Publications
One of the main points of my teaching is to show surgeons techniques that are safe and unlikely to create new deformities. It is a campaign that I will continue. As part of that campaign, below are links to four of my most recent papers.
One is an editorial about the current status of patients with distorted body image, as defined by the mental health literature, which I think misses some important points for plastic surgery patients.
Two other papers link to my recent research on the high prevalence of childhood abuse or neglect in rhinoplasty patients. No one has ever identified this problem before, but it explains why apparently trivial deformities can incapacitate some patients, and why other patients become (apparently) irrationally unhappy when their results are not what they expected. One of the reasons that these patients seem irrational to plastic surgeons is that the surgeons do not understand the significance of the deformity to the patient.
The fourth paper was a very popular one when it was published three years ago, discussing the reasons that patients are motivated to undergo revision rhinoplasty. One of the points that I make to my colleagues is more than 80% of these patients wanted more surgery to correct problems that had never been fixed; but, even worse, some patients needed surgery to correct brand-new problems that they never originally had.
Follow future blogs to read about my research on the childhoods of plastic surgery patients.
