May 4, 2011
April 29, 2011
Dr. Constantino Mendieta discusses butt lifts on RTL German TV
mendietartlrecut
April 28, 2011
Gastric Surgery for Teens: When All Else Fails
Four years ago, when she was fifteen years old, Michelle Montanti lost over 100 pounds. But she didn’t do it through dieting or exercise–instead, she went under the knife.
It was the best thing she has ever done.
“I’m so happy I did it,” says Michelle, now 19 and a student at Le Cordon Bleu Cooking School, in Los Angeles, where she plans to use her culinary skills to help other teens learn that eating healthy can be delicious and easy.
Michelle wrestled with the scales her whole life, weighing 246 at her heaviest (she’s 5’2″). Like most overweight kids, she was relentlessly teased, and it only got worse when she entered high school. She tried every conceivable diet from vegan to liquid protein, but none worked. As for exercise, she was too heavy to even to do a simple sit-up.
March 22, 2011
Hoping to Avoid the Knife
By Andrew Pollack
In November, the prestigious Cleveland Clinic hailed a “scar-less” weight-loss surgery as one of the top 10 medical innovations expected this year.
Developed by a company aptly called Satiety Inc., the procedure shrinks the stomach by using a stapler inserted through the mouth, rather than by cutting open a person’s belly.
But when the results of a clinical trial came in, the procedure resulted in the shedding of far fewer pounds for patients than the company had hoped. Venture capitalists who had invested $86 million in Satiety over a decade shut the company down.
The failure of the procedure, called transoral gastroplasty, pushes back the availability of any incision-less procedure to millions of obese Americans for several years, a disappointment to companies trying to find the next best thing to major surgery. The setback also further restricts options for those who are overweight, because it is occurring on top of federal rejections of a new generation of diet pills.
March 10, 2011
Lift Off!
David Andrusia
The new face of anti-aging procedures
Once upon a time, it was easy. You arrived at a certain age and–if you had the funds and gumption–you got a facelift. Today, the range of elective anti-aging procedures has never been wider. Baffled? You’re not alone. We debunk the anti-aging myths and present the best new procedures from SoCal’s top docs.
Selecting a Specialty
First, define your terms. Cosmetic surgery is concerned with improving the aesthetic appearance of a person, while plastic surgery may include this, or just the reconstruction angle.
Second, find out what a doc does best. Some are known for lifts, others for Botox brilliance and one is a master of butts.
Third, ascertain the doctor’s level of training and expertise. Michael Niccole, M.D., founder and medical director of CosmetiCare Plastic Surgery Center & Med Spa in Newport Beach, advises, “Determine a surgeon’s board certification and be sure which board she or he is certified by. There are a number of pseudo-boards, which provide a false sense of security to consumers; in fact, these boards are not monitored by the government, as one would expect.”