This is a post that everyone researching about facial rejuvenation surgery should read.

In a nutshell, it is exemplary.

The story is completely true and takes place in the United States.

After reading this story, you will think, “If this happens in the US, then a lot worse happens/can happen here.” That's my goal anyway, just to get you think...

In 2001, David Kent, an American ENT physician, establishes a company called “Lifestyle Lift” in a small city called Troy, Michigan. Around 150,000 facial rejuvenation procedures are performed annually in the USA, so the market is quite large. David Kent, an opportunist, abuses a loophole in American law and reflects "a surgical procedure" as a commercial product/commercial service and then gets it registered in his own company's name and protects it with a "trademark".

Please pay attention: A surgical procedure discovered and developed by plastic surgeons within the scientific boundaries of plastic surgery is being commercialized by an otorhinolaryngologist.

This gentleman has a surgical technique that has not been presented in scientific congresses or published in any scientific journals and the details of which are kept as trade secrets. Everyone knows that this technique is a facelift technique, but the details of the technique are kept secret by the company.

A trade secret…

The company starts to market this product, which it calls "lifestyle lift", on national media channels.

Look 10 years younger in half an hour... under local anesthesia... for one third of the cost of facelift surgery... not in the hospital, but in private practice/office conditions... go out for dinner with your friends on the same day... blah blah.

They run 30-minute commercials on the national TV channel CBS. Patients who undergo this procedure praise the company on TV. Hundreds of satisfied patients are literally “hunting” for potential candidates on many different websites on the Internet and on the plastic surgery portal Realself.

Between 2006 and 2015, the company “sells” more than 160,000 surgeries. It evolves into an organization that employs more than 100 physicians and has more than 50 offices across the United States.

Suddenly, in 2015, the company files for bankruptcy and the American dream comes to an end. After the bankruptcy, the American media quickly reveals the background of the story. Everyone including the doctors of the company and the aggrieved patients starts to reveal the sleaze factor behind the company.

That "miraculous surgery" which the dream-selling "lifestyle lift" company registered as a "trademark" and commercialized and marketed on TV is nothing but a simplified and more primitive version of the surgical procedure known to the scientific community as "mini facelift".

Remove 3cm of skin in front of the ear, put a few sutures on the deep tissue layer, suture the incisions.

In summary, it is the most primitive and simplest form of facelift surgery from 150 years ago.

It turns out that the company developed fake websites to recruit patients, organized fake patient comments on Realself and other platforms and silenced the opposing voices through counterclaims against the employees and patients who sued them for the crime of "damaging commercial reputation", demanding considerable amounts of compensation from them. The company pays million-dollar fines for misleading the public through ads in the states of NY and California. As a result, they file for bankruptcy and close the company as a penalty that is too large for them to pay becomes imminent, assuming all the compensation claims filed against them at some point are concluded against the company.

There is no legal entity left for the victims to go to and claim their money or compensation. Some poor doctors, ex-employees of the company, are still dealing with malpractice lawsuits against them.

It's a hit and run, a complete scam story.

Hundreds of thousands of patients underwent surgery in office conditions without knowing or caring about the scientific details of the procedure performed on them. The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery issued multiple public warnings about the following but to no avail:

This procedure called "Lifestyle Lift" will not be effective for more than 3-6 months,

Permanence is not possible,

There are additional risks due to the high dose of local anesthesia,

The scars will be almost the same length as that in the classical facelift techniques,

The scars will heal worse because it is a procedure related to skin tension. But people continued to follow and pay attention to television advertisements, speculation and gossip.

Exemplary…

Does this story remind you of anything?

If it still doesn't, I will refresh your memory in my post about "spider web" aesthetic procedures.

Take good care... of yourself and your beauty. And stay safe.