I love technology.  The advancements in Plastic Surgery and nonsurgical treatments have been tremendous over the last 20 years that I have been following it.  I love to learn about it and study it, but have a problem with using it as a marketing tool before safety and the realistic results can be determined.

We all think about the magic of microdermabrasion, the many uses of laser treatments, and the injectable products we think of as routine now. What a step forward in the ability to achieve better cosmetic results.  What the public, and some of my colleagues, forget is the hyped treatments that did not pan out.

Just because something is new and exciting and promises great things does not make it true.  Experience using new devices takes time, and if someone wants to be the first one on the block to advertise it, it does not mean that they are well trained or capable of giving you what they promise.  With the competitive marketplace for your esthetic dollars, many of the early advertisers are not Board Certified Plastic Surgeons at all.

If you hear about a new device or procedure, do your homework.  Find out what the ABMS specialty of the doctor is, how long he/she has been in training and their Board Certification, and how many of these treatments they have done. Make sure you see pictures of their own work, not photos supplied by the device company (just ask if the photos are patients that they themselves treated personally).  You can also go on the internet and see what the public experience with the treatments is.

Do not take this to mean I am antitechnology.  I love anything that safely improves my patients’ appearance.  What I won’t do is experiment on the people who trust me to be their Plastic Surgeon.