The healthcare reform bill unveiled by the Senate Wednesday night includes a 5 percent tax against elective cosmetic medical procedures, a last-minute addition that is projected to collect $5 billion over the next ten years.
Cosmetic surgeons all over the United States have made their opposition to the tax public, and societies such as the ASPS and ASAPS have organized their members to contact members of congress.
“You’d be surprised how price sensitive people are to this. It’s a tax against women and the baby boomer generation having these procedures” comments Tulsa cosmetic surgeon Dr. Angelo Cuzalina.
5 reasons to drop the cosmetic tax from the U.S. healthcare reform bill.
- Discriminatory: Women purchase almost 90 percent of all cosmetic medical procedures in the United States.
- Taxes middle class America: In a 2005 ASPS survey of people planning cosmetic surgery, 60 percent of the respondents reported incomes of $30,000 to $90,000 a year.
- Record of being ineffective: New Jersey implemented a similar tax in 2004 and it fell drastically short (59 percent) of its projected revenue.
- Distinguishing reconstructive from cosmetic isn’t always easy: the tax imposes the burden of making clear distinctions between procedures that are medically necessary and simply elective. Who will make these distinctions?
- Could promote medical tourism: Patient safety is a major priority; keeping costs down will discourage Americans from seeking risky cosmetic surgeries abroad.
A consultation with Dr. Haiavy is not an occasion that should worry you ( it isn’t a job interview) but if you prepare and come in with the right mindset, you’ll get more out of the experience.
Follow these 2 basic rules and your visit to Inland Cosmetic Surgery will definitely be worthwhile.
1. Prepare yourself with questions and an idea of your general goals.
Write up a list of questions that you personally think are important. For the patient, a surgical consultation presents a great opportunity to receive clear and specific information from a professional. This can be extremely valuable with all the conflicting information out there on the web.
2. Communicate with honesty and openness.
For both patient and surgeon, honesty and good communication are very important in the consultation and surgery process. Share pertinent information with Dr. Haiavy and he will be able to meet your needs better. There’s no reason to hide your medical history, past procedures, goals, or reasons for cosmetics surgery.
Remember that a consultation doesn’t require any commitment; afterward, you can take as much time as you need to consider your options.
Warranties on silicone breast implants have been upgraded this year. Until 
December 31st, the manufacturers will be offering up to $3500 for surgery reimbursement. In the event of an implant rupture – even ten years after your surgery – the manufacturer will cover costs like anesthesia, facility, and surgery.
Before this year, the standard warranty offered lifetime product replacement and a financial reimbursement of $1200, while the premium warranty offered $2400. Although these reimbursements have always been in place to offset the cost of revision surgery, for the patient they still carry the potential for out-of-pocket expense.
Those considering breast augmentation with silicone implants may want to take note; this may be a great time to undergo the procedure. If you have surgery on or before December 31, 2009, you’ll qualify for this special warranty.
If you want some extra insurance against the financial risks associated with implant rupture, this warranty is an excellent idea. You might also say it represents the confidence implant manufacturers have placed in the longevity of their products.
Read: What if my implant fails or ruptures?
An NBC news affiliate in Texas reports that more men are seeking cosmetic procedures because they want to prolong their careers and remain competitive in the job market. The reality is that women make up the vast majority of cosmetic surgery patients, but we could see a shift. In fact, maybe we should see a shift.
With all the image-conscious men out there spending money on designer clothes, gym memberships, and other expenditures, it wouldn’t be terribly surprising to see an increase in professional cosmetic treatments.
What’s most likely to gain popularity is skin renewal treatments. From experience I can tell you that the majority of males don’t possess a great deal of knowledge about caring for their skin and they often neglect it.
At a recent cosmetic surgery trade show, yours truly (copywriter extraordinaire), along with our human resources manager Angie, underwent a professional skin analysis using the Image Pro II Skin Analysis system, a machine very similar to the Visia Digital Skin Analysis at Inland Cosmetic Surgery.
While Angie’s skin came out clear and clean, my neglected male skin looked like a battlefield of sun damage and other imperfections. It appeared as if all those years of cheap skin care products and lack of sun protection had caught up with me. That experience prompted an investigation of different skin care products and treatments to see how I could address the problem.
I would be very surprised if I was the only male who experienced these skin problems and concerns.
Local 12 news in Ohio recently aired this story to answer the question “What is a Botox Breast lift?”
Reporters explain that while the breast lift has documented results, and Botox is considered practical and effective, the so-called Botox Breast Lift is not a cost effective cosmetic treatment people should pursue.
The most common theory behind the Botox breast lift posits that injections of botulinum type a can relax muscles and affect a woman’s posture in such a way that simulates lifting of the breasts. Dr. Mark Mandell Brown, a cosmetic surgeon practicing in the midwest, answers the question conclusively:
“Rather than spend four or five or ten thousand dollars on a breast lift, lets do $200-$300 of botox. Are we just throwing away the 300 dollars then? Yes. Is there any research to support that this would be even remotely effective? No. In reality, the tissue’s too heavy for that to happen.”
You can see the video here in the local 12 media center. To read more about breast lift surgery or botox in Rancho Cucamonga, see our website.
If you’re interested in the mommy makeover procedures we perform here in Rancho Cucamonga, you may want to view the video below from Fox News Charlotte.
The “mommy makeover” is a series of cosmetic surgeries intended to help women regain their pre-baby body. The most common treatments included in the package are the breast lift, tummy tuck, and liposuction.
In the video below, Fox news Charlotte speaks with Dr. Kevin Smith and one of his patients about some of the risks, benefits, and cost of a mommy makeover.
Click here to see our mommy makeover web page.
Online readers about cosmetic surgery are probably all too familiar with the “age gracefully” versus “freedom to enhance” type arguments. The UK Observer just published an editorial that sums up each position fairly well. British journalist Alice Hart-Davis and Grazia beauty director Annabel Jones offer contrasting opinions in response to the question “Can cosmetic surgery ever be a viable solution to aging?”
The question is inherently flawed; can anything at all be a viable solution to aging? Unless you’re very optimistic about regenerative medicine and stem cell research, the aging process is a fact you must accept. So, perhaps the word “solution” is misleading; cosmetic surgery doesn’t have a solution to aging, but it does offer many options.
What surgeons refer to as TUBA, and the layperson might call “belly button breast augmentation,” is an effective method for breast implant placement. In the right patients, this method can produce aesthetically pleasing results with scars that are literally invisible.
To describe the TUBA procedure briefly, the surgeon makes an incision in the navel, creates a tunnel through the subcutaneous tissue of the abdomen to the breasts, and then places the implant above or below the pectoral muscle. The implants are placed symmetrically below the nipple. To provide a view of the patient’s underlying tissues, a tiny fiber optic camera called an endoscope is utilized.
Certain practitioners have criticized the transumbilical method for its inherently “remote” technique, which doesn’t allow the surgeon direct access to the breasts. Although this objection seems reasonable, the results achieved with this procedure say otherwise. If the patient is safe, satisfied, and the aesthetic results are comparable (or superior) to other breast implant placement methods, the objection doesn’t hold any weight.
Jacob Haiavy MD and William A. Brennan MD published a study in 2007 that analyzed 245 patients of transumbilical breast augmentation, and found that the rate of complications was comparable to other breast implant placement methods. Furthermore, 1 year after transumbilical breast augmentation, 95 percent of the patients were satisfied with the surgery and 86 percent were satisfied with the implant size chosen.
You can download the referenced article through this link:
Transumbilical Breast Augmentation: A Practical Review of a Growing Technique
TUBA breast augmentation before and after pictures are included in the article, as well as our website. Contact Inland Cosmetic Surgery for more information on this procedure.
The liquid facelift is basically soft tissue augmentation with injectable fillers, but the goal is to achieve results that are similar to surgery. Yet the results are said to be “typically more subtle than surgery.” This topic is getting lots of media attention: Harper’s Bazaar is the latest to pick it up and interview some of the physicians that say they’re doing it.
The Best Beauty section of the Bazaar September issue includes before and after pictures and a discussion of professional techniques for administering injectables. On their website, you can also view a similar online article with some facts and figures about the most popular wrinkle fillers.
The idea of a liquid facelift isn’t exactly a “touch up” here and there, but a relatively extensive series of injections. According to the authors, you can expect to pay at least $3,000 for a full liquid facelift. A Florida dermatologist by the name of Dr. Fredric Brandt explains, “I resuspend the face with Botox, lifting up the brows, neck, jawline, and tip of the nose and then fill in and replace volume around the eyes and cheeks.”
Wrinkle fillers may be effective for replacing lost volume, and Botox has many excellent cosmetic applications, but it’s difficult (perhaps impossible) to see how either could achieve the skin-tightening benefits of an actual face lift.
The liquid facelift has also been discussed on The Doctors (NBC), Rachel Ray Show, New Beauty Magazine, Dr. 90210, FOX News, Cosmetic Surgery Times, and more exposure is said to be in the works.
California has its fair share of workaholics, so we spend plenty of time caring for patients who present stress-related skin problems. Pimples, dry skin, and pronounced lines are all characteristic signs.
If you there were preexisting skin problems, stress will only makes the situation worse. It’s because our bodies are reacting to external challenges. Stress creates an adrenaline surge that elevates the level of cortisol in the blood. Cortisol tells fat cells to dump sugar into the bloodstream for energy – which is great if you need to outrun a raging elephant but not so great on your body or your skin.