any recent Dr Di Maggio patients?

[allie0365]

Hi,
I'm booked for upcoming FFS surgery with MDM, has anyone gone to him in the last year or so? How is the outcome? Happy? If you're willing to answer questions, offer advice, share stories either here or PM, please say hi

-Allie

[charlotte15]

He did my FFS, I'm extremely happy but I need some minor fixes. Going back there this winter. Feel free to check my previous posts where I detailed my experience.

[AlexisRene]

He did my FFS, I'm extremely happy but I need some minor fixes. Going back there this winter. Feel free to check my previous posts where I detailed my experience.

Good morning, am just curious if the minor fixes were planned all along or something you were not happy with post op after healing?

Am located in IL so Dr. Zukowski is less than 200 miles away. But am very interested to learn about Dr. Di Maggio.

[charlotte15]

The small fixes are 2 bumps that were a result of the surgery and some hollowness due to my body resorbing the bone paste. I did not plan that.

What I was thinking of doing later however will be done with that sugery - jaw bone, and blepharoplasty. I have a new job making that possible!

Read more about Z, here and on ->-bleeped-<- before making the decision. Closeness is not the only factor you should consider.

[allie0365]

may I ask where the bone paste absorption happened? was it chin?

[SamSparks]

The small fixes are 2 bumps that were a result of the surgery and some hollowness due to my body resorbing the bone paste. I did not plan that.

What I was thinking of doing later however will be done with that sugery - jaw bone, and blepharoplasty. I have a new job making that possible!

Read more about Z, here and on ->-bleeped-<- before making the decision. Closeness is not the only factor you should consider.

Was the uneveness in your forehead?  I mean you paid for forehead contouring/smoothing thats kind of disappointing to get uneveness there.  How often does his bone paste get reabsorbed?    Just seems counterintuitive to use bone past filler if it will just cause uneveness in the area you are trying to surgically beautify.....

[RubyAliza]

Charlotte  -   You do look great and at least all of your browbossing is completely gone. I understand why you'd want these imperfections fixed of course. One of the nice things about using bone paste is that it's your own bone, but sounds like you got unlucky during the healing. I wouldn't necessary blame MDM. Since you're getting a jawbone reduction, I wonder if he could use that bone to fix it (or bone cement could be used). And why not get a few extras done if you're already going under anesthesia? This is great news

Allie - If you want a maximum reduction of your brow bossing, you'll need a traditional type III. Dr. Zukowski does not do that. Go to his site http://www.mlzukowski.com/ and read his orbital rim bossing section. He's quite honest and doesn't it's worth the complications. However, I do think it is worth it. The complications are rare with MDM and he'll fix them for free I believe (PM Charlotte about that). If you don't have much frontal sinus protrusion, go for Z, all the other FFS procedures he does are amazing, especially his fat transfer procedures and jaw/chin work. I recently contacted their office but haven't gotten a response in a month so he might be really back up on free consultations and evaluations. Another cool thing about Z is the lymph drainage services he offers after surgery. I'm currently doing some of that a few months after my surgery and it really, really works amazingly to speed healing.

Ultimately, there are so many good surgeons, choose the one that is right for your face type. I don't think there is one best surgeon for all faces, but rather each one has strengths and weaknesses (just my opinion).

- Ruby



   

       

[allie0365]

Allie - If you want a maximum reduction of your brow bossing, you'll need a traditional type III. Dr. Zukowski does not do that. Go to his site http://www.mlzukowski.com/ and read his orbital rim bossing section.

Hi Ruby,

As I wrote in my original post on this thread, I'm booked for Di Maggio. I'm not looking for a surgeon or figuring out which type for forehead reconstruction at this point. I had a face to face consultation with Zukowski and decided against him because it seemed all his results had a similar 'done' look. His results had a similar feel to Harrison Lee's. I'm hoping for a more natural result but more aggressive than Speigle, that's why I settled on Di Maggio. I also have a really good friend who went to MDM and she's beautiful and natural looking.

My surgery is November 26th, Thanksgiving Day..I'm leaving Nov 18th, traveling to Philadelphia first then flying to BA 11/22 with my parents...so there's no decision process happening anymore but thanks for your thoughts.

-Allie

[RubyAliza]

Haha sorry didn't read close enough. But yeah that's great! Seeing the results in person is always a great way to make the decision. Best wishes for your Thanksgiving Day this year, a day which will certainly change your life.

- Ruby

[charlotte15]

may I ask where the bone paste absorption happened? was it chin?

It happened on the forehead. It is perfectly flat, yet a bit too hollow between the eyebrows that make my nose look a big bigger that I'd like.

[charlotte15]

Was the uneveness in your forehead?  I mean you paid for forehead contouring/smoothing thats kind of disappointing to get uneveness there.  How often does his bone paste get reabsorbed?    Just seems counterintuitive to use bone past filler if it will just cause uneveness in the area you are trying to surgically beautify.....

There is some hollowness between my eyebrows - not exactly on my forehead, just below in front of the frontal sinus.
It's bad luck I guess. Like putting plaster on a wall, and some of it not sticking. I don't know how often it happens, but a week after the surgery he said it was a possibility, but we had to wait and see.

BTW he is not making me pay for that fix

[charlotte15]

Charlotte  -   You do look great and at least all of your browbossing is completely gone. I understand why you'd want these imperfections fixed of course. One of the nice things about using bone paste is that it's your own bone, but sounds like you got unlucky during the healing. I wouldn't necessary blame MDM. Since you're getting a jawbone reduction, I wonder if he could use that bone to fix it (or bone cement could be used). And why not get a few extras done if you're already going under anesthesia? This is great news

Indeed that's the plan!! To use my own jaw bone, as I am wary of using artificial stuff. He also offered hydroxyapatite, which is like artificial bone. I hope I won't need that.

If you don't have much frontal sinus protrusion, go for Z, all the other FFS procedures he does are amazing, especially his fat transfer procedures and jaw/chin work. I recently contacted their office but haven't gotten a response in a month so he might be really back up on free consultations and evaluations. Another cool thing about Z is the lymph drainage services he offers after surgery. I'm currently doing some of that a few months after my surgery and it really, really works amazingly to speed healing.

That's interesting. Are his jaw that much better??

Ultimately, there are so many good surgeons, choose the one that is right for your face type. I don't think there is one best surgeon for all faces, but rather each one has strengths and weaknesses (just my opinion).

Very wise words!

[charlotte15]

I'm hoping for a more natural result but more aggressive than Speigle, that's why I settled on Di Maggio. I also have a really good friend who went to MDM and she's beautiful and natural looking.

I fully agree. MDM is better than even Spiegel. You're in very good hands. I hope my message about the small fixes I need won't worry you unnecessarily. As I get overtly worried about anything, I was uncertain whether I should post about that, and waited several months before going back to Susan. But finally, I opted for full disclosure. If you have any question, just ask.

Yes I had some minor bad luck, but even with these small things I love the final result. I don't like posting pictures, but Ruby who knows me in the real life can confirm he did a very good job :-)

Dr MDM told me that after the fixes it will look perfect.

[allie0365]

Hey Charlotte,

Thanks for disclosing, I'm just trying to gather info, positive or negative so I can address as many issues as possible before I get there. Where is the incision site for doing the bone paste revision on your forehead? I hope he doesn't have to do the whole hairline thing again!

-Allie

[charlotte15]

So I'm not the only one afraid of scars :-)

I asked for a blepharoplasty to avoid touching the existing scars. He will try to access the forehead from the upper eyelid. He checked, apparently that's possible. I want the minimum done on the scars. He had to do them in the first place, now if he needs to attack them for a change in position ok, but nothing else.

[allie0365]

So I'm not the only one afraid of scars :-)

Well yea I'm afraid of scars...also not a big fan of having the skin on my fore head pealed back more than once in my life. Glad he can go in through the upper eye lid to fix it for you.

He had to do them in the first place

Are you saying he already had to redo the hairline incision? Or just saying you already have had the hairline incision? If so, may I ask why? If these questions are too invasive or triggering I understand, thanks.

-Allie

[RubyAliza]

Yes, Charlotte looks great. We met in Buenos Aires (I went to Dr. Rossi) and had our surgeries a few days apart. She looked great only a few weeks after surgery and even better now I'd want these things fixed too of course, but my guess is that no one would be able to tell from a distance about these imperfections. Nevertheless, they're easily fixable through the upper eyelid incision, which many doctors use to do brow lifts.

    About the hairline incision, I don't want to speak for Charlotte but we both got coronal incisions. Personally, I regretted it  because my forehead actually looked bigger afterwards. If you have a longer forehead, a coronal incision is a big no-no for many reasons. Yes the scar won't look great at first but will heal up and you can get hair transplants to cover the scar. Charlotte is lucky, she had a perfectly low hairline to begin with!

     If you really don't want to deal with a scar, you could get the coronal incision and do hair transplants a few weeks later since they're so much cheaper there. That's what I did after being unhappy with my hairline. The only surgeons I would trust on the hairline incision if you don't want to do hair transplants are Dr. Ousterhout/Deschamps-Braly or Dr. Toby Mayer, since they do extremely fine suturing and trichophytic incisions on the hairline. If you aren't happy with the hairline incision MDM does (if you do that) and don't want to go back to Buenos Aires, Dr. Mayer could redo the hairline incision, pull it even lower, and do his magical incisions (his current price for that would be a bit over $6000, not terrible by any standards, especially considering by doing it twice, you could lower your hairline over an inch, incrementally. But hey, who wants two surgeries haha).

    Oh and Charlotte, Dr. Z is aggressive with masseter muscle reductions. But ultimately if you really want a tiny jaw you might need to go to those Korean surgeons although they actually might overdue it Just like you, I might do a lower face lift, neck lift, a lipofilling in the temples/undereyelids/cheeks/lips. Guess we have the same face type.

   
- Ruby

[deeiche]

SNIP

    About the hairline incision, I don't want to speak for Charlotte but we both got coronal incisions. Personally, I regretted it  because my forehead actually looked bigger afterwards. If you have a longer forehead, a coronal incision is a big no-no for many reasons. Yes the scar won't look great at first but will heal up and you can get hair transplants to cover the scar. Charlotte is lucky, she had a perfectly low hairline to begin with!

SNIP
- Ruby

Probably off topic, but I thought I would throw in the following as an observation from another recent patient, albeit not with MdM.

I was going to go for a hairline incision and hair transplants later in the same trip.  However on my day before surgery with Dr Rossi I was told by him and Amanda the hair transplant surgeon, Dr Szyferman, said the swelling from hairline incision would not subside enough to get hair transplants in the same visit.  Therefore Dr Rossi would do a coronal incision.  In hindsight I should have gone with a hairline incision, to pull in the hairline at the temple area, then return for hair transplants down the road.  This is my only regret from my surgery.

Sorry for the non-MdM interlude.   

[charlotte15]

Are you saying he already had to redo the hairline incision? Or just saying you already have had the hairline incision? If so, may I ask why? If these questions are too invasive or triggering I understand, thanks.

Sorry I was not clear. I meant, I had absolutely no scar before FFS, yet Dr MDM had to cut open somewhere once, lol. But now that is has been done. I would rather not have it done that more than once!

Nothing invasive or triggering there. The only real triggering thing I know is when I recall some of the memories of the bad life I had before. It's money woes that does that mostly. It only ever happend once here. So now I don't post about everything, I keep to the FFS forum, and all is good.

So hust ask any question. I'm glad if I can help. I was helped a lot by others on the forum. Many have left since. If I can do the same they did for me, I will be very happy.

[charlotte15]

Yes, Charlotte looks great. We met in Buenos Aires (I went to Dr. Rossi) and had our surgeries a few days apart. She looked great only a few weeks after surgery and even better now I'd want these things fixed too of course, but my guess is that no one would be able to tell from a distance about these imperfections.

Thanks for the compliment! You look great too! I remember that's the first thing I thought when we met at the subway stop!!

    About the hairline incision, I don't want to speak for Charlotte but we both got coronal incisions. Personally, I regretted it

Now I do regret the scar "hidden" by my hair, because I had a bit of hairloss along the scar making it visible. So it's not hidden lol. I thought it was extremely unlikely to happen, yet it did. Apparently, it happens to some people. It's not just about the forehead. I though my forehead and hairline would be ok - and they are!

Another reason is that's it's more logic to get a scar than can be reused for a facelift later in life. Well, I didn't think well enough. My fault.

If you aren't happy with the hairline incision MDM does (if you do that) and don't want to go back to Buenos Aires, Dr. Mayer could redo the hairline incision, pull it even lower, and do his magical incisions (his current price for that would be a bit over $6000, not terrible by any standards, especially considering by doing it twice, you could lower your hairline over an inch, incrementally. But hey, who wants two surgeries haha).

I don't want anything cut again!! I'm happy with Dr MDM scar. I think he did the best that could be done - including trichophytic. A bit of hairloss just happens on some patients. Nothing to do really. but hair transplant. $6k would be a lot to spend. I would rather use half that much money for hair transplants.

Anyway with all this talk I just want to say that in my opinion Dr MDM is a great surgeon. I believe he's the best out there with facial team. Some problems can happen, as with any surgery. He said he would fix them. I will see in 2016 how good it looks.

I don't know how good my jaw will be, but even after all my reading, even if I'm sure there are some great surgeons in Korea, I will go to Dr MDM first. It's all about trust. I have a trust problems with surgeons. But Dr MDM doesn't hide problems. And if there are things that needs to be fixed, he agrees. I saw him in a consult to plan the fixes. And what he said to me before is true: my teeth pain problem are improving (https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,195885.0.html). Slowly, but definitively improving.

Honesty goes a very long way with me. I will see how good the end result is, and I will post some updates.