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Top 3 Plastic Surgeons

An independent publication on aesthetic and plastic surgery

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A woman in her thirties with shoulder-length wavy brown hair, wearing a gray cardigan over a white tee, seated at a wooden kitchen table beside a bright window, holding a white mug above a few folded papers, looking toward the window with a slight smile

The Lead · Procedure Deep-Dive

Cushing's Syndrome and Cosmetic Surgery: Buffalo Hump, Belly Fat, Purple Stretch Marks, Wound Healing, Blood Clots, and Steroid Withdrawal

Some of the most common body contouring requests (a fuller belly that will not shrink, a hump at the base of the neck, a rounder face, new stretch marks) are also the textbook signs of too much cortisol. Cushing's syndrome is rare, but it is the diagnosis a body contouring consultation is most likely to stumble into, and operating before it is found or treated means operating on thin skin, slow healing, sticky blood, and fat that comes back.

November 12, 2026

By The Editorial Desk

19 min

Eczema (Atopic Dermatitis) and Cosmetic Procedures: Eyelid Eczema, Staph, Eczema Herpeticum, Lasers, Peels, Retinoids, Dupilumab, and JAK Inhibitors

Eczema is the most common skin disease a cosmetic practice will see on an intake form, and the one most often waved off as a minor detail. It is not minor. Atopic skin carries more staph, leaks more water, reacts to more ingredients, and can turn a cold sore into a facial emergency after a laser. None of that rules out treatment. All of it changes the order of operations.

November 12, 2026 · 17 min

A man in his fifties with short salt-and-pepper hair and a trimmed gray beard, wearing a dark blue henley, seated in a wooden chair beside a bright window with two glasses of water on the sill, looking out the window

Procedure Deep-Dive

Madelung's Disease (Multiple Symmetric Lipomatosis) and Cosmetic Surgery: Neck and Shoulder Fat, Alcohol, Liposuction vs Excision, Recurrence, Neuropathy, and the Airway

A thick collar of fat around the neck, rounded shoulders, and bulky upper arms that do not shrink with dieting can look like an ordinary liposuction request. In a minority of men, and some women, it is multiple symmetric lipomatosis, a rare disorder of fat tied closely to alcohol, nerve damage, and a crowded airway. It can be treated surgically, but the plan, the anesthesia, and the expectations are not the ones on a standard body contouring brochure.

November 12, 2026 · 19 min

A woman in her thirties with dark wavy shoulder-length hair, wearing an oversized camel knit sweater, seated with her arms folded on a wooden table beside a bright window, a white cup and saucer in front of her, looking out the window with a faint smile

Procedure Deep-Dive

Behçet's Disease and Cosmetic Surgery: Pathergy, Mouth Ulcers, Fillers, Microneedling, Eye Inflammation, Blood Clots, Apremilast, and Biologics

Behçet's disease is the rare condition in which the skin can treat a needle prick as an injury worth fighting. That single trait, called pathergy, makes it one of the few diagnoses where the smallest cosmetic procedures deserve as much thought as the large ones. Add recurrent mouth ulcers that sit exactly where lip filler goes, an eye disease that can blind, and blood clots that do not respond to blood thinners the usual way, and the order of operations becomes everything.

November 11, 2026 · 17 min

The City Guides

Top surgeons, city by city.

Short, considered editorial picks for the cities where aesthetic medicine has the highest concentration of practitioners doing distinct work. We add a city when we have done the reporting, not before.

2 featured · California

Beverly Hills

An editorial guide to the city's aesthetic medicine scene.

3 featured · California

Los Angeles

An editorial guide to the city's plastic surgery scene beyond the Beverly Hills triangle.

3 featured · New York

New York

An editorial guide to the city's plastic surgery establishment.

Choosing a plastic surgeon is among the few decisions that cannot be appealed. It deserves real reporting, not advertising dressed as a recommendation.

Top 3 Plastic Surgeons is an independent publication covering aesthetic and plastic surgery: the procedures, the advances in technique, and the surgeons doing the most considered work in the field. We report on it. We do not sell placement within it.

We do not accept paid placement, and we do not rank by advertising spend or by the volume of five-star reviews a practice can solicit. Our reporting draws on board records, peer interviews, outcomes data, and direct patient testimony, revisited as the field changes.

§ 05 · The Letter

Each issue carries one new surgeon profile, one dispatch from the reporting desk, and an editor's note on whatever question we could not stop thinking about that week. No sponsors. No partner content. No reason to exist except the subject.

Weekly · No cost · Leave at any time

Top 3 Plastic Surgeons

Cushing's Syndrome and Cosmetic Surgery: Buffalo Hump, Belly Fat, Purple Stretch Marks, Wound Healing, Blood Clots, and Steroid Withdrawal

Eczema (Atopic Dermatitis) and Cosmetic Procedures: Eyelid Eczema, Staph, Eczema Herpeticum, Lasers, Peels, Retinoids, Dupilumab, and JAK Inhibitors

Madelung's Disease (Multiple Symmetric Lipomatosis) and Cosmetic Surgery: Neck and Shoulder Fat, Alcohol, Liposuction vs Excision, Recurrence, Neuropathy, and the Airway

Behçet's Disease and Cosmetic Surgery: Pathergy, Mouth Ulcers, Fillers, Microneedling, Eye Inflammation, Blood Clots, Apremilast, and Biologics