Top Five Urban Myths About Plastic Surgery

Has anyone ever told you an outlandish story, saying it happened to an uncle or a friend of a cousin while absolutely swearing it’s true? But it seems you could never track down the source of the story.

All too often, these told, retold and told yet again stories are urban myths. They just did not happen even though everybody believes them.

Consequently, we’ve set the filter to high on our high-tech plastic surgery news gathering gizmo and have uncovered the top five urban myths about plastic surgery.

PLASIC SURGERY URBAN MYTH NUMBER 5. Cher had her lowest pair of ribs surgically removed so she would have a true hour glass figure and tiny waist.

REALITY: Cher admits to having a lot of plastic surgery on her breasts and face but the ribs are really off limits. Other stars who have also been rumored to remove a rib or two include: Elizabeth Taylor, (“Hanoi”) Jane Fonda, Tori Spelling, Pamela Anderson, Janet Jackson and Britney Spears.

PLASTIC SURGERY URBAN MYTH NUMBER 4: NASCAR champ Kurt Busch had trouble getting his crash helmet on so he had an operation to pin his ears back.

BUSCH BEFORE



BUSCH AFTER


REALITY: While Busch’s helmet always fit just fine, thank you, Kurt did have otoplasty, cosmetic surgery on his ears just because he has always wanted to look better. Plus, he was getting married soon. Weddings probably cause more plastic surgery than all the television shows about cosmetic plastic surgery combined. It’s because wedding pictures are handed down for generations. Well, in at least 50 percent of the cases, if you factor in the current divorce rate. (My own thrifty, Great Depression survivor parents just took scissors and cut the despicable bride from the wedding pictures after the divorce.)


PLASTIC SURGERY URBAN MYTH NUMBER 3: If you can donate skin from your tummy tuck to the Shriner’s burn center for skin grafting, the Shriner’s will cover the cost of your procedure.



REALITY: Not true. For more about how urban myths can turn into an absolute flood of bogus email, stay on Dr. Oliver’s most excellent website, Plastic Surgery 101 and read about the numbers of misinformed people who write in on this topic.

PLASTIC SURGERY URBAN MYTH NUMBER 2: 73-year-old former astronaut Buzz Aldrin -- and the second person to walk on the face of the moon --recently had a face lift so his death mask would look handsome and because, if selected for a postage stamp, he would look good there, too.



REALITY: Buzz had a face lift O.K, but it had nothing to do with a death mask or postage stamps. Buzz says he has a “trophy wife” who is actually his same age but looks much younger. The moonwalker especially wanted his “droopy jowls” to look firmer.

AND THE TOP PLASTIC SURGERY URBAN MYTH: (that almost everybody believes!) A huge, muscular man had a hard time texting on his new iPhone due to his huge hands so he had plastic surgery on his thumbs to make them skinnier. Below, a six- footer grabbed onto the hand of the surgery patient in question just to show just how big his hands really are. And check out that giant thumb!




REALITY: Never happened. Plastic surgeons don’t offer a “thumioplasty” because there’s nothing to remove, lift, augment, nip or tuck. You need everything on your thumbs just where it is, exactly like Mother Nature designed it.

World’s 1st Breast Augmentation: Done in Exchange for Otoplasty

Back in 1962, a 30-year-old Texas woman allowed doctors to surgically place silicone implants into her sagging breasts. But the patient really wanted her large ears reduced. The patient, Timmie Jean Lindsey, then a young housewife with six children, agreed to go ahead with the breast procedure if the surgeons would later perform an otoplasty, the ear pinning operation.

The Daily Mail in London recently told Timmie Jean’s life story and showed the very first before and after breast augmentation photos.

Read more about the world’s first breast enlargement with implants.

Blog Watch

Read the Beauty Chat Blog to learn how Restylane is now being added to fashionable feet for extra padding while the first Botox only clinic has opened in NYC.
Plus, this is a great spot to stay current with the comings, goings and doings of Dr. 90210 surgeons.

Wendy Lewis, the “Knife Coach” probably knows more about plastic surgery that any other lay person. She has two anecdotes about how breast implants saved a couple of lives. In one case, a female Israeli soldier stopped a shard of shrapnel from an exploding shell when it struck her silicone implant. Her surgeon reported the shard would have otherwise gone into her heart. In the other case, after a head-on auto accident in Bulgaria, rescuers found a woman’s large (40DD) breast implants acted like airbags and prevented damage to her internal organs in the crash. The implants burst upon impact and, like the car, were a total loss.

Breast implants tripped up a murderer and solved a case

NYC detectives found a body packed inside a suitcase but had no clue about her identity. However, the woman had breast implants….which carry registration numbers. Now equipped with her identity, detectives then noticed a quack doctor lived close to where the body was found. A little more sleuthing revealed the doctor had already been busted for practicing medicine without a license. And when all the pieces were put together, they found the victim went to the see the doc on the day she disappeared and died under his “care” because of an unusual antibiotic reaction. The doctor then hid the body, never dreaming the woman actually carried registration numbers.

Dr. John DiSilva’s blog carries a video of a lineup of women (READ: top models) in bras. The idea is to spot the one or ones, if any, who’ve had breast augmentation. You have to sit through an obnoxious commercial before the somewhat surprising truth is revealed.

Plastic Surgery Gets Its Own Freeway!

In happier news: a recent development will speed things up in Beverly Hills, the world Mecca of plastic surgery.

So many people travel to and from Beverly Hills, a new-high speed thoroughfare has been built to insure the timely arrivals of surgical rejuvenation patients at their many destinations in and about the Golden Ghetto.

Pictured below is the Plastic Surgery Freeway. Of course, that moniker is slang -- the roadway’s real name is the Beverly Hills Freeway. Nonetheless, the thoroughfare features convenient off-ramps at Tummy Tuck Parkway, Rhinoplasty Place, Botox Circle, Dermabrasion Drive and other favorite motoring destinations.

(Well, O.K., we made up the part about the Plastic Surgery Freeway, but the rest of the column is totally true! The above picture is actually a ‘fridge magnet. ((Photo courtesy of stickergiant.com.)) But the Beverly Hills Freeway could be real some day, don’t you think?)

Plastic Surgery Research

What a world we have in modern medicine! Machines that perform heart surgery on a patient in outer space while the surgeon-operator remains on earth. Diagnostic machines that can show you crystal clear pictures of your brain’s insides. Not to mention plastic surgeons who can turn back the clock on just about any aging face or body.

How about this? A bit more low-tech to be sure but perhaps useful. Learned researchers working in certified ivory towers at a major university reveal that warts can be removed with duct tape. (My advice: just watch out for the quacking that goes along with using the tape!)

Warts Lost to Duck Tape

University of Minnesota researchers studied the old folk cure technique of covering warts with sticky, fibrous duct tape. Results? It only works a scant 21 percent of the time.

But researchers back in 2002 found the technique worked on the warts of young adults and children 85 percent of the time. That study was reported in a 2003 issue of American Family Physician.

The, ah, sticking point? The 2002 used gray duct tape which contains rubber. But the 2007 study used clear duct tape without rubber. It was a true eureka! moment in science. I can hear the television commercial for wart healing now: “Gray heals! Clear Flops!”

Said one of the researchers: “Theoretically, the rubber adhesive could somehow stimulate the immune system or irritate the skin to attack the wart in a different manner.”

One of the other researchers (we are not making this up) also told of a folk cure which worked for him when he was a mere lad: he found a slug and let it slither across his warts from right to left three times.

Want a preview of that commercial? “Get fast, fast relief from warts! Use Ajax Slugs! More Slime! More right-to-left crossings!”

A New Internal Bra

Women: ever get tired of misplacing your bras?

Medical science is hard at work on this pesky question.

While researchers worldwide have devised several types of internal bras, the latest is from noted Israeli plastic surgeon Eyal Gur who thinks his own design for an internal bra will be approved by this time next year. Oh yeah, not to forget: there’s another selling point: in addition to never losing your bra, you receive a breast lift too. Dr. Gur calls the coming procedure, “TheCup&Up.”

It works like this: Dr. Gur’s internal bra has a thin titanium frame implanted just under the skin. The gizmo also has silicone cups to hold the breasts up.

According to Dr. Gur, implanting an internal bra will be quick -- about 45 minutes -- and less invasive, requiring local anesthesia only. Compare that with today’s breast lifts which usually leave long scars and remove a lot of skin. The new procedure should be cheaper, too.

Not to mention the huge savings on bra bills.

Next -- Super high fashionable cosmetic surgery T-shirts for women.

Plastic Surgery Blog Watch

Current notable entries:

While we’re on the topic of feet: Check the Beauty Chat Blog to learn how Restylane is now being added to fashionable feet for cushioning. You’ll also see news of a Botox-only clinic. Plus, this is a great blog to stay current with the comings, goings and doings of television’s Dr. 90210 surgeons.

Dr. George Berka’s blog observes that cosmetic plastic surgery can improve your mood and even reduce the need for depression medication. You can find a longer take about how psychology, moods and Cosmetic Surgery are all intertwined in the article, Does Plastic and Cosmetic Surgery Cure the Blues? One patient in the article was thrown into many years of depression because she suffered a botched nose job. Unfortunately, it happens more often that you may think. So carefully, carefully check the doctor’s credentials. Here’s how.

Next time:

• Breast implants that protected the owner in a car crash and another that stopped an exploding shell
• Yet another breast implant (hint: it has a serial number) identified an unknown body
• Plus, the Beverly Hills Freeway
• New plastic surgery research. (Another hint: scientists have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the right kind of duct tape can cure warts!)