I did write about this topic, albeit tangentially, in this silly article when Kylie Jenner was rumored to be pregnant with her first child!

Botox in pregnancy

While no doctor will encourage you to get botox injections for cosmetic reasons while pregnant, it doesn’t mean you can’t or you shouldn’t. Simply put, there isn’t a large randomized controlled study comparing women getting botox while pregnant vs women not getting botox while pregnant.

Yes, a large study of this type would answer the question of whether botox was safe in pregnancy. But it will never happen. For obvious reasons, no one would conduct or fund a study that could potentially affect a baby. So we’re left to extrapolate from this retrospective study (studying patients after the fact), animal studies or personal stories of patients that have gotten botox during pregnancy.

As a plastic surgeon, I have injected patients with BOTOX® or XEOMIN® when they didn’t realize they were pregnant. And the patient and their baby turned out fine. So while there’s no evidence of a problem in being injected with these products while pregnant, it’s impossible to say they’re safe beyond a doubt. But there’s no evidence of birth defects associated with cosmetic botox injections that exceeds the risk in the general population. It’s a calculated risk similar to the risks we take walking across the street, not wearing a mask outside or speeding on the highway.

Botox while breastfeeding

This one is a little easier. Based on the LactMed database that evaluates medications and their presence in breast milk or their affect on the child, the evidence is quite clear:

“No data exist on the medical use of onabotulinumtoxinA [BOTOX®] during breastfeeding. However, it is not detectable systemically after intramuscular use, thus excretion into breast milk is considered unlikely. Breastfeeding appears to protect infants against botulism.”

In other words, botox isn’t detectable in breast milk. To further drive home the point, even in a patient that became ill after ingesting botulinum from tainted food (not cosmetic botox injections), she didn’t pass the toxin along to her fetus. So even if it’s present in high concentrations systemically during an active infection and still doesn’t reach the breast milk, then it’s even less likely to reach breast milk when present in lower concentrations associated with cosmetic, localized injections.

As an aside, botulism from tainted food is the same reason you don’t feed honey to a baby before the age of one because of the presence of the botulinum bacteria. After age one, children are better equipped to ward off the infection.

There you have it. The data. And now you can make an informed decision based on that.

Click here to check pricing from Dr. Kaplan!

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Jonathan Kaplan for BuildMyHealth.

The post Botox, Xeomin or Jeuveau during pregnancy and breast feeding first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Dr. Bae:
Hey Greg. Thanks for having me.

Greg:
How have you been?

Dr. Bae:
I’ve been good. I’m good. I’m better now that they’ve stopped making us wear masks outdoors, and maybe even indoors in certain situations. But of course they stay consistent with whatever your local guidelines and rules are, but it’s still, it’s showing signs of progress. That’s all, that’s the main focus.

Is Botox a gateway drug?!

Greg:
Yeah. We’re getting back to normal and feeling good. Hey, and I’ve got a question for you. Botox, it seems kind of the entry level thing that people do when they-

Dr. Bae:
Gateway drug. Yeah.

Greg:
Yeah, absolutely. And in the beginning it was to treat wrinkles mostly on the forehead, around the eyes, stuff like that. But there are so many more uses for Botox, even helping with migraine headaches these days.

Dr. Bae:
Right.

How young is too young?

Greg:
But how young is too young and how do you help determine with a patient whether they really need it and if the time is right for Botox?

Dr. Bae:
I think it would be simple enough to say, oh, if you’re 18 years old or older, the age of consent, that’s when you can start doing Botox. But even people would think, oh, that’s too young. And it’s easy to get real judgemental of people. Like a 25-year-old shouldn’t be using Botox. Wrinkles on our forehead are normal. But people should step back and realize that whatever may be appropriate for you may not be necessarily appropriate for other people. And it’s, so one of the things I would tell people is caution, caution them to not get too critical because different situations apply to different people. Specifically, I think of a girl that was, I think she was 14-years-old that called the office, scheduled a consult, said she was coming in with her mom and she wanted Botox. She actually said she wanted fillers to her lips. And so I’m thinking, okay, this is someone that’s been watching Kylie Jenner.

Greg:
I was about to say, Kylie Jenner. This Kylie Jenner.

Dr. Bae:
Exactly. It’s Kylie Jenner’s fault. And I’m thinking, all right, I’m going to have to talk this girl down. It’s like, I can’t give you fillers. You’re 14 years old.

Greg:
Yeah.

Understand what the patient wants

Dr. Bae:
And even I was being not, I wouldn’t say judgemental, but I was already coming up with reasons to not do this treatment for her. And when she got here, she came in with her mom. They obviously had a good relationship and like yeah, my daughter thinks she wants fillers. And I’ll say, “Well, so what’s your concern?” She’s like, “Well, whenever I smile, my lip gets really thin and it shows my gums and that makes me uncomfortable.” And I was like, “Well, actually, now that I better understand your situation, you don’t really need fillers.” Because fillers obviously can plump up your lips. But the thing is, if you plump up your lips so that when you smile, because it’s natural for your lip to thin out when you smile, that happens to everybody.

Dr. Bae:
So if you plump up your lips to make them fuller when you smile, that means that when you’re not smiling, your lips are going to look even more full. Like might even look a little bit weird. You’ll have this big, full upper lip when you’re not smiling.

Greg:
Yeah.

Dr. Bae:
And when you smile, it might thin out.

Greg:
Rubber ducky lips.

Dr. Bae:
Exactly, exactly. So I was like the most appropriate thing for you to treat that thinning upper lip, the gummy smile, if it’s really bothering you, if it makes you feel uncomfortable at school, which it’s kind of hard to tell somebody, don’t … Buck up. Don’t feel weird at school.

Greg:
Yeah.

Upper lip botox for this patient

Dr. Bae:
Don’t give into peer pressure. It’s just ridiculous. So one of the things that’s most appropriate for her is something we’ve talked about before is Botox to the upper lip so that when you smile, it relaxes the muscles in the upper lip. So when you smile, your upper lip doesn’t go up as high. So it doesn’t show up as much of your gums. And also because it doesn’t lift up as much, it stays fuller, doesn’t then out as much. So it ‘kills’ a couple birds with one stone that Botox, not fillers, was really the most appropriate thing for her. And because she was there with her mom, and even though she was 14, I did Botox to her upper lip and she was really happy.

Dr. Bae:
And her mom and she had reached out to me since then and thanked me for it. And it’s like how much more comfortable she is. And maybe we should get to the point where she is still so comfortable in her own skin that she won’t feel like she needs to keep coming in for it, and her face will change. But it was a really nice experience for me, a learning experience for me to just don’t be judgy, listen to what the person’s concerns are and see if there’s maybe a really less invasive way to treat them, to make them more comfortable in their own skin.

Greg:
The two important things there, if you are younger, younger than 19, obviously you need to consult your parent, bring your parent with you.

Dr. Bae:
Right.

Greg:
But also really important to just make sure you’re finding a Board Certified plastic surgeon who can give you a good consultation and is really going to do or not do what is in your best interest.

Dr. Bae:
Yeah. It’s true. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be a Board Certified plastic surgeon to do your Botox. You could go see a Board Certified dermatologist. They’re trained in all that. But it is really-

Greg:
But you want somebody who’s got your best interest at heart.

Dr. Bae:
You want somebody that’s as smart and as experienced as me. That’s what you’re really trying to say.

Greg:
There you go. And me.

Dr. Bae:
That’s why I’m here.

Greg:
And me too. All right.

Dr. Bae:
Of course.

Greg:
See more of Dr. Bae’s work, check out pricing, all that stuff. Reach out to him on his social media. He loves to interact.

Dr. Bae:
That’s right. @realdrbae, r-e-a-l-d-r-b-a-e. Not b-a-y, and realdrbae.com.

Greg:
All right. Thanks everybody.

Dr. Bae:
Thank you.

The post How young is too young for cosmetic procedures? first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Dr. Bae:
Hey, Greg.

Greg:
How’s the baby?

Dr. Bae:
Baby’s good. Baby’s sleeping through the night. I think slept seven hours last night. So the patients-

Greg:
Wow.

Dr. Bae:
… that see me on social media, when I come in the morning to pre-op them for surgery, they know that I’ve gotten a good night’s sleep now.

Greg:
Well, that’s funny you mentioned sleeping through the night. That’s a thing that a lot of people are having trouble during the pandemic doing. More anxiety causing more stress. And another thing coming with that, people are kind of grinding their teeth, and clenching their jaw. And that affects some issues in your cheeks and the way your jaw looks. And I know that you have some methods to maybe helping people if they have that issue.

TMJ and teeth grinding

Dr. Bae:
Yeah. Jaw clenching, or TMJ, which is the temporomandibular joint. That’s what people referred to TMJ when they have that pain right here. And that can be caused by congenital issues with the cartilages and the bone in that area. But it can also be just stress and grinding your teeth, and grinding your teeth at night when you’re sleeping, you don’t even realize it just from stress or whatever. And so people do come in asking for treatment for that. They’re trying to do a couple of things. One is if there’s a non-surgical way to do it, that’s what they’re interested in. And they want to do something that will help them to not clench their teeth as much. But also one of the things that they’re noticing is when they’re clenching their teeth, it’s making these muscles right here, called the masseter muscles, it’s making those kind of bulk up.

Dr. Bae:
Because in a way you’re kind of working out those muscles by grinding your teeth, and these muscles buck up. So they’re looking for a way to one, minimize the tension and the grinding in their teeth. And then also minimize those muscles. And one of the ways you can do that really simply is Botox. You can inject Botox right here into those muscles, masseter muscles. You ask the patient to clench down. And I feel where the peak of that muscle’s coming in. And then I just inject a … I usually start with 10 to 15 units per side, just one injection.

Botox for grinding teeth and TMJ

Dr. Bae:
And after one to three days, it starts to kick in. And then they can let me know, give me some feedback. Is it working for you? Is it working as effectively as you want? And they may need more in the future. But the idea is it really reduces the bulkiness of that muscle. And it actually gives them a nice heart shaped face. I notice a lot of Asian women come in for that, because they feel like they have a very square jaw line. And they come in and they get Botox here. They’re not even having grinding issues or TMJ issues. We just do the Botox right here, it reduces the size of that muscle. It gives them a nice heart shaped face. Pretty effective.

Greg:
Well, that’s so interesting you say that. Because I do have that issue. I’m grinding a lot more at night. I thought the only solution really was to get a mouth guard. And those can just be … It’s not sexy, number one, when you’re going to bed with your partner. Number two, it’s all the saliva. And it’s just kind of uncomfortable, and the grossness of it. So I think this is a really great alternative where you’re not, [inaudible 00:03:02], in the middle of the night.

Are you a candidate?

Dr. Bae:
Right. Right. And obviously I can’t guarantee it’s going to work for everybody. Just like people talk about getting Botox for migraines. Not everybody’s necessarily a candidate. It won’t necessarily work for them. But same thing here with clenching of the teeth, it’s certainly a reasonable thing. If you’ve tried the mouth guard and you don’t really like the way that looks, that headgear look that you might’ve had when you had braces when you were a kid. If you want to try another option, then yeah, Botox right here. And you don’t lose anything. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. It’s fine. You don’t burn any bridges in the process.

Greg:
Yeah. And it’s an affordable way to go about it.

Dr. Bae:
Correct.

Greg:
Even if it doesn’t end up working for you.

Dr. Bae:
Right. What I just described would probably be about $300 to $450 to do that injection. Which I mean, I’m not saying it’s no money. But it’s not as maybe as expensive as some other options out there.

Greg:
Oh my God.

Dr. Bae:
And certainly-

Greg:
And I mean, listen-

Dr. Bae:
… it’s not surgical.

Greg:
Listen, look at the people’s Amazon accounts. That’s nothing with what they’re buying.

Dr. Bae:
Exactly.

Greg:
I mean, how many times have you really used that Jimmy Buffett margarita machine you bought during the pandemic? Not that many. So this is a great option, an affordable option for you. So if you’ve got questions about that or other things, you can always reach out to Dr. Bae on his social media, which is-

Dr. Bae:
@realdrbae, R-E-A-L-B-A-E. Not B-A-Y on TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, and realdrbae.com. You know where to find me.

Greg:
All right. Thanks. Good to see you Dr. Bae.

Dr. Bae:
Thank you. Great seeing you, Greg. Thank you.

The post Treatment options for TMJ and teeth grinding first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Dr. Bae:
Doing great, Greg. Thanks for having me.

Greg:
Well, I am having you today because I have a personal question. This is all me.

Dr. Bae:
It’s not for a friend?

Greg:
Well, it’s for everybody, but I have a question about if you could help me with something. Now look, I’m near perfect, but not completely. When I smile, this has always bothered me. When I smile for photos, my eyes sort of disappear. So they go from open to almost closed. I mean, really, in a lot of photos, my cheeks are so full they come up. And my mother also has the same issue and she can’t stand to have her photo taken and she won’t smile in any photos. And I’ve noticed that literally, my eyes will go away. So a lot of times what I do is wear sunglasses in my photos, because I just don’t like the way it looks. Is there anything that can be done to help me out to where I actually have eyes when I smile?

Dr. Bae:
Absolutely. And the thing is, if you want to do something to address that we can, but you also don’t want to take away all your facial expressions. That’s when you start to look like a real housewife or something.

Greg:
Well, hey, that’s my dream, so don’t knock it. I want to be a real housewife.

Dr. Bae:
So I think the easiest way to address those issues is something called a neuromodulator, which is just the fancy term for Botox or Xeomin or Dysport or Jeuveau, any of these products you’ve heard.

Greg:
Oh, that sounded like a neuromodulator, it sounded like you’re going to put a mask on my face and pull it like this. So you mean it’s just Botox.

Dr. Bae:
Yeah, we can do that too. Just neuromodulator makes me sound smarter. But there’s a couple of different ways you can address that. So one is when you smile really big, you see these crow’s feet here. And so you can inject Botox there, that will relax the muscles. And so for those people that don’t know about Botox, it’s again, neuromodulator, you inject it under the skin, into the muscle. It relaxes the muscle so that when you smile, the muscles aren’t as activated and you don’t have those wrinkles and you won’t close your eyes as much. The other thing you can do is you can put Botox in the forehead. And a lot of doctors will do Botox all the way across the forehead, which will get rid of those forehead lines, but you don’t want to take away all the muscle tone from the forehead, because the muscles in your forehead also keep your eyebrows in a good position.

Dr. Bae:
So if you do Botox all the way across the forehead, it can take away all the muscle tone and your eyebrows can droop, which obviously not a good look, not one that people want. So what I do is I do Botox in a V pattern. I start in between the eyebrows and I go up onto the forehead in this V pattern, and that helps treat these lines. But since I don’t inject the muscles way out here, these muscles keep working. So when you smile or regardless, if you’re not smiling, you’re just in repose, these muscles keep working and they can keep your eyebrows lifted. Not like a Spock look that’s scary, but it can lift the outer part of the eyebrows. So between Botox in the eyes, Botox to the forehead in the way I described, can give you a little brow lift and that can also keep your eyes open when you smile really big. So it’s pretty cool that there is definitely a way to treat that and still maintain your facial expressions so people will know if you’re happy or sad. You won’t be just totally frozen.

Greg:
People know I’m always mad. But Dr. Bae, this reminds me, this is sort of a similar treatment you’ve talked about in the past that you had a client come in, was bothered, some people are bothered they expose too much gum when they smile maybe. And you said it’s a similar treatment for that. You don’t need major surgery. It’s Botox so your lip doesn’t come up as far, right?

Dr. Bae:
Right. So some people do have a lot of gummy show and one of the more permanent ways to treat that is to get a jaw surgery where they break the bone of the upper part of the jaw. I know everybody thinks of this as the jaw, this is the upper jaw where you break that bone and you can shorten that area and so it doesn’t have as much gum showing. Obviously, most people aren’t going to do that. There’s a much easier way to handle that. And what you can do is inject a very small amount of Botox into the upper lip. People do different areas depending on the doctor, but it’s all reasonable ways of treating it. But you inject Botox into the upper lip so that when you smile, the muscles are relaxed. And so the lip doesn’t go up as high when you smile.

Dr. Bae:
And because it doesn’t go up as high, it doesn’t show as much of the gum, so that fixes your gummy smile. The other thing that’s really cool about it is because your upper lip isn’t going up as high, it shows more of your lip. More of your lip rolls out, and that’s what people are talking about when they’re talking about the lip flip is just doing Botox here, treat your gummy smile. It makes your lip look fuller. Even though you didn’t get fillers, it looks like you got filler. There’s a photo I have on my Instagram page where this patient has a really thin lip when she’s smiling really big, and then she has a really full lip when she’s not smiling as big. It’s not because we put filler in her lips. It’s because we did Botox, did that lip flip, showed more of her lip. It’s a very cool photo. It looks really, really effective.

Greg:
This is why we love you, Dr. Bae. You give us the least expensive way to get what we’re looking for and the least invasive way to get what we’re looking for. So you’re not trying to get us for all we got. You’re trying to help us look our best, the easiest way possible.

Dr. Bae:
That’s right. I don’t get referrals by taking as much money and screwing people over. That’s not how it works.

Greg:
Well, good. We’re glad about that, and we do appreciate it. If you want to check out pricing for any procedure, make an appointment, or just get a consultation and go see Dr. Bae, you of course can do it right here on the website where you’re watching this video, or Dr. Bae is a crazy mad social media guru. He’s doing dances on TikTok. He’s all over Instagram. What’s your handle, Dr. Bae?

Dr. Bae:
It’s real Dr. Bae, R-E-A-L-D-R-B-A-E, not B-A-Y. Yeah, very easy to reach out on social media to find us or check out our website, realdrbae.com.

Greg:
Thanks, Dr. Bae. We’ll talk to you next time.

Dr. Bae:
Look forward to it.

The post Keeping your eyes open while smiling first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

The major categories include reconstructive plastic surgery, pediatric craniofacial surgery and cosmetic plastic surgery. Cosmetics is further divided into surgical and non-surgical cosmetic plastic surgery. So while Botox is within the field of plastic surgery, it is part of the non-surgical aspect of cosmetic plastic surgery, also known as cosmetic medicine.

Is Botox plastic surgery?

Any treatment that affects the functionality or appearance of the body is generally within the field of plastic surgery. Botox has an affect on the function and appearance of the body by its interaction with the receptors on muscles and sweat glands.

For example, Botox can minimize movement of muscles that cause wrinkles. That’s why a Botox injection around the 11’s in between the eyebrows or the forehead and reduce those lines. Giving someone a more youthful appearance.

The same receptors that cause muscle movement can also cause sweat production from sweat glands. And through the same interaction with receptors on sweat glands, Botox can minimize sweating from the armpits or palms.

Botox is a very versatile treatment and lasts for 3-6 months. It’s starts to work within 1-3 days and hits its maximum effect at 1 week.

There’s a great deal of misunderstanding around Botox. For example, many patients are told they can’t work out or bend over after treatment. There’s an unwarranted fear that the Botox could diffuse to another area when exercising or laying down, resulting in an unintended affect on other muscles of the face. Potentially causing an eyelid droop.

As I tell all of my patients this doesn’t happen from diffusion or movement of the Botox after injection. It’s not like sauce in a saucepan. It’s doesn’t slosh around. If someone has an eyelid droop or unintended effect after Botox, it’s because too much or too little Botox was injected in an area adjacent to the planned injection point.

To check pricing on Botox from Dr. Kaplan, click here.

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Is Botox plastic surgery? first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Dr. Kaplan and the entire PHPS Family are excited to welcome Dr. Gaetano “Guy” Zanelli to the practice. He’s a board certified dermatologist with decades of experience. As you can see above, he brings new aesthetic, non-surgical devices to the office! Now taking appointments for the full breadth of medical and cosmetic dermatology, including:

• Botox and Dysport
• Facial rejuvenation with fillers
• Microneedling
• Leg vein treatments
• Laser hair removal
• Acne scarring
• Chemical peels
• Ultherapy for non-surgical facial skin tightening
• Laser and IPL Photofacial treatments for
  • redness (rosacea)
  • broken capillaries
  • brown spots
• Acne evaluation and treatment
• Cyst treatment
• PRP injections for hair loss
• Removal of moles, lesions and skin cancer
• Rosacea
• Warts

To get on his already busy schedule, please call or TEXT us at 415-923-3005

The post Introducing our new dermatologist: Dr. Gaetano “Guy” Zanelli first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

While a Cinco de Mayo party with margaritas and Botox would be fun, that’s probably ill-advised at the moment! So join us for the next best thing: a webinar discussing Botox, fillers and other injectables, with a margarita in hand!

Dr. Kaplan (aka @RealDrBae on Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok), along with Nancy Rooney of Current Clothing and Stephanie Argiros, are hosting a webinar to answer your most burning questions about wrinkle-reducing, non-surgical treatments.

After Dr. Kaplan gives a short presentation on injectables, Nancy and Stephanie will field your questions LIVE during the broadcast. No question too silly or too risqué!

Sign up here for this webinar which will be held on Tuesday, May 5th at 3pm PST.

The post Cinco de Mayo, Margaritas and Botox (Webinar)! first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Botox LIVE Event!

Dr. Kaplan will be on hand to give a short presentation on Botox and fillers. Greg, the host of 99.7Now Big Bay Mornings will be the emcee for the evening. He’ll be taking questions for Dr. Kaplan from the audience. And after your questions are answered, Dr. Kaplan will perform live injections on one of his patients (sorry, attendees, you won’t be getting treated that night)!

However, attendees will receive $50 towards treatment of Xeomin (competitor to Botox) when you come into the office to smooth away lines on the forehead, the “11’s” or crow’s feet.

Space is very limited so RSVP by texting or calling us at 415-923-3005 or DM us @realdrbae on IG.

We hope to see you there!

The post Botox LIVE demo with Dr. Kaplan, Caviar Co and 99.7! first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Crepey skin, wrinkles, neck bands, turkey gobbler neck, jowls. These are all signs of the aging neck so let’s talk about treatments for the neck, from least invasive to the more invasive.

Bands to the neck

If you have bands extending from the chin to the base of your neck, you may be a candidate for Botox or Xeomin. Here’s the catch though. If those bands are just skin, it won’t help. But if the bands contain muscle, then injecting along the band will help. How do you know which you have? Flex your neck muscle by gritting your teeth. If the bands you don’t like become more prominent, you’re a good candidate.

Wrinkles or crepey skin

If you have wrinkly, crepey skin (are those even words?!), the skin can be resurfaced to improve the appearance. But one drawback is that resurfacing of the neck skin (with a laser or chemical peel) can lead to hypopigmentation. That’s a whitening of the skin. Because there are fewer melanocytes in the neck, the cells that produce pigment, those cells can be destroyed, leading to lighter-than-expected skin tone.

Jowls or sagging neck skin

Ultherapy uses ultrasonic waves to heat the collagen in the skin to tighten sagging skin or jowls. The good news is that it works. It’s not permanent but it is non-invasive. The problem is that it hurts apparently. It hurts so much that patients need pain medication and valium which makes you groggy. Which sort of nullifies the whole non-surgical-avoiding-anesthesia part.

Misplaced or excess skin to the neck

If you have a lot of excess skin, you may need a full neck lift. That includes an incision behind the chin and long incisions behind the ears to remove the excess skin. That’s the most invasive procedure on this list. But if you only have “misplaced” skin in the midline of your neck, you may be a candidate for a SIMI neck lift.

The procedure has only one incision: the one behind the chin. Through this one incision, the neck skin can be redraped so it’s no longer sagging and that avoids the need to make incisions behind the ears to remove skin. Check out this video here regarding the SIMI neck lift or watch the overview below.

Video: Treatments for the neck

To check pricing on all of these treatments for the neck, click here.

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Treatments for the neck [video] first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Join the Bae Club (aka Club Kaplan)!

For those of you not aware by now, Dr. Kaplan goes by Dr. Bae on social media! As silly as it sounds, this online persona has taken on a life of its own. He’s still the same person regardless, but being Dr. Bae in the Bay Area just made sense on Snapchat and Instagram. Spelling it B-a-e rather than B-a-y is simply a play on words.

And now Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery and Dr. Kaplan are launching the Bae Club! The Bae Club is an additional way to provide our patients with a high end, VIP experience.

When you join the Bae Club, you’ll enter a world of special offers just for you and the ability to treat yourself year round. Check out either the Membership or Package below and see which fits your needs best:

The Bae Club Injectables and SkinCare Membership:

• Up to 20% off Botox/Xeomin, fillers, Latisse and Obagi skin care products.
• Get treated, or purchase, as much and as often as you like and always get up to 20% off.
• All you do is pay a low monthly membership fee (automatically charged to a card on file).
• Purchase must be made online by clicking the button below. Can not purchase in office.

Purchase your Membership HERE!

The Bae Club Wrinkle Reducer Package: 

• Come in the office every three months, get 20 units of Botox/Xeomin and walk right out of the office!
• Instead of paying a lump fee for treatments at each appointment, you pay a little each month with an automated charge to your card on file.
• You’re getting the treatments anyway but instead of paying the full amount every three months, you pay a monthly fee that covers your cost for the year – but at a 15% discount!
• Purchase must be made online by clicking the button below. Can not purchase in office.

Purchase this Package HERE!

We know something new like this can be confusing so please don’t hesitate to call with any questions. Dr. Kaplan (aka Dr. Bae) and his team are always available! Call or TEXT us at 415-923-3005.

The post Introducing the Bae Club! first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

This recent Wall Street Journal article highlights the increasing competition in the neuromodulator market. A neuromodulator is the fancy term for a chemical used to relax facial muscles, thereby reducing wrinkles, ie Botox! In most industries, when you have more competition, that benefits the consumer by forcing lower prices. Will these competitive forces cause Botox to lower its price? Don’t bet on it!

Why more competitors won’t force Botox to lower it’s price

It is a natural assumption that with more options for a particular product, prices will go down. That’s why competition is good. But Botox is different. We’re most familiar with Botox for relaxing the wrinkles in between the eyebrows. Or treating a gummy smile. Or narrowing the jawline. But it has other uses that are less cosmetic.

Botox (and it’s competitors Dysport and Xeomin) are also great for medically necessary problems. Babies that have problems with bowel movements can get Botox to relax the anal sphincter. It can help with hoarseness. It’s an appropriate treatment for torticollis – a severe spasm of the neck muscles that causes the head to tilt. Medicare and other insurance companies will cover the cost of Botox for these medically necessary issues.

But because Botox has an agreed upon cost with the Federal government (Medicare) and other insurers, they have to be consistent with their financial practices. For example, if Medicare or an insurance company agrees to a certain cost for Botox, the makers of Botox can’t charge doctors a different rate. Said another way, if they charge the doctors less that are using Botox for cosmetic purposes, then the government or insurers won’t agree to pay a higher amount. Or at least it will bring up the uncomfortable conversation of why they’re charging one group one amount and more (or less) to a different group.

So they can either charge everyone (doctors, Medicare and private insurers) less, or charge everyone a higher rate to obtain a higher profit margin. Because the makers of Botox generate a lot of revenue from the medically necessary side of business, they don’t want to take a hit by lowering the cost to be more competitive with the cosmetic side of their business. Make sense? If not, comment below.

While we’re on the subject, check pricing on Botox and Xeomin from Dr. Kaplan by clicking here.

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Will more competitors force Botox to lower it’s price? first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Patients often ask me how they can make their Botox last longer. In other words, how can they make their facial wrinkles stay away for more than three to six months. And not just the typical lines treated with Botox like in between the eyebrows. But also the forehead lines and crow’s feet. Well, here’s the answer, sort of. A study was performed with a competitor to BOTOX® Cosmetic, known as Xeomin®, but it provides the same insight.

Making Botox last longer (or Xeomin in this case)

The study looked at what would happen if a doctor gave a patient more Xeomin than usual in a particular area. For example, 20 units to the 11’s or lines in between the eyebrows typically lasts for three months. So what would happen if 37 patients were divided into three groups. One receiving 20 units, one receiving 60 units and one receiving 100 units to the 11’s. How long would the effect last in each of those three groups?

Based on the results, the patient’s 11’s returned after ~4 months if they only received 20 units. But the effect lasted ~7 months in some patients with 60 units and ≥11 months in some patients with 100 units!

By 9 months, 23% of those in the 100 unit group continued to have no wrinkles in between the eyebrows (11’s).

According to the study, safety of Xeomin at higher doses was favorable, with no unexpected safety findings. So next time you’re getting your Botox fix, ask your doctor about getting a higher dose of Xeomin for longer lasting results.

To check pricing from Dr. Kaplan, click here.

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post How to make Botox last longer? Triple the dose! first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.