The Goal

The goal is something we define as a picture or drawing showing how we want to look . It may be chosen from many drawings.

We like to have a goal that cannot be improved upon. The drawing is done on the persons face,preserving every feature that is not being considered or that would not benefit from improvement. A drawing that cannot look any better is the artists goal. We want a drawing that no artist can make better, as close to perfect as humanly possible. The chosen goal is the answer to the question, "Knowing what can be done, what can it do for me?" Or, in other words, what can cosmetic surgery do for me?

All of the persons on whom we have done some surgery over the past thirty years have drawings. You may look at hundreds of before and after pictures of results of surgery and at random choose those patients whose drawings or goals you yourself would like to see. This will give you an idea of what the goal drawings look like and how closely they correlate to the results of surgery.

Some of the before and after pictures that are presented here in this web site have the goal drawings shown with their pictures.

How do we find that goal? Looking at magazine covers and ads is a good way. Let's say someone would like the lips of Angelina Jolie, the eyes of Cindy Crawford, the nose of Brooke Shields or Michelle Pfeiffer,the smile of Britney Spears and the figure of Pamela Anderson. All of these may be good and reasonable choices. And so to see how these would look on you we must draw or place all these features on your face, and Voil! Hope you like it. But that's ok if you don't. It's just a drawing and we can and should do many, many drawings to find out what looks best.

It takes time.

For somepersons whose faces we study, a hundred drawings is not nearly enough. And others find their choice in the first, second or third drawing which is done. And even though many more are done, the choice sometimes remains on one of the first drawings.

Each person is given copies of all the drawings and we offer to teach the patient how the drawings can be quickly and easily modified until perfection is found. Sometimes the before photos and all the drawings are taken to various professional artists and/or friends with artistic abilities for suggestions and additional modification and study. This can be helpful and is encouraged.

Here are some ideas that are basically true.

A picture is worth a trillion words.

The plan is as important as the surgery.

The plan determines what the result is to be.

A bad plan leads to a badresult.

A perfect plan can lead to a perfect result.

You can choose how you want to look.

You can design your own appearance.

Finding the goal is very important for facial surgery that is done with the purpose of improving the appearance. The search can be a lot of fun and very rewarding.The subject is given copies of all the drawings, since inexpensive photocopies can be made of the 8x10 originals and the drawings. And without destroying the originals, many modifications can be made on the photocopies until we are quite sure we have what we want.

This website is for anyone considering cosmetic surgery. The most common first question is, "What can cosmetic surgery do for me?" For each person the answer is different. To give an accurate and fairly complete answer covering all of the possibilities and reasonable alternatives, a thorough analysis of the persons face is required. See the section entitled Analysis in the Index of Information.

We do this routinely in four different ways:

1. Mirror examination.

2. Computer drawings.

3. Photographic analysis and sketching.

4. Comparisons with other faces including before and after photos.

The analysis then leads to development of a goal by drawing all the alternatives and possibilities based on the analysis of the persons features and preferences.

The person is given photocopies of all of the drawings and sketches forindependent study at home. Among all of the possibilities and alternatives we will explore is the search for the best appearance that can be accomplished. We will also be searching for the most improvement in appearance with the least change . These two alternatives may be quite different. And there can be many different alternatives - even an infinite number.

The planning determines the destination, the goal, and the direction. The goal you choose from the planning drawings determines what the result of the surgery should be.

We will want to find for each person the best possible result with the least amount of surgery, the "biggest bang for the buck". The best appearance, however, may still be chosen even though more change is required to achieve it.

It is highly desirable that the person considering an improvement in appearance is given all the information about all of the alternatives available before the decisions are made. At stake is not only the persons appearance, but also their health, comfort and considerable costs in time and money.

A poorly planned result can be very disappointing and a very good one a joy forever. Let us plan a good one.

The preliminary goal will be of your choosing and will be the improvement in appearance you would like to consider. It will involve your choice of drawings or sketches on photocopies of your photographs or video images in different views. With these in front of us, we can have a detailed discussion and description of what it would involve if we chose to seek to achieve each of these possibilities.

If you want to know if your appearance can be improved, you will want to get all the information you can, such as all the pros and cons, how much you can benefit, and what it would be like to go through it.

Generally, the purpose of having something done is to look as good as we can . The first question therefore, is, How good can we be made to look? The answer is derived from an analysis of your face. As with architecture, the planning is as important if not more important than the doing.

The first and most important information that you can get about what you are considering is an accurate assessment of what can be done for you . In other words, how will you look after you've had whatever it is you are considering? What are the possibilities?

This analysis and study of the face with drawings can reveal small details that can be improved upon that could not otherwise be seen. Many drawings of different views can be made. Sometimes more than a hundred are done. In the stages of fine tuning the drawings we can do new drawings showing different appearances as quickly as one per minute.

All drawings are given to the patient to take home. It is a good idea to show the drawings to trusted friends or relatives. And bring the most skeptical with you to see us.

You may ask, "What can be done for me?" We can then show you many alternatives while asking, "Which do you like best?" We communicate with the aid of drawings made on copies of your photographs. We have done drawings of every face surgery for more than thirty years. This method allows each person to choose the appearance that best suits them. We can choose how we want to look .

Only when the drawings of the face are so attractive that they cannot be improved upon by ourselves or any other artist do we want to proceed to consider making those changes. The most attractive drawings are chosen by the patient as their goal .

We have more than 200,000 photographs, negatives, and slides. And while you cannot see them all we have more than 8000 in books of different types of surgery. All of these before and after photographs are of persons who had drawings done. And you may choose any of them to see the drawings so that you can judge how close to the drawings the results of surgery are.

We also have a Results Questionnaire that is given to every patient several months after their surgery. The majority of patients say that we equal or exceed the drawings that they chose as their goal. Almost all say they have no visible scars. The summary of hundreds of these questionnaire answers are on another page.

If it is a part of your face, the number one thing we want to know is what benefit to your appearance there will be if you have something done. From all of the possibilities, you can choose a goal. For each alternative goal that can be chosen, we will explain to you all of the pros and cons.

It is necessary to have some idea what the goal is before all the pros and cons can be estimated.

The way we answer the number one most important question, which is what benefit are you going to get from having something done, is by analyzing your features to see what can be done to improve the appearance. We then by draw the answer on paper so that anyone comparing the face as it is and as it is shown in the drawing can see the benefit , and thus see the answer to the question.

The drawing t akes about an hour, and you'll be given copies of all the drawings that are done. It shows you the technique of analysis.

The photo and picture analysisis continued at what we call a photo review appointment, which requires another hour or two of your time. By this time you may have questions that we can answer.

The Photo Review

You are given a copy of all the drawings done and photocopies of your photographs. You are shown how to do additional drawings yourself and how to modify the drawings we have done for you until the most perfect and most attractive face possible emerges. You should plan to spend at least one and possibly more hours on your next visit.

Why all this analysis, all this time and study? Why don't we just do it?

We have found that we get better results with planning and with a predetermined goal. We are going to study and analyze your features and choose a goal, and we just invite you to participate in the process.

There are several advantages to you in this technique. Number one is that you have some idea of what you are going to look like after surgery before you do it. This helps you make the decision of whether or not it is worth it to you and whether you should do it or not. It can greatly relieve your apprehension to know what you are going to get before you do it.

The next important advantage this technique has for you is it offers you the choice of how you are going to look. That way you can wear the look that you want, one that fits your personality and the role you want to play.

Once a goal i s chosen by you and discussed with you, then we can give you an estimate of the time required to recover, the amount of time involved, the side effects to expect, an estimate of the possible times the work could be scheduled and further answers to any of your questions.

Our goal on your consultation is to provide you with as much information as possible about cosmetic surgery and what you are considering. Then we will help you in every way we can to determine what is best for you.

Also, after you have been seen, you are welcome to call back and ask any other questions you may have at a later date. We will be happy to hear from you.