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Archive for September, 2010

Botox Bandit Sentenced to Probation

Thursday, September 30th, 2010

OK, so I’m almost tired of this story…ALMOST. But I think I’ll write about it one more time, just because I love using the term Botox Bandit. It’s really such a great nickname – I wish I had coined it. Anyway, I hope this is the last time I ever write about her (I think it is post #3). If we are lucky, she won’t give us any more reasons to rehash her story.

In the final installment of the Botox Bandit Saga, our flawed heroine (can I even describe her in that way?) faces sentencing for her crimes. Last week, Maria Elizabeth Chrysson, the 29-year-old Florida woman dubbed “The Botox Bandit” for her repeated episodes of undergoing BOTOX and then leaving without paying the plastic surgeon, pleaded no contest to one count of 3rd degree felony grand theft.

And her punishment for stealing almost $10,000 worth of BOTOX treatments from several utterly inept and clueless plastic surgeons? Drum roll please…

Two years of probation.

Wow. Talk about a slap on the wrist. I guess in an image-conscious state like Florida, grand theft-BOTOX doesn’t even get you a night behind bars. Lucky for her she didn’t pull these shenanigans in a state like Utah. I’ve heard horror stories of Mormon law enforcement officials throwing the book at people for much more minor transgressions than felony grand theft.

At the time of her arrest last month, Chrysson insisted that she be able to check her Facebook account to see if people were commenting on her arrest. She also commented to the police that she was disappointed that there were no TV cameras at the scene to document her arrest. So apparently she is both narcissistic and a fame whore.

Stupid woman. How does she expect to pull off her little BOTOX scam in the future if her face is broadcast all over TV? It’s not like this is the last time she will ever want to get BOTOX, and she has clearly demonstrated that she doesn’t believe in paying for it. Luckily for her, the media didn’t find her story as compelling as she does, leaving her anonymous enough to possibly pull off the dirty deed on another unsuspecting plastic surgeon in the future.

Interestingly, since she officially received a “withhold of adjudication” sentence, the felony charge will not make it onto her permanent record. The woman steals almost $10,000 worth of BOTOX and it won’t even follow her around in the future. I know people with much more minor charges (misdemeanors and petty offenses) on their permanent record. Some of them have been haunted by these charges, finding it difficult to work in their chosen profession. But our beloved Botox Bandit, who has shown no remorse for her actions and seems likely to take another crack at it once her infamy has dwindled, walks out a free woman without a criminal record.

Yeah. Our criminal justice system is really fair.

Chrysson still faces felony grand theft charges in another case associated with a plastic surgeon she victimized in Ft. Lauderdale to the tune of $3,300, walking away with free BOTOX injections, cheek fillers, and lip fillers. Maybe she’ll do time for that crime. Or at the very least, be asked to repay the doctor.

If you are interested in receiving BOTOX treatments in the Naples, Florida area, please contact experienced Florida plastic surgeon Dr. Manuel Peña today to schedule your free initial consultation. But beware. If you try to pull a fast one on him and leave without paying, he’ll send his goons out to bust up your knee caps.

Posted in Botox, Botox Bandit | 1 Comment »

Bridalplasty, Part 2

Monday, September 20th, 2010

In Bridalplasty Part 1, I commented on many of the show’s shameful shortcomings. But there is one aspect that I have not yet delved into, and it seems to me to be the most obvious flaw of the bunch.

This show is a logistical nightmare.

Think about it. Each week, there is a winner who will receive a plastic surgery procedure and the results will be revealed at the start of the next episode. For a minor procedure, it would probably still take several weeks for healing and recovery. For a major procedure such as breast augmentation, a facelift, or a tummy tuck, the recovery period could take a month or more.

Are we to believe that the network is going to wait till each Bridezilla fully heals to reveal her results? If so, it would take a really long time to film the entire season, and most of the happy couples would probably already be hitched before a winner was named. If not, the results on display at the start of each episode will be so frightening you will feel like you are watching a zombie flick. These women will be all battered and bruised. They’ll be poster girls for why you should not get plastic surgery.

But I’m sure the network execs thought that part through before signing off on this travesty of a TV show.

However, there is a larger issue which I must bring up. I can’t in good conscience ignore it. If I was engaged to a girl who wanted to go on this show, I’d call off the wedding instantly. I’ll accept Jesus Christ as my savior before I marry a girl who would go on a trashy show like this, and believe me – there is no way in Hell that this religion-hating, non-practicing Jew would ever open his heart to Jesus.

It wouldn’t matter if she decided not to go through with the show based on my objections. The mere fact that she found being a contestant on this show appealing would be a deal-breaker for me.

Of course, my taste is much better than this, so there is really no chance that I would ever be so dangerously close to tying the knot with a woman who would sink to these depths. It just blows me away that anyone would want one of the most personal moments of their life mocked on TV for the entire world to see. I guess there are no limits to the lengths fame whores will go to achieve their 15 minutes, or to receive free Heidi Montag-style plastic surgery for that matter.

If you are a not-so-beautiful bride-to-be who would like a quick fix before the wedding without humiliating yourself on “Bridalplasty,” please contact experienced New York City plastic surgeon Dr. George Lefkovits today to schedule your free initial consultation.

Posted in Bridezillas, Plastic Surgery | 1 Comment »

Bridalplasty

Thursday, September 16th, 2010

Just when I thought TV had hit an all time low, I found out about the newest Reality TV brainchild of the E! network. It is called “Bridalplasty” and it offers a group of brides-to-be with massive self-esteem issues a chance to compete for a radical plastic surgery makeover before their big day. Essentially, the producers tossed “Survivor,” “Top Chef,” “Extreme Makeover” and “The Jerry Springer Show” into a blender and regurgitated the mixture with a wedding theme.

I’m lucky I read about this at 4:30 in the afternoon. If I came across the article right after lunch, I think I would have vomited. And that would be a tragedy – my lunch was delicious today.

Each week, the contestants will compete against each other in trivial wedding-related challenges such as writing wedding vows and planning their honeymoon. Please don’t get me wrong. I don’t consider these tasks to be trivial, especially planning the honeymoon – that would be a blast. However, I consider them to be trivialized when performed under the gun with a camera in your face for the whole world to see on trashy TV. Those tasks should be done either privately (vows) or with your soon-to-be husband (honeymoon). I’m sure these women – who probably are not the most intelligent bunch if they agreed to participate in this show – will have really eloquent wedding vows after being forced to write them as part of a goofy Reality TV challenge. Way to promote the sanctity of marriage.

The winner of each weekly challenge will get to pick a plastic surgery procedure off of her “wish list.” It will be performed right away and the results will be on display as the next episode begins. Yes! Rush through that procedure. Get it done right away. I’m sure you’re going to get the best results when a doctor puts you under and carves you up on a moment’s notice. Who needs planning, consultations, and a well thought-out aesthetic design? This is Reality TV.

But wait. There is a twist to the show…

Each week, one unlucky woman will be voted out by the other Bridezillas. As the network so eloquently states, these women may “possibly walk away with nothing and lose their chance to be the perfect bride.” Can you get any more melodramatic than this? I think not. My heart goes out to these poor women. They may go home as frumpy as ever and have an ordinary wedding just like 99% of the population. Of course, if you listen to the network, it is impossible to plan a nice wedding that fits into your budget and reflects your personality all on your own. If they don’t throw you an extravaganza chock full of plastic surgery and pageantry, the big day will be a grand flop.

At the end of the show, the last bride standing will be declared the winner. And the grand prize (drum roll please)…

A “dream wedding” and a radical plastic surgery makeover. Of course, the wedding will be shown on TV for the entire world to see. Can you get tackier than this? But wait. It gets worse. At the big dream wedding, the bride will reveal her hideous new surgically “enhanced” appearance to friends, family, and most importantly, the lucky groom. According to E!, “Viewers will witness his emotional and possibly shocked reaction as they stand at the altar and he lifts her veil to see her for the first time following her extreme plastic surgery.” See, the network even admits that they are staging a circus-style freak show intended to exploit the young, dumb, shallow, and insecure ranks of the American public. It doesn’t get any more shameful than this.

This topic is so juicy, I have to break it up into two parts. Stay tuned for Part 2, when I’ll dazzle you with more of my always-colorful commentary about this atrocity of a TV show. In the meantime, please contact experienced New York City plastic surgeon Dr. George Lefkovits if you would like to schedule a free plastic surgery consultation.

Posted in Bridezillas, Plastic Surgery | No Comments »

Study Finds Plastic Surgery Doesn’t Alleviate Body Dysmorphic Disorder

Monday, September 13th, 2010

In what I would consider to be a statement of the obvious, a new study was recently released indicating that plastic surgery is not effective at reducing the severity of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD).

According to Katharine A. Phillips, MD, director of the body image program at Rhode Island Hospital and co-author of the study, “BDD is a psychiatric disorder characterized by preoccupation with an imagined or slight defect in appearance which causes clinically significant distress or functional impairment. A majority of these individuals believe they have an actual deformity that can be corrected by cosmetic treatments to fix these perceived defects rather than seeking psychiatric intervention.”

For this study, Phillips and her research associates examined 200 individuals with BDD. Of these individuals, 31% desired plastic surgery and 21% actually received a surgical or minimally invasive cosmetic procedure in order to treat their BDD symptoms. Only 2% of the procedures actually alleviated the patients’ BDD, and almost all patients continued to experience BDD symptoms after plastic surgery. In fact, some patients even developed new body image issues.

There were also 265 plastic surgeons interviewed for this study. Approximately 65% of the surgeons questioned had performed procedures on patients suffering from BDD. Of these, only 1% resulted in an improvement of the condition.

Phillips and her associates concluded that, “These findings, coupled with reports of lawsuits and occasionally violence perpetrated by persons with BDD towards physicians, have led some to believe that BDD is a contraindication for cosmetic treatment.” Yet surprisingly, only 30% of the 265 plastic surgeons surveyed believed that BDD should always rule out a patient as a candidate for plastic surgery.

It appears that the majority of surgeons are either oblivious or just plain greedy. If they are unable to perceive a patient’s BDD or worse, unable to realize that this condition requires psychological treatment rather than cosmetic alterations, then I would have to question their qualifications as a medical professional. If they simply ignore these signs in an attempt to pad their already cushy bank account, then they should lose their medical license for a lack of ethics. These doctors are clearly not acting in the best interests of their patients.

I can’t believe that researchers actually wasted their time, energy, and money on this study. It seems to me that only a moron would not realize that plastic surgery is an inappropriate treatment for BDD. These people suffer from a serious psychological condition. Generally, the only way to treat such a disorder is through extensive therapy.

Plastic surgery won’t address the underlying cause of the condition. It is merely a Band-Aid to help the patient make it through each day in the short term. Eventually, these body image issues will resurface again – usually sooner than later. If the psychological issues are not dealt with, these patients will remain in an endless cycle of paying large sums of money to plastic surgeons in an attempt to feel better about themselves. This does not help anyone other than the plastic surgeon who is too greedy to refer the patient to a psychologist for proper treatment.

Plastic surgery is not for everyone, and it is important that plastic surgeons evaluate a potential patient’s mental/emotional health as well as his or her physical health before deciding whether to perform a procedure. While there are many surgeons who abide by this code of ethics, this study clearly demonstrates that there are also many who do not. It is time for the medical community to exert pressure on plastic surgeons to ensure that mentally unstable patients receive the psychological help they need instead of breast augmentation or liposuction.

If you do not suffer from body dysmorphic disorder and would like to undergo plastic surgery in the Albany, New York area, please contact experienced Albany plastic surgeon Dr. Bruce Barach today to schedule your initial consultation. However, if you have serious body image issues, I would recommend that you see a shrink instead.

Posted in Body Image, Plastic Surgery | No Comments »

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