Meetings and Coffee Go Together Like Ice Cream and Cake

There are 2 reasons to attend a medical meeting: the lectures and the coffee. The purpose of the lectures is obvious. The coffee, however, is the meat of the meeting.
I will be speaking in Croatia in a few weeks and the excitement is two-fold. First I will be able to present my work on soft tissue rejuvenation using low energy lasers and newer fillers like hyaluronic acid and poly-L-lactic acid. While our original emphasis is on facial rejuvenation and effectively reversing facial aging, our newer work involves treating floppy or sagging skin, cellulite, stretch marks, and mildly distended abdomens after pregnancy. I have been using mini-treatments of fractional laser resurfacing and injections of salt water to stimulate new collagen in all parts of the body. Many of the patients are pleased with the results though the techniques are early in development and will be much better in a few years. And that work is complemented by our results improving the aging face due to resorption and collapse of all the tissue layers of the face: bone, muscle, fat, and skin. Starting at age 20 skin begins to thin in a linear fashion with age. Also, the outer 5% on each side of the face withers making the face narrower and therefore appear longer. How often do I need to re-iterate that adult women have no business wearing long hair along the sides of their faces. They look older! Of course the easy thing to do would be to inject fat into the depressed areas but the reality is that women who don’t need fat have it; and women who need fat do not have it. That is where poly-L-lactic acid (Sculptra) has been such a treasure as a “biostimulant” for new collagen. Anyway, I want to present my findings and my theory that with energy and stimulation, virtually all tissue can revive. (Same with functionality and exercise. Just ask anyone in my alter cocker group.)

The coffee… the coffee is the good part. I wonder if it is beer in Croatia. Anyway. I get to meet with my European colleagues and see what they have been up to in the past year. I will have 3 American compatriots join me and we, along with the French, the Germans, the Austrians, the Italians, the Dutch, the Croatians, and whoever else will come along will do some free-associating while viewing the beautiful Adriatic and imbibing local fare. This is where the good stuff is told. Two years ago I learned techniques of the Botox face-lift, last year I learned about the physiology of facial aging, and who knows what I will learn this year.

I wish you all a youthful time and I will share secrets when I return.