If you are considering cosmetic surgery in San Diego or East County it is best that you understand your doctor's philosophy.  Just as no one size fits all, it is also true that not every patient and every doctor are a match.  Trust your instincts when you pick your surgeon, for it is likely that you will be together for a long time.  The dynamics of a doctor-patient relationship are always special and you should feel at ease and confident about your doctor.  It is my goal to bring to the relationship a healthy dose of humor, professionalism, skill and humility.  While I control the cutting and suturing, only God controls the healing.

      Cosmetic surgery is perhaps the ultimate blend of the art and science of medicine, and the craft of surgery.  At its very best it should not be loud or stylized, but neither should it be mindless or soulless.  It is curious that a modest, well-crafted surgery creates the best and most lasting sense of beauty and self-satisfaction.  I often try to make the smallest number of changes so that a face keeps its harmony

      Cosmetic surgery is an ever-evolving frontier, and I am constantly searching out new ideas.  Nothing reported escapes my investigation, yet only a small amount of what appears in the popular press makes it into my practice.  I am often asked if I do a certain procedure (usually the latest thing reported in Ladies Home Journal or Vanity Fair).  I attend several national medical meetings each year and read five journals cover to cover each month; altogether, I spend 200 hours per year (that is, four 50-hour work weeks) investigating the newest and latest techniques in cosmetic surgery.  Many turn out to be old techniques recycled by new doctors and pushed by hired publicists.  Many I, myself, have tried in past years and discarded as impractical or fraught with complications and unnatural results.  Occasionally, of course, something really new and better comes along, but before any new technique is incorporated into my practice, it must meet my rigid criteria:  it must be safe and effective; it must have a low rate of complications; it must produce natural results; it must appear in a respected scientific journal and be subjected to rigorous debate and criticism; and, finally, it must produce better results than my current technique.

      There are countless doctors touting new and revolutionary techniques, and few make it beyond the publicist's effort and fee.  Even fewer make it into a respected medical journal and gain any mainstream acceptance.  You can understand this better if you realize that it is common knowledge amongst surgeons that your first chance at cosmetic surgery is your best chance.  Revision surgery is seldom as satisfying and predictable as the primary surgery.  Most doctors take the (very reasonable) position of, "Why take a chance on the latest fad (promoted by a skilled marketing campaign) when I can produce excellent and predictable results with my current technique?"  I ask you, do you want your face to be part of a doctor's learning curve?  This is why, in a prudent doctor's practice, you will see evolutionary changes occurring.  Revolutionary advances are just not suited for this serious business.  If you make a bad choice in clothes, or styles change, you can hang them in the closet, but you will wear your face forever.