A frightening story showed up in local papers last week regarding Elias Renteria Segoviano. This man got arrested in his “cosmetic surgery practice” in Anaheim. The problem was that “Dr. Renteria” is not a doctor, even though his personalized CA license plate is ELIASMD! His website has been taken down but his Instagram page is still up and shows him injecting Beauty injections and filler, doing thread lifts, liposuction and BBL’s. He was advertising “Beauty injections $5” per unit – that is a little difficult to do as Beauty injections costs us much more directly from the manufacturer, but then again, he was accused of injecting “counterfeit” products. In spite of his total lack of qualifications, he managed to attract 1,600 Instagram followers and have a busy practice for years. Yes, he will go to jail. This story brought up the question of qualifications and we will try to clarify that here. To begin with, after college, four years of medical school is required to become a physician. Training and subsequent examinations are required to complete training. In the case of plastic surgery, there are some six-year combined programs, following which trainees may sit for their plastic surgery boards.
The usual path to a plastic surgery residency is a minimum of 3 years of general surgery training, board certification in orthopedics or in the ear, nose and throat specialty. All three of us are board certified plastic surgeons (Dr. Compoginis and Bunkis are double board certified because they were board certified by the American Board of General Surgery before starting plastic surgery training). Board Certification is the goal of most physicians after they have completed their residencies. One difficulty patients have in assessing physician qualifications is understanding the various certifications and titles doctors earn (or in some cases, just buy). The American Board of Medical Specialties is the leading organization for physician board certification. There are 24 member boards recognized by the ABMS and the American Board of Plastic Surgery is one of them.
Many organizations out there call themselves boards but are not truly recognized boards. For example, the American Board of Cosmetic Surgery sounds great but it is not a board recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties. And there are many others like it. So buyer beware, call us if you have any questions about qualifications…..if you would like to see a plastic surgeon, make sure they are indeed certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery.
You can always go to this web site to learn if your doctor is certified by any of the specialties covered by the American Board of Medical Specialties www.certificationmatters.org. Know that you are in good hands at Salisbury Plastic Surgery in Worcester and Orange County Plastic Surgery in Newport Beach.
Spotlight on Plastic Surgery – EYELID REJUVENATION by Juris Bunkis, M.D., F.A.C.S.
Eyelid rejuvenation consists of four elements that we frequently address:
- Excess upper eyelid skin, addressed by an upper eyelid blepharoplasty
- Lower lid bags, addressed by a lower eyelid blepharoplasty
- Brow ptosis (low brows), addressed with a brow lift
- Eyelid wrinkling and crow’s feet, addressed with Beauty injections or skin resurfacing (i.e. chemical peels or laser treatments)
Which approach will be recommended for you depends on your anatomy and your expectations, all of which will be thoroughly explored during your consultation. The blepharoplasty operation is designed to remove excess skin and bagginess, or to rearrange the fatty deposits, to give the eyes a more youthful appearance. It must be understood that most of the wrinkles around the eyes are etched into the skin and cannot be removed by a blepharoplasty procedure alone. The most common method to address crow’s feet is the administration of a neurotoxin like Beauty injections® or Dysport®. Fine lines of the eyelid skin are best addressed with a resurfacing procedure involving either a chemical peel or a laser resurfacing treatment.
If a patient presents with droopy brows, it may be impossible to obtain a significant improvement of upper eyelid appearance without first raising the brows. The blepharoplasty procedure by itself (without a brow lift) does not improve droopy eyebrows. In fact, removing excess upper eyelid skin in someone with low brows may cause the brows to droop further. Your surgeon may discuss a brow lift with you if he/she feels that a significant portion of your problem is caused by a low brow position.
Female in her 50’s with excess upper eyelid skin and lower lid bags, treated with a “quad blepharoplasty” – an upper and lower eyelid blepharoplasty procedure(Actual patient of Dr. Bunkis)
If you want to see if you can have any part of your body improved, contact us for a consultation:
For CA, please call 949-888-9700 or visit www.orangecountyplasticsurgery.com
Or for MA location, call 508-755-4825 or visit www.salisburyps.com
You can write to
Dr. Compoginis at Contact Us Form
Dr. Bunkis at Contact Us Form
or Dr. Ekstrom at [email protected]
