Archive for the ‘Newspaper Articles’ Category
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010
The recent hullabaloo over the controversial Health Care Reform Act brought to the surface many pertinent issues of our entrepreneurial medical industry. While no piece of legislation will solve most of the really important problems, lost in the fray were economic and legal issues that impact more than just who pays for what and why.
A recent news story from Georgia brings to the surface one of these issues. CBS has reported that a woman almost bled to death during a surgical procedure performed by an ophthalmologist. According to their accounts, the woman awoke during the procedure and heard the doctor calling 911 for help as she was bleeding extensively.
Just this much of the story should raise two pertinent questions. The first being how do you bleed to death from eye surgery? Even the anatomically uninformed would assume there are no major blood vessels around the eye. Contrary to what one would think, he wasn’t performing eye surgery at all. He was performing breast augmentation! And the second question is how was it that she awoke to find herself in this dilemma? She was having it done in the doctor’s office. Luckily, a plastic surgeon was on staff at a nearby ER and helped save her life.
Such a story, while not common, is by no means rare. Today, every medical specialty is suffering from plummeting insurance reimbursements and skyrocketing malpractice premiums. (The Health Care Reform Act has addressed neither of these issues). This sets the stage for economically struggling doctors, and borderline unethical ones as well, to turn to more profitable fee-for-service cosmetic procedures to enhance their income. The public would assume, incorrectly, that there are laws in place to keep doctors practicing outside of their scope of training…but there are not. In most states, Indiana included, there is no law against physicians performing whatever procedure they choose, whether they have qualified training or not. All you need is a valid medical license. Because hospitals protect their own liability and will not allow doctors to perform procedures outside of their training, this can be easily bypassed by performing these procedures in their own office where the only governing body is the providing physician. There is no law against me, a board-certified plastic surgeon, performing Lasik vision correction or cataract removal in my office, even though I have no formal training to do it.
But this disturbing story does not stop there. Months after this event has occurred, the state medical licensing board refuses to suspend his medical license or has yet to even have a formal investigation. This lack of regulatory intervention is not rare. Licensing boards are shockingly slow and often very reluctant to pull any license even when the issue that is being reviewed is one of blatant disregard for the rules and does place patients at risk. The take home message is do not count or give too much credit for any governmental agency looking out for you. The legal roadblocks and delay tactics will often let a rogue doctor continue in practice for years.
The obvious message of the story from Georgia is that the burden is completely up to the patient to determine whether their physician is qualified to perform the cosmetic or plastic surgery procedures they seek. Slick-looking websites and discounted or low-fee incentives can make it easy to overlook the big picture…your safety.
Do your research and bear in mind that most, if not all, physicians in good standing will welcome your questions. An informed patient is a great patient.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana
Tags: breast augmentation, dr barry eplpey, indianapolis, qualified plastic surgery
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Tuesday, July 20th, 2010
Cosmetic plastic surgery has long been unintentionally gender-biased. Since the field began, the vast majority of patients who seek cosmetic enhancements, albeit it surgery or office-based treatments, have been women. Men have always made up less than 10% of most plastic surgery practices. Hollywood would lead you to believe otherwise but it just isn’t so. The only rare exception to that has been the more recent popular treatment of laser hair reduction. When it comes to hair removal, men make up about half of the patients seen with the hairy back and shoulders being the prime targets.
But more men are finding their way into the plastic surgeon’s office in the past few years. Besides a steady increase in male numbers, what is noteworthy is the change in what what men are requesting. While there remains some traditional procedures that have always been of interest, technology, societal trends, and younger men have opened up new areas of the face and body for change and improvement. Here are four of the most popular younger male (teenage to early 40s) procedures today.
Liposuction still remains the most requested male procedure. The culprits are always the same, the stomach and love handle areas. But most men that want liposuction are not fat and many are not even overweight. To the contrary, they are lean but have fat collections at the side of the waist and flanks. Even in men that work out regularly, those love handles can be impossible to work off. Today’s liposuction techniques can even give that ‘six-pack’ look for those leaner men that are not opposed to a little surgical cheating.
Chest recontouring is the one male plastic surgery procedure that is really on the rise. Male breast enlargement, known as gynecomastia, has always been an issue. But with increasing teenage weights and the present young male aesthetic for a completely flat and smooth chest, improvement in the male chest is sought out like never before. Even small nipple protrusions can be bothersome for the teenage male. Obvious man boobs are not desireable at any age.
Nose reshaping (rhinoplasty) has always been a popular male operation and that has not changed. It is the one procedure of the face that young men are not afraid to change. Noses that are big with prominent humps and wide nasal tips are bothersome and distracting to an otherwise balanced face. Sports and recreational activities make the young male nose a good target for injury causing twisted and deviated noses that often pose problems for breathing as well.
One set of procedures that is really new and undoubtably influenced by movies and models is structural facial reshaping. Creating that chiseled and angular face is what some young men aspire to achieve. A good jawline in particular is associated with enhanced masculinity. While one perceived just as making a strong chin with an implant, modern plastic surgery implants can be extended all the way to the back of the jaw. With the development of jaw angle implants, the jaw line can become more defined than just with a chin implant alone.
A new generation is redefining male plastic surgery. Have a lean body, flat chest, and a nose and jaw line that creates a well defined face has probably never been out of style. But modern surgical developments make them more attainable than ever before.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana
Tags: chin and jaw angle implants, dr barry eppley, gynecomastia reduction, indianapolis, liposuction, male plastic surgery, plastic surgery, rhinoplasty
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Wednesday, July 14th, 2010
Cosmetic plastic surgery has long been gender-biased with the vast majority of patients being women. While one could argue that this speaks significantly towards our societal standards and to women in general, men are increasingly having plastic surgery as well. While men still make up less than 20% of surgery and office-based cosmetic procedures, those numbers continue to increase each year.
What separates men from women in plastic surgery is two-fold. First and perhaps surprising to many, most men require extreme discretion and privacy. Men are much more sensitive to how they might be perceived by others for having plastic surgery. Secondly and not surprisingly, the type of procedures that men undergo in plastic surgery are different from women. The top male cosmetic procedures in my Indianapolis plastic surgery practice are nose reshaping (rhinoplasty), eyelid tucks (blepharoplasty), facelifts, gynecomastia reduction and liposuction.
Liposuction still remains the most requested procedure for men. Unlike women, however, male liposuction is done in the abdomen, love handle, and neck areas. Even in relatively lean individuals, fat collections at the side of the waist and flanks are common as one ages. Even in men that work out regularly, those love handles can be impossible to work off. Today’s liposuction techniques have been refined to produce better results with less risk of skin irregularities and etching procedures are now available for the leaner male who want an easy way to the ’six-pack’ abdominal look.
In younger males and teenagers, nose reshaping (rhinoplasty) remains a popular operation. Putting the nose into better balance with the rest of the face can make a significant aesthetic change. It is not commonly done in men over forty who have come to accept the shape of their nose. Changing the nose in mid-life may make one feel ‘not like themselves’. Rhinoplasty may frequently be performed with chin augmentation for an overall better facial profile. Computer imaging is used before surgery to determine what changes to make on the nose and whether chin augmentation would be beneficial.
Gynecomastia reduction is the one male plastic surgery procedure that is really on the rise. Whether it be a small protrusion of the nipple in a teenager, to a more traditional larger gynecomastia in adolescents, to the sagging and deflated appearance in the middle-aged and older male, improvement in the male chest is sought out like never before. Liposuction, nipple lifting and reduction, and pectoral implants are potential methods for male chest enhancement. Refined liposuction techniques, known as etching, provides better definition to the pectoral muscle outlines which can be combined with any of the other chest contouring procedures.
Eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty) in the male is the best way to get rid of that tired and saggy eye look. Unlike women, most men wait until they have a lot more loose eyelid skin and wrinkles before considering surgery. Browlifting is rarely done in men lest they end up having the ‘Kenny Rogers’ result. Removal of eyelid skin and fat should be conservative in men to appear less tired and more rested, not create a new look. In the more senior male, the upper eyelids can become heavy with skin hanging down onto the eyelashes resulting in obstruction of one’s vision. Upper eyelid surgery in this situation can help one see better than they have for years.
Facelifts are the most misunderstood cosmetic procedure for men. As a tuck-up for the neck and jowls, a facelift only improves the jaw line and neck angle. Like eyelid tucks, men often wait until they have a very noticeable neck wattle that may interfere with shirt closure and may move unflatteringly when the head turns. Facelifting in men is best done in moderation, producing a neck change that is improved but not too dramatic. In very large neck wattles, a direct neck lift is a simpler and easier solution with the trade-off of a thin neck scar.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana
Tags: cosmetic surgery in men, dr barry eppley, indianapolis, male plastic surgery, plastic surgery
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Sunday, July 11th, 2010
Catchy and clever names are an integral part of branding in the essential game of marketing for most products. A great working product without a memorable name may never catch any attention with the public, while a mediocre product could grab a market share with just the right name. While this use of ‘naming’ is part of everyday marketing in retail sales, it is fairly uncommon in health care.
Hospitals certainly do advertise, as evidenced by the many billboards around the city but they rarely play the name game. While promoting new facilities, equipment and services, five star ratings and open houses are common marketing approaches in health care, ear grabbing phrases and slick-sounding names are not needed. When you are providing a service with proven benefit – such as a new hospital wing or MRI center, it is more about creating awareness, trustworthiness, and availability. In plastic surgery, however, marketing often veers from the path of traditional medicine. In the world of cosmetic surgery, thanks to the reach of the internet, we are seeing the emergence and widespread use of clever names (and sometimes deliberately confusing ones) to entice patients to have procedures and surgery.
The most well-known example is that of the ‘Lifestyle Lift’. Through their national magazine and television ads, this is a franchise approach to getting a facelift…or some version of it. Promising to turn the clock back at least ten years and look recovered in just a few days, its snazzy name seeks to assure patients that it will fit into their ‘lifestyle’. Interestingly, nowhere in their advertising does the company suggest it is actual surgery. I have seen numerous patients who have visited their facilities and were surprised to learn that it was actually an operation. These same people are certainly surprised to learn that the ‘Lifestyle Lift’ is an operation that is over twenty years old and is practiced by most plastic surgeons. This ‘mini-facelift’ operation has now cloned many spinoffs including Quicklift, Swiftlift and Weekend Lift to name just a few. Often touted as being innovative and original by the advertising surgeon, the names suggest that getting a fresh, younger look is really easy.
The fear of what transpires during a ‘Tummy Tuck’ keeps many women from actually having one. While there are different versions of tummy tucks, they all involve some degree of invasion of your mid-section, and some period of recovery. The ‘Smooth Tuck’ procedure puts a different twist on it. Promising less than a week of recovery and six-pack abs, who would not want to have one? After all it is smooooth. The reality is the closest most tummy tuck patients can get to a six-pack is at their local convenience store. Flat, fairly taught tummies can be realistically achieved, and that is more than enough for most patients. But getting back to work in less than a week looks better in an advertisement than it will feel in real life.
My current favorite is the Vampire Lift. Yes, that is an actual name that I hate to admit even exists in the industry. Using modern platelet and stem cell biology, the concept of extracting and purifying your blood for its healing components is used in many surgical specialities. While it can be a useful adjunct to certain surgeries, the fact that it is natural does not give it ‘pixie dust’ properties. The Vampire Lift takes that concept and uses it as a substitute for injectable fillers to plump up your face. Promising to grow your own tissues to make lips bigger, and injecting blood to make facial parentheses less noticeable certainly seems better than any synthetic product off-of-shelf. While this is an organic way to dispose of your money, it is a far fantasy from actual medical science.
What’s in a name? In cosmetic surgery, clever names often disguise an established procedure and might be just another way to catch the attention of a prospective patient.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana
Tags: dr barry eppley, indianapolis, lifestyle lift, plastic surgery, quicklilft, smoothtuck
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Friday, July 2nd, 2010
The first of the month of July marks the first visible sign of the recently passed Health Care Reform Act. You might not notice it unless you are paying to get a tan. The 10% tax on tanning salons has gone into effect and it will cost you that much more to get one now. Tanning salons were easy targets for Washington legislators. With analogies to tobacco and alcohol, its association with increased skin cancer risks made it easy pickings with no significant protest. The initial cosmetic target was a Botox tax but that ran aground due to being a gender-biased tax. The elephant sitting in the room with the tanning salon tax is that it is a racially-biased tax…but I digress.
The debate over the Health Care Reform Act is all but a faint rumble now but it was really a largely economic and taxing exercise over an issue that has long been decided. With Medicare and Medicaid now making up well over half of whom most doctors and hospitals service, and with the percent growing, we have insidiously grown into a nationalized health service that existed before this recent discussion. Throw in the large Veteran’s Administration and military service health facilities and the government is by far the biggest payor for our nation’s health. The recent legislation was merely the tipping point that made the path to greater government control over heath care just go faster and even more evident.
While many clamored that the health system in the U.S. was broken, the reality is that it functions pretty well but is overwhelmed with demand that exceeds the economics to pay for it. The idea of insurance coverage and a societal safety net established in the 1960s never could have envisioned the population demand and the magnitude of health care advancements that have occurred in the past forty years. The very feature that makes our health care system the best in the world…a system driven by entrepeneurship…is exactly what is making it suffocatingly affordable to many individuals and businesses now.
The one certainty that will result from this legislation is that you will be paying more…and eventually getting less. No matter how it was painted and sold in Washington, this is an absolute certainty. As a result, we have been seeing for the past few years the development of the field of concierge medicine. As a fee for service concept, you pay a flat fee per year for an individual or family and get access to medical care 24-7. Various tests that may be needed are still billed to your insurance company. This allows you to use your health insurance as a catastrophic plan (and even a one day stay in the hospital can be an economic catastrophe) and pay lower premiums. This may only lower your out-of-pocket a little but it changes the level of service and cuts down on the amount of paperwork needed for doctor visits, etc.
While concierge medicine may not be the right choice for everyone, it is taken out of the playbook that plastic surgeons have used for decades. Elective cosmetic surgery, such as breast augmentation, facelifts and tummy tucks, is the original form of the concierge medicine fee-for-service concept. The idea of paying a fixed price for a certain medical service is re-emerging and will become increasingly popular. As more doctors withdraw from Medicare and Medicaid, due to the abysmal reimbursements and the labryinth of befuddlling paperwork and coding schemes, cash providers and practices will again become more commonplace.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana
Tags: concierge medicine, dr barry eppley, health care reform act, indianapolis, plastic surgery
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Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010
While my parents, and their parents, have lived much of their lives with fairly similar methods of doing business, the present world has seen a near total transformation in just the past decade. The merging of two initially unrelated technologies, electronic communication (now wireless) and social networking, have created a paradigm shift in societal thinking and strategies. While most who will read this have felt the impact on their business and personal lives, health care is one area where an equal transformation is rapidly occurring.
Plastic surgery has been one of the early adopters of both social networking and digital communication in the medical world. Part of this is because so much of plastic surgery is visual. Almost all of what we do can be seen and easily imaged. This is a double edged-sword as assessment is easy but with that can come an equal opportunity for criticism. Plastic surgeons rely on imaging only less than that of radiologists, whose entire practice is essentially the analysis of complex three-dimensional arrays of pixels. While a plastic surgery patient can provide great verbal detail and descriptions of their concerns, a good picture or two can leapfrog hundreds (or is it thousands?) of words.
Because of the need to market fee-for-service elective surgery, social networking sites have become a popular medium for plastic surgeons and numerous other practitioners of cosmetic services. In the old days (2000?), one would rent a hotel conference room and put on an evening program for the public. Advertising by word of mouth or newpaper ads might get an audience of 50 to 75 people. Post a blog or a promo on Facebook or Twitter and the potential exposure is to thousands.
I could pontificate on the medical impacts of these technologies, and there are too many to mention here, but one recent story makes the point. Driving home one evening after a day of surgery, I received a call from an emergency room halfway across the city. They had a five year-old boy that had a laceration on his forehead after his older brother yelled, fore!, and swung. These type of calls are common in plastic surgery and despite that I would have liked to fix this child’s problem, being up since 4AM and driving 35 miles was not beyond what I could muster. I asked the emergency room doctor to pass along my regrets and asked them to call another plastic surgeon. As I was settling down for the evening and just put my feet up, I received an unrecognized e-mail on my iphone with a one sentence message and a picture attachment. The message said, ‘My son is in need of your skills.’ signed by a mother’s name I had never heard of. The picture showed a close-up of a child’s face with a laceration down the center of the forehead between the eyebrows and the scalp…right down to the bone.
I don’t need to tell you what happened later that evening. With estimates that at least two-thirds of American physicians have smart-phones, doctors are prime targets for access from multiple wireless methods. With nimble technologies, from smart phones to health-monitoring devices, patients as well as doctors are becoming more empowered. Will this make health care better and reduce costs? Who knows but interactive health and wellness programs already surround us. Apple alone has thousands of health-related applications. Cell phone services using the Droid are not far behind.
Medical care is becoming more wireless at a brisk pace. While receiving the actual care still requires an in-person visit, the day may not be too far away when all you need to do is hold your cell phone next to what hurts.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana
Tags: digital plastic surgery, dr barry eppley, indianapolis, iphone plastic surgery, plastic surgery, wireless plastic surgery
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Tuesday, June 15th, 2010
Although eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty) treats only a small area of the face, it has a dramatic impact on facial appearance. Dollar for dollar, blepharoplasty surgery has the best value of any plastic surgery procedure of the face because it is seen by all in everyday conversations. The eyes show age more than any other body part due to smiling, squinting, frowning, sun damage , and heredity. A lot of what you perceive in other people has to do with how their eyes appear. Most of us know this because when we go into work, more often than not, what does someone seem to frequently say…you look tired!
Upper eyelid surgery gets rids of hooding and excess skin that may be hanging down on your eyelashes. Upper blepharoplasty helps restore a natural, youthful appearance by removing skin through an incision in the eyelid crease. In some cases, fat may also be removed or redistributed. Since the incision is carefully placed, it is undetectable once healed. The only way that fine little scar can be seen in the upper eyelid is if they look while you are sleeping!
The lower eyelids are one of the first areas of the face to show age-related changes. Most of us know this because the appearance of bags and wrinkled skin. Loose skin and muscle create a droopy appearance and a protrusion of fat, which normally is under the eyeball, creates that classic but dreaded appearance of lower eye bags. These bags are really prone to absorbing fluids which is why they are more swollen in the morning or if you have eaten really salty foods the day before. The lower eyelids can be improved by an incision which is hidden either inside the eyelid (if fat only needs to be removed) or just below the lashline. (when all tissues need to be treated) The muscle, support tendon, and skin are reshaped and tightened back up against the eye. That protrusion of fat is either removed, tucked back in, or repositioned over the edge of the eye socket bone, dependent upon what will look best. In some patients, chemical peels or laser resurfacing can be done at the same time (only when the incision is on the inside of the eyelid) to improve wrinkles and loose skin on the lower eyelid and crow’s feet area.
One of the most interesting things about these procedures is that most patients say… the most surprising thing about eyelid surgery is the lack of pain during recovery. While eyelid surgery may look bad, it actually produces very little pain. Your recovery is largely social and about how you look.
The other comment that patients often say is…why did I wait so long? I spent a lot of money on creams and other potions and none of them worked…and they promised they would! (hope still remain the #1 selling point) Eye creams are beneficial but they are largely about prevention and not about reversing the age changes that are already there. They simply can not tighten or lift skin to any visible degree.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana
Tags: blepharoplasty, dr barry eppley, eyelid surgery, indianapolis, plastic surgery
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Thursday, June 10th, 2010
The mixing of religion and plastic surgery are an unlikely pair that on the surface go together like oil and water. The current Gulf oil leak brings vivid images of how such things don’t go well even though they are closely aligned by proximity. Those considering plastic surgery with deep personal convictions undoubtedly feel like those contrasting mixtures. While no Christian religions of which I am aware specifically forbid having cosmetic surgery, it is with a certain amount of guilt that one of such beliefs ponders such a seemingly self-aggrandizing act.
I recently saw a mother on whose son I had operated many years ago to repair a birth defect. To leave a child’s face deformed is, of course, unimaginable in our society. But there are many third-world countries where, due to lack of medical care, such facial birth defects are not routinely repaired. Even those persons with the deepest and strongest of personal convictions against ‘plastic’ surgery would not quibble about a parent’s decision to seek reconstruction of a birth defect. The same could be said for a church secretary that I saw who had breast cancer and wanted immediate breast reconstruction. But what about my former pediatric patient’s mother who now wanted a tummy tuck? Or what about the individual who has body issues so serious after a 100 lb. weight loss that their mobility is affected?
For some, plastic surgery seems like a selfish and indulgent pursuit. While this response is often a knee jerk reaction on the part of some who see it that way, those with religious convictions are forced to look even deeper and confront their beliefs and sometimes even question their spiritual integrity. But in a modern consumer-driven society, the awareness of such personal improvements is all around and are as readily available as the office across the street or in the next biggest town.
Over the years, I have performed cosmetic surgery on many more than a handful of patients with deeply held personal convictions who have undergo everything from breast augmentations to facelifts. I know of their personal convictions because they told me so. While most patients offer an explanation (although not needed) as to why they want cosmetic surgery, those of religious persuasions are upfront about their struggle with this decision. There are few others that they can turn to for this discussion for fear of judgment in their community as well as to avoid the criticisms they would feel even if such words were unspoken. Most of us are quite quick to judge the motives of others without any real knowledge of their story.
A baby with the cleft lip and a mother who wants a tummy tuck seem worlds apart. But are they really? My observation is that both situations are wholly about the need to look and feel ‘normal’. No parent corrects a birth defect with aspirations their child will one day become a supermodel, and a mother of four kids whose body has borne the brunt of repeated pregnancies are very similar. These surgeries are about normalcy; and about feeling confident. Few cosmetic patients that I have ever met really want to be special, most only want to feel better about themselves- they want confidence. Whether that desire conflicts with the integrity of one’s religious beliefs, or are mutually exclusive, is not for me to say.
What I tell any patient, of strong religious convictions or not, is that plastic surgery is a tool. It is a method for personal improvement. The decision to have surgery or not is only part of the personal enrichment process.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana
Tags: dr barry eppley, indianapolis, plastic surgery, religion
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Monday, May 31st, 2010
Watching the crowd today at the Indy 500 in 90 degree heat with open skies, many no doubt wished that they had a better sunscreen. Perhaps some wished they had some sunscreen, any sunscreen for that matter. But for those who had the forethought to pull some sunscreen out of the closet or buy some on the way to the race, they probably couldn’t tell the difference between the numerous brands. The usual public mindset is that they are pretty much all the same and slathering on something is better than nothing at all.
What most people don’t know is that most sunscreens only protect against ultraviolet B rays. Most sunscreens don’t provide sufficient protection against skin damage that is caused by a much larger percent of the ultraviolet spectrum, ultraviolet A rays. (UVA) It is these UVA rays that contribute to wrinkling, freckling, brown spots and skin cancer since they are the same strength all year, all day long. They penetrate glass and is why your left face and left arm frequently develop greater skin damage from the sun exposure gotten during decades of driving.
While some sunscreen manufacturers now carry combined UVA and UVB protection ingredients, the lack of FDA regulation makes their claims confusing and often misleading. One would think that the same federal agency that regulates medical drugs would have long ago set standards for sunscreen performance and ingredients. But that is not the case. This is particularly peculiar given that every other industrialized nation uses UVA protection with specific guidelines. The FDA has stated that they will be releasing sunscreen recommendations in the fall. But until then another summer will pass with most people not knowing what they are actually putting on their skin.
If you are a teenager or in your 20s, the thought of skin cancer is as remote as the need for Botox or developing an unflattering neck wattle. But recent statistics show that more than 2 million people in the United States are diagnosed with skin cancer per year. This is an almost shocking two to three times increase from just twenty years ago. And most of these are directly related to sun exposure. The seeds of these skin cancers are sewn at the very age when one thinks the least about it.
The myths of sunscreen claims are numerous. Besides not knowing whether they really are as effective at blocking the sun rays as they state, many other label claims are more than just misleading. Such proclamations as ‘all day protection’, ‘waterproof’ and ‘sweatproof’ have no scientific basis and are simply not true.
The only reliable sunscreen claim is SPF (sun protection factor) which blocks UVB rays. But manufacturers use this well recognized sunblock factor to sell more sunscreen. With common SPF numbers of 15, 30, 45 and greater, one would logically think that the sunburn protection would be substantially better as the number gets higher. But the truth is that SPF 15 blocks 94% UVB and SPF 30 blocks 97% UVB. Beyond that there is no real improvement in sun ray blocking effect.
Until the FDA regulates sunscreen, the best approach is to use a dual protection UVB/UVA combination that is SPF 30 rated. UVA blockers avobenzene and meroxyl are becoming more widely used now in these broader spectrum sunscreens and they may last up to five hours. Reapplication should be done if the one sweats heavily or goes swimming. They are certainly pricier than what most are used to paying for it but is worth it for not getting skin cancer.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Indianapolis, Indiana
Tags: dr barry eppley, indianapolis, plastic surgery, skin cancer, sunburn, sunscreens
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Friday, May 21st, 2010
Reality TV is often far from ‘reality’ but sometimes there is a kernel of significance in a portion of a show. In a recent episode of the ‘Real Housewives of New York City’, one of the women accompanies her friend to a plastic surgery consultation. During the show, she recommends and helps her friend to ask the plastic surgeon some important qualifying questions about liposuction in which she has interest. During the consultation, the women asked the plastic surgeon if he was board-certified and when, did he have operating privileges at a hospital for the procedure in question, and if he was a member of American Society of Plastic Surgery.
While these questions would no doubt bring acclaim for our national organization, these queries today can be answered long before you ever enter a plastic surgeon’s office. If you have to get these basic qualifying answers from a personal visit, you mustn’t have a computer in your house or have never ‘Googled’ or ‘Binged.’
Historically, patient’s were advised to ask a basic list of questions to their plastic surgeon to be certain they were qualified to perform the surgery. These included board certification and in what specialty, society membership and hospital privileges. While these are still good questions, they are so simple to find and don’t have the significance that they once did. If the plastic surgeon doesn’t have a contemporary website that easily provides this information, I would quickly move on to one that does. An informative website for a plastic surgeon, or any business for that matter, is an essential as any individual having a cell phone. If one isn’t investing in an internet forum for patient education, I doubt if they are investing much in advanced medical education either.
With today’s ease of information gathering, photo acquisition, and methods of presentation, contemporary plastic surgery qualifiers are much different and more defining. I believe these are the more relevant questions to search for in finding a qualified plastic surgeon. They include photographic demonstration, recent patient experiences, and educational information.
Photographic publication surrounds us at every corner today. Whether it is on Facebook or other social media, even the most basic cell phone can take a pretty good picture. Plastic surgeons are the most advanced and proficient of all medical specialities in photography on average. Therefore, one should come to expect a good demonstration of a plastic surgeon’s most valued asset, before and after patient photographs. While it is true that any business is going to put out its best results, at the least you need to see a handful of actual patient before and after photographs. The more, the better.
A past customer’s experience is a good barometer of service and results for any business. But a patient who had surgery a long time ago is not as useful as one who has had a surgical experience in the past weeks to months. Fresh experiences are what you need and preferably from more than just one patient. Having a recent patient also suggests that the procedure is performed more than just a few times a year.
Brochures and flyers are standard educational pieces in any plastic surgery practice. But there are so many boiler-plate pieces that are available to purchase for any plastic surgery procedure that they are not only unimaginative but provide generic (and often useless) information as well. What you want to see is customized practice information that provides detailed and meaningful procedure information that reflect’s what that plastic surgeon specifically does. You want to know what this plastic surgeon does, not what the ‘average’ plastic surgery approach is.
Dr. Barry Eppley
Tags: dr barry eppley, finding a quallified plastic surgeon, indianapolis, plastic surgery
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