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Good Night For BAAPS At The Aesthetic Medicine Awards

The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) has picked up the prize for Association Initiative of the Year at this year’s Aesthetic Medicine Awards, for the contribution the organisation’s key players have had to the cosmetic treatments industry.

BAAPS is a non profit organisation that ensures that education and practice of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery is advanced in an effective way. Surgeries that want to join the organisation must have extensive background work done to make sure that they qualify, ensuring good quality care for surgeries that are members of BAAPS. They are based at the Royal College of Surgeons.

The award was given out specifically for their work highlighting irresponsible advertising of cosmetic surgery. In 2008 they referred to models with ‘anatomically impossible’ breasts as well as ‘lunchtime facelifts’ offered by some clinics. Their argument was that these kinds of messages made people have unrealistic expectations regarding their treatment. Such expectations are usually discouraged by surgeons telling patients they should be striving for an improved look rather than the perfect one. The Advertising Standards Authority welcomed the message.

Plastic Surgeon and BAAPS President Nigel Mercer was clearly pleased with the results: “We are delighted to receive this award from Aesthetic Medicine.  At the BAAPS we have always worked hard to educate the public on the issues surrounding aesthetic procedures and it was a privilege to receive recognition from our peers.”

Meanwhile Eve Oxberry, editor of Aesthetic Medicine magazine had this to add: “The Aesthetic Medicine Awards is totally dedicated to encouraging and celebrating best practice throughout the industry.”
Aesthetic Medicine Magazine is an online resource for the medical aesthetic community. The Awards were held at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington as part of a ceremony over one weekend. It featured an exhibition as well as hosting duties from Comedian John Bishop with after dinner entertainment in the form of the Leonard Cheshire charity’s casino. Other categories for awards included best new clinic and best training courses.

Source: BAAPS Press Release

Priscilla Presley

The former wife of the late, great Elvis Presley, Priscilla made waves as the star of the Naked Gun films, but could now star once again as her character in Tales from the Crypt without going to hair and makeup after a botched injection from a shady doctor. 

Was it worth it?
From far away she doesn’t look too bad, but who knows what effect those chemicals are going to have in the long run.
Not Worth It.

Melanie Griffith

She’s only in her fifties and yet the amount of work, from facelift to lip augmentation, that’s been done on her face leaves her looking like a sixty-something soccer mom trying to pass for forty. Antonio must be so consumed with the appearance of his own face that he faintly recognizes he’s now married to Meg Ryan.

Was it worth it?
Her skin looks like it has practically been acid burned.
Not Worth It.

Cher

Cher’s career has lasted over 40 years, but her face is continually becoming reborn. I don’t know if it’s possible but, amid the obvious cheek implants, the facelift, and the collagen injections, it seems like the most noticeable change has been the elongation of her face.

Was it worth it?
With all that work done, her face is going to last a hell of a lot longer than her career, but that doesn’t mean we want it to.
Maybe or Maybe Not

Joan Rivers

Joan Rivers has become the golden standard for plastic surgery. We don’t laugh at her comedy, we don’t pay attention to her shows, we only watch to catch a glimpse of when her multiple facelifts, nose jobs, and other reconstructions will begin to move her face on their own.

Was it worth it?
Joan’s fully fake face is the only reason we know who she is.
Worth It.

Michael Jackson

There really aren’t any words. A skin bleaching disease couldn’t possibly turn a cute round-faced African American boy into Skeletor. There’s gotta be something in that blanket of his kids.

Was it worth it?
His initial musical talent and his subsequent bizarre behaviors were entertainment enough… we really didn’t need to bear witness to any public displays of self mutilation.
Not Worth It.

Jocelyn Wildenstein

The wealthy British heiress is often referred to as Cat Woman or The Bride of Wildenstein (Bride of Frankenstein) for reportedly undergoing nearly $4 million in plastic surgeries – facelifts, eye reconstruction, and injections all over her face – to become more feline.

Was it worth it?
She’s managed to change the world with her millions and simultaneously set herself up as a true soul mate.
Worth It. (lol)

Live fish which chow down on dead skin cells are giving pedicures to the pampered as well as helping cure psoriasis.

The Doctor fish ( if you want to get technical garra rufa ) eat the dead skin and leave healthy skin alone. In the video below you can see the little chompers nibbling away at the feet. The use of Doctor Fish as a treatment  for psoriasis is available in Turkey where you submerge your whole body in huge swimming pools of thousands of fish for hours on end while they snack on you…..eeeeeeeek!!!!!

The Russian Sisters
I don’t know what their names are, but these are some of the lips on these Russian sisters are some of the craziest I’ve ever seen. Since they’re genetically related, I suppose the mouths could be real, but, in any case, it’s nice to know that these girls don’t have a problem making fun of themselves.

Lisa Evans
Made famous for her role as Krystle Karrington on Dynasty, Lisa Evans is a classic case of a woman who went way overboard on plastic surgery, theoretically to make herself younger, but she just ended up looking older than her age while trying to look young.

Lisa Rinna
What is it about soap stars and plastic surgery? Do they feel that because they get stuck in a time warp playing the same character for years, sometimes decades, that in real life they should remain in that time warp through injections, tucks, and enhancements? Maybe that’s how Lisa justifies her appearance to herself.

Latoya Jackson
I know Michael, aka Skeletor, gets all the press, but Latoya is just as bad. I wonder if they got a family rate for freakishness.

Joan Rivers
She takes the liberty of cutting down celebrities on the red carpet. How come no one even touches the fact that Joan Rivers’ face does not move and is more and more beginning to resemble the Grinch?

Amanda Lepore
If Matel decided to make a porn star out of Original Barbie, Amanda Lepore would be their sole inspiration. As a transsexual, Amanda has graced the pages of Playboy, is known as David LaChappelle’s muse, and has given M.A.C. cosmetics the most interesting landscape to work with in their ads.

Jessica Wildenstein
Better known to the world and the internet as Catwoman, Jessica Wildenstein, with the intention of winning back her millionaire art collector husband, physically transformed herself into one of the wild cats that her wandering-eyed husband was so enthralled with. Who knows how many procedures she’s gone through to get to this awful state, but turns out it was all worthless… her husband left her anyway.

The company that introduced Botox is about to launch a new revolutionary cosmetic product that improves the appearance of eyelashes by giving them length and volume.

Allergan are first launching the eyelash augmenting serum, which is called Latisse, in the US. The 30-day course of the drug is likely to cost around £80.

The drug, which is administered in the form of drops that are applied to the eyelashes daily, is thought to come to the UK by the end of the year.

The company conducted surveys and reported that women who tried the product noticed a 25 per cent increase in the length, 106 per cent increase in volume and 18 per cent increase in blackness of the eyelashes.

Once the consumer stops using the product, as the cells in the eyelashes reproduce, they slowly return to the initial state.

Redness of eyes and long lasting brownness of the iris have been reported as side effects.

A slimming pill that can help people lose weight quickly is about to become available to the public in a few months.

The product is called Alli and works by preventing the body from taking in fat from food. According to the trials, the consumers lost around 10lb in six months.

The medical regulating bodies in Europe have approved the product and it is expected to be launched in pharmacies by the beginning of summer.

According to the manufacturer of the product GlaxoSmithKline, the approval of the drug to be sold without prescription is ‘a significant milestone’, since it is the first product in this field which will be accessible to the public without medical advice.

The participants of the product trials who took the pill daily every time they consumed food, lost about 50 per cent more than those who decided to shift weight naturally. However, there were cases when the dieters shed more than five stone of excess weight.
 
An average decrease in weight of 10lb roughly equals dropping one dress size.
 
However, the new product does have side effects. Due to the body not being able to get rid of undigested fat, consumers of the drug are more likely to experience wind and diarrhoea. Moreover, Alli is thought to prevent the absorption of some vitamins and therefore it is necessary for consumers to take vitamins daily.

The product, which is a much weaker version of prescription slimming pill Xenical, will be accessible to anyone whose body mass index is higher than 28. An individual with a BMI between  25 and 29 is considered overweight and someone with a BMI higher than 30 is categorised as obese.

The drug, which will be available in all major pharmacies, has already accumulated £400 million in US sales during the first year of production.

Its price is yet to be fixed, but in the U.S., where it has been on sale for over a year, it costs around £1 a day. Glaxo has stressed that the pill, taken three times a day, is designed to enhance rather than replace the benefits of diet and exercise.

‘Consumers are spending millions of pounds each year on fad diets, unproven “miracle pills” and potentially unsafe weight loss supplements,’ commented chairman of the National Obesity Forum Dr David Haslam.

‘Medically proven licensed products give consumers the option of something which can genuinely support meaningful weight loss,’ he explained.

However, doubts have been raised over the effectiveness of the drug without trial conditions.

Gareth Williams, who is the editor of a book called Obesity: Science to Practice, claims that changing lifestyle habits can bring the same results as slimming pills.

‘Don’t eat between meals, leave out food that’s obviously full of fat or sugar and get half an hour’s walking exercise a day. That’s all you need to do,’ he advised.

Numbers of women ignore dramatic side effects for the sake of a beautiful tan.

Many women in the UK are lured by the opportunity to develop an even golden tan into injecting themselves with a tanning drug called Melanotan that has not been approved by regulating bodies and is considered to be illegal.

The so-called Barbie drug is easy to get hold of through Internet websites. The drug is sold in a pack of ten injections, which costs £30 and lasts for about a month. The illegal product has to be injected into the stomach on a weekly basis. Thousands of women across the UK ignore the warnings of experts about unknown long term damage and the numerous short term side effects and purchase the drug online or even from gyms and beauty salons.

According to current legal regulations of the UK, it is illegal to sell Melanotan, but not illegal to buy it. Regardless of these regulations, the tanning drug is easily found through the search engine Google. Numerous websites offer the illegal drug which can be sold in kits of 10 to 100 mg. The kit includes the chemical powder which produces tan and clean water for mixing. The consumers have to obtain needles themselves.

The online sellers have disclaimers that acknowledge the product has not been tested for safety and that the buyers should be aware of possible dangers to their health. Moreover, most websites avoid legal liability claiming that the drug is sold for ‘research purposes only’.

The drug works by tricking the skin into producing the melanin, the dark pigment that causes tanning. However, there have been no surveys to investigate possible long term damage the drug may cause such as risks of skin cancer, since Melanotan has never undergone any official medical trials. Moreover, it has never been medically approved for use in Britain or in any other country.  Therefore, long term side effects could be unpredictable and it has not been established what a safe single dose should be.
Dermatologists and medical experts are concerned about the fact that the key ingredient of Melanotan works by activating melanocytes in the individual’s epidermis. Melanocytes are the skin cells that could become malignant in some forms of skin cancers, which leads experts to suspect possible links between the drug and increased risks of cancer in the long run.

Women have often experienced severe side effects right after the first injection, including being ill and not being able to get out of bed, sharp pain in the stomach, strong headaches, diziness, nausea, series of vomiting fits, uncontrollable spasms and darkening of moles. Moreover, depression, loss of appetite, nausea, high blood pressure, facial heatwaves and panic attacks have been reported.

Some consumers are even convinced that the illegal chemical is a healthier option than sunbeds, which are clinically proven to increase the risk of skin cancer.

However, experts insist that injecting oneself with an illegal and untested substance for the sake of vanity is a highly risky matter and that the true side effects could not become visible until years after the injections.

BAAPS (The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons) has announced the results of a survey about breast enlargement procedures, which is considered to be the largest survey of this field in the UK to date.

The object of the research was just under 27,000 cases over a six year period.

The study reveals that the total number of breast enlargement operations increased by 275% between 2002 and 2007, with around 2,400 operations carried out in 2002 and 6,500 in 2007.

The figures of the survey show an average 0.53% chance of infection, which is five times lower than the European average of 2.5%.

“This survey of over 26,000 patients undergoing breast augmentation is the largest of its kind and demonstrates that reduced complication rates can be achieved by the application of careful surgical technique and a safe hospital environment. Patients should choose their surgeon carefully as this is not an operation where one size fits all and tailoring the procedure to each individual does produce better results,” concluded Rajiv Grover, plastic Surgeon, Secretary of BAAPS and the author of the research.

Plastic surgeon and member of BAAPS Mr Douglas McGeorge, commented: “These results confirm what we have always known – that risks associated with surgical procedures are dramatically lessened when patients choose properly trained and qualified practitioners knowledgeable in the latest techniques and advances. At the BAAPS our members undergo thorough screening and are audited yearly. It’s essential that people considering breast augmentation, or indeed any aesthetic procedure, do their research and check surgeon qualifications.”

The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons has conducted a research in order to reveal top reasons why patients get turned down and what statistic figures this involves.

 BAAPS has raised concerns which are thought to be related to a recent case of a woman having a stroke following a facelift. It turned out that the woman was not eligible for surgery because of high blood pressure.

The figures of the survey reveal that patients having unrealistic expectations or seeing the procedure as a solution to their problems is the main reason for turning down patients for one third of the interviewed surgeons.

The second most common reason was the procedure being completely unnecessary, e. g. young women requiring facial lifts. The third top reason for rejecting patients was the patient having certain medical conditions that significantly increase the chance of complications during or after the operation.
 
Another reason for the patient’s unsuitiability for plastic operations was their obsession with celebrity appearance, cited by 5% of BAAPS surgeons. Last year, just under half of the interviewed surgeons have refused surgery to one in ten patients. One fifth of cosmetic surgeons have rejected around 30% of the patients they consulted.

Plastic surgeon and president of BAAPS Nigel Mercer claimed: “This unnecessary tragedy reiterates the importance of a thorough consultation with a qualified aesthetic plastic surgeon. In the current economic climate, some unscrupulous clinics might be tempted to boost their numbers by operating on unsuitable patients so it’s important the public not be seduced by marketing gimmicks and financial incentives. There is risk in any surgical procedure but this can be minimised by choosing the right practitioner who can evaluate an accurate history and educate the patient about the choices available.”

“As a surgeon, the patient’s health and well-being should always come first and sometimes that means turning that person down for cosmetic surgery – no matter how much they want it or for how long they’ve been saving up for it,” added the surgeon.

Rajiv Grover, consultant plastic surgeon and Honorary Secretary of BAAPS, commented: “I have seen quite a few patients in their 30s that ask for a facelift and refer to it as just ‘a little nip/tuck’ to ‘freshen up the face’. People in this age group are much too young for a facelift, which is far from being a minor surgical procedure. This is a perfect example of when, as a surgeon, it is my moral duty to say ‘No’, as the surgery is completely unnecessary.”

A well known plastic surgeon has reported that cosmetic doctors are feeling the effects of the global economic situation, since wealthy women frequently choose to suspend pending cosmetic treatments in relation to the tough financial circumstances.

Anthony Erian claimed that plastic surgery businesses have also started experiencing the effects of the crisis.

For example, the surgeon named the case of a private clinic closing down and figures showing only half of the usual demand for cosmetic procedures.

Mr Erian, who has worked as a plastic surgeon for 29 years, explained: “People who don’t need cosmetic surgery are saying that cosmetic surgery is a luxury they cannot afford at the moment – just like they might decide not to go on holiday.”

“I would say there is a downturn of 50% across the board. They’re having the same problem in America. Who would have thought that American plastic surgeons would be looking for work in Dubai and the UK – but they are.”

“I don’t think the industry will die. There will always be a demand. It’s a matter of riding out the storm,” said Mr Erian.

The surgeon, who has performed surgery in Europe and the US, has a private practice in London and was the head surgeon at the Cambridge Private Hospital until it shut down in December 2008.

Mr Erian claimed that cosmetic surgery had become much more accessible to people with average income. However, the majority of people having cosmetic procedures are still female with only one in six patients being male. The surgeon added that private clinics that specialise only in plastic surgery were likely to struggle more than businesses that perform other types of surgical procedures.

He explained: “Hospitals which do other work and are partly financed by the National Health Service will find it easier. The hospital in Cambridge was specialist and they decided they did not want to lower their standards so they closed. Similar hospitals will also find it hard.”