Plastic Surgery Specialists is now offering the exciting VI-Peel
Doctors Jack and Oliver are now offering chemical peels using the new VI-Peel. It is painless, yet produces dramatic visible results in just days with little downtime. The result is achieved through the proprietary combination of ingedients which is extremely effects, but minimizes the complications and downtime from traditional chemical peels.
The VI-Peel can
- Improve the tone, texture and clarity of your skin
- Reduce or eliminate age spots, freckles, and hyper-pigmentation, including melasma
- Soften lines and wrinkles
- Clear acne skin conditions, reduce or eliminate acne scars
- Stimulate the production of collagen, for firmer, more youthful skin
Call today to schedule a consultation!
Our new state-of-the-art plastic surgery center is now open in the beautiful Liberty Park neighborhood of Vestavia Hills! Our new facility will offer an on-site plastic surgery suite which will offer new levels of convenience, service, and privacy for our cosmetic surgery patients. We look forward to your visit!
July 2008 -Oliver Plastic Surgery is proud to announce the affiliation of Dr. Jason M. Jack to our practice. Dr. Jack specializes in cosmetic surgery, nasal surgery, breast surgery, and post-bariatric body contouring and is now accepting new patients.
In the news: In the April 2008 issue of Plastic Surgery Products magazine, Dr. Oliver has a featured article entitled "Solid Strategies in Revisional Breast Surgery" (click here to read). This article discusses many issues to consider when considering re-do operations for cosmetic and reconstructive breast surgery.
Dr. Oliver featured on MakeMeHeal.com Starting January 2008, Dr. Oliver will be a regular featured contributor to the online patient information portal Make Me Heal. Feel free to drop into Dr. Oliver's forum and ask him questions. Click here to jump!
In the media
Dr. Robert Oliver Jr. has been featured recently in local and national media on Plastic Surgery issues. He served as the Plastic Surgery expert in a question and answer segment on FOX News' local morning show about silicone gel breast implants. He was interviewed by Plastic Surgery News for a story about Plastic Surgery on the internet. Recently he was the focus of a story in the New York Times titled "Blogging for Truth and Beauty" which celebrated his web blog Plastic Surgery 101 for it's candor in addressing and educating on Plastic Surgery and medical issues.
Congrats Dr. Rob!
US-F.D.A. and Health Canada approve Silicone Breast Implants
Both the United States and Canada have endorsed the reintroduction of silicone breast implants for both cosmetic surgery and reconstructive surgery indications. Since a moratorium in the early 1990's, enough information has been presented from studies and clinical trials to suggest that implants are both safe and effective medical devices when used as intended. These decisions reinforce the international consensus which has failed to find a link between silicone gel breast implants and systemic diseases like cancer or auto-immune processes (lupus, scleroderma, rheumatoid arthritis, and others)
For more information about this, follow this internal link.
Breast Implants are not associated with cancer risk
Following in the heels of April's report on the lack of cancer risk found in Danish implant patients in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, a publication about to be released in the June American Journal of Epidemiology reports that a cohort of nearly 25,000 patients in Canada were observed to have a whopping 43% lower incidence of breast cancer and across the board lower mortality rate for all cancers
New technology for post-op pain control:
We are proud to have introduced an exciting new method of minimizing pain in our patients post-operatively. Using a proprietary pulsed electro-magnetic field technology, Ivivi Technologies, has introduced an effective and affordable way to significantly to reduce pain after surgery.
Silicone Gel Breast Implants Update:
The expected reintroduction of silicone gel breast implants in 2006 has both patients and their Plastic Surgeons excited. Since a 1992 FDA decision which restricted the use of silicone breast implants over perceived safety concerns, most patients desiring breast augmentation and breast reconstruction procedures have been limited to choosing saline-filled implants for their procedures. However, in 2005 the two major American manufacturers of breast implants, Mentor Corp. and Inamed, both received recommendations for approval of their gel-filled implants by the FDA advisory panels. This recommendation for approval is expected to be acted upon by the FDA sometime this year.
The circumstances that led to strict restrictions on the use of silicone as an implant filler by then FDA chief, Dr. David Kessler, were controversial. Dramatic testimony was presented at the hearings by some patients who claimed multiple ailments and auto-immune diseases resultant from their current or previous silicone implants. The relative paucity of long-term safety and efficacy data on the devices up to that point was cited as a key factor in the FDA’s decision.
In a decision that puzzled many observers, silicone was effectively removed as an option for primary cosmetic use, while indications for breast cancer reconstruction and some revisional breast surgeries were maintained under strict internal review board-directed clinical trials. Small groups of patients were later added to document outcomes in primary cosmetic augmentation as well. The aggregate data of several years of patient follow-up was recently presented by Inamed and Mentor Corp., resulting in the current state of limbo as final FDA approval is pending.
In retrospect, the events surrounding silicone appear more about politics rather then science. Numerous cohort studies from around the world have since largely discredited the more serious concerns with silicone gel and in 1999, the prestigious Institute of Medicine report produced an extensive review which determined similar findings. The United States is currently alone among industrialized nations in regards to restricting availability of silicone breast implants, with the various health ministries of these countries having long-since been satisfied with the safety of the devices.
When available, silicone is expected to immediately dominate the American marketplace for the preferred type of breast implant if the experience elsewhere is mirrored. In countries around the world with both saline and silicone available, somewhere between 90-95% of patients and their Surgeons choose silicone.
Here's a quick review of the major numerous reviews done by the Ministries of Health:
1991-1994 United Kingdom Independent Expert Advisory Group (IEAG)
1996 US Review US Institute of Medicine (IOM)
1996 France Agence Nationale pour le Developpement de l'Evaluation Medicale (ANDEM)
2000 US Review request of the United States Federal Judiciary
2001 Great Britain UK Independent Review Group
2001 US Review for court appointed National Science Panel
2003 Spanish STOA Report to the European Parliament Petitions Committee
2004 Danish Long-Term Followup Study
Each of these studies and reviews have failed to demonstrate a linkage to many of the problems alleged in the "Silicone Crisis" of the early 1990's.
Supplementary Insurance for Cosmetic Surgery
There's an interesting new service available with cosmetic plastic surgery. Cosmet Assure, is an insurance program covering complications from many of the larger cosmetic procedures. For less then $200 you can purchase up to almost $250,000 of coverage for catastrophic care. What many patient's don't realize, is that your health insurance contract usually has some disclaimer that lets them refuse to cover any complications specifically from cosmetic surgery. This is not always enforced, but there are a number of horror stories where a patient has had a severe infection or pulmonary embolus (blood clot to the lungs) requiring VERY expensive hospital care and their insurer has subsequently refused to pay for their care. I have no financial stake in CosmetAssure which is based here in Alabama. However, like many of my surgical mentors, I have decided the risk/benefit ratio for this program is worth it for both my patients and my peace of mind.