Having undergone over 30 plastic surgeries, Hershey suffered her first complication during her most recent breast augmentation procedure when a severe staph infection reached both of her breasts, reports Fox News in Houston.

Hershey, who lives in Houston, has had to give herself infusions of intravenous antibiotics every 12 hours to fight the infection. She said her surgeon told her she should be concerned for her life because the infection could leak into her bloodstream. According to her website www.sheylahershey.net, she is currently undergoing treatment.

Is this type of complication common after breast surgery?

Dr. Michael Will, who performs breast augmentation and breast implant repairs in Frederick County, Maryland at his Ijamsville office, says that “infection related to breast augmentation is rare, and when encountered, the implants frequently need to be removed and replaced at a later date.”

He also stressed the importance of a thorough consultation with your doctor before undergoing breast surgery:

Breast augmentation procedures should be preceded by a comprehensive consultation between the cosmetic surgeon and the patient, where the patient’s concerns and expectations are discussed in relation to the patient’s breast and chest wall anatomy.

An effective evaluation and treatment plan should result in a post-operative outcome that reaches a balance between the patient’s expectations and the surgeon’s surgical and anatomical limitations to yield an esthetic and healthy outcome. When the surgical tissue tension and stress exceed the capacity for normal healing, wound breakdown and infection often develop.

Dr. Frenzel specializes in breast augmentation surgery and spent a year in a specialized cosmetic surgery fellowship to learn the art of aesthetic breast surgery, including breast augmentation.

Texas tied with Ohio for 13^th place in a list of states with the highest obesity rates for adults. Both states have an obesity rate of 29 percent; the state with the highest rate of obesity was Mississippi, where 33.8% of adults are obese. For historical perspective, no state had an obesity rate above 20 percent in 1991. Colorado has the lowest obesity rate of any state, at 19.1 percent.

Given the obesity epidemic in the U.S., more people are turning to bariatric surgery to help lose weight.

The most common weight loss surgery is gastric bypass, which divides the stomach into a small pouch. The surgery reduces the size of the stomach so that the patient feels satisfied with less food. In addition to eating less, you will also absorb less food, leading to significant weight loss.

A lap band is another bariatric surgery option, in which a silicone band gets placed on the upper portion of the stomach, limiting the intake of food and suppressing hunger. The advantage of the lap band is that it is adjustable, which allows for a moderate progression of weight loss.

The gastric sleeve is a newer type of bariatric surgery where a portion of the stomach is surgically removed so that it takes the form of a sleeve. This process results in hunger suppression and brings about a gradual, significant weight loss.

For those battling obesity, Dr. Frenzel in is an expert in the field of bariatric surgery and has offices in Arlington and Dallas, Texas. He performs several bariatric surgieries, as well as post-bariatric body lifts in which excess skin and tissue, which is often present after significant weight loss, is reduced, and the skin is tightened to improve the body shape.

A few months ago a blog post explained Botox’s potential to work as a migraine treatment, and now the U.K.’s drug regulator has become the first in the world to approve Botox for the use of preventing chronic migraine headaches, Allergan announced last week. While best known as a cosmetic wrinkle treatment, Botox can now be used on migraine patients in the U.K. who have headaches at least 15 days a month, including migraines on 8 days.

Allergan’s clinical trial PREEMPT (Phase III REsearch Evaluating Migraine Prophylaxis Therapy) involved almost 1,400 adults with a history of migraines and who experienced 15 or more headache days of which at least 50 percent were migraine or probable migraine during a baseline 28-day period. At the end of the period, patients were randomized to receive either Botox injections or placebo.

Patients in the Botox group averaged 8.2 fewer migraine days by week 24 following treatment, which was significantly greater than the change from baseline observed in placebo treated patients of 6.2 days.

Lee Tomkins, director of Migraine Action, said, “We have been following these studies really closely and the evidence is really pretty solid. These people spend half their lives in pain. Even if they get half the attacks, it can really improve their quality of life.” Migraine Action says one in seven people in the UK suffer from migraine, affecting twice as many women as men.

The U.S.’s Food and Drug Administration is likely to decide this month whether the product can be sold for migraines, Aaron Gal, a Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst in New York, said in May.

Botox is still the most popular minimally-invasive cosmetic procedure in the U.S., according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons’ most recent statistics, which showed that the procedure was performed 4.8 million times in the U.S. in 2009  for cosmetic purposes. 

Project Beauty home page

Project Beauty, a new consumer website, claims to be the “video site that answers all your beauty questions.”

The goal behind the new site is to “cut through the clutter,” acknowledging that there is already plenty of information out there on beauty topics.  Project Beauty aims to be the singular online source for all things beauty. They’re bringing together experts on a range of topics including the latest trends in fashion, beauty treatment options, skin care, makeup, hair, nutrition and dieting, and cosmetic surgery.

Project Beauty is a web.tv, video on demand website almost two years in development and “extensively tested by consumers interested in plastic surgery, health and wellness topics,” according to ASAPS. It will be updated on a weekly basis and features a “who’s who” list of experts on fashion, makeup, and skincare as well as news and first person stories on all things related to aesthetic surgery.

Videos include a teenager who shares her reasons for getting rhinoplasty; a step-by-step guide to applying daytime makeup; and a dentist who shares why he got a facelift.

To kickoff the launch of Project Beauty, the site is hosting a month-long giveaway contest called “30 Days of Beauty.” Each day from July 6, 2010 to August 4, 2010, Project Beauty will offer one prize (prizes include a Sonicare toothbrush; Mederma Stretch Marks Therapy; and SmashBox cosmetics) per day. To win, you have to join the Project Beauty Community and enter daily to win the prize of the day. Participants can score a fabulous product every day for a month.

Project Beauty also launched a social media campaign on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. To join the Project Beauty community, sign up at www.projectbeauty.com.

Too much plaque can lead to gingivitis, which is the first stage of gum disease. Symptoms of gum disease include swollen or bleeding gums, receding gums, and the formation of deep pockets between teeth and gums, according to WebMD. It can end with tooth loss due to destruction of the tissue that surrounds your teeth, if left untreated.

“You register an older look because you see more spaces, less and uneven gum tissue,” according to Antenucci.

Eventually gum disease can cause the bones underneath to dissolve away, says Dr. Donald Clem, a dentist in Fullerton, Calif. “In later stages of periodontal disease we would see disfigurement in terms of caving in of the lips and cheek and wrinkles around the lips and cheeks.”

Researchers looked at issues related to how specific bony aspects of the face change with age and what implications these structural changes may have on the techniques used in facial cosmetic surgery, according to the abstract of a study published recently in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery journal.

So don’t forget that good hygiene, such as flossing daily, can help your anti-aging efforts, in addition to cosmetic procedures such as eyelid surgery, a facelift, or wrinkle fillers.

Juvederm XC, Restylane-L, and Perlane-L are three injectables that won FDA approval in February 2010 for lidocaine versions in the U.S.

Dr. Michael H. Gold, a clinical assistant professor of dermatology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and School of Nursing, says the products performed similarly to their lidocaine-free predecessors in terms of safety  and efficacy.

Furthermore, in the clinical trials, he says, “The incorporation of lidocaine has surely provided a higher comfort level for patients.”

In the 72-patient trial of Juvederm XC, patients were blindfolded and their nasolabial folds were treated with either Juvéderm or Juvederm XC. Patients assessed pain levels during treatment and then 30 minutes and 24 hours post-treatment. In the study, 93 percent reported less pain when treated with the lidocaine formulation versus the non-lidocaine formulation of Juvederm.

Dr. Gold says that, based on his clinical experience, when a patient receives an injection that includes even a small percentage of lidocaine, “Most patients say they barely feel the second stick. To me that is the home run of lidocaine in these fillers.”

The FDA also cleared a method for physicians mixing lidocaine with Radiesse last year. “Originally, I was against doctors mixing a lot of fillers because I was afraid of potential changes in the products themselves,” says Dr. Gold. But once the FDA clears these products, especially those premixed by manufacturers, “I’m pretty comfortable with it.”

Juvederm, Restylane, and Radiesse are performed at Dr. Frenzel’s Arlington, Texas office.

The full story, “Fillers with lidocaine among latest injectable advancements,” is available online at Modern Medicine.

A study found that patients with thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS)—a debilitating and painful nerve compression disorder—who received a single, low-dose injection of Botox in a neck muscle reported a significant reduction in short-term pain.

This suggests, the researchers say, that Botox could be an alternative to the invasive rib-removal surgery that is used to treat the syndrome as a last resort.

“There haven’t been many alternatives to the use of surgery to treat this syndrome,” says the study’s lead author Paul J. Christo, M.D., M.B.A., an assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “Botox seems to be an effective treatment that avoids surgery’s obvious drawbacks, such as its invasive nature and long recovery time.”

As with treating wrinkles, the effect from Botox on TOS patients lasts only a few months, so repeated injections would be necessary to maintain the results. Dr. Christo says some patients could develop antibodies to the compound with excessive use, which would mean the toxin would no longer block pain.

Botox’s use as a cosmetic procedure shows no signs of slowing. In the latest statistics from the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery it was the number one less-invasive cosmetic procedure performed in the United States in 2009. Dr. Frenzel performs Botox in his Arlington, Texas office.

For the full release on how Botox eases nerve pain in TOS patients, visit the Johns Hopkins Medicine website.

The survey, which was conducted differently than in previous years, posted numbers higher than ever seen before.  To gather data for the survey, the Academy polled AACS members and random physicians across the United States.

AACS members have seen an 8% increase in cosmetic procedures during the past two years, despite the economic recession.

During the past five years, these are the procedures the Academy says have increased markedly:

• Blepharoplasty (eyelid surgery)
• Abdominoplasty (tummy tuck)
• Rhinoplasty
• Chemical peel
• Wrinkle fillers

“As the economy recovers slowly but surely, we are seeing patients come back and feel better about doing some things for themselves that maybe they’d been putting off for a while, said AACS president Mark Berman MD.

When a man opened fire in the dental office where Lydia worked last summer, she was shot twice: “The bullet fragments were millimeters from her heart and her vital organs,” said Dr. Ashkan Ghavami.

According to a firearms expert interviewed for the story, what saved Lydia’s life may have been the presence of her saline breast implants.  Of course he advises against getting “breast enhancements as a means to deflect a possible incoming bullet.”

Read more about this story here on NBC Los Angeles