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Be sure and watch VH1’s new special, Plastic Surgery Obsession, which will begin airing tonight at 10pm EST! This was a fun special to participate in… I enjoyed working with theVH1 team as they raised some insightful and timely questions on Hollywood’s incessant quest for beauty. Click here to get airtimes and read the following episode summary on the VH1 website:

Plastic surgery. Everyone’s doing it-and talking openly about it, too.

Cutting Edge: What are the some of the ever evolving industry’s newest procedures and secrets?
Younger Faces: The increase in teen plastic surgery: How young is too young?
The Dark Side: Body Dysmorphia, depression, and sometimes even death are just a few of the horrifying dangers involved in looking “amazing.”
Plastic Surgery Disasters: Some of Tinseltown’s most infamous cosmetic surgery calamities

Introducing best actress nominee Gabourey Sidibe at the Oscars, “Precious” producer Oprah Winfrey revealed her as a “true American Cinderella on the threshold of a brilliant new career.” Although questions have arisen of Sidibe’s size being a detriment to her career, the talented new actress has proven many wrong so far. Above is the video clip from the pre-Oscar Strategy Room on Fox News with Dr. Jennifer Walden, Dr. Manny Alvarez, Dr. Cynara Coomer, and other experts with a health perspective on our favorite newcomers.

With Hollywood being such a superficial environment, it is interesting to read editorial on the topic. On ABC.com, New York casting director Bernard Telsey said Sidibe’s size is both a plus and minus: “It’s going to make her not right for the new ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ but it’s going to make her right for the role that needs her for that specificity,” Telsey told ABCNews.com. “There’s room in Hollywood for someone who looks like her,” Telsey said. “Sure, there will be fewer roles, but there’s always less of everything for people who are unique and original and different.”

Set in Harlem in 1987, “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”, features Sidibe as the heart-wrenching Claireece “Precious” Jones, an obese sixteen year-old African-American girl who is pregnant for the second time by her otherwise absent father. At home, she is always ridiculed and abused by her tragic mother, played by Mo’Nique, who has basically turned her daughter into an indentured servant. With no money or emotional support and falling horribly behind in school, Precious is by all accounts destined to a forgotten caste surrounded by welfare offices and misery. Yet, beneath the hopeless surface, she is a savvy girl who still dreams and believes in herself. She is given a chance at an alternative school taught by a caring yet firm teacher and the emotional nightmare and a supportive social worker, played to a tee by pop diva Mariah Carey.

In October, Sidibe was front and center on the New York Times with a lengthy Magazine story on the film. Indiewire.com wrote: With all of its festival and media attention throughout the year, expectations are obviously heightened, but Sidibe still seems in awe of it all. “It was an honor, I mean, just to be on the cover of anything. I don’t expect to be on the cover of anything,” Sidibe said with a hint of nervous laughter, but then added with a tone that might have been words coming from Precious. “I think people look at me and don’t expect much. Even though, I expect a whole lot.”

What an excellent job she did in the heartbreaking movie, Precious. Now we can’t wait to see Gabourey Sidibe in her next film!

Here is the second part of the Plastic Surgery Gone Awry segment, featuring Dr. Walden and a panel of experts on the “After the Show” Show (watch through the first few minutes to see the panel). Gretchen Carlson and Steve Doocy of Fox and Friends Morning Show ask the questions on their minds about the lack of regulation in the fields of surgery and plastic surgery, as patient safety is in question. The cases of non-medical grade silicone caulk being injected into the buttocks of 7 women in a Newark hotel by a charlatan claiming to be a plastic surgeon are discussed. Also, the case in Florida of a young woman who died after undergoing liposuction at a tanning salon after receiving local anesthetic injections and Propofol (the powerful intravenous anesthetic agent that killed Michael Jackson) is covered. Finding a plastic surgeon who has undergone proper training and credentialing is of utmost importance when selecting a provider, so find out why it is extremely prudent to find a board certified plastic surgeon

The rise of medspas and a recent liposuction death in Florida in a young 37 year old nurse bring to light several issues our specialty is confronted with. Read the news story here.

Liposuction performed by untrained and non-certified doctors and paraprofessionals can lead to detrimental and possibly even fatal outcomes that can be prevented. This case illustrates that point, as a doctor who had only gone to an 18-hour training course in liposuction and was actually an occupational medicine physician performed the procedure on the Floridian woman. The procedure was performed in an unlicensed and non-accredited facility labeled “Tanning Salon” on the outside. Reports show that she likely had seizures from a lidocaine overdose, and she was also given Propofol in the medspa/tanning salon, which is against state law. Propofol is a powerful intravenous sedative and anesthetic agent (the one that killed Michael Jackson), and lidocaine is a local anesthetic that is injected into the subcutaneous fat, often mixed with saline to dilute it, prior to liposuction to cut down on bleeding and for pain control. The dose for a particular human body weight has to be specifically calculated so that overdose and fatality doesn’t ensue no matter what type of case is being performed. It is concerning because an occupational medicine doctor would likely have no specialty training in this particular facet of surgery.

A lack of oversight of medspa facilities has played a part in this young woman’s death after liposuction, as facilities that are not licensed or accredited by state and federal organizations such as JCAHO for hospitals and AAAASF for offices and small facilities should not be able to have practitioners of any kind administering powerful drugs such as Propofol and administering injections of lidocaine. Because this facility had no business performing these procedures, they had no back up emergency crash cart with medications in it to help resuscitate a person who may have complications from these types of drugs and surgeries.

Our state and federal governments are missing the ball in their lack of regulation of physicians, paramedical professionals and technicians performing cosmetic procedures and surgery without proper certification and credentialing. Patient safety is a major issue especially with physicians practicing outside of the scope of their training. Plastic surgery should be done by board-certified plastic surgeons, delivering babies by obstetricians, and workplace injury evaluations by occupational medicine doctors. Surgical training takes many years and requires a vigorous board certification and continuing education process. Israel has laws in place that enforce physicians to practice within their scope of training and advertise in keeping with their training and board certification; the US government should take cues from them.

Prospective patients also need to wise up and educate themselves by doing research on their treating physician. The discount that people get for untrained professionals to do their surgery or procedure is quickly offset by the complications that can be extremely costly, even to their life. Things to look in a plastic surgeon are for are board certification by the American Board of Plastic Surgery, experience with the procedure being performed, and hospital privileges at a local tertiary care center should complications arise that need to be expeditiously treated.