This issue offers many incredible ideas that we hope will help you to update, renovate, and improve your practice. We have a roundtable on skin care with leading skin care experts from across the country. Skin care is an ever-changing technology that goes hand in hand with plastic surgery and it offers both the physician and the patient a multitude of options for improving surgical procedure. More and more these days, skin care technologists are gearing their products to assist in all phases of preoperative and postoperative skin care. Our panel of experts are as proficient in procedure as they are in technology. Their answers to pertinent questions about skin healing following surgery are key when it comes to subjects that most plastic surgeons face: bruising, swelling, and downtime. Look for it on page 34.  

Also included in this issue is a walk through the broad-based topic of implants. Over the years, very little has changed in some areas, while vast improvement has been made in others. John Rusca, MD, has done a fantastic job in detailing everything from advances in manufacturing to the latest FDA rulings. The topic of implants is one on which there can never be enough “update,” because improvement means just one thing in plastic surgery: ongoing patient satisfaction. Addressed at length in this story is public concern over breast implants and breast cancer. Also covered is the controversy regarding both implants and mammography, and the modifications that are helping to reduce scar formation and scar thickening around implants. Once considered a surgical aide for reconstruction, the use of implants has become somewhat of an aesthetic necessity for body and face improvement. Find it on page 22.

Of course, included in the business of plastic surgery, along with procedure, is management. We have five articles geared to help you make your practices operate more smoothly and become more profitable. These days, the pressure is on for plastic surgeons to promote themselves as never before—in and out of their offices. Accomplishing this is not as easy for some physicians as it is for others and, self-promotion and practice enhancement can come in several forms.

Whether it is improving your ability to communicate with a difficult patient with regards to unrealistic surgery expectations (page 42); organizing your thoughts pertaining to an upcoming conference presentation, which probably means updating your CV and organizing your briefcase (page 46); hiring just the right public relations firm to book radio interviews, magazine profiles, or television appearances (page 52); or taking the reins and calming your fears when one day you come face to face with a malpractice lawsuit (page 48), this issue contains information that can revamp and revitalize your medical practice.

These days, the duties that go hand in hand with being a plastic surgeon are monumental. I hope you will find that we have touched on a few interesting topics to help smooth out the rough edges.