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Top 3 Plastic Surgeons

An independent publication on aesthetic and plastic surgery

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A woman around thirty with dark curly hair pinned up, wearing a rust-colored ribbed sweater, seated in a gray armchair by a bright window, holding a glass of water in both hands during a consultation

The Lead · Procedure Deep-Dive

Sickle Cell Disease and Cosmetic Surgery: The Pre-Op Transfusion, Why Fasting and Ice Packs Carry More Risk, the Tummy Tuck Binder and Acute Chest Syndrome, and What Sickle Cell Trait Does Not Change

About 100,000 Americans live with sickle cell disease, and far more carry the trait without a second thought. The disease does not automatically rule out cosmetic surgery, but it changes the blood plan, the facility, the fluids, the ice, the way a tummy tuck patient breathes in the days after, and the way pain is treated. The trait, in most cases, changes very little. Here is the difference, and what to ask before booking.

November 3, 2026

By The Editorial Desk

14 min

C-Section Scar Endometriosis and the Tummy Tuck: The Painful Lump That Flares With Your Period, the Belly Button Nodule, and Why It Has to Come Out Before the Skin Does

A firm, tender lump in a cesarean scar that swells and aches around your period is not a stitch or a stubborn bit of fat until proven otherwise. C-section scar endometriosis is uncommon, easy to miss, and badly suited to being swept away with the skin at a tummy tuck. Here is how it is recognized, how it is confirmed, why hormones only buy time, what wide excision and mesh mean for your abdominal plan, and how to sequence it with cosmetic surgery.

November 2, 2026 · 14 min

$A man around forty with graying hair and a short beard, in a charcoal crew-neck sweater, seated by a window in a softly lit room with one finger resting against the side of his face, reflecting the questions an old facial fracture raises before cosmetic surgery$

Procedure Deep-Dive

Old Facial Fractures and Cosmetic Surgery: The Sunken Eye, the Flat Cheekbone, the Plates You Can Feel, and Why Filler Is Not Always the Answer

An old facial fracture can leave a sunken eye, a flattened cheekbone, a numb cheek, or a plate you can feel under thin skin. Here is how surgeons tell a bone problem from a soft tissue problem, why the first weeks after an injury matter so much, what late correction actually involves, and when filler, fat, or an implant is a reasonable shortcut and when it is a cover over the wrong problem.

November 2, 2026 · 12 min

A woman around forty with shoulder-length dark brown hair, in a gray crew-neck sweater, seated in an armchair by a window with her hands clasped in her lap and a thoughtful expression, reflecting the questions torticollis raises before cosmetic surgery

Procedure Deep-Dive

Torticollis and Cosmetic Surgery: The Tilted Head, the Neurologist's Botox, the Neck Lift, and the Facial Asymmetry That Started in Infancy

Torticollis, the neck that pulls the head to one side, changes the cosmetic conversation in ways most consultations skip. Here is how cervical dystonia and its toxin injections interact with cosmetic Botox and neck bands, what a neck lift can and cannot do when a muscle keeps pulling, why an old congenital wry neck can leave a lopsided face, and why a head tilt is sometimes an eye problem.

November 2, 2026 · 13 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

Sickle Cell Disease and Cosmetic Surgery: The Pre-Op Transfusion, Why Fasting and Ice Packs Carry More Risk, the Tummy Tuck Binder and Acute Chest Syndrome, and What Sickle Cell Trait Does Not Change

C-Section Scar Endometriosis and the Tummy Tuck: The Painful Lump That Flares With Your Period, the Belly Button Nodule, and Why It Has to Come Out Before the Skin Does

Old Facial Fractures and Cosmetic Surgery: The Sunken Eye, the Flat Cheekbone, the Plates You Can Feel, and Why Filler Is Not Always the Answer

Torticollis and Cosmetic Surgery: The Tilted Head, the Neurologist's Botox, the Neck Lift, and the Facial Asymmetry That Started in Infancy