Blog

Buccal fat pad resection is a trending procedure that has gained increasing popularity nationwide and in my own practice. I see a recurring pattern where patients ask for the procedure based on their cosmetic goals, are quick to b...

When are we reopening? Are we winning against coronavirus? These questions, as well as “coronavirus optimism”, “Newsom”, “coronavirus vaccine”, and “CDC guidelines” flood my Google search history. Let’s be re...

*The asterisk has never been so understated in my communications as it is right now. Never before- not in my life, have I felt so unsure about planning for the future. And never before has anything so affected my life as a doctor ...

A week ago, I sent a grim but important warning to the Newport Beach community and beyond about an ungratifying but necessary solution to the novel coronavirus. While colleagues and friends in my native New York continue to suffer...

As a plastic surgeon, it's hard for me to stand on this soapbox and preach like I'm some world expert on infectious diseases because I am not. But there are certain things I know well, and one of them is statistics. The other is i...

1. Stay home. #stayhome. Please. Stay at home. Please. Even if nonessential businesses remain open, it is incumbent upon everyone to avoid patronizing said businesses for nonessential matters. 2. Avoid the ER and urgent care...

Two days ago, I made an intensely difficult decision to classify my business as "nonessential". I elected to interpret executive order from the state government in a way that would severely impact the welfare of my business, my pa...

Today was a wake-up call for me. I have been monitoring relevant public health data. As new cases skyrocket and the death toll climbs, it seems as though our preemptive and cursory attempts at quarantine failed to curb the exponen...

Today was a bit of a rollercoaster ride. I have whittled my onsite staff to a skeleton crew but was able to accommodate surgical consults, postoperative patients, and even small surgical procedures as planned. All patients were sc...

And whether or not you want to hear it, life as we know it will change over the next few weeks to months. As the medical director and founder of the Zelken Institute for Aesthetic Medicine, I take the disease and its implications ...