Dr. Walden Talks To CBS News

Dr. Walden recently spoke to CBS News about the 26 year old British woman who ruptured a breast implant playing paintball. While paintball is be a very fun and exciting sport, it must be known that you can get seriously hurt while playing it (regardless of whether or not you have breast implants). The article says that the paintball was traveling at 190 miles per hour! Clearly I think people who play this sport should wear protective gear to cover any part of them they would not want hurt or damaged...real or not!



See what Dr. Walden had to say about it:



http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20099366-10391704.html



Have fun but be careful out there!

New FDA Sunscreen Information

While most of us are getting our sweaters back out and looking at fall boots, we can't forget that other parts of the country will still be wearing their bathing suits and shorts all year round. While this may seem great to us in New York (who are still traumatized from last year's winter) we can't forget that this puts them at a greater risk for sun damage and possible skin cancer. This is why the FDA recently released new information on sunscreens that everyone should be aware of. Doctor Walden's newest article explores the new information released as well as some important skin cancer awareness information:



http://austin.culturemap.com/newsdetail/08-19-11-20-26-fda-sheds-light-on-sunscreen-labeling/





Read up and educate yourself...we still have some sun time left and most of us (hopefully) have a fall/winter vacation coming up somewhere hot!

Groupon's model may be both bad business and illegle for cosmetic medical services

The use of social media services like Facebook and Twitter to promote your medical practice on the web has become common in recent years. For today's potential patients, if you don't have a web footprint then you might as well be invisible. A new wrinkle on this has been causing some concern that it might be both illegal and unethical when applied to medical services like laser hair removal, BOTOX injections, and other goods and services.

Services like Groupon offer heavily discounted goods and services to people who buy the "deal of the day" through Groupon. They then collect the money and keep a large percentage of the fee, passing the rest to the merchant. Groupon’s first daily deal in October 2008 was famously a half-price deal for a pizza restaurant located in its office building in Chicago. From that event, the service has exploded. This is now a big business, with such "deal of the day" businesses projected to exceed $6 billion in sales by 2015.

Is this good for anyone other then the principals of Groupon and the like? I don't think so. Like many of the so called "innovators" of silicone valley and the web (ie. Facebook), most ideas you see bubbling up merely seek to skim money off the top of transactions rather then creating a product of any kind of value. It's a giant long con that would seem to be creating another internet bubble for shareholders and investors in these companies.

Expect to see more signs like this from small businesses:

A blog post I found from earlier this year (see here) crystalizes the problem for Groupon noting,

"many businesses will still make the mistake of overestimating the value of the customers they are likely to get from them. The proportion of customers procured from Groupon who are likely to make a return visit/repeat purchase may be dramatically lower than average meaning that, especially when you also factor in the significant cut of the revenue that the retailers have to pay to Groupon, they could actually make a significant loss on the deal. It’s the same logic which has led many online retailers to shun voucher code sites which they see as catering only to bargain hunters as opposed to potentially loyal customers."

You're hearing more and more horror stories from merchants who are not realizing how insane participating with such budiness models is, particularly at the levels of revenue Groupon is skimming from them. In aesthetic medicine, we see more and more of such deals from Botox and laser treatments for hair removal, skin tightening, and body contouring. I see these offers and am boggled at what these clinics and spas are thinking. You cannot stay in business offering services for less then cost, and it is clear that patients who shop through Groupon will always be price shoppers rather then repeat clients. I recently saw a dermatologist lose almost $5000 on a special they did on one of these services not realizing how much they were actually promising to deliver after their cost of the Botox (which is almost $600/bottle).

A new wrinkle (no pun intended) has been the examination of such a relationship in the context of restrictions of what's known as "fee splitting". These types oflaws prohibit the offer, solicitation, payment or receipt of anything of value, direct or indirect, overt or covert, in cash or in kind, intended to induce referral of patient for items or services reimbursed. The language of such laws vary by state, but the spirit of most of them would seem to be at odds with the Groupon model. A number of experts are concluding that such programs, by virtue of their "per unit" fee model, violates such federal rules and many states medical board rules (see here and here) and are advising providers to tread carefully.

So, in summary we have an illogical business model that may or may not be legal for medical goods and services. What's not to like?

Rob

Lindsey Pulls a Pippa!!

Lindsey Lohan pulled the ultimate Pippa Middleton and stole the show at Kim K's wedding this past weekend. Not only did she wear the same gown that Pippa wore on the evening of Kate's wedding, Lilo also turned lots of heads with her looks - only in this case the attention wasn't all good. In addition to rocking more cleavage than a Jersey Shore cast member, Lindsey also overdid it with the botox and lip injections.

Between the tan, the bleach blonde hair and the injectables, Linds is just as fake as the wedding between Kim and Kris. We all love a little botox. It definitely has its place our beauty regimens, but too much can make a person look older than they really are. I mean just look at this picture. Lindsey is only 25 years old and she looks older than 48 year old mom Dina!

Dr. Walden Discusses Top 5 Plastic Surgery Treatments in SHAPE

There are many different procedures out there. So which ones are the most popular and why? From botox to breast augmentation, we all have those little things that we could use some help on. See which other treatments made the list and don't miss what Dr. Walden has to say in SHAPE!

Our August Patient & Dr. Walden on E!'s Dr. 90210

Our patient for the month of August is the beautiful and strong Withers, Dr. Walden's patient for an E!'s Dr 90210 episode. E! documented Wither's struggle with a childhood burn that caused her to have several surgeries. Watch how Dr. Walden helped her: http://www.drjenniferwalden.com/jw-media.htm

Vienna Girardi and Mr. Potato Head

Remember those little plastic potato heads with the big, removable noses that you played with as a kid? Well reality star Vienna Girardi, who recently underwent rhinoplasty, thinks that that is what her nose looked like before her surgery. And while a new nose might not be as easy as popping out one piece of plastic and plugging in another, at least she had the option of rhinoplasty.

One of the top cosmetic surgeries performed these days is the rhinoplasty, as Dr. Walden recently discussed in SHAPE. Many celebs (and pseudo-celebs) undergo this procedure in order to achieve a more aesthetically pleasing look. I was looking at Vienna's before pictures in US Weekly (see below), and reading her comments regarding the shape of her nose, and this got me thinking about different types of noses.

While we often see celebrities who have fairly attractive features to begin with and who have minimal changes made in order to improve their appearances, there are some who have less attractive features to begin with. In Vienna's case, she had a hooked nose, often called a 'bird nose' or 'hawk nose', which reminds me of the shape of Paris Hilton's nose.

This type of nose can be drastically improved with a rhinoplasty procedure, and in Vienna's case I do think the improvement can be considered drastic, especially if you look at the profile shot. Lucky for Vienna, even though she acted like a witch on The Bachelor, she doesn't have to look like one.

J-Whoa!!

The new season of The Jersey Shore begins tomorrow night and the fact that they're in Italy is not the only big change. Jenni Farley, known as J-Wow, looks completely different than she did before. Let's be honest, in the first season she was a little rough around the edges with the blue or blond hair clips and the almost non-existent outfits (well that really didn't change that much). However, after that she cleaned up her look a little and lost some weight and she really did look pretty. This not the case anymore.

At the reunion special that aired this week, J-Wow was seen looking really fake (and not just her breasts). It seems as though she went overboard with fillers in her face. She could barely talk; I had to rewind and pause a few times just to watch her try. Her face looks so unnatural and it really is such a shame she had to over-do it. I guess that's how she does everything...the implants, the outfits, the make-up! Here's the pictures to show how she's changed over the seasons:

Season One: (painful)

Season Two: (pretty)

Now: (back to painful)

Dr. Walden in SHAPE Magazine

In a recent SHAPE article Dr. Walden discusses the treatments and procedures that celebs go to on a regular basis to achieve those picture perfect looks. More celebrities are now sharing their plastic surgery secrets, which include Botox, Rhinoplasty and Skin Resurfacing. Click here to see what your favorite celebs have had done and what Dr. Walden has to say!