Sheryl Crow

I heard today that Sheryl Crow is being treated for breast cancer. I am a big fan of hers, and had the pleasure of seeing her perform at the American Music Awards in 2004. Apparently she is undergoing breast preservation therapy (the cancer surgeon cuts out the tumor but leaves the rest of the breast intact) combined with radiation therapy postoperatively. This allows the patient to keep most of her breast, and hopefully have a better cosmetic result than a mastectomy.
One in nine women will have breast cancer in their lifetime. Most of these can be found early and treated using breast self-exams and mammograms. A screening mammogram should be taken at age 35, with yearly mammograms after age 40.
There are a number of female pop stars who have survived or are fighting breast cancer (such as Melissa Etheridge, Kylie Minogue, and Olivia Newton John (my favorite), so Sheryl is in good company. I wish her the best.

Don Knotts

Don Knotts died the other day. I loved him as Mr. Furley on "Three's Company." He was the coolest anti-hipster of his day. Much better than Norman Fell's character before him. It's sad that both Don and John Ritter (Jack Tripper) are gone.
Well, what does this have to do with plastic surgery? Don always had very "buggy" eyes, which are a possible sign of Graves Disease. This is a problem with the thyroid that can cause people to increase the amount of fat behind their eyeball, causing the eyeball to stick out. The best treatment is to control the thyroid problem, but if it gets out of control, some plastic surgeons will break some of the bones around the eye to allow the eye socket to expand and the eyeball to drift back. It's a big surgery wrought with complications.
Did Don Knotts have Graves Disease? I don't know but he sure looked like it.

Stacy Keibler

Stacy Keibler was robbed tonight... She should have at least made the final two of the "Dancing with the Stars" finale episode, but was behind the 2 left footed, yet very popular Jerry Rice. Stacy has the distinction of being one of the only female wrestling stars who is not surgically enhanced. Well, she and the Fabulous Moolah I suppose.

Mariah Carey - breast implants?

Mariah Carey is busting out... I have always been a Mariah Carey fan (except for the brief "Glitter" period). I liked her most when she first appeared on the scene with "Vision of Love." Back then she was in her early twenties, in great shape, and appeared very natural. In the last few years, she has gained a bit of weight and it seems that her breasts have at least doubled in size. She appears to have had a breast augmentation, with the implants placed below the muscle. This accounts for the space between her breasts, and the fact that she really can't move them together to get midline cleavage, ala Dolly Parton. This is a classic sign of breast implants placed under the muscle. I tend to place the implants both above and below the muscle, depending on the wishes of the patient. Mariah has also either had her implants upsized recently, or her breasts have grown as she and her career have.
Photo credit: hollywoodtuna.com

To view a video of a breast augmentation I performed on Fox News, click here.

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Burt Reynolds

What else is going on with Burt Reynolds? It appears as though he has had an old-fashioned, skin tightening facelift. The face ages in a 3 Dimensional fashion, with both sagging skin AND loss of volume. The traditional facelifts like the one that Burt appears to have had focus only on tightening the skin (performing only a 2 Dimensional surgery, not 3-D). This can make someone's face look thinner, tight and pulled. You can see that his face is now quite a bit thinner than it is in the "Before" photo. A better surgery for Burt would be the Volumetric Facelift, which combines tightening sagging skin with addition of volume back in the cheeks and smile lines. In this way, Burt wouldn't look as feminized and thin-faced as he unfortunately does now.
One way to improve how he looks would be fat grafting, or transfer, which would help fill in the areas of his face which have thinned, or lost volume with time. Unfortunately, the man once voted "sexiest man alive" likely wouldn't be anywhere near that list today.

Burt Reynolds

What's the deal with Burt Reynolds? The man who was once voted the "Sexiest Man Alive" by People Magazine is now a far cry from what he used to be. Burt appears to be another classic example of 3-Dimensional Facial Aging treated by 2 Dimensional Techniques. The "Before" photo shows a younger Burt, rugged-looking and handsome. The "After" photo is a more recent photo, and appears to show a number of facial cosmetic surgeries, likely performed using old-fashioned 2 Dimensional Techniques. I'll start with his eyelids and forehead today, and follow up with his probable facelift tomorrow or Tuesday.
He appears to have had an old-fashioned browlift where the eyebrows are pulled too high. When this occurs, it is usually done with a long incision from ear to ear which allows removal of a large amount of the scalp. This pulls the eyebrows higher, but appears too high in his case. In addition, he appears to have had an upper blepharoplasty (upper eyelid lift) which has made his eyelids appear a bit beady. The most state-of-the-art browlift is done using endoscopy, or fiberoptic scopes and very small incisions. Patients heal much faster and without the long scar and bald areas which can occur with the older techniques. The Endotine system is the most technologically advanced system that will help hold the brow in place to heal. Unfortunately, many plastic surgeons do not use this because of its cost.
It is very important for a plastic surgeon to avoid feminizing a male patient, like Burt has become. Pulling the brows too high and removing too much upper eyelid skin may be forgiveable in a female, like most of the contestants of "the Swan", but in a male makes him look too effeminate. That is one reason why Burt doesn't look as rugged and manly as he did in the early 80's. "Less is more" is definitely a lesson Burt's plastic surgeon should have learned, in my opinion. More on the face later...

Survivor and bad breast augmentation

Almost every season there is a Survivor contestant who has breast implants. Initially it is often difficult to tell if a certain person's breasts are fake or not, but after the contestant gets deep into the competition and invariably loses a considerable amount of weight, the implants begin to obviously show. Some breasts begin to show ripples from the saline implants, while others just remain large as the contestant's body whittles away to skin, bone, and implants. The show "Survivor" appears to have a thinly veiled strategy of placing young, attractive people in hot, humid climates such as Panama or Marquesas. I suppose will get better ratings than placing old, unattractive people in the middle of Iowa. By the way, my favorite of the above contestants is Erin, who was in the show several seasons ago (the last one above with the brown bikini).