In case you missed it... Oprah's Episode on Bioidentical Hormones

Most of us missed the Bioidentical Hormone episode of Oprah due to the water landing in the Hudson River. Someone put it up on Youtube in five segments: enjoy it while it lasts:











Dr. Jason Pozner
Sanctuary Medical Aesthetic Center

Dr. David J. Goldberg
Sanctuary Medical Aesthetic Center
Skin Laser Surgery Specialists NY/NJ

In the news: Teen Plastic Surgery

The NY Times' Skin Deep series turned its attention to teenage plastic surgery on Thursday, with an article by Camille Sweeney, as well as the popular blog Jezebel. Our colleague Dr. Rick Lukash weighed in along with Dr. Alan Gold to say that it's acceptable for teenagers to have cosmetic surgery, as long as they are medically and mentally able to handle it.

From the article:
"The latest figures from the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery show that the number of cosmetic surgical procedures performed on youths 18 or younger more than tripled over a 10-year period, to 205,119 in 2007 from 59,890 in 1997. This includes even more controversial procedures: liposuctions rose to 9,295 from 2,504, and breast augmentations increased nearly sixfold, to 7,882 from 1,326. ... Dr. Frederick Lukash, a plastic surgeon in New York City and Long Island who specializes in treating adolescents, said: “Unlike adults who may elect cosmetic surgery for that ‘wow’ factor to stand out in a crowd, to be rejuvenated and get noticed, kids have a different mantra. They do it to fit in.”

In my experience, almost all teen plastic surgery patients and their parents that have consulted with me have been very reasonable. Most common request is rhinoplasty at age 16, which is acceptable since the nose has mostly stopped developing by then.



Requests for breast surgery are mostly due to marked size development abnormalities. For those 18 and 19 seeking augmentation, the patients generally want to be "normal," and are seeking small implants and a cup change from A to B.

It's the moms who want the larger implants for themselves.

Thanks for reading,

Dr. Jason Pozner
Sanctuary Medical Aesthetic Center

Dr. David J. Goldberg
Sanctuary Medical Aesthetic Center
Skin Laser Surgery Specialists NY/NJ

Kythera on track to treat under-chin fat soon

Kythera is trying to make some scientific sense of the injectable lipolysis market, specifically for submental (under the chin, or neck) fat. Based upon this press release they are making some headway with their new pharmaceutical.

Dr. Goldberg pointed out that studies in the U.S. have only looked at lipomas (benign tissues composed of fatty tissue) thus far, but will soon evaluate neck fat.

We applaud the way they are approaching this in a scientific, controlled manner and eagerly await further results. As the press release notes, in a random evaluation of 220 Botox and filler patients, 73% had excessive submental fat.

Thanks for reading,

Dr. Jason Pozner
Sanctuary Medical Aesthetic Center, Boca Raton

Dr. David J. Goldberg
Sanctuary Medical Aesthetic Center, Boca Raton
Skin Laser Surgery Specialists of NY/NJ

IMCAS Wrap-Up

I have co-directed the IMCAS for a decade and this was the most exciting ever. Among the 3,500 attendees were cosmetic dermatologists, plastic surgeons and a variety of other physicians interested in cosmetic and anti-aging medicine. Much of the newer skin cosmetic techniques are presented at this meeting before they become available in the US. For example there were a variety of new wrinkle fillers discussed at IMCAS that are not yet sold in the US. This will soon change.

Currently we have great wrinkle fillers in the US . These include Restylane, Juvederm, Radiesse, Evolence and Sculptra. Soon we will have new fillers. These include Novielle, Voluma and Revanesse (see generic stock photo below).


Novielle represents a group of wrinkle fillers that contain a unique gel polymer. This material is currently undergoing FDA evaluations at several centers, including our New Jersey and Boca Raton, FL offices.

Voluma contains hyaluronic acid, the same wrinkle filler material contained in Restylane and Juvederm. However, the material in Voluma is thicker and will be used for facial sculpturing – an attempt to expand the concept of the liquid facelift.

Finally, Revanesse is another hyaluronic acid now available in both Europe and Canada. All these substances will help to continue the development of non-invasive, non-surgical medicine.

David J. Goldberg, MD
Skin Laser & Surgery Specialists of NY/NJ
Sanctuary Medical Aesthetic Center
Boca Raton, FL

Jason Pozner MD
Sanctuary Medical Aesthetic Center
Boca Raton, FL

Oprah to discuss bioidentical hormones tomorrow

As per this month's O! Magazine, Oprah Winfrey has been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism and has turned to bioidentical hormone therapy to treat the symptoms, along with the ill effects of being premenopausal. According to her website, tomorrow's Oprah program will be dedicated to a discussion of bioidentical hormone therapy.

We will be back tomorrow after the show with some words from Dr. Mitchell Matez, SMAC's resident expert on hormone replacement therapy.

Dr. Jason Pozner
Sanctuary Medical Aesthetic Center

Dr. David Goldberg
Sanctuary Medical Aesthetic Center
Skin Laser Surgery Specialists NY/NJ

Here Comes Latisse

We've blogged about it here and here, and Natasha Singer of the NY Times is also on the scene, with today's article "Love the Long Eyelashes. Who's Your Doctor?"

The article cites annual revenue estimates for Allergan's upcoming eye-lash lengthening drug Latisse, ranging from $80 million in 2012 (via Gary Nachman of Leerink Swan), to $500 million "long-term" (coming from Allergan CEO David Pyott).

The meat of the article comes here:

"Allergan held a clinical trial with about 280 volunteers, half of whom used Latisse daily for 16 weeks. The study results were reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration, which approved the drug in late December. In that study, eyelashes typically grew 25 percent longer, 106 percent thicker and 18 percent darker. While 3.6 percent of patients experienced eye itching and red eyes, none had a change of eye color, Allergan said."

Stay tuned for more on this... articles like this hint that Latisse may become a household name next to Botox someday.

Dr. Jason Pozner
Sanctuary Medical Aesthetic Center

Dr. David J. Goldberg
Sanctuary Medical Aesthetic Center
Skin and Laser Surgery Specialists of New York/New Jersey

Guest Post: Dr. Michael Gold on IMCAS

One of the most well-known speakers at IMCAS was Dr. Michael Gold, from Nashville, TN.

My IMCAS was varied this year - I talked about re-absorbable fillers in the U.S. - what differentiates them and what we need to look for from the FDA as far as safety is concerned - and these products are very safe in the right hands. I was also introduced to Europe Mentor's new toxin - PurTox - a pure neurotoxin finishing clinical trials in the U.S. - and the data associated with those trials.

I also presented on complications of lasers and IPLs - something that we don't usually spend a lot of time on at meetings but is one of the more important topics - I also did this with David Goldberg in the European Laser session. I reviewed what was new in cellulite and fat removal, focusing on the newer devices that are either new to the market or are close to becoming available on the market including for cellulite - SmoothShapes by Eleme (www.elememedical.com). and for body contouring Accent by Alma (www.almalasers.com), Skin Tyte by Sciton (www.sciton.com), Aluma by Lumenis (www.lumenis.com), Smartlipo by Cynosure (www.cynosure.com), ProLipo by Sciton (www.sciton.com), Liposonix for ultrasound fat destruction (www.liposonix.com), Zeltiq for cold fat destruction (www.zeltiq.com).

And I participated in two sessions on marketing - and how we do things in the US versus some of the restrictions in Europe.

The hottest topics by far were toxins and fillers - different from previous years where lasers were right up there - but seemed to be a little bit behind this year. The global economy seemed to have had this influence.

Dr. Michael Gold

Gold Skin Care

Dr. David J. Goldberg
Sanctuary Medical Aesthetic Center
Skin Laser Surgery Specialists NY/NJ

Dr. Jason Pozner
Sanctuary Medical Aesthetic Center

IMCAS: Glimpse of Ulthera

We are still extremely hot on Ulthera. This revolutionary device has the potential to upend the non-surgical facial rejuvenation market. It's still not approved in the US, but we feel that its skin thickness measuring aspects and ability to put targeted thermal zones into specific deeper tissue layers may be a way to non-surgically tighten facial skin.

As you can see, Dr. Pozner is very happy with the device.
Dr. David J. Goldberg
Sanctuary Medical Aesthetic Center
Skin Laser Surgery Specialists NY/NJ

Dr. Jason Pozner
Sanctuary Medical Aesthetic Center