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225 W. Pueblo St. Suite A
Santa Barbara, CA 93105
Ph / (805) 898.0700

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Pacific Plastic Surgery - Blog

Dr. Mackenzie's Plastic Surgery Blog

A Good Website for Getting Plastic Surgery Information

February 22, 2010 @ 10:55 AM — by Douglas Mackenzie
Tagged with: Plastic Surgery Information
Realself.com (www.realself.com) is a good website for patients to gather information.  It has a question and answer format, where prospective patients post questions, and plastic surgeons (and dermatologists) answer the questions.  This is an unpaid, voluntary activity, so the answers you get may be from plastic surgeons from anywhere in the country.  I have actualy been impressed that the fromat, along with the guidelines set up by the site, effectively prevent the site from being a big promotional venue for individual practices.  So the information patients get is for the most part is very thoughtful and unbiased.  I'm sure most patients, rather than posting their own questions, simply find relevant questions already posted, since there are thousands of them for every procedure you can imagine.  There are usually many answers from various surgeons, so you can get many opinions all in one place. As far as the plastic surgeon responders, I

Botox vs. Dysport, Coke vs. Pepsi

February 19, 2010 @ 10:33 AM — by Douglas Mackenzie
Tagged with: Dysport Botox
I previously wrote on this blog about Dysport, and it's debut on the market as a competitor for Botox.  I wasn't too thrilled that although it seemed to be very similar to Botox, there was essentially little or no cost difference, and speculated that there were maybe some issues of propping up the price because of third party reimbursement for certain non-cosmetic applications, and that each company wanted to keep that under wraps. Well, I'll let that line of conspiracy theory go and chalk it up to the unintended consequences and inefficiencies of government's intrusions into health care (imagine any other product coming onto a market, competing head to head with a similar product - the price of both would go down). Because of patient interest, I decided to get Dysport and have it available along with Botox in my Santa Barbara practice.  So Dysport is now available at Pacific Plastic Surgery with myself or Jessica.  As for t

Lip Augmentation - Passing the Kiss Test

February 11, 2010 @ 03:57 PM — by Douglas Mackenzie
Tagged with: Lip Augmentation Juvederm Radiesse

I responded to a patient question on the site realself.com wondering what injectable lip options passed the "Kiss" test. 

Lady Gaga's Nose

February 02, 2010 @ 04:28 PM — by Douglas Mackenzie
Tagged with: Rhinoplasty Lady Gaga Nose Job

Yesterday I was contacted by E! News as one of their writers thought Lady Gaga looked different at the Grammy Awards, and thought that maybe she had had a nose job (rhinoplasty) recently.  So I looked at a lot of photos and videos of Lady Gaga going back to 2005, including an amazing video of her (Stefani Germanotta back then) perfoming two of her own songs on piano at a 2005 NYU talent show. 

My conclusion was that she has never had cosmetic nose surgery (rhinoplasty).  There was only one older photo of her which is on all of the "Lady Gaga had a nose job" websites, which when put next to a newer photo, does look very different.  However, the "before" photo is of poor quality and was taken with a wide angle lens from above, which makes it look bigger and wider.  (See my previous blog post on photography and plastic surgery).  Looking at many other older photos and comparing them to newer photos, and trying to correct for the different makeup, costumes, lighting, and angles, I came to the conclusion that there is nothing to the rumor.  Of course, I could be wrong.

But if I'm wrong, it's the most subtle rhinoplasty ever, so why would she have bothered?  She still has a prominent bony cartilaginous dorsum (the hump) and prominent lower lateral cartilages (the sides of the tip).  She has a retrusive (weak) chin on profile as well, which accentuates the prominence of her nose.  This is not to say that I think she needs plastic surgery, and apparently she has denied it in the past and expressed a fear that it could change her voice.