Until a few years ago, a generation of breast augmentation patients had no choice but to use saline implants. Don't misunderstand, the saline implants are good implants, but today's silicone implants provide a much more realistic look and feel, and for most women are an excellent choice.

Maybe you're one of those women who previously had breast augmentation surgery and weren't given a choice on the type of implant used, and you've been thinking about exchanging the saline implants for the new silicone implants. Mentor's "Feel the Difference" offer is designed for woman just like you who are exploring available options. Mentor MemoryGel Breast Implants are FDA approved, come in a wide variety of styles and textures, and are loved by women worldwide. I use Mentor implants exclusively, and in all the years I've used Mentor silicone implants, none of my patients have had an incident of capsular contraction. The implants provide a more realistic result and are a viable, safe alternative for patients choosing breast augmentation.

Here's how the Mentor "Feel the Difference" offer works. Patients switching from ANY saline implant to Mentor MemoryGel Implants will receive an American Express gift card from Mentor for $250 that can be used for any purchase after the procedure is completed. This program lasts through August 31, 2011, so you need to call now for your consultation.

To further assist our patients in making the switch to the Mentor MemoryGel Silicone Implant, until August 31, 2011, I am reducing my implant exchange fees by $250, making a total savings of $500. In addition, for women considering breast augmentation and choose the silicone implant, I am offering them the same $250 savings on my fees. While first time breast augmentation patients don't qualify for the Mentor offer, if using the Mentor silicone implant, they will still get a $250 reduction on my fee.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call or e-mail our office:

214-821-9662 OR marta.traugott@dpsi.org

The summer surgery schedule fills up very quickly, so please call soon to make an appointment for your consultation. Your surgery must be completed by August 31, 2011 to qualify for these savings. Don't be disappointed - CALL SOON!!

There are few things in our office that are more important than patient confidentiality. You might ask why that's important to us, and the obvious answer is "Because it's important to our patients", and while that's absolutely true, the answer that should be the driving force behind every action we take in this regard is medical identity theft.

Medical identity theft is the fastest growing form of identity theft. The faux patient uses another person's name and perhaps their insurance information to receive surgeries, implants, injectables, or other medical services for which they have no intention of ever paying. In Georgia a woman decided to have Botox injections at her first office visit to a high-end med-spa. After the injections when she was checking out, she realized she had left her credit cards in her car. While the staff was a bit leery, the woman said she completely understood and offered to leave her very expensive purse with them while she went to her car. The patient never returned, the expensive purse had also been stolen, and the practice was out nearly $1000.

Once successful at stealing Botox injections, or other smaller ticket items, this type of thief moves to another practice and they run the same con this time upping the reward by having cosmetic surgery. In California recently, a 30-year-old woman used stolen personal information to open a large line of credit in someone else's name. She then had breast augmentation and liposuction done, running up charges of over $12,000. She never returned for any post-op care which caused the surgeon to check on the patient’s well being. She completely vanished. None of the information she had provided the practice was valid, and within a few weeks, the stolen identity, and stolen surgery came to light.

These medical identity thieves are not what you would recognize as archetypal criminals. They very often look exactly like our patients, as they are often 30-something year old women, who are bright, attractive, and articulate. They are basically con artists preying on a whole new field.

The systems we've implemented may make some patients uneasy, but the things we do are put into place not only to protect our practice, but to protect our patients as well. These are a few of the things we do to fight medical identity theft.

We ask for a credit card when you schedule a consultation. This hopefully makes the thieves nervous and that's exactly the point. Without the credit card, no consultation.

A driver’s license is requested at consultation check in. We check the driver’s license to the paperwork the patient has completed.

We take pictures of all patients. This gives us another point of comparison later on.

Any credit card payments made without the patient’s signature (paying for fees by phone) require a signed credit card use authorization form. Many patients opt to pay fees by credit card over the phone. It’s convenient, but it’s also ripe for fraud use. Patients must have a signature on file to use this payment option.


If patients refuse any of the identity protection requests, it raises a major red flag. Our entire staff is aware of the things that an identity thief might do to get ‘in’, and does not hesitate to bring their concerns to our administrative staff. One thing that’s a big concern is a patient who HAS to have surgery immediately. Occasionally there are instances when that’s a valid request, but it’s also a tact that medical identity thieves will use to get in and get out before the theft is realized. Please understand that while you may have a truly valid reason for wanting surgery immediately after consultation, it can be a concern as well.

We zealously protect patient information in our office as well. Charts are stored in locked drawers and files, and in locked rooms. No medical or personal information is ever shared with anyone other than the patient without proper written authorization. These aren’t new standards, just ones to which we are even more dedicated. We strive to do everything we possibly can to protect our patients from having any bit of their personal information taken from this office due to our lack of diligence. Protecting our patients’ information is critically important to every member of my staff, and we’re dedicated to doing whatever we can to stop medical identity theft from harming our practice or our patients.

The new year is 10 days old, and many of the good intentions we adopted have been postponed, shelved or forgotten as daily life takes precedence over those resolutions that sounded so good back in December when we were first thinking about them. January tends to be a bit dreary for many people, and there's no doubt that those extra pounds that crept in while we were focused on the desserts and comfort foods just add to the January malaise.

I'm here to encourage you not to give up on making and keeping resolutions just because it's no longer January 1st. If weight loss or general physical fitness is a struggle for you, it may take more than one attempt at achieving your goal. Something that not all patients understand is that plastic surgery is not a replacement for exercise. No, not everyone can achieve that six-pack abdomen through sit ups and crunches, but liposuction and/or an abdominoplasty aren't the easy answer. Liposuction is not a weight loss tool. It's best used on isolated pockets of fat that are resistant to exercise and dieting. Stick with that resolution awhile before turning to surgery for an answer. You might surprise yourself. Even if you're unable to get the result you want by hitting the gym, any weight you did lose is that much less fat that has to be removed during surgery.

Exercise/physical fitness and plastic surgery are not mutually exclusive. Our practice is supportive of professional athletes and the more casual exerciser with perhaps less dramatic goals in mind. Good nutrition, and adequate exercise are lifelong habits that pay dramatic dividends. If you're not seeing all the results you'd like to achieve, give us a call. There are surgical, as well as non-invasive answers available for a variety of issues, and we're happy to help you reach your goals and for once nail the door shut on those pesky, dreary January resolutions.

Happy New Year!

There are many types of cosmetic surgeries done in the United States. There are the standards - breast augmentation, facelift, rhinoplasty and there are some newer procedures - calf implants, labiaplasty, vaginal rejuvenation. It doesn't seem to matter what the primary reason is that a patient comes to see a plastic surgeon, at some point in the conversation most patients will say something similar to "Since I'm already having surgery, could you just get rid of "this" (and they'll grab a particular body part) while you're there anyway?" Usually it's the flank or "love handles" for women, and the "beer belly" for men, that are the portion of the body that the patient would like reduced, and usually we do "...get rid of this" for them.

Liposuction is a procedure that seems to be connected to nearly every plastic surgery procedure we do. Abdominoplasty patients achieve a much better result if liposuction is used to remove any remaining fat and to contour the love handles to achieve flow in the body lines. Even for breast augmentation patients, liposuction is used to remove fat that hides under the arm and then shows up on the back when it pops out on top of the bra. So while using an implant to achieve increased breast volume is the primary procedure, using liposuction to remove fat that detracts from the over all aesthetic is also critical to overall patient satisfaction.

Liposuction is a very versatile procedure that can remove pockets of fat that are resistant to diet and exercise. It can be used to smoothly contour and shape nearly any part of the body, but the key is for the surgeon to know which patients are good candidates for the procedure and for the patient to select a surgeon who has superior cannula technique. The cannula is the small wand-like instrument used to remove the fat and fluid through a small incision made near the targeted area. While there are several different methods and types of cannulas being used currently, but there isn't any one method that stands out from the crowd currently, so selecting a skilled surgeon is still the surest method to achieving the best possible outcome.

Dr. H. Steve Byrd was recently honored by the Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

"...the ASPS Council ratified the award of Honorary membership of the Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons. This award acknowledges (his) contribution to the continuing professional development of the Plastic Surgery fraternity of Australasia and particularly for (his) participation at the Plastic Surgery Conference 2008, Gold Coast, Queensland Australia."

Dr. Byrd was the keynote speaker at the 2008 Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons meeting. As "Mentor Travelling Fellow" he was selected as "A true giant of world plastic surgery. An innovative thinker who has been able to translate these thoughts into masterful results." During the multi-week meeting, Dr. Byrd was a member and leader on several panels and his lectures included:

"Cleft Lip and Palate from Infancy to Adult"
"Endoscopic Brow/Midface Lift"
"The Eyelids & Lower Face: Safe Lower and Mid-face Surgery"

Dr. Byrd is a nationally and internationally known plastic surgeon, surgical procedure innovator and developer, UTSW Medical School Professor and speaker. In 2010 he will speak in:

Seoul, Korea
Dallas, Texas
Guadalajara, Mexico

A busy office and surgery schedule limit the amount of time Dr. Byrd has for the numerous speaking invitations that he receives each, but he attempts to balance the many facets of his career and family obligations. Each segment adds something to his considerable talent and experience.

Botox. Walk down the street on most any block in America and you're going to run into people who have had Botox injections. Many patients use Botox and its ability to smooth out wrinkles so that they look younger. Done properly, Botox injections, and other types of fillers can become part of a fairly conservative skin care regimen. So why is a mother in the UK buying Botox online and injecting it into her 16-year-old daughter? It gets even worse. This teenager started having Botox injections at the age of 15.

As a parent and a plastic surgeon, I hope that a parent would have better judgment than to allow their 15-year-old daughter to get Botox injections. In this case the mother had already spent about $750,000 on plastic surgery for herself. With that in mind, it becomes clear why her daughter's self-image would be skewed. The daughter's reasoning for using Botox is that she doesn't want to look "old and ugly" when she's 25. 25?? Really??

I have two plastic surgery practices in Dallas. My Children's office deals primarily with children with craniofacial deformities. These children often go through a series of surgeries over the course of their childhood to undo some of the damage done by cleft lip and/or palate deformities. My North Park office is for adults wanting plastic/cosmetic surgery. Occasionally the patients and the practices overlap and we'll see an older child at the adult's office. Rhinoplasty surgeries, surgeries to correct tuberous breast deformities, and scar tissue removals are often considered for these patients. Fortunately we haven't had any parents request Botox injections for their teenagers - so far.

A 14-year-old girl wrote in from one of our websites asking about breast reduction. She developed breast tissue very early and ever since then her life changed. Young men and boys began to pay unwanted attention to her every move. She was a young girl trapped in a woman's body. She had grooves on her shoulders from bra straps which were digging into her flesh due to the weight of her breasts. Her back and neck ache on a daily basis due to the weight of her breasts.

While this patient could definitely benefit from immediate breast reduction surgery, at 14 she still has several more years of growth and that growth will include her breasts. At 18, her body still isn't completely finished growing but the majority of her growth potential will be reached and it's believed to be generally safe to proceed with the breast reduction procedure.

There are many different reasons for having plastic/cosmetic surgery;

Correct birth defects
Repairing injuries
Beauty

Patients come from all walks of life, and in all shapes and sizes. Some are young, and some are older. The question is, how young IS too young? When a young person comes in to see me, almost always parents are at the consultation, but not always. No surgery is planned until the parents are involved. This small group - surgeon, patient, parents - discuss the options, the risks, and the potential outcomes. Once we're all agreed, we can move forward with the planned surgery. Surgeons clearly have a responsibility to guide teenagers and sometimes their parents toward a safe, healthy decision. Selecting a surgeon that you trust is key to a successful outcome regardless of the patient's age.

Immediately following a rhinoplasty, many of my Fort Worth or Dallas patients worry that they will never breathe normally again. Patients may initially feel congested or "stuffy" after surgery because of normal postoperative swelling inside and outside the nose. However, this congestion generally fades in well under a month. Crusting inside the nose, also normal, can interfere with regular breathing, but will subside soon after surgery.

If you're bothered by congestion following your nose surgery, here are a few things you can do to improve your breathing:

• Keep your head elevated, even while sleeping, and avoid bending over or lifting anything heavy.


• Strictly follow your surgeon's aftercare instructions, which may include taking prescription medications for swelling, using a humidifier, or irrigating with a saline nasal spray.


• Avoid salty foods, alcohol, and hot showers, which can increase swelling.


• If you have nasal allergies, avoid your triggers—such as dust, pollen, or animal fur.

I've developed a regimen of vitamins, supplements, and other post-op medications that can be very effective in limiting and controlling breathing difficulties, so ask your surgeon for his or her recommendations. Once everything heals normally and swelling subsides, you should be able to breathe as well or better than before. If you cannot, notify your surgeon, who will determine the appropriate course of action to correct the problem.