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Top 3 Plastic Surgeons

An independent publication on aesthetic and plastic surgery

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A man in his fifties with tousled silver hair and a trimmed grey beard, wearing a navy knit sweater, seated by a bright window beside potted plants, a small hearing device visible in his ear as his fingertips rest on his cheek just in front of it

The Lead · Procedure Deep-Dive

Hearing Aids, Cochlear Implants, and the Facelift: Why the Incision Runs Exactly Where the Device Sits, When a Behind-the-Ear Aid Can Go Back On, What an Implant Changes About Cautery and Dressings, and How to Hear Your Own Recovery Instructions

A facelift is, in large part, an operation around the ear. The incision curves in front of it, under the lobe, up the crease behind it, and into the hair, which is precisely the territory a behind-the-ear hearing aid, a receiver-in-canal wire, a cochlear implant processor, or a bone-anchored device occupies. Hearing loss is common in the age group that most often has facelifts and neck lifts, yet the device rarely comes up until the day of surgery. Here is how the incision and the device interact, when aids can usually go back on, what a cochlear implant changes about electrocautery and pressure dressings, how to make sure you can actually hear the instructions that matter, and why a visit to the audiologist belongs at the end of the recovery.

October 24, 2026

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By The Editorial Desk

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19 min

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A woman in her late thirties with shoulder-length brown hair, wearing a loose oatmeal-colored knit sweater and dark trousers, sitting on a pale sofa with her arms folded across her waist beside a bright window, a large leafy plant behind her, looking thoughtfully toward the light

Procedure Deep-Dive

Ostomy and Cosmetic Surgery: Whether a Tummy Tuck or Liposuction Can Work Around an Ileostomy or Colostomy, Why Reversal Timing Usually Comes First, How a Parastomal Hernia Changes the Plan, and What Can Be Done About the Scar a Closed Stoma Leaves Behind

Hundreds of thousands of Americans live with an ileostomy, colostomy, or urostomy, and many of them have the same questions about their abdomen that anyone else has: loose skin after weight change, an overhang that makes a pouch leak, a long midline scar, a puckered dent where a stoma used to be. Cosmetic surgery is possible for many of them, but the stoma, the hernias that often come with it, and the disease that led to it all change the plan. Here is how surgeons think about temporary versus permanent stomas, what happens to a stoma during a tummy tuck or panniculectomy, why liposuction near a hernia is a real hazard, what an ileostomy means for fluids and medications around surgery, and why the colorectal surgeon and the ostomy nurse belong in the conversation from the start.

October 24, 2026 · 18 min

Editorial portrait of a woman in her thirties with shoulder-length dark wavy hair, wearing an oatmeal crewneck knit sweater, seated on a pale linen sofa by a tall window with one hand resting flat on her chest over the breastbone, a potted olive tree behind her in soft daylight

Procedure Deep-Dive

Costochondritis and Breast Surgery: Why Chest Wall Pain Gets Mistaken for an Implant Problem, How Tietze Syndrome and Slipping Rib Differ, and What a Flare Means Before and After Augmentation, Reduction, or Rib Cartilage Harvest

Costochondritis is inflammation where the ribs meet the breastbone, and it is one of the most common reasons adults show up with chest pain. It sits directly beneath the breast, which means it gets blamed on implants, read as capsular contracture, and occasionally missed when something more serious is going on. It also flares after breast surgery, after rib cartilage is borrowed for a nose, and after weeks of sleeping propped up in a compression bra. This is how to tell it apart from the pain that does mean trouble, what it changes about timing surgery, and what actually helps.

October 23, 2026 · 16 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.

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§ 01 · Editorial Standards

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

One letter, every Sunday.

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.

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