Plastic Surgeon of the Millennium D. Ralph Millard Dies at 92

Plastic Surgeon of the Millennium D. Ralph Millard Dies at 92

Picture:  D. Ralph Millard, MD and Diane Hamilton, PhD

My cousin, D. Ralph Millard, once nominated as one of the 10 “plastic surgeons of the millenium” died recently of heart failure.  The Miami Herald included an article about this amazing man’s life.  According to that article, “He was best known for developing “rotation advancement’’ surgery in the ‘50s. The method conserves tissue that doctors had routinely removed when correcting a cleft lip, producing a natural-looking mouth in much less time. Before he developed it, surgical procedures were performed on patients into their late teens. With his method, most children are operated on by 4 or 5. Millard also made major advances in corrective rhinoplasty— nose surgery—for people disfigured by accidents, cancer, war wounds, even cocaine abuse. “His work is considered pure artistry,” Dr. Bernard Fogel, dean emeritus of the medical school, told The Miami Herald when Millard retired in 2000, three months before the death of his wife of 45 years, Barbara Smith Millard. “He’s a giant.”

To read the rest of the article, click here.

Ralph was an inspiration to me and so many others.  For information about Dr. Ralph Millard and the Millard Society, click here.

Baby Boomers Keeping Plastic Surgeons Busy

The popularity of plastic surgery is undeniable.  What may be interesting to note is how much of an impact the Baby Boomer generation has on the number of plastic surgery procedures performed.  Baby Boomers are those born between 1946 and 1964.   Karen Zupko and Sheila Hall from the Aesthetic Society News magazine recently reported some interesting Baby Boomer, cosmetic and plastic surgery statistics:

  • 7,000 Baby Boomers turn 65 per day in 2011 – This will jump to 10,000 per day over the next 18 years according to Pew Research.
  • People age 51-64 account for 28% of total plastic surgery procedures
  • People over 65 account for 7.3% of total plastic surgery procedures
  • Baby Boomers make up 35% of plastic surgery patients
  • The rate of men age 50-64 who color their hair grew from 3-10% from 1999 to 2000
  • 2,437,165 Botox procedures were performed in 2010 (all age groups) – Non-invasive procedures are growing with men accounting for 15% of injectable market and 26% of skin rejuvenation market.

How can plastic surgeons capitalizing on this demographic?    The authors suggest a few ideas to appeal to this group:

  • Have marketing material in larger font for ease of reading
  • Offer a pampering environment
  • Don’t waste patients’ time by making them wait
  • Focus on men too as they are becoming more interested in plastic surgery
  • Don’t focus on age in marketing because according to Pew Research, this group feels 9 years younger than their true age
  • Make things convenient for them

For those targeting Baby Boomers in their marketing plan, they may want to consider television advertising as Boomers watch more television than any other generation.

For more information about plastic surgery and specific procedures, click here.

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Considering Plastic Surgery? Site Lets Patients Share Stories

via azplasticsurgerycenter.com

Sites like HysterSisters have been popular for women who want to get together and discuss their menopause and hysterectomy-related issues. Now there is a site for people to utilize who may be considering plastic surgery.  The site MakeMeHeal.com offers a variety of information including everything from post-surgical underwear choices to information about what products may be helpful to heal after specific surgeries. 

If a patient is considering eyelid surgery (blepharoplasty) for example, they can go to the link specifically about that procedure to find out details about the surgery including how long it will take to recover, homeopathic remedies for pain relief, what other comfort products are available, and even what makeup works the best as camouflage.

Like the HysterSisters site, the MakeMeHeal site offers a message board.  According to their site, “Our plastic surgery message boards are for all of us who want to talk, listen, share, help, and support fellow women and men interested in cosmetic surgery and non-surgical procedures. You can read messages without logging in. To post a message, please log in or register. It’s free…and being a member gives you access to important information.”

The site even offers a directory of doctors.  Be aware that the doctors with a lot of information and recommendations may also be advertising on the site. It is important that you research any physician on additional sites.  Patients can rate their doctors and even upload their own before and after pictures.  There is a “create your photo album” option available for those interested in keeping track of several operations.   

I recently asked Dr. Robert Spies, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Arizona what he thought about this site. Dr. Spies stated, “It’s an informative, easy-to-navigate website that provides excellent up-to-date information on the latest plastic surgery procedures.” For additional information about specific operations, see the following links from Dr. Robert Spies, MD at Arizona Plastic Surgical Center:

Facelifts

Breast Augmentation

Liposuction

Tummy Tuck

Non-Surgical Procedures like Botox

CryoPreservation: Having Your Brain Preserved After You Die

Ted Williams help to bring to light cryogenics and the procedure of freezing a human head.  While preserving parts of us after we die may seem bazaar, there may be some things we can learn from brain preservation.

According to the Brain Preservation Organization, “Due to a series of recent scientific developments, human beings may soon have an inexpensive and reliable way to preserve their brains, including the molecular features that give rise to their memories and identities, in room-temperature storage after they die. This technology is called plastination (chemopreservation), or chemical fixation and embedding in plastic, and is a distant cousin of the process seen in such exhibits as Body Worlds. Today, “perfect” plastination is routinely done for very small amounts of brain tissue (one millimeter cubed), and soon it will be attempted for whole animal and human brains. Cryopreservation (involving very low temperature storage) is another, more expensive process that also deserves to be carefully evaluated for its ability to preserve the critical structures of our brains. Today, leading-edge neuroscience is identifying the synaptic structures that store and generate our unique memories and identity, and new imaging techniques are allowing us to verify when these special structures have been successfully preserved, starting with general synaptic connectivity all the way to the signal states of individual brain proteins.”

This organization is even offering a prize of $106,000 to those teams that can actually preserve a large animal brain.  Their hope is to preserve the human wisdom and diversity that dies with us along with our brains.

As one might guess, not everyone is thrilled with this idea.  For those with objections to such a project, this site has created a page for overcoming objections.

Their mission is to, “promote scientific research and services development in the field of whole brain preservation for long-term static storage. Through outreach to appropriate scientific communities, online activities, presentations and articles, directed research grants, challenge prizes, and other methods, we seek to explore the scientific hypothesis of whether a reliable surgical procedure exists that is capable of preserving the precise neural circuitry of the human brain at nanometer scale.”

For those interested in reading more about cryopreservation, chemical preservation or scanning and circuit mapping click here for more information.

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