Nip This Tuck That

The Palmer “Celebrity Lift” is a minimum incision Face Lift that’s combined with aesthetic shaping of the face. This 90 minute, minimum invasive, procedure has the SMAS lifting of the much more invasive, older types of Face Lifts but can be performed with or without anesthesia. The recovery time is measured in hours…not days, weeks or months because the procedure is less invasive. In fact, most patients travel back home to Asia, Europe or across the US in as little as 3 days following the Face Lift procedure.

The Celebrity Face Lift is often combined with a reduction of the fatty tissue within the nasolabial fold (NLF) the accumulation of which occurs with facial aging. Further facial refinements are accomplished by improving the cheek’s volume and shape. Male cheeks are made to be more angular, while women’s cheeks are converted to a softer, more rounded shape in the front of the face. The shape of the chin and jawline may also be addressed. Facial shaping can be accomplished using Fillers like Radiesse or Perlane and/or with Cheek and/or Chin Implants. The Lips can be made fuller using Restylane, Juvederm or my favorite lip implant (Alloderm Sheets). Botox can be used to soften lines of the forehead, Crow’s Feet or around the mouth for the finishing touches.

The result is a face that appears youthful, more attractive and the opposite of the dreaded over pulled, wind swept appearance.

Dr Francis Palmer
Beverly Hills Plastic and Cosmetic Surgery
“What’s Your Number..the palmer code.”

Plastic Surgery from Beverly Hills, Los Angeles and Hollywood has been in the international news lately and frankly, some have been questioning if enough is enough.
I have been writing for years that plastic and cosmetic surgery is all about the individual and can’t be clumped together in a global discussion without loosing all meaning. Take a closer look at plastic and cosmetic surgery treatments like Botox, Radiesse and Perlane or procedures like Face Lifts, Eyelid Surgery, Rhinoplasty, Cheek Implants, Chin Implants and Breast Implants just to name a few.

1. Each patient seeking any of these treatments or procedures is an individual with individual wants, needs and expectations.

2. Every patient will start from a different aesthetic point…“Number“…or you can think of it as a level of attractiveness that makes them unique.

3. Plastic and Cosmetic surgeons use different variations of treatments and surgical procedures to accomplish the desired aesthetic results and even when they would do things exactly alike (I believe this to be highly improbable if not close to impossible) their level of skill, training and experience will still vary and thus effect the ultimate outcome.

Given all these variables, I do not believe that you can look at any one celebrity or “pseudo-star” and judge plastic and cosmetic surgery as an industry or movement. Nothing more than a frank discussion of that particular patient, that particular outcome and that particular surgeon would be accurate. In my 20 years as a Beverly Hills Plastic and Cosmetic Surgeon I have seen wonderful results and I have turned many patients away for their unrealistic expectations or aesthetic requests. I feel that it is the ultimate duty of each and every patient to learn what is required for them to make an educated decision about their appearance and how to effectively improve it when and if they so desire. Do not let any plastic and cosmetic surgeon do a procedure or treatment on you that you do not understand and agree with the planned aesthetic goal. Not aesthetically astute? Learn more about “Your Number”.

Dr Francis Palmer
Beverly Hills Plastic and Cosmetic Surgery
What’s Your Number…the palmer code book

Continuing with our theme of Beverly Hills as a destination for plastic and cosmetic surgery medical tourism, we are now proud to offer IChat, for our Mac clients, with an internet consultation. Our Beverly Hills office has offered telephone consults with e-mai (drfpalmer1@aol.com) evaluation of photos to discuss my findings and recommendations. We find this service a valuable way to communicate with our out of town, out of state and international clientele. You can have a consultation from the comfort of your home or office thus saving the time and expense for your trip to have the surgery. Now we have added IChat as a more personal way of communication during your plastic and cosmetic surgery consultation for Face Lift, Brow Lift, Eyelid Surgery, Breast/Cheek/Chin/Lip Implants, Rhinoplasty, Otoplasty, Tummy Tuck, Liposuction, Botox, Radiesse, Perlane or Juvederm.

Steps for your IChat consult with us:

1. e-mail us at drfpalmer1@aol.com that you are interested in a telephone or IChat consultation and include jpeg photos of the areas you wish to discuss. If your initial e-mail does not include photos or if we believe that other views are required, you will be informed of the type of photos that we require for your evaluation.

2. Schedule a day and time for your phone consultation or your IChat. This can be done via e-mail or by telephone 310-652-9583 (monday through friday 9-5 PST.

3. Send us your AIM account name so we can add you to our buddy list in order to initiate the IChat.

Dr Francis Palmer
Beverly Hills Plastic and Cosmetic Surgery
What’s Your Number…the palmer code book

Traveling to Beverly Hills for your plastic and cosmetic surgery treatments and procedures is quite common. Los Angeles, of which Beverly Hills is a part, has long been a tourist destination because of the balmy weather and proximity to Hollywood’s stars and celebrities. But on any given week, you can find patients at our clinic from Hong Kong, Tokyo, Paris, London, Barcelona, Soel, Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Egypt, Moscow, India or China. This week, our patients have traveled to Beverly Hills from the Middle East, Asia, Europe and from across the US for their Face Lifts (Celebrity Lifts), Rhinoplasty, Eyelid Surgery, Browlifts, Cheek Implants, Chin Implants, Breast Implants for Breast Augmentation, Lip Augmentation, Botox, Perlane and Radiesse Injections.

This is commonplace for us as we have had this type of geographical diversity to our clientele for many years…in part due to my dual practice in London from 1994 through 2000. Although I no longer travel to London for work, our practice was established, over those years, as international in nature and our office adapted to accommodate and communicate with people who were traveling over great distances. I adopted a method where our out of town and country patients could e-mail us photos (drfpalmer1@aol.com) for evaluation coupled with a scheduled telephone discussion of my review and recommendations…which is basically a telephone consult with me after I reviewed their photos. This allowed patients to speak with me without traveling here for their consultation thereby allowing them to save that travel time for their actual surgery. This has worked out very well for the past 15 years.

We realize that traveling here to Beverly Hills is less convenient than having your procedure in your own city or country but in these cases, you come here for the experience, training and level of quality that is Beverly Hills Plastic and Cosmetic Surgery. Beverly Hills has always been synonymous with the very best, the top quality plastic and cosmetic surgery procedures because that’s what our clients demand from us. This past week alone, I am revising plastic and cosmetic surgery procedures that these patients have had in their respective cities and countries because for one of numerous reasons they did not achieve the desired aesthetic results. As a result, they have come to us seeking revision and refinement surgery to become more attractive. I realized that for us it’s commonplace but for those of you contemplating the travel, it may seem somewhat daunting and so I decided to speak to those of you who may find yourself in that position.

First and foremost I think it’s important for you to remember that the only uncertainty in all of this is your travel to our office in Beverly Hills. Although plastic and cosmetic surgery is serious business, it is what we do day in and day out and have for 20 years, so once you do arrive here, for us It’s no different than if you lived right here in Los Angeles. At that point, we take over and do what we do. From our accredited operating room to the after care facility, post surgical follow up appointments, post surgical medications and instructions…everything is planned out for you so you can breathe easy. When it’s time for you to fly back home, you will be ready and happy that you made the journey.

Dr Francis Palmer
Beverly Hills Plastic and Cosmetic Surgery
What’s Your Number…the palmer code book

Radiesse can be used to shape the cheeks, chin and jawline. You can also fill in the nasolabial folds and marrionette lines with Radiesse. The effects last ~ 12months and seem to decrease around the 9th month after the initial injections. Radiesse can now be mixed with numbing solution (Lidocaine) which makes the injections much more comfortable. The entire treatment takes about 10-15 minutes and you can walk out of our beverly Hills office with a more youthful, attractive face.

Cheek area can be shaped and softened. The chin can be augmented and shaped. The jawline can be widened, augmented and given an increased flare imparting a more rugged, angular and handsome appearance to the face. The height of the nose can be increased and of course the facial folds and indentations can be filled using Radiesse.

There may be some residual swelling for a day or so using Radiesse over Perlane but some of our patients are willing to have that for the added longevity of the correction ( 12 months versus 9 months in our opinion).

Because the filler lasts about a year, you must be certain that the Radiesse is injected in the right place in the proper amount in order to make your face more aesthetic and naturally attractive. We have seen numerous patients, who had Radiesse injected elsewhere, where the face was deformed because the cheeks were too large…too wide or some other aesthetic issue. Learn the proper facial and body aesthetics you need to know in my new book: “What’s Your Number…the palmer code.
WE frequently combine Radiesse injectios with nasolabial micro-lipo and our “Celebrity Face Lift” to make people look 10 years younger in 90 minutes or less.

Dr Francis Palmer
Beverly Hills Plastic and Cosmetic Surgery
What’s Your Number…the palmer code book

What could be easier than a 10 minute, in office, treatment that has the ability to decrease unwanted lines and wrinkles, fill in folds, plump the lips and create more aesthetically shaped cheeks, chin or jawline. These popular plastic and cosmetic treatments can do just that. Here in Beverly Hills, the greater Los Angeles area of Southern California, we have for over 20 years used these quick and easy treatments as a way to improve the appearance of our clients.

Restylane, Juvederm: Plump the lips, fill in nasolabial folds

Perlane, Radiesse: Create shape to the cheeks, chin and jaw line

Botox; soften unwanted lines and wrinkles and shape the face where over-active muscles create bulges or enlargements.

Dr Francis Palmer
Beverly Hills Plastic and Cosmetic Surgery
What’s Your Number…the palmer code book

Plastic and Cosmetic Surgery is starting the new year and decade up from 2009. The largest increase appears to be coming from Europe, (England, Italy, France, Switzerland, Sweden) and the Middle and far East (Japan, Korea and Singapore). Here in the US, our out of town patients are coming from New York, Miami, Chicago, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, San Francisco and Orange County.

The most popular plastic surgery procedures so far in 2010 are Facelifts (Celebrity Lift), Cheek Implants, Rhinoplasty, Eyelid Surgery (with or without Brow Lifts), Chin Implants, Lip Implants, Breast Implants, Botox, Radiesse, Perlane, Dysport, Juvederm and Restylane.

Francis R Palmer, III, MD

Cheek Augmentation with Cheek Implants what you should know.

Cheeks are the single most aesthetically important facial feature as outlined in my What’s Your Number the palmer code system and book. What’s Your Number..the palmer code says that your face can score a perfect 100 points, a whopping 75 of those points are possible if your cheeks are ideally shaped. This means that the cheeks alone have the power to make your face look young, old, femine, masculine attractive or less so.

The good news is that I have outlined for you what the perfect female and male cheeks look like and yes, you can have these using cheek implants…or fillers like Radiesse or Perlane but that’s a subject for another day.

The bad news is that implants or fillers that create the wrong aesthetic cheek shape can be devastating bad for your appearance. You can look like a masculine woman, a feminine man or just plain gruesome (like a puppet).

Cheek should be augmented following a set aesthetic standard that allows the female cheeks to be full, soft, round and naturally femine….while in men, the cheeks are angular and masculinely chiseled.

There are many, many variations of sizes, shapes, thickness and materials for cheek implants…the vast majority of which I feel do not create the proper aesthetic cheek shape in my over 20 years experience performing cheek augmentation with cheek implants. I do not believe it’s a good idea for the implant to become incorporated into the bone or facial tissues and have seen patients (done elsewhere) that sadly agree. Some of these patients I am unable to help because I can’t get the implants they had placed elsewhere out. Just remember, permanent means permanent, so I like silastic implants that are easilly removed if you decide to do so for any reason.

It should be stated that, in my opinion again, using facial implants like cheek or chin implants requires a quantum level of aesthetic sophistication on the part of the plastic and cosmetic surgeon who’s placing the implants. The implant size, shape, thickness, material and mode of placement (through the mouth, through the eye, under the skin in front of the ear or through an incision in the scalp all are possible but do not yield in my opinion the same results.) In fact, I’d go so far as to say that some points of insertion should not be considered which brings me to the next point.

As you search, you should consult with experienced top or the best plastic and cosmetic surgeons who perform cheek or chin augmentation with mplants frequently. This is not an easy surgery to learn or master and you do not want to look worse that you did before the surgery.

I’d like to leave with a final thought. The internet is a terrific source of great information as long as that information is genuine. Be careful to get your information on cheek implants, rhinoplasty, breast augmentation, eyelid surgery, botox, juvederm, radiesse or any plastic and cosmetic surgery treatment or procedure directly from the plastic and cosmetic surgeons who perform these procedures…not from the numerous generic directories (websites) that have material written by lay writers or people in sales as a way to get you onto their sites.

These sites charge fees to the listing doctors just so they can suggest, link or refer you to one of the thousands of doctors and surgeons for you to consult with and have these procedures. Problem is, they haven’t written the information, so how do you know the surgeon is experienced. Anyone can write about a surgical procedure but only an experienced surgeon can tell you how it’s done and what you can expect because they’ve actually done that procedure many times.

Dr Francis Palmer
Beverly Hills Plastic and Cosmetic Surgery
What’s Your Number…the palmer code book
Media Accolades
Patient Testimonials

Think looks don’t matter…they do, of course. This is why I wrote the book on the subject: What’s Your Number..the palmer code available here

Latest article, on the subject, in Forbes Magazine

Plastic and cosmetic surgery treatments and procedures like Facelifts, Rhinoplasty, Eyelid Surgery, Browlifts,
Breast Implants, Cheek Implants, Chin Implants, Lip fillers, Botox, Tummy Tucks, Liposuction, Hair Transplants, Restylane, Juvederm, Radiesse, Sculptra and IPL…all improve your Number and your appearance.

We all, deep down inside know that our appearance does matter even though it’s not fair…but who ever said life was fair? That’s why you need to learn how to best improve Your Number.
AOL book review
Radar Online book review and article:
Hollywooddame.com book review:
Allieiswired.com book review:
People’s 50 most beautiful people
What’s Your Number…the palmer code TV Appearances
Dr Francis Palmer
Media Accolaides
Voted “one of the world’s best” plastic and cosmetic surgeons

Quick, when you think of a beautiful starlet that has undergone a facelift surgery procedure…you often think of Beverly Hills which in the greater Los Angeles area because of it’s proximity to and high number of celebrity clientele.

Celebrities have for many years undergone some form of facelift procedure as a way to look attractive to their adoring fans. We, as a society love our “beautiful stars” and require them to look “star-like” with an almost Peter Pan like youthfulness that seems to defy gravity, time and logic. Often that look comes from a brilliantly performed facelift surgery.

What is a brilliantly performed facelift surgery? Simple, one that creates a natural, beautiful face regardless of whether it’s for a woman or a man. The inspired facelift procedure will allow the face to appear beautiful (in a woman) or ruggedly handsome (in a man) in a natural manner without the obvious signs of poor surgical results like the “wind-swept” or “joker” look that seems all to prevalent in today’s tabloids and expose’ pieces on bad plastic surgery.

So, how do you get an inspired facelift procedure?

1. Everything begins with the realization that the face has an aesthetic shape when it appears beautiful in women and ruggedly handsome in men. Further these are not the same or inter-changeable which means that the facelift must have very different goals for a woman than a man’s face.

2. Shape always trumps symmetry. That means that when performng a facelift, the plastic and cosmetic surgeon must be sure to create a more youthful, naturally appearing shape to the face as a result of the facelift procedure. If this is overlooked, as seems so commonplace today, the result is a pulled, unattractive appearance. Another way to say this is: it doesn’t matter how tight the facelift procedure pulls the skin, but rather what shape is left behind that determines how good the face looks.

3. This will mean that whether you are 32, 45 or 68….your face must have the proper , youthful shape established in order for your face to appear youthful and naturally attractive. The facelift which is designed to lift and tighten loose muscle and skin alone can’t create the desired shape. There is another dimension that must be added to the facelift in order to acheive this all important goal.

4. The main area that needs to be focused upon, in addition to the tightening and removal of excess skin during the facelift, is the creation of the proper..more youthful cheek, jawline, chin and neck. The lips may also be enhanced and the nose refined
(Rhinoplasty or nasal surgery) all to add the finishing aesthetic touches to the face.

5. Shaping the cheeks may mean removing excess fat from the nasolabial folds and or creation of a more shapely cheek by using soft tissue fillers like Perlane or Radiesse or by using a
cheek implant.

6. The jawline is best shaped by using a soft tissue filler like Perlane or Radiesse. Jaw implants do exist but are somewhat problematic, in my opinion to the point that I prefer using the fillers for this effect.

7. Chin implants or fillers both work well at shaping and augmenting the chin area.

8. The lips can be augmented using Alloderm or any number of fillers that are applied to the borders of the lip. Alloderm is placed just beneath the red portion of the lip above the lip muscle through small incisions at the corners of the mouth.

So if you are looking for a softer, morre youtful face as a woman or a ruggedly handsome face as a man….be sure to
select a plastic and cosmetic surgeon who embraces the above aesthetic philosophy when it comes to shaping the face. Remember it all about facial shape and much less about how much skin is removed and how tight the face is pulled.

Dr Francis Palmer
Beverly Hills Plastic and Cosmetic Surgery
What’s Your Number…the palmer code book