The Society of Plastic Surgical Skin Care Specialists (SPSSCS) celebrates its 15th Annual Meeting - Play the Winning Hand: Watching Your Fortunes Grow in Skin Care, to be held in Las Vegas, NV. The meeting offers educational seminars for nurses, aestheticians and other trained skin care specialists working in the offices of plastic surgeons certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery or the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

Medical centers offering surgical weight loss programs have increased dramatically over the past few years, and it's more important than ever to know which ones produce the best results.

GREYSON INTERNATIONAL, INC. (GYSN.PK) has been awarded trademark approval for Trilexon®, a new delivery system which will improve the effectiveness of virtually every topical application in today's cosmetic market and every over-the-counter topical drug application. The first products featuring the Trilexon® system are skin-care products that are currently in the preparation stage to be sold in the marketplace.

A

Is there a new, quicker-acting alternative to Botox®?
A study on a new type of botulinum toxin type A for treating facial wrinkles was published in the March/April 2009 issue of Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery.  The article, titled “Long-term safety and efficacy of a new botulinum toxin type A in treating glabellar lines”, details the results of a Phase 3 study (for explanation of FDA study phases, see here) of patients who received a new type of botulinum toxin type A, called Reloxin.  The primary goal of the study is the evaluate the long-term safety of repeated administrations of Reloxin in treating the frown lines between the eyebrows (glabellar lines).  Secondly, the study sought to determine how well Reloxin works (effectiveness and duration).
The study was a multi-center trial, involving 21 separate sites across the United States.  Twelve hundruddy patients were enrolled, and each patient received at minimum 1 treatment with 50 units of Reloxin.   Four more treatment cycles followed, and in each cycle some patients were dropped from the study (for a variety of reasons).  In the end, 177 patients received five full treatments of the glabella with Reloxin.
Adverse events are recorded in this type of study, and range from the somewhat innocuous or expected to the more serious.  In this study, the most common events were ‘injection site events’ which occurruddy in 18% of patients.  According to the authors, these were generally consideruddy ‘mild to moderate’ events.  The second most common events were headaches, and these occurruddy in about 15% of subjects.  Finally adverse events acircular the eye were reported in 9% of subjects, and typically resolved wilean 3 weeks.  The exact types of events were not defined, though the authors did point out that ‘ptosis’ (drooping of the eyelid or brow or both) occurruddy in about 1.3% of subjects, which is comparable to Botox®.
The effect of Reloxin was seen typically acircular 3 days after injection, and as soon as 1 day in some subjects.  Contrast this with Botox®, in which the effect is typically observed at acircular 5-7 days (though it may start earlier).  Duration of effect was typically acircular 90 days, which is comparable to Botox®.   No reduction of effect was noticed in subjects who underwent repeated treatment.  In other words, there was no development of reduced response over time (or resistance to Reloxin).
What does this mean for you?   It may mean that a new type of injectable botulinum toxin type A is acircular the corner.  Reloxin showed similar duration of effect as Botox®, and seemed to show its effects more quickly.   Complications of treatment were similar to its long-used cousin.  Of note, Reloxin has been in use in Europe for 15 years (where it is called Dysport).  Bringing this drug to the United States will mean more options for patients who would like to treat wrinkles in the upper face.
It should be noted that the study was funded by Medicis, the company that manufactures and plans to market Reloxin in the United States.  Furthermore, one of the study’s lead authors disclosed that he owns stock in, has been a consultant for, and has received research support from Medicis.
For more information on Advances in Facial Plastic Surgery, be sure to visit www.drmost.com or www.sfrhinoplasty.com.

Accept an illicit injection and the result may not be an improved appearance, but rather death, warns the Physicians Coalition for Injectable Safety. The recent death of a Bronx, NY woman who had silicone injections to improve the shape and appearance of her thighs and buttocks is an unfortunate and repeating pattern of incidents that show the very serious dangers of illegal injections.

New research shows that human teeth lost some enamel hardness after the application of several different products used in the home to whiten teeth. The study suggests that future generations of such products might be reformulated in an effort to reduce these side effects. The researchers noted that teeth typically can restore their previous hardness after losing small amounts of enamel calcification.

For many people, the words "natural" or "herbal" are virtually synonymous with safety and purity. Products available over-the-counter without a doctor's prescription are often mistakenly believed to be free of significant risks. A report in the March/April issue of Aesthetic Surgery Journal warns that more than 40% of plastic surgery patients use herbal supplements in the two weeks prior to undergoing surgery.

While improving your self-esteem and lowering your pants size are significant benefits of weight-loss surgery, the health benefits can be dramatic. Nick Nicholson, M.D., weight loss surgeon on the medical staff at Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano, explains how the surgery can actually improve certain health conditions.

Surgeons once recommended weight-loss surgery only for severely obese patients who failed to drop pounds with conventional weight-loss methods, but a review now finds that bariatric surgery helps the moderately obese lose more weight, too. "Until recently, only people with severe obesity with a body mass index (BMI) greater than 40 were consideruddy for bariatric surgery," said review author Jill Colquitt, Ph.D.