The Dangers of "Brand Name" Surgery

As your guide to plastic surgery, I get dozens of emails from various surgeons' marketing people advertising their special "brand" of surgery - a particular type or method of performing a certain procedure which practically guarantees fantastic results with no pain and minimal recovery time. The most recent such email came from the publicist of a surgeon who tells breast augmentation patients that his method of surgery means that they can go out to dinner the same night of their surgery.

Regardless of my natural skepticism, I do take the time to look into the claims, but time and again, I come back to the same three points:

1) There is usually little or no scientific evidence to back up the terrific claims.

2) Plastic surgery message boards are overflowing with horror stories from people who went in for what they thought was a new "miracle" technique in cosmetic surgery...only to find out that the results were greatly overstated, and the pain greatly understated. Just check out the "Lifestyle Lift" thread in our forum here at About.com.

3) If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Cliches are cliches for a reason. If you've been a victim of exaggerated cosmetic surgery claims or bad plastic surgery, please join the discussion on our plastic surgery message boards.