My Beautiful Mommy: Explaining Your Plastic Surgery to Your Kids

I do feel bad for Dr. Michael Salzhauer.  He is the Board Certified Plastic Surgeon who authored My Beautiful Mommy, the much maligned children's book which explains cosmetic surgery to patients' 4-8-year-olds.  To hear the television pundits, you would think that he was single-handedly responsible for foistering unrealistic body images on our nation's elementary-school kids.

While Dr. Salzhauer probably didn't realize that his book would stir up such a cultural maelstrom, I am glad that the ensuing controversy has created a forum for discussing plastic surgery with the under-10 crowd.  Certainly, grade-school children are concerned when their mothers are gone for a day or two, and then return with bruising and bandages.  Children under 10 are very concrete, and they need to know that their mothers are safe and are making rational choices.  Having an honest conversation with children, both before and after any procedure, is helpful for their understanding.

Liposuction: Common Locations of Stubborn Fat Deposits: Part III in the Liposuction Series

Patients often ask where liposuction may help.  The following list includes the most frequently requested anatomic regions organized from head to toe...

    

• for the fullness in the neck below the chin (“the waddle”)
• at a fatty accumulation of the upper back (“a buffalo hump”)
• along the arms
• for male breast development (gynecomastia)
• for a heavy tummy, especially the “paunch” below the bellybutton
• for “love handles” and “spare tires”
• at the “saddlebags” (on the sides of the hips)
• for heavy inner thighs
• for heavy inner knees
• along the calves ("cankles")

“Finally, no more saddlebags!”

- Patient E.M., an avid runner, after ultrasonic liposuction of her hips

    

“My waist looks great.  I don’t even know where the scars are anymore.  I should have done this years ago.”

- Patient S.U., after ultrasonic liposuction of his “spare tire”

    

Liposuction can also be used to improve the results of traditional (excisional) plastic surgery procedures:

• for refinements of breast reductions and tummy tucks
• for refinements of complex reconstructive surgery, such as shaping the abdominal tissue used for a TRAM (transverse rectus abdominis myocutaneous) flap breast reconstruction