Knee lipo; strange plastic surgery procedure

According to some experts, the most commonly hated part of the female body is not the belly or the butt, but the knee. “Almost every woman who comes in for lipo hates her knees,” says Dr. Joel Schlessinger. “Perhaps because they can easily see them in the mirror, whereas they can’t always see the hips and thighs.”


Schlessinger says knee liposuction is usually done along with other areas, but that not all women are candidates for the procedure. “Not all women have fat there,” he says. “Many times it’s muscle.” If it is fat and the patient wants it removed, a doctor (make sure it’s a board certified cosmetic surgeon) will do so through tumescent liposuction, an outpatient procedure that involves a local anesthetic such as lidocaine. The procedure takes a few hours (the patient can be in and out in a morning); recovery time is one to two days.


Cost for knee lipo alone is difficult to break down since most people have other areas done at the same time. One liposuction procedure, however, usually runs between $2,000 and $4,000.

Radish calf; strange plastic surgery procedure

Incredibly, there’s a name for an overly muscular lower leg, especially on a woman: radish calf. And along with a name, there’s a proposed treatment, albeit a highly controversial (and many would say, ill-advised) one. According to a 2004 study in the journal Dermatologic Surgery, Botox can be used to contour oversized, muscular calves, which according to the authors, “can cause psychological stress in women.”


The 2004 study only looked at six “radish-legged” women, but the test subjects were all said to show a slight reduction in the muscle after the injections without suffering any “functional disabilities.” A query about using Botox to reduce big calf muscles on the consumer review site RealSelf.com, however, produced a dozen or more warnings from doctors about the practice, who termed it “dangerous,” “outlandish” and “a very bad idea.”

“You’d have to inject large amounts [of the toxin] to reduce the size of the muscle and if you do that, you’d be running the risk of not being able to walk properly,” says Dr. Hema Sundaram, a Washington, D.C., dermatologist. “And there’s no way the manufacturers of Botox and Dysport would recommend this. I don’t consider this medically advisable.”

Golf ball chin; strange plastic surgery procedure

Unwanted lumps, bumps and dimples don’t just happen on your hips and thighs. Some people get dimpling – or cobblestoning -- on their chin. So many, in fact, the condition has a name (well, several names): golf ball chin, pebbled chin, apple dumpling chin and the rather elegant “peau d’orange chin.”


Not surprisingly, there’s also a way to get rid of it. “Golf ball chin happens when people have been wrinkling their chin as a habit for years,” says Dr. Joel Schlessinger, who’s treated about 250 men and women for the condition over the years. “It gets dimpled like a golf ball. But we can decrease or eliminate it with a couple of well-placed injections of Botox or Dysport.”

When performed correctly (it’s a tricky procedure, and if performed wrong, you could end up with a droopy lip), the injections smooth out the dimpling for about three months, says Schlessinger. Cost for the procedure is around $150 and patients may only need a one-time injection. “The beauty of the treatment is that it doesn’t allow patients to wrinkle their chin for thee months,” he says. “It’s like splinting a broken arm. By the end of that time, they may have broken their habit.”

Fillers in your feet; strange plastic surgery procedure

High heels may look glamorous, but wearing them for hours on end can be grueling -- especially the sky-high styles currently gracing the catwalk. Rather than kicking cruel shoes to the curb, though, some women are turning to dermal fillers to give their feet a little extra cushion. “Dermal fillers in the feet are common in New York City and other places where high heels are part of the culture,” says Dr. Joel Schlessinger, former president of the American Society of Cosmetic Dermatology and Aesthetic Surgery.

Typically, fillers like Restylane or Perlane or Juvederm are injected into the pad of the toe, the ball of the foot or the heel, but the procedure is considered “highly off-label.” And, perhaps, ill-advised. “We heard from one woman – a dancer – who had her foot pad injected with Juvederm to give her more cushion and she ended up on crutches,” says Tom Seery, president and founder of RealSelf.com, a consumer review site for the cosmetic industry.

“Many of the doctors or clinics that would do this are trying something that’s highly experimental. There is no real science or clinical evidence that it should be used in that manner.” Cost for a pair of “filler heels” runs from $500 to $2,000, according to Schlessinger, with a touch-up required every six months. Gel insoles run a bit cheaper at $20 to $40 a pair.