Botox vs Xeomin vs Dysport vs Jeuveau

First, their similarities. All of these products come to the doctor in a powder form. They’re turned into or reconstituted into a liquid with the addition of saline. Once in their liquid form, they can be injected with a very small needle into areas of the face where wrinkles exist due to overactive muscles. For example, these products can be injected into the 11’s in between the eyebrows. Or the forehead or lines around the eyes called crow’s feet.

As this article shows, there are many other areas on the face where Botox is just what the doctor ordered! In general, these all work pretty much the same. They all start working 1-3 days after surgery, hit their maximum effect at 1 week and last for three to six months.

Rather than one product claiming to be better than another, the products that have come out after Botox perform “non-inferiority studies.” Basically, instead of saying they’re better than the grandmother of all neuromodulators (Botox), the competitors prove they’re no worse! Can you imagine any other product arguing how similar they are to another product?!

The differences

While they generally work the same, there are differences. BOTOX® Cosmetic has an extra inactive protein that can make it more unstable. Compared to Xeomin, there is no extra unstable protein. This may be why Xeomin doesn’t ship in dry ice.

BOTOX® Cosmetic, Dysport and Jeuveau all require styrofoam packaging and dry ice for shipping. Xeomin on the other hand is kinder on the environment. It ships in a regular box and doesn’t need refrigeration until reconstitution.

Video on the various neuromodulators

To check pricing on these injectables from Dr. Kaplan, click here.

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

The post Botox vs Xeomin vs Dysport vs Jeuveau [video] first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Undereye dark circles

The dark circles under the eyes are not due to dark skin as many think. In many cases, it’s actually a shadow and nothing more. A shadow cast by the eyes onto the skin under the eyes. So if you can elevate that sunken area and bring them out from under the shadow of the eyes, you can fix this issue.

But how to raise that area? Fillers, like Belotero, are the solution. Belotero (similar to Juvederm or Restylane), is made from hyaluronic acid, the same material found in your joints. By injecting these fillers under the eye, the area is raised, brought out from under the shadow of the eyes, thus eliminating the dark circles as seen in the before and after photo above.

Be sure and go to a trained plastic surgeon or dermatologist that has a great deal of experience in this procedure. Because even though it may seem like a simple procedure, done incorrectly, it can result in an inordinate amount of swelling, bruising or even blindness! Seriously. Granted that’s a very uncommon complication, the FDA is now requiring warnings regarding blindness and filler injections around the eyes.

Video: Treatment for undereye dark circles

To check pricing on nonsurgical treatment to the undereye dark circles from Dr. Kaplan, click here.

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

The post Treatment for undereye dark circles [video] first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Doctors-in-training spend the first 6 months of medical school learning about anatomy. Dissecting this tissue from that tissue on people that were generous enough to donate their bodies to science. However, doctors must recognize that our patients did not attend medical school. So there’s a knowledge gap. And to bridge that gap, we must ensure we’re educating patients adequately so we’re all using the same terminology. Confusion on our “words” will lead to an unhappy patient, especially when it comes to anatomy.

Our words count when it comes to anatomy

The first example that comes to mind when discussing potentially confusing anatomical terms is when doctors refer to abdominal quadrants. It’s easy to tell the patient their appendectomy scar will be in the right lower quadrant. Obviously that may not mean much to a patient. Especially unique about the abdomen is how often patients refer to an organ (the stomach) when talking about their abdomen. “You’re operating on my stomach?” while pointing to the abdomen.

It’s important the doctor doesn’t propagate any erroneous terminology just for the sake of the patient’s understanding. These are times when it’s necessary to educate the patient and bring them over to the doctor’s way of thinking, ie correctly referencing the abdomen and not the stomach when discussing abdominal procedures.

Another example in the cosmetic realm is the reference to flanks vs hips vs thighs. Many patients will use these interchangeably. Maybe even some doctors. But if you’re telling a patient you’re performing liposuction to the flanks and they’re expecting slimmer hips postoperatively, you’ll have an angry patient on your hands.

Video description of the hips vs flanks vs thighs

Patients seems to have varying opinions on what the “smile lines” are when talking about injectables like Botox, Xeomin or fillers. I think most people correctly refer to the smile lines as the lines that extend from the nostrils down to the corners of the mouth. These are also referred to as the “parentheses lines” or nasolabial grooves. These areas are treated with fillers. However, some patients refer to the lines around the eyes as smile lines because they’re produced when a patient smiles. Those lines are more appropriately referred to as the “crow’s feet.” It’s so important that this distinction is made because “smile lines” around the eyes (crow’s feet) are treated with Botox or Xeomin, not the fillers typically reserved for the nasolabial grooves smile lines.

So choose your words carefully! To check pricing on any of these procedures from a doctor near you, click here.

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

The post Let’s talk about anatomy [video] first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

We recently held a Botox/Xeomin party at a local clothing boutique in town. The owner provided us with a few pearls regarding the benefits of Botox or Xeomin. So here are 5 things botox patients might say. You won’t find these in a scholarly journal!

The things Botox patients say!

These comments reflect the perceived benefits of Botox and Xeomin. Some may be supratentorial (a euphemism for “in your head”). And some are legitimate effects on Botox patients. So what are some of the things you hear people say about Botox?

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

The post 5 things Botox patients say first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

The Medical Spa Show

The conference is sponsored by the American Med Spa Association and according to their website:

“AmSpa provides legal, compliance, and business resources for medical spas and medical aesthetic practices.

AmSpa members have access to legal summaries of the regulations in their state, and are eligible for an AmSpa-exclusive medical spa insurance package. Members also gain savings on training events, tools that teach medical spa legal and business best-practices, and much more!”

So whether you’re working at a med spa or thinking of starting one, the conference will benefit you. Also, the practice management and procedures discussed will be beneficial to anyone in an aesthetic practice.

Dr. Kaplan will discuss how one of the best ways to generate leads through your website is price transparency. Consumers researching a doctor’s website are eventually going to want to know the cost.

With a “Get A Quote Now” call-to-action button on the home page of your website, you can capture all of those visitors wanting to know price. But don’t just list the prices in a static menu. That’s the equivalent to giving the milk away for free. With the BuildMyBod Health platform, consumers can check pricing and doctors can capture contact info for follow up. When it comes to healthcare, there’s no better customer service than a doctor’s office assisting you through your journey!

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

The post Dr. Kaplan speaking at The Medical Spa Show first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

A couple years ago, I wrote this article about clickbait – the use of eye-grabbing titles to capture a reader’s attention but then directing them to an article that’s less interesting or totally unrelated. My article was entitled, “Trending: Zookeepers Performing Cosmetic Surgery on Zoo Animals?!” It was just a joke and intended to simulate clickbait. Well, this clickbait came true! Some camels were recently disqualified from a beauty contest for using Botox!

Botox for Camels: yes, that’s a thing

As you can see in here, here and here, several camels were recently disqualified from a beauty pageant in Saudi Arabia for using Botox. Let’s break this down.

Who knew there was such a thing as a beauty pageant for camels?! Not only is there a pageant, but it’s a month-long festival with 30,000 camels and 300,000 visitors!

When it comes to judging a camel’s attractiveness, pouty lips are a bonus. And according to these articles, Botox, which relaxes muscles in the face to reduce wrinkles, was used to make the lips more pouty.

Most conossieurs of cosmetic services will be a bit confused, as was I. When you think of cosmetic treatments to the lips, you think of making the lips fuller with fillers like Belotero, Juvederm and Restylane, not Botox. But Botox also has effect on the lips in humans.

Botox can also be used to relax the muscles around the lips to reduce the appearance of smoker’s lines. However, in the case of camels, what I can discern from these articles, is that relaxing the muscles around the camels lips makes them droop more, giving a pouty appearance.

So if you want Dr. Kaplan to give your camel pouty lips, click here. Just kidding about the camel part but you can check his pricing by clicking here.

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

The post Botox for camels! first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.