Recent news about Dr. Brian Howard. Apparently A Board Certified Plastic Surgeon Resource.com just helped him relaunch his plastic surgery practice website….. announce that Atlanta plastic surgeon Dr. Brian Howard, M.D., has just relaunched his plastic surgery practice website at DrBrianHoward.com. For entire site launch release, check out this link.

Six months after Kanye West’s mother died following liposuction and breast implant surgery, the reverberations continue to be felt. Now lawmakers and physicians are urging greater protections for patients undergoing cosmetic surgery.

Across the country, such surgeries are increasingly done outside hospital settings in outpatient clinics, where a doctor can avoid the rigorous review that, say, a heart surgeon would face at a traditional hospital. Those lobbying for greater surveillance say attempts to regulate the fast-growing industry have faltered.\

For entire article click here.

Between 2000 and 2006, when the housing meltdown began, Atlanta was the fastest growing city in the nation.  It has grown from an important regional transit and manufacturing center into a global player.  It is the ninth largest metro area in the nation, with a half million city residents and ten times that number living in the city and its suburbs.

That implies several things with regard to considering Atlanta as a good choice to find the right cosmetic plastic surgeon.  Atlanta has a unique position in the Southeast, in the sense that it has for years felt like a cosmopolitan area built for business.  Many residents are from elsewhere; it has lost much of its southern provinciality.  Here’s what we see as special aspects of Atlanta and its cosmetic surgeons.

It’s a wealthy city, struggling with rapid growth that is based on solid business growth.  It is drawing well educated young people and convincing established professionals to relocate.  That sort of social dynamic means that services in general are going to be of high caliber, and that includes medical services.

The Atlanta Medical Center is a top flight multi-dimensional facility with a 460 bed hospital and several ancillary clinics.  Summit has a swarm of clinics scattered through the area.  Emory University established a Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at its medical school in 1971. 

The Georgia Society of Plastic Surgeons was also founded in 1971 – its members are principally in and around the Atlanta area.  The quality of cosmetic surgery practiced there is such that Atlanta has become something of a destination site for people seeking quality plastic surgeons.  Several surgeons’ websites have information on nearby hotels, restaurants and civic attractions.  You don’t see that in many cities.

The manner in which Atlanta’s plastic surgeons present themselves via their internet presence is different in a couple of other ways.  Several doctors stress the importance of counseling and lead their comments on the issue by reviewing the limits of cosmetic surgical procedures.  Others feature their roles in community issues such as breast cancer; there is more than one women’s medical clinic in the city.

Post-operative care is also prominent in many of the plastic surgery websites.  These articles include discussions of post-op pain the options for dealing with it; the importance of following medical advice on recovery practices; and the fact that cosmetic surgery is still surgery.  Many of these surgeons attempt to limit expectations to what is real and feasible.

Board certification seems to be a given.  Not a single doctor with an established website failed to list his or her certification, education and practice experience.  These descriptions established credibility, rather than promises and bombast.

Mary Hart is a freelance writer specializing in Cosmetic & Beauty topics. Find information about all types of plastic surgery procedures including breast implants, breast augmentation, face lifts, and liposuction. A Board Certified Plastic Surgeon Resource.com is the place to locate a Atlanta Plastic Surgeon for Cosmetic Plastic Surgery.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mary_Hart

As serendipity would have it, the San Francisco Bay Area consists of five extremely cosmopolitan counties, which themselves could be called five reasons to seek aesthetic surgery in the area. San Francisco may have more doctors per capita than any major city in the country. The truth is that the city itself has less than 750,000 residents.

In San Francisco you will find dozens of physicians who practice in the downtown area, in buildings on Sutter Street and Post Street near Union Square. Just west of the upper Haight Asbury District lies the University of California Medical Center, one of the two great medical schools in the Bay Area. As with most medical schools there are surrounding clinics and specialty medical services that provide services and also serve as teaching centers.

South of San Francisco lays the suburban County of San Mateo, which also has a large number of practicing physicians. Mills-Peninsula Hospital is a large, full service medical center with multiple locations. Also in the county is Seton Hospital which has a large surgical center. Between the two you will find a substantial number of board-certified plastic surgeons that not only provide out patient services in their offices but also are on the staff roster for one hospital or the other.

Continuing southward you will find Santa Clara County, home of Silicon Valley. At the northern tip of the county are Palo Alto and the Stanford Hospital. Stanford’s medical school is recognized as top notch; many of its graduates remain in the area. It’s an affluent area, which means that your choice of plastic surgeons and cosmetic treatment centers is going to be considerable. In San Jose, the largest city in the bay area, there are four or five major medical centers and established clinics that include outpatient cosmetic surgery services.

From San Jose, the next leg of your travels will take you from the bottom of the bay northward into Alameda County. This is a large county anchored in the north by Berkeley and Oakland and in the south by a number of middle class and affluent suburbs. In the north, Alta Bates Hospital has built a conglomerate of services that includes all manner of clinics and outpatient services.

The fifth option for finding quality cosmetic surgery services is Marin County, across the Golden Gate from San Francisco. Here you’ll find some of the nicer neighborhoods in the Bay Area and because it is separated by a crowded bridge from San Francisco, you’ll also find the quality medical services that include plastic surgeons with experience and with successful practices.

Mary Hart is a freelance writer specializing in Cosmetic & Beauty topics. Find information about all types of plastic surgery procedures including breast implants, breast augmentation, face lifts, and liposuction. A Board Certified Plastic Surgeon Resource.com is the place to locate a Plastic Surgeon in San Francisco

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mary_Hart

There’s often a Venus vs. Mars debate when it comes to cosmetic surgery.  “Research shows!” …that eight out of ten men don’t get it and don’t want to give it when the issue of cost is on the table.  You and just about everyone else that makes their way to this website know that cosmetic surgery isn’t about looking like a teen queen or one of Hollywood’s nipplettes.

It’s about self esteem, and that’s a human component that needs to function for all of us – we need to keep it chugging, even if it’s not as bright and shiny as it once was.   So, let’s consider how you might explain your interest in cosmetic improvements with illustrations that your Husband/Boyfriend/SO/Whatever will understand. 

Suppose he points out that aging is a natural process and nothing we should shun.  AGREE with him!  Point out that comedian Borat wants a paunch implant because where he comes from they’re a sign of affluence.  Tell your loved one to count his blessings. 

If he suggests that looking older is a sign of maturity and commands respect, look ENLIGHTENED!  Big eyes, mouth in an O!  The next morning, give the gift of thinning shears while he’s rummaging through his cornflakes and the newspaper.

Get the idea?  It might set him to thinking, for a change – in this case, your change.

The University of Chicago is probably the premier medical teaching and health services complex.  It operates ten divisions that provide services at a multitude of facilities and special clinics.  They have recently opened a Center for Aesthetic Surgery in downtown Chicago, which is simply an indicator of the health and breadth of the cosmetic plastic surgery community in the city.

One can look beyond the teaching hospitals to a large number of prominent medical centers which in turn are fed by a large population of qualified physicians.  Chicago’s Society of Plastic Surgeons has over one hundred members, but they are only a fraction of the board-certified plastic surgeons practicing their profession in Chicagoland.

The city itself is a metro area that crosses the state line into Indiana and extends northward towards the Wisconsin border.  Many of the suburbs have excellent medical facilities that may not match Chicago’s large complexes but that have top physicians and state-of-the-art technology.

In a major urban area like Chicago, many of the important components of the original downtown have filtered into outlying areas.  Certainly this is true of retail shopping, many industries and modern research facilities.  It is also true of the medical field, which makes it a challenge for a Chicago area resident to track down a plastic surgeon that is the right person for his or her needs.

Many times part of the process in selecting a plastic surgeon is working with the doctor to decide just what type of surgery is best.  Our listings of Chicago plastic surgeons include doctors who understand how valuable this initial consultation is.  The board-certified aesthetic plastic surgeons you find here will explain every surgical option that is available to you in order to accomplish the personal improvement that you are seeking. Find a Plastic Surgeon Chicago for Cosmetic Surgery.

Where else but? Beverly Hills has always had a one-dimensional image of a city that lives for wealth and possessions.  It is certainly true that some of the boutiques on Rodeo Avenue are flashy and expensive; what is also true about the city’s commerce area is that it is filled with stores whose primary focus is on quality and excellence.

The same is true of the medical community that takes care of the Beverly Hills community.  The vast metroplex that includes and surrounds Los Angeles scatters commuters and professionals to the four winds.  People commute for their job and often for entertainment, for schools and for professional services.

One of the things that makes Beverly Hills unique is the fact that it is a city with a complete array of services within the city itself.  The city’s commercial and municipal services are all marked by excellence.  And because the residents of Beverly Hills expect excellence, many of the board-certified plastic surgeons there are among Los Angeles County’s best.

Aesthetic surgery long ago lost its stigma in Beverly Hills.  Good plastic surgeons know that, and all plastic surgeons know that to be successful in Beverly Hills you must be an exceptional practitioner.  That is why this single website is devoted to the aesthetic plastic surgeons of Beverly Hills.  People who are shopping for surgical improvement are going to know that there is no better place to look than in the community of Beverly Hills. Find a Plastic Surgeon Beverly Hills

There is no question that breast augmentation practices and procedures have produced a number of clinical problems and public relations nightmares over the last fifty years.  The most primitive introduction of artificial material for purposes of breast augmentation appeared in the form of silicone injections pioneered, apparently, in the early ‘60s.  There were numerous reports of the silicone hardening and creating health problems that resulted in mastectomies in order to rid the body of the silicone.

The first silicon implants were introduced in 1961 by Dow Corning, working in conjunction with a couple of Houston surgeons.  The other option for breast augmentation implants was, and continues to be, silicone sacs filled with saline solution.  Both products were on the market up to 1990 and both exhibited highly publicized flaws. 

Dow Corning went through an enormous process of litigation involving individual and class action suits as the result of its sale of hundreds of thousands of silicone breast implants.  In 1990, the FDA demanded that silicone implants be removed from the market.  Since that time, manufacturers and medical researchers alike have sought to produce better, more stable products.  However the history of silicon breast implants has created a number of widely believed, demonstrably false beliefs:

1. Dow Corning’s silicon breast implants caused massive health problems.
Dow Corning’s implants proved to be a health hazard to a selective number of recipients.  The reason that Dow Corning suffered the enormous liability consequences in court is primarily because they covered up information regarding their product’s potential for inducing health problems.

2. Silicon breast implants cause cancer.
Despite the massive amount of research done on silicone implants, there has been no definitive indication that the introduction of silicone implants increases the risk of cancer.  That is why they are back on the market, after the FDA banned them in the early nineties.

3. Breast implants are supposed to last a lifetime.
This has not proven to be the case, despite early claims to the contrary by physicians and manufacturers.  Saline filled implants tend to rupture more commonly and earlier than silicon implants.  However silicon implants do wear out, and today a person who opts for silicon implants can expect to have similar surgery ten to fifteen years later, to replace and perhaps reposition the implant.

4. A ruptured silicon breast implant causes serious side effects.
Not necessarily, and not usually.  A ruptured saline implant is instantly noticeable because it loses all shape as it drains.  Salt water isn’t going to do much harm, however.  Silicon ruptures are sometimes not noticeable at all, since the silicon gel is too thick to migrate within the body.  Better implant casings and thicker gel has led to a much more stable product.
 
5. Breast augmentation through implants may have a desirable effect but remain a risky venture.
Over 325,000 women undergo the procedure every year in this country.  Breast augmentation and reconstruction remain the third most popular cosmetic surgery procedure.  Manufacturers have improved their products and have passed them through rigorous FDA clinical trials. Most important, good cosmetic surgeons provide thorough explanations to their patients of the potential for side effects and corrective procedures.

In order to determine why anything works, it is necessary to define what “works” means.  What is breast augmentation meant to accomplish?  According to one survey, “…almost 90 percent of women surveyed agreed with the statement that “breast augmentation is a personal choice that helps women to achieve the confidence and well-being to flourish in other areas of their lives…”

It’s easy to get people to agree with an ennobling statement, but the essential point about breast augmentation is contained the survey query:  this surgery is about self esteem.  And self esteem, as any professional in the fields of psychology will tell you, is at the core of a life that is both productive and happy.  With that in mind, here are the top 7 reasons why breast augmentation ‘works’:

1. Personal appearance is at the top of the self-esteem recipe, and breast augmentation contributes to a woman’s appearance not only for others, but more importantly as she appears to herself. 

2. A survey published in the Aesthetic Surgery Journal in 2004 showed that the average respondent was a mother in her thirties, seeking to restore her figure to its pre-childbirth dimensions.  These are people seeking to improve on who they are, not trying to be someone else. 

There has been a stigma attached to breast augmentation, associating the procedure with professional women who need professional breasts.  It is essentially an urban myth – the procedure is the third most popular cosmetic surgery choice in the country, with about 300,000 occurrences annually.

3. Breast augmentation also falls into the category of breast reconstruction.  Women who have lost a breast to a mastectomy or to some sort of trauma often report a tremendous psychological shock, sense of loss and disfigurement.  Restoring her former profile and self image can be a critical step in the healing process for a breast cancer victim.  The options for breast reconstruction go beyond insertion of an augmentation device: for a detailed look at reconstruction choices see http://www.breastreconstruction.ca/surgical.htm. 

4. Breast augmentation works best when the patient who opts for it is well informed.  The study cited above reported that 68% of respondents study reported that they considered the surgery for at least one year before deciding to act.  There is much to learn about breast augmentation: a good place to start is the FDA’s Breast Implant Consumer Handbook. 

5. It’s important to understand that, just as any surgical procedure, there may be post-op complications.  One important part of the process in selecting a surgeon is finding one who will be straightforward about possible complications and their likelihood.

6. Breast augmentation with implants is best considered to be a procedure that will have to be repeated.  Implants are generally replaced after ten to fifteen years.  It is also possible that an implant can burst.  There is no health threat associated with a burst implant, but it will require replacing.  It’s important to know the surgical reality behind the aesthetic improvement.

7. Finally, select your surgeon with care.  Ask your regular doctor for a recommendation, and then seek out other women who have had procedures or who have knowledge of the field.  Many plastic surgeons specialize today; find one who specializes in breast augmentation and reconstruction and who has his or her own criteria for accepting patients. 

The dismissive nickname ‘boob job’ sounds good around the water cooler but does not do justice to a surgical procedure that has changed many women’s lives.  Start with the fact that this society, like most, worships the physical characteristics of youth – it’s just that we’re a lot more crass about it than most.

Millions of women believe that their principal qualities of attraction are physical, and that those characteristics approach ideal as they get closer to the proportions of a ‘precocious’ fifteen-year-old.  After a couple of kids, meeting that goal is all but impossible.  Many women resort to the tools of technology to try and regain some of that youthful look.  Once you break away from the water cooler and return to your desk, a little research will reveal that there are a lot of options to a ‘boob job’ and that a breast lift is only one of them.

The largest segment of the population that seeks out breast surgery is women in their thirties or older who are married and/or have children.  Rather than seeking some fictional ‘ideal’ as defined by Cosmo, these women are seeking to restore their figure to something approaching those single days, or to change a physical shortcoming that has bothered them for years.  With a specific goal in mind, it’s easier to explore the specific opportunities that cosmetic breast surgery offers.  Here are some suggestions.

1. If your breasts are sagging as the result of a couple of pregnancies and nursing cycles, a breast lift is going to help.  Many surgeons will suggest that an implant is an important part of restoring and maintaining the lifted breast.  As the tissues settle following surgery, the “upper pole” portion of the breast will settle as well.  An implant in that area will maintain the fullness of the breast after the initial period following the lift.

2. Asymmetrical breasts are just another physical reality to some women, and for others it’s a malformation that drives them crazy.  Breasts can be brought into a symmetrical match without augmentation – or at least, without increasing the size of both breasts and creating an altered profile.  It is perhaps the most subtle of breast augmentation choices, but important to someone who has felt oddly one-sided for years.

3. Breast augmentation is a surgical procedure that is designed in large part to execute a psychological change.  Women who are seeking a larger bust have generally felt inferior due to the flat chest that they have lived with every day since puberty.  It’s important to talk with your surgeon and – most important – with other women who have sought the same remedy. 

4. You must understand that physical change has limits.  Like contact lenses, your new shape will soon become a standard fixture.  Your surgeon can give you a new outer shell but the new self confidence that should go with it must come from within.

5. Sometimes when you think a breast lift is in order, the more effective option is a breast reduction.  Reduction of large breasts after they are well into adulthood (and parenthood) can often have a dual effect.  Reduction combined with lift will give you a new and perhaps more comfortable silhouette as it is more proportional.  Breast reductions can also provide relief from back pain and perhaps open up some options for athletic activity that you had previously avoided.