Yes, I'm familiar with this guy in Australia. He charges like $30k for those cheekbone augmentations. He looks young in the video, I thought he was in his 60s.
His point about skeleton pulling back in your 40s is a good one. It could mean a few things. First, that you'll blend in more by that point. Second, that any corrections done while younger need to be redone as you age, as what's appropriate while young will be insufficient when old (to still look young). I spoke to a plastic surgeon who does this work too and he said that HA augmentation was popular in the 80s but that most surgeons abandoned it because the results were terrible. He said only older surgeons still use it because that's what they're comfortable with and it sells well. He mentioned that it's only useful for lateral augmentation but not for projection, which is what we really need. And he said it's just as foreign to the body as other implant materials. They don't solve one of the bigger problems with augmentations - symmetry. Studies are mixed on resorption but I think there's truth to that, just from talking to a few people who had it done. Asymmetric resorption is a real possibility. Heck, it's a problem even when using cavalier bone while still having the problem of how they look as you age. My cheekbones are already asymmetric but only in projection fortunately, not in position (much worse IMO).
To the extent that you need to fix it, earl's approach is probably the way to go. But don't be fooled by his success. He knew it was a big gamble and he was ok with it. It's still a very big gamble IMO. You haven't seen patients 5, 10, 15, etc years out yet. Even earl doesn't know (wish him the best of course
). Otherwise, I think the options just suck here. Surgeons are right, implants suck. My position is, I need jaw surgery for health reasons so I'm gonna do that. As for the cheeks and infraorbital rims, yes it's unaesthetic but we're not syndrome patients really. While we lack the advantages more attractive people possess, we pass for normal and can navigate life roughly to the same extent as everyone else. I'll keep an eye out for improvements in this space, we have time on our side and there's a lot of money on the table for anyone who can solve the problem. Sad but it'll probably be solved before Lupus is cured, just because there's that much money on the table. A compromise position might be long term face pulling for a middle ground but once you do surgery that's not gonna be a good option unless you want to repeat surgery to move the maxilla back.
