Cleft lip and palate implies an often 20+ years rehabilitation process for the affected individual starting a few days after birth. The reward of this multistage, interdisciplinary process can be a near normal appearance. The luxury of this treatment in a global perspective is restricted to a privileged few in highly affluent countries. Children born […]
Writing for the gallery
It has been said that it is the secret dream of any surgeon to leave this world with his or her name attached to at least one instrument. This is what makes craniofacial surgery real fun as Paul Tessier had his name attached to almost all instruments on an average craniofacial surgery instrument tray. So […]
Plastic Surgery – A Plastic Surgeon’s Perspective
Despite its overwhelming media presence plastic surgery continues to be the most misunderstood surgical specialty. It is my contention that this is the case because plastic surgery does not claim any specific disease (e. g. coronary artery disease in case of cardiac surgery) as its own nor does it focus on any single organ system […]
The Culture of Aesthetic Surgery
It is entirely personal. The motivation to seek enhancement of physical appearance (e. g. shape) or rejuvenation (e. g. the reconstruction of a youthful shape) should come from within the individual person. The individual perceives some aspect of his/her shape, which in their totality makes up his or her appearance, as a problem in a […]
CEO Announcement: Aesthetic Medicine and Skin Therapy
I am pleased to announce the cooperation of Trinidad Institute of Plastic Surgery and A. M. E. Skin Care Center. A. M. E. Skin Care Center is a full service skin therapy clinic, owned an operated by Areana Emmanuel, certified aesthetician. A native of Trinidad, Areana has been intrigued with the beauty industry from a […]
Electrical Injuries – The “Great Masquerader” in Burn Surgery
Electrical injuries comprise only a small fraction of burn injuries admitted to specialized centers. High voltage injuries may not be survivable. The flow of current through the body interferes with tissues conducting electricity on their own (nerves, heart) and expends its energy on tissues with highest resistance, the bones, causing high temperature damage from the […]
Correcting Crooked Noses and Faces
The correlation between structure and appearance is most straightforward when the skeleton is involved. Today’s case involved a young women after a motor vehicle accident more than a decade ago. The forehead was uneven, the brows in unequal position, old hardware palpable over the roof of the eye socket and the nose was crooked and […]
Cosmetic and Plastic Surgery Abroad for the Medical Tourist
I would like to look at the medical tourist more as a discerning costumer in an ever shrinking world where all of us are moving closer and closer together and our lives become intertwined in a real-time environment. “Abroad” is also a very relative term. Some of my patients in my US practice come from […]
What is cosmetic surgery, what is reconstructive surgery, what is everything in between ?
All too often a difference is made between reconstructive and cosmetic surgery, most often to elevate the status of reconstructive surgery and lower the one of cosmetic surgery. I am a cosmetic surgeon and I do complex reconstrucive surgery. So I never could understand how someone could come up with something so artificial, neither based […]
Aesthetic Craniomaxillofacial Surgery of the Midface
The techniques of skeletal surgery of the midface were originally developed to treat problems related to congenital and posttraumatic deformities affecting the occlusion. Occlusion – the way the upper and lower teeth come together – is determined by the position of the tooth bearing arches of the upper and lower jaws relative to each other. […]