Beverly Hills Nasal and Facial Cosmetic Surgeon
Beverly Hills Nasal and Facial Cosmetic Surgeon -
Expanding Scalp Tissue
The latest segment of E! Channel’s Botched, showed Mike, a handsome 29-year-old personal trainer who took to heart the lofty if unrealistic promises of a cosmetic plastic surgeon for thicker hair via hair transplants.
But, alas, in keeping the program’s theme, the procedure became another botched plastic surgery.
Hair transplantation failed and left the otherwise handsome 29-year-old personal trainer with a white, one-inch wide, 11-inch-long very visible scar across the back of his head.
(Learn how avoid botched plastic surgery by choosing a good plastic surgeon.)
Next, we meet Michelle, a recent Philippines émigré to America, bringing her battered and scarred face to two Beverly Hills plastic surgeons.
Decades ago, a horse reared up, struck Michelle in the face and crushed the facial bones around her eyes, leaving her eyes uneven. A well-meaning but fumble-thumb plastic surgeon in the Philippines then put a serious, deep cleft in her chin to draw attention away from her unbalanced eyes. Over the next two decades, Michelle had 10 more operations, including several face-lifts, none of which seem to work.
In Mike’s case, the surgeon stars find the best approach to the huge scar is by implanting a tissue expander under the scar, gradually inflating it to stretch and grow more skin on the back of his head and then removing the scar in surgery.
With more skin available, the scar would be excised (cut away) and the two edges, healthy, hair-bearing scalp are sewn together.
For dramatic and comic effect, surgeons and patient refered to the skin expander as a breast implant for the head.
When Michelle returns, the surgeons learn she is 65; but even with the scarring and other botched plastic surgery, she looks like 45.
(Look at some well done before and after face lift pictures.)
As they examine her face and read her medical records, both surgeons realize that, sometimes, the best answer is…….no surgery at all.
Due to the previous 10 surgeries and copious amounts of scar tissue, they fear more surgery will only make things worse. So she goes home without going under the knife and risking yet another botched plastic surgery.
Although Mike’s case of stretching skin is painful, he finally has enough extra skin for surgery.
The long, white strip of scar tissue is removed from Mike’s scalp and the healthy, hair-bearing edges of scalp are sewn together, fixing the botch.
Botched Plastic Surgery: Face, Hair & Scalp Woe
Robert Kotler