmetic surgery 2. Special equipment unaffordable to hospitals may be available 3. Exposure to ‘hospital-grade’ bacteria is minimized 4. Privacy far exceeds what is available in hospital 5. Customer service can be embraced in a private facility. There are too many competing needs in a hospital, and patient care can be overlooked 6. Individual responsibility of the Medical Director, Surgeon and Staff ensure greater attention to every detail of a private office A possible disadvantage of private office surgery is the isolation of surgeons and staff from the education, over-sight…

Social media and message boards give each of us an unlimited opportunity to praise or criticize the people, products and services with which we interact. Unfortunately, this freedom and anonymity brings out the worst in some people. The ability to freely attack one’s business competitors is an overwhelming temptation for some. For others, any imagined slight or disrespect is enough to trigger a multi-pronged libelous vendetta. As you browse through reviews, how do you know what to believe? A skeptical approach to any overly-passionate review is probably wise. People generally don’t get too excited in reviewing a coffee maker, and thus the reviews are likely to be pretty reliable. But…