Monday July 28, 2008, 3:38 am
The makers of Botox advise dermatologists to "“identify and segment high priority customers.” The profits are enormous!

Meanwhile, there is a skin cancer epidemic in the US. These patients, generally with fixed insurance reimbursements, along with those with psoriasis, acne and melanoma, are often shunted aside in favor of the wealthy, who willingly spend millions on elective cosmetic surgery and procedures.

GRRRRR..."First, we kill all the dermatologists...."

Monday July 28, 2008, 4:25 am
Let's see if we can get this into terms we all can understand.

Medical visit for a rash, or other medical malady $50 for the office call.

Consultation for Botox or other cosmetic treatment $500

Procedure for cosmetic treatment $750 - $5000

A permanent frown from a botched Botox job ... PRICELESS

Got it.. I do!

There is a dermatologist here in Pensacola who advertises on my favorite radio station. His key line is, "We don't have to look like our grandparents anymore!" Hell, I thought my grandparents were handsome and beautiful. What's with trying to find the fountain of youth with a needle. We start ageing the day we are born. Get over it!

Monday July 28, 2008, 4:59 am
The common practice of keeping up
appearances with society is a mere
selfish struggle of the vain with the vain.

Monday July 28, 2008, 5:00 am
Above quote attributed to John Ruskin.

Monday July 28, 2008, 5:29 am
I've earned everyone of my wrinkles, and I'm keeping them!!

Monday July 28, 2008, 5:39 am
I'm happy to say that my dermatologist NEVER suggests any cosmetic procedure to me unless I ask = which I don't, other than for my health.

Monday July 28, 2008, 5:43 am
Looks like money talks here. I would not do any of this to myself. I will age gracefully. I don't want to look like plastic. LoL. Noted with thanks Cate.

Monday July 28, 2008, 5:50 am
Noted with thanks Cate. They end up looking like plastic to me, no character shows through!

Monday July 28, 2008, 5:51 am
having worked in the healthcare industry it scares hell out of me for one... knowing "protocols" (this being the testing time of drugs) don't last long enough to know... 1)the long term effects of botox on peoples skin... i'm still waiting to see if their faces are going to fall off... 2)why these people aren't spending their money on therapy to fix the inside of their heads where it would do the most good... hehehe

sorry, i couldn't help myself... perhaps i need to talk to my own therapist... :)

Monday July 28, 2008, 6:04 am
Like Pamela I have earned every one of my wrinkles and laugh lines and I AM keeping them, the Creator might not recognize us full of plastic and then who knows where we end up...thanks Cate!

Monday July 28, 2008, 6:54 am
noted.thank you

Monday July 28, 2008, 7:25 am
Many of these people become addicted to treatments and plastic surgery, they are never satisfied and end up looking like circus freaks! And the people who need treatment for real problems are passed over for the wealthy surgery addicts. I thought Doctors were to do no harm! Disgraceful!!!

Monday July 28, 2008, 8:00 am
Sadly Noted, thank you Cate :(

Monday July 28, 2008, 8:13 am
Everything is wrong about a for-profit healthcare system. You cannot do this for profit and make it work.

Monday July 28, 2008, 8:54 am
Vanity is for the birds.We must accept each other for who we are,NOT WHAT WE LOOK LIKE.WHAT ABOUT ALL OF THISE SCARY STORIES OUT IN CYBERSACE!After all of the surgeries I have endured in the last 8 years,I can't even fathom an injection or procedure for outer beauty.(accept in the case of an accident or severe birth defect.We must teach our children acceptance.

Monday July 28, 2008, 8:58 am
There's a "2 tier" system in dentistry, also! Did you know that your child gets a different "fluoride" treatment, depending on your dental insurance?

Monday July 28, 2008, 9:43 am
"Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves; vanity, to what we would have others think of us."

Thanks Cate..
Noted

Monday July 28, 2008, 10:31 am

I haven't yet felt the need for any cosmetic treatment, so really don't
know how I feel about it. However I did have a grandfather who was a
Doctor and I recall that he had very seriously ill patients who could not afford to pay him. He treated them, and explained that those patients
who come in with every ache and pain, or a cold and were treated as if
they were in need of very serious attention, were the ones that paid his bills so that he could treat the ones with no money.

There are a great many Cosmetic Surgeons, as well as Dermatologists,
that pamper those in search of youth and beauty, while also donating
their services to those in need. There are actually organized Cosmetic
Surgeons and Dermatologists that work together providing care and
reconstruction for children and adults with birth defects,damage from
battering,those with skin cancers, etc. that cannot pay. The money they make off those pampered patients allows them to do this. Before we
criticize, let's think about that.

Thanks Cate.

Monday July 28, 2008, 10:33 am
noted thank you

Monday July 28, 2008, 12:04 pm
Noted. Thank you, Marian, for reminding us...Doctors Without Borders is one excellent organization in which plastic surgery figures prominently. Of course, this article is about shallow reasons and those in the medical profession who captalize from them. A very public example of how cosmetic surgery becomes addictive and grotesque ultimately is, of course, Michael Jackson. Doctors who continue to feed this illness should be brought up on disciplinary action and their licenses lifted for the first law of medicine is to, first and foremost, ...'do no harm.' Thank you, Cate, for another provocative discussion from your welcome story.

Monday July 28, 2008, 12:17 pm
If you think the price of Botox and silicone are outrageous...know that there's also Hollywood doctors doing almost completely unnecessary surgeries to tighten a woman's pelvic floor muscles...because they say Kegels do not work! These women are flocking in to be as "tight" as they were when they were 16 - now THAT'S just wrong. Talk about extreme, ridiculous, superficial cosmetic/elective surgeries!!

Monday July 28, 2008, 1:48 pm
we live in a world gone mad... and that is putting it mildly...

Monday July 28, 2008, 6:03 pm
Wish that the fools who waste their money injecting poison into their silly faces would look at children born with really sad facial disfigurements, and just be grateful for having been born with normal faces.

Tuesday July 29, 2008, 12:07 am
That isn't even right he is supposed to be a doctor.

Tuesday July 29, 2008, 3:39 am
As in any business, money talks!

Tuesday July 29, 2008, 4:36 am
Too much vanity and greed and no thought to where these chemicals come from and what they are tested on!
Thanks Cate.

Tuesday July 29, 2008, 4:50 am
I agree, Rochelle - well said!

Tuesday July 29, 2008, 5:09 am
Well, I'm going in for a boob job and perhaps a nip and tuck. I'll let you know how the caviar and champagne rated along with the water cooler and cookies when I was there for a fungus infection... LOL

PC

Tuesday July 29, 2008, 8:38 am
Too bad a legitimate health need is suddenly less important than a beauty need.... Noted with wonder.

Tuesday July 29, 2008, 12:39 pm
Vanity, vanity, all is vanity. And vanity is ALL. I have always thought of 'elective' cosmetic surgery as stupid or for the truly masochistic. Who in their right mind would WANT to be sliced open, sucked out, tucked up ad infinitum. No one in their RIGHT mind. Point. Get these people some mental health care FAST.

I could care less what someone looks like on the outside, it is what they are on the INSIDE that matters. THAT is beauty...or a monstrosity that cannot be 'altered'.

Why aren't these greedy, money hungry so-called 'doctors' doing what their hypocratic oath binds them to do? Nevermind, answered my own rhetorical question there.

I have always been pro-RECONSTRUCTIVE surgery for those who are either born disfigured or with cleft palates, etc, or been in an accident. But just because one can AFFORD IT????!!!!!!! No way.

Me, I'll keep my lines and wrinkles thank you very much. I earned them!