……on writing my textbook

In an earlier post, I described the work involved with writing a major cosmetic facial surgery text.  I literally spent 3-4 hours a day (and sometimes up to 11 hours) writing chapters on common topics of cosmetic facial surgery.  Being a major text from one of the best known medical publishers (Elsevier Saunders) there is no room for short cuts or nonfactual information.  Undoubtedly, young surgeons will use this text (and others) to learn how to do cosmetic facial surgery.  This means that everything has to be correct and referenced.  For the past quarter of a century, I have been a photography addict and it has paid off.  My text will contain several thousand images in a “step by step, how to do it” format.  Currently I am reviewing proofs (see picture) of all the pictures in each chapter.  Each image has to be rechecked for accuracy, clarity and to check that the captions are correct.

I am also knee deep in videos.  Contemporary textbooks contain DVD’s in the back cover that provide multimedia instruction on the various procedures.  Again, no room for amateurish movies.  I purchased a high end, high definition digital camcorder and although I already have movies of all my surgical procedures, I am remaking them in high definition to compliment this detailed book.  This is a task of awesome proportions.  Doing surgery and doing surgery for a movie is very different.  I have to narrate each step during the procedure and make sure that bloody gauze, drapes and instruments remain clean.  The videographer must focus on the key aspects of the procedure.  It is a lot of work but just the beginning.  The next step falls on my shoulders.  I must take all the raw video clips and assembly them into a movie.  This takes significant editing to makes sure that the movie flows properly, has transitions between scenes and the audio is acceptable.  Once this is put together, the movie must be rendered, or formatted to work on the average DVD player.  This editing process takes many hours but when I view the final product it is a warm and fuzzy feeling.

Having done most of the heavy lifting for this book, the next task will be to review all the text that I wrote and I hate that part.  It is hard for an author to go back and reread hundreds of pages (probably over a thousand) that he or she already wrote.  I am told by the publisher that the book should be available by July 2010.  Too long for me, but because the unusually large amount of color pictures, the book must be prepared overseas and shipped back and forth during production.  I am really excited to get that first copy as this project reperesents the most comprehensive and intense project that I will ever embark upon.

To find out more about cosmetic facial surgery and facial plastic surgery in Richmond, Virginia visit www.lovethatface.com

Joe Niamtu, III DMD

Cosmetic Facial Surgery

www.lovethatface.com

Laser Treatment of Burn Scars on the Today Show: Miracle or Not?

On May 28^th the Today Show ran a very interesting segment about a very touching story of very pretty triplets that were badly burned in infancy and were treated with a new laser treatment to improve their burn scars.  The laser was the Lumenis Encore laser and the Deep FX laser, also made by Lumenis.

I have received many phone calls from excited patients who have burn scars or have relatives with burn scars, requesting the “new miracle laser that cures burn scars on the face and body”.  I want to say that I have the very laser that was featured and I am a huge fan of Lumenis lasers.  I also want to say that I am a bit disappointed that the general public may have come away from this feature with the idea that a huge breakthrough in burn treatment has been discovered.  I truly hope that it will advance the treatment of burn scars because that would truly be a huge advancement for humanity and the people that suffer from burn scars.  As a father of two severely disabled young sons, I personally know a parents heartache of seeing a disfigured child.

One problem of the media taking hold of a “new” treatment is that it is frequently presented as a huge worldwide breakthrough in medical advancements.  Sometimes it may be, but most frequently, these stories sensationalize these treatments and put the cart before the horse.  The problem is that viewers get the idea that this is world changing technology.  If a treatment is available that could truly and radically improve burn scars, it would be Noble Prize worthy, not just Today Show worthy.  We have seen the Today Show (and Oprah and other shows) present such “huge surgical advances” as the Thread Lift, The Fraxel laser, the Liquid Facelift and many other procedures that sounded sensational, but proved to be almost useless, let alone a breakthrough.  The key phrase with so many of these treatments is that “the results exceed the expectations”.

Dr. Jill Weibel is a friend of mine and she is one of the nicest and most compassionate doctors I have met and a leader in laser technology.  I believe this type of laser treatment for burns is in the really early stages of usage and that much more long term follow up must be done.  A study by a university burn center with long term follow up would be news worthy.  Single treatments with admittedly minor improvement (the video I saw showed one of the triplets stating that she thinks that she and her boyfriend can see a little improvement is not testimony for a medical breakthrough.  I say this realizing that she has only had a single treatment and perhaps more improvement will be observable with additional treatments.  I hope this is the case because Lumenis is a credible company that would love to be part of such a break through.  I do think, however, that the “miracle” hype on this story is premature and has been presented in too much of a sensational way.  The only bad thing about this is that it can lead the tens of thousands of burn patients to think that something has arrived to change their life.  I wish it were true, but I personally don’t think it is.  I really want it to be true.

Too often the media sensationalizes medical treatments and the public gets misled.  I am not expecting this treatment to be as sensational as presented and it is my fear that like the numerous patients that have contacted me that thousands of others around the country may be given false hope.  My phone rand many times after this story ran and I too have used the Deep FX technology on scars.  The thought of improvement with the new is exciting but it is too early to brand it as a “miracle”.  As academic surgeons like Dr. Weibel and others continue to blaze new trails with this type of fractional laser, the cosmetic treatment of burn scars may become a reality.

To find out more about cosmetic facial surgery visit www.lovethatface.com

 

Joe Niamtu, III DMD

Cosmetic Facial Surgery

Richmond, Virgina

The Day My Computer Broke!

My trusty and faithful laptop has been acting up ( I curse Windows Vista) for several months and it has been getting slower and slower. I finally could not take it anymore and decided to format the hard drive reload everything and start all over. I must admit that a big part of me simply wanted to drive over the Apple store and by a new Mac, but I am not sure I am ready to make that jump after 20 years on the P.C.

So…..I was up till the wee hours of the AM, reloading all my programs and trying to get my email program up (you all know we can’t live without email). Everything was loaded and I had to get up early (before my usually gym workout) and make some minor tweaks, then off to work.

When I got to my office my computer gave me bad news. I would not load the Windows Vista update and keep turning on an off and was in a cycle of death. To cut to the chase I handed it off to a computer professional and went back to my world without a computer.

First, I felt naked. I kept going to my monitor and mouse, out of habit but there was not computer, so I began doing other things. I was quite figedty as I was without email, and that haunted be all day, but…………

I had tons of time as I was not stuck to the giant magnet on my desk. So, I cleaned my desk off, and began going through the piles of journal articles that I had accumulated in the “someday I’ll” pile. The “someday I’ll” thing is that we all tend to collect things with the best of intentions, kind of knowing that we will probably never get to them. Someday I’ll…..read this book, read these journals, clean out this desk, return these calls, clean out my picture files, etc. The problem with “someday I’ll” is that someday never comes. So, anyhow, I finally got around to the list. What a great day, I had all this time because I wasn’t on the computer. Still felt guilty about all those important junk email awaiting me, but I plowed through 8-10 journal articles and I really learned a lot. I couldn’t can them to PDF files and I could not add notes to my Outlook notes, but nonetheless, I learned a lot. I cleaned out my desk. Found two gift cards and some old messages that somehow got stuck in the drawer.

I got all of this done and still had time, so I went over and had a conversation with my partner whom I generally never speak with because we were both busy. Then, I still had free time between patients, because I wasn’t on my computer, so I did something I never do, I went to lunch! I usually catch up on work or try to sneak to the gym, but today I had time. At the bottom of the file were some of my office forms that I have been meaning to update so I did that and redesigned my office cosmetic brochure…..with a pencil of all things. (was really missing my computer now). I have a TV in my office and sort of listen to news programs in the background. I heard that the Pope was asking the faithful for high tech fasting for Lent. That means giving up the Internet, or the iPod, etc. Lucky I am not that religious as just one day without the computer was killing me!

In conclusion, without a computer, I had a lot more free time. The downside is that I was cut off from the outside world. The other downside was that I could not do anything real creative because I could not access my patient pictures or Photoshop. I also could not work on my textbook that I am writing which has consumed much of my life over the past month and will continue to do so until its completion. What I did have was a “time enema” of sorts. I simply seemed to have much more of it. It made me think about how much time we all waste keeping up with friends, deleting junk emails, watching funny videos and yes, sometimes doing work. It also made me think that perhaps I should simply shut the computer down for an hour in the AM and an hour in the PM and do some of that menial “someday I’ll” work.

I tried to imagine how I got along without a computer for the first 80% my life and I can’t remember how it used to be. I really missed my trusty laptop, but tonight my wife and I are going out to eat and I won’t be working on my textbook tonight. Ahhh…the good old days.

I must admit that after work I borrowed my nurse’s notebook to write this blog. Withdrawl is hell!

To learn about cosmetic facial surgery in Richmond, Virginia by Dr. Joe Niamtu, visit www.lovethatface.com

Joe Niamtu, III DMD
Cosmetic Facial Surgery
Richmond, Virginia
www.lovethatface.com