LAM FACIAL PLASTICS

Dr. Lam, do you use a morphing program that can simulate facial changes to help the patients understand what an outcome would be from a procedure?

If you use, which one?

Yes and no. I use Photoshop. Since I am on a Mac system, I have limited choices. I do morph for nasal profiles and chins for two reasons First, these areas are parts of the face that no one sees of themselves. Imaging helps in my communication with a prospective patient. Second, remember that morphing is a two-dimensional evaluation so it is almost impossible to show three-dimensional changes like fat grafting on an imager without it being misleading. Sure, I can erase all of the facial transitions using a healing brush and pull out the cheeks with the liquify feature but I think ultimately it is something that I believe will lead to two problems. One, it will be an oversell or misleading. Two, it could scare the pants off you since it is something that may look artificial and smeary. Using old photographs of a patient is a way for me to communicate more effectively with a person when it comes to trying to determine fat grafting and using my before and after photographs can also be very instructive.
best,
sml