You may see Santa and his reindeer streaming thru the sky tonight or see them on those radar images TV newscasters use to chart his path from the North Pole. If so, let's hope that he's delivering 3-D printers which'll help countries around the world take better care of cleft lip and palate kids. 3D printers.What do I mean? Well, let me first describe how 3D printers work in case you're not familiar with this cutting-edge technology. According to one source, the first step in the printing of … [Read more...]
Cleft lip news: bullying, ‘Wonder’ movie, Cher’s retreat.
This story by Sara Newman came to my attention recently. It provides useful info for families with cleft lip and palate kids. I've added the info about Cher and her facial differences camps."Anti-bullying messages are prevalent in today’s schools, but some kids still may not understand how mocking someone for their differences can have profound effects that last well beyond the school day.“It breaks my heart,” Michelle Aftimos of Pomfret, [Md] said of the bullying her son, Kyle, 8, has received … [Read more...]
Which of Kate Middleton’s features most requested by plastic surgery patients?
What can I say? An article on plastic surgery that mentioned Kate Middleton, Scarlett Johansson, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, and other paragons of female beauty caught my eye. Maybe it did because the political news about Donald Trump this week has focused on his fat-shaming and battles concerning a former beauty queen. Celebrating the female face and body seems downright wholesome by comparison, even if cosmetic surgery feeds into the lookism of western societies.Plastic surgery and Kate … [Read more...]
Beauty varies by country/sex, but lookism still fuels surgeries.
As we try to fight lookism, we see one obvious factor supporting our cause. It is the fact that beauty and attractiveness vary by sex and by country. That is, men and women have different ideals regarding attractiveness as do people from different countries. (Not so commonly referenced is the factor that attractiveness ideals change over time, e.g., the 1800s, the 1920s, the 1950s, now).Most distressing, however, is the fact that western media (films, magazines, the internet, etc.) are spreading … [Read more...]
Angelina Jolie and most of us have this facial symmetry defect.
New York University plastic surgery prof Sherrell Aston says Angelina Jolie, Tom Cruise, Lucy Liu—and even Barack Obama—have something in common, besides being famous and in the news regularly. They have “slightly asymmetrical chins,” he says, a trait they they share with almost every other person in the world. The finding holds regardless of age, sex, ethnicity or race. You and Angelina Jolie Probably Have This in Common. Dr. Aston has conducted thousands of pre-op facial exams in his … [Read more...]
Face transplant judgment—Successful, Ethical?
Tackling the controversy about face transplants and judging their worth isn't easy, even if it's a qualitative assessment as the following will be. A registry of all transplant patients promises to allow a more quantitative assessment in the future. In my last blog, I did say that—no matter the judgment—facial transplants strike me as a better use of scarce surgical skills and resources than the endless tummy tucks and face lifts that dominate today's plastic surgery landscape. It's clear from … [Read more...]
Status of Face Transplant patients now?
Before we weigh in on the controversy over face transplants (e.g., if the recipient looks the stranger who donated it, won't he/she be a "walking dead" zombie?), let's catch up with some of the recipients thus far. The following "where are they now" story describes several of the America's facial transplant recipients—who're part of a very small exclusive club. Art rendering of a transplant from Cleveland Clinic/Plain Dealer Catching up with Face Transplant Patients CNN writer Elizabeth … [Read more...]