Monthly Archives: May 2013

FaceBook rejects Plastic Surgery Advertisement

facebook

Conflict with Plastic surgery and FaceBook Ads

See update below.

It’s understandable that FaceBook has a diverse audience.  I just wanted to post this to help others who are considering advertisements with FaceBook.

I am very thankful that FaceBook has given us tools to promote our practice, but when it has come to advertisements, it has been a bit difficult when it comes to promoting Breast Augmentation.

I think perhaps wording could be adjusted in a way that it doesn’t offend FaceBook.  I’m in the process of adjusting the ads.  I’ve tried about 4 different ads on FaceBook, and they have been rejected.  All of them have had the word “breast” in it.  I tried to remove the word “augmentation” however that didn’t help.

What we wanted to advertise was a free informational session with those who are interested in breast augmentation.   Perhaps this is a strange concept.  We’re not entirely sure because we’ve not done this yet.

FaceBook took a long time to approve the plastic surgery ads which had the word “breast” in it.

In the past when I advertised things like Latisse, the ads were approved within perhaps a few hours.  But I thought something was strange when the breast augmentation advertisements for Plastic Surgeon, Dr. Tammy Wu in Modesto, CA was taking over 48 hours.  On about the third day we were notified that the ads had not been approved.

Here’s a picture of what it looks like when your plastic surgery advertisement is rejected by FaceBook:

facebook rejects plastic surgery

Disapproved: “Your ad wasn’t approved because it violates Facebook’s Ad Guidelines by advertising adult products or services, including toys, videos, or sexual enhancement products.”

In the past I’ve had rejection of ads before for plastic surgery, but when I’ve written an email to the contact us section in the help files, they would review the ads and then release them, but sometimes that would take a few more days later.  I don’t have that luxury this time.  But I also think that this wasn’t a mistake on FaceBook’s part, this may be part of a ban against “Breast Augmentation” advertisements.

“Your ad wasn’t approved because it violates Facebook’s Ad Guidelines by advertising adult products or services, including toys, videos, or sexual enhancement products.”

It’s unfortunate in my opinion, as we see Breast Augmentation as a medical and surgical procedure, not something that is as they had quoted as the reasons for the rejection of my plastic surgery / breast augmentation info session advertisements.

I’m writing this to let other plastic surgeons and advertisers who work for the plastic surgeons know that this is a potential roadblock from FaceBook, but perhaps choosing different words may help.

Meanwhile, I’ll also contact FaceBook, to see if I can learn more about the situation and explain to them our situation and see if they feel any differently.  I’d like to be hopeful that FaceBook doesn’t purposely block plastic surgeons and their plastic surgery advertisements.  I’ll also find out if this is something new or in response to some sort of religious/public requests that FaceBook is trying to appease.  I totally understand that it isn’t easy to please everybody in this world.

Stay tuned as I write them back for an explanation – although it will most likely be too late for our Breast Augmentation Info Sessions with Dr. Tammy Wu.  There is much for us to learn about the massive world called FaceBook.

 

Update:  I got one of the ads approved a day after

A day after I wrote the above blog.  I finally got one of the ads approved, but I took the words Breast and Augmentation off of the copy of the advertisement, but I didn’t change the landing page which was a facebook event advertising our Breast Augmentation Open House event.

approved ad

approved ad actual

At this point, I’m still waiting for FaceBook to respond to my emails regarding my previous ad.  Perhaps plastic surgeons need to avoid the words “Breast Augmentation” on their ads from this point on?

UPDATE with EMAIL FROM FACEBOOK

I got a response back in 1 day from FaceBook.  They didn’t exactly talk about the ads which I did specify over age 21.  But I suspect it has something to do with a filter that screened out the word “Breast”.  But there are some good points in this email about changing the status of a FaceBook Page (ie. our Surgical Artistry Page on FaceBook).  I’m making these changes and I think this will work:

Hi Calvin,

Thanks for writing in. Your ad was rejected because it violates the targeting policies of the Ad Guidelines. Ads for acceptable adult products (ex: cosmetic surgery and family planning) must be targeted to people 18 years or older.

While you can’t edit the targeting for an existing Promoted Post, please create a new targeting-compliant post, and share it on your Page to reach your fans and their friends. To target your posts appropriately, I suggest you gate your post first, and then run the promoted posts. To limit or target your posts, make sure your Page has post privacy gating turned on:
– At the top of your Page, click Edit Page
– Select Manage Permissions
– Check the box next to Post privacy gating
– Click Save Changes

After this, you will be able to see the option of targeting in your box to try messages. To add targeting:

– Before you publish your post, click the target in the sharing tool.
– Click Add Targeting and choose one or more of these filters: Gender, Relationship Status, Education, Interested In, Age, Location, and Language.
– Click the options on the right side to choose who you want to target your post to. For example, when targeting by gender, Male is automatically selected. Click ‘Male’ and select ‘Female’ to target your post to women’s news feeds instead.
– When you’re done adding filters, click Post.

Thanks,

Alan
Risk Operations
Facebook

Further Update 7/28/13 – more difficulties for Botox advertising

I tried to follow the directions and advertise a BOTOX event.  However, that Boosted post got rejected again.  I’m sending another email to FaceBook to see if they can help me.  My overall conclusion is that it isn’t really easy to advertise on FaceBook with Plastic Surgery Ads, even with some expert help from Alan (see above).  But perhaps there are other problems.  I have noticed that there are other methods of getting to the targeting features on these ads.

Join our Surgical Artistry Page on FaceBook.

dr-wu-and-dr-lee

Omni Dining Table by Century Furniture, a plastic surgeon’s table

Hi Resolutions pictures of the Omni Dining Table by Century Furniture

Our dining table has arrived 5-25-13. Closeup pictures of some of the edges. I purchased this over the internet by seeing other people’s pictures of this table – many different finishes. So I thought I would pass on the favor to anyone else who might be interested in purchasing this table. It is the Omni Dining Table by Century Furniture. I purchased it through Slater’s Home Furnishings in Modesto who helped coordinate the custom staining / colors. This table comes in two sizes and this is the larger of the two.

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Chinese art on the wall is by Dr. Tammy Wu’s relatives. Chandelier is from Shonbek. And table is from Century Furniture.

Cello is from the Modesto Symphony Orchestra the artistry of the cello is by artistist Sterling Parker. She writes about the cello:

“The design emerged from my love of music (I sing and perform musical theatre) and thoughts about the origins of sound and music. Her title, “Lotus Blossom”, refers to the emergence of beauty out of the basic nature of being, as determined by the Tibetan culture. She is based on a concept of the Music of the Spheres as it transforms into human inspired music. On the back lies a Tibetan Golden Wheel, representative of the phenomenal universe and creation. Stars below remind one of the heavens and matter from which all things are born. As a whole, the back of the cello is music in all of its forms, before being harnessed by man. On the front musical notes fall down to become simple one-petaled roses. These represent the inevitable awareness of man taking the inspiration of universal music and transforming it into something very real and beautiful. The rest of the cello reminds one that this creation is bound by rules we have created ourselves, including the Lotus I carved that is part of the base.

As far as my choice of medium, my inspiration in this project flowed from my deep love for wood and the amazing properties that I believe are inherent in Watercolor. I imagined the two mediums would work quite well together, and found, happily, that they did. The wood absorbed the watercolor exactly as I thought it would, and the watercolor performed its magic, as always!

…

Why did I do this, you ask? Well, I am a great supporter of the arts, and believe all projects that lend themselves to any such support as worthy projects! I have found that in today’s world the first disciplines to get lost in school are the arts. It is truly a great tragedy, and I find that more support for those who continue to bring beauty to our communities should always be admired and appreciated.”

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2 Leaves inserted to show how large this table can get. All the pictures above are with 1 leaf.

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This picture above is super high resolution when you click on it. It has two leaves placed inside the table to stretch it out over 10 feet. I placed the laptop computer (MacBook Air) and the chair to give it a sense of scale.

a 2 leaf laptop logo

I stuck our logo and our plastic surgery website onto this picture. This picture isn’t as high resolution. It was originally made to put on FaceBook. This is essentially the same picture as the one above.

 

Click on the pictures above to see a larger version of the picture.

Details about the Omni Collection Dining Table by Century Furniture

  • www.centuryfurniture.com
  • The table shown above is the larger of two tables that is currently available from Century furniture.  This webpage was made on 5/26/13.
  • The two sizes of the table come as [ W: 78 in x D: 46 in ]  or [ W: 74 inc x D: 42 in ]
  • Our table came with two leaves which interlock.  The leaves we have are 22″ each, leading a maximum extension of 122″.  the smaller table, according to the catalog comes with only one leaf which then has a maximum extension of 96″
  • In the catalog from Century Furniture, the item number is 559-303 Dining Table
  • The custom staining/dye we got was Top: Garnet (with Durashield) and Base: Melange
  • The Melange is pretty much a very very dark brown which is pretty much black.
  • As for the Top: Garnet, it is considered a Aniline Finish.  The three colors they had available for the table top with Aniline Finish were:
  • – Garnet
  • – Malachite (greenish)
  • – Sapphire (blue-greenish)
  • There are a bunch of other options for traditional staining.
  • The wood is maple solids and cluster maple veneers.
  • Dream Design Live – blog where I found another picture of this Omni Century Dining table.

About the two tone buffet piece on the side of the room

About the piece on the side. Tammy calls it “the buffet”, but it doesn’t look big enough for the all you can eat buffets I like to go to, so I’m not sure why it’s called the buffet. It’s made with two tones of stain. Going back 10 yearsago, we had hard wood floors done at our house by Carpet One Modesto, it was light colored maple – which is my favorite wood because I grew up in New York with a large maple tree in front of my house, plus part of the violin is made from maple. But when it came to doing the stairs, we wanted the stair nose to be a different color and we chose a very darkly stained walnut. This two toned contrast 10 years ago seemed rather bizarre as we were told, but it came out beautifully in our opinion.  When it came time to buy our first dressers, we went to local store Slater’s Home Furnishings, and purchased a piece and we ordered the color combination seen in the buffet. Tom and the designers at Slaters at the time thought it was a somewhat strange combo, but the two colors were my favorites (this orange/brown tone for the maple, and a dark cherry stain for the cherry wood). The furniture company (Stickley) also thought it was a strange request and wanted to make sure we knew that it couldn’t be returned and they had a “upcharge” for doing the differential staining. The pieces turned out amazingly well, and a few years later, we saw our same dressers displayed in the Stickly furniture catalog. Granted it might not have been the same dresser. And then a few years after that, they designed this buffet – the wood in the front as I understand it is birch, but it stained exactly the same way as the maple had, and whne we saw it in the catalog, we bought that piece immediately without actually having plans for that piece of furniture. So we’ve had a long history of liking contrasts in a single piece of furniture or in hardwood floors. I think 10 years ago, Tammy and I were just a little bit ahead of the trend back then, and am proud of seeing that many furniture items allow for differential staining of different parts. The Table in the picture has the top and base stained differently. So we continue with our obsession with contrast. No I’m stuck trying to figure out what chairs to get. I was going to get purple colored chairs, but that may just be the next trend!

How is this dining table furniture related to our Plastic Surgery Office?

For the most part this isn’t a dining table for us.  It’s a conference table and a study library table.  So a lot of plastic surgery meetings will take place around this table as will a lot of reading about cosmetic procedures and other medically related continued education.

dr-wu-and-dr-lee

Cooperative of American Physicians at the 63rd California Society of Plastic Surgeons Annual Meeting

63rd California Society of Plastic Surgeons Annual Meeting

The Cooperative of American Physicians (CAP) will be there to provide Professional Liability Insurance Information May 24, 2013 to May 27, 2013

The 63rd California Society of Plastic Surgeons Annual Meeting will take place at The Westin St. Francis on Union Square in San Francisco, CA May 24-27, 2013. Visit CAP at Booth H. 

The Westin St. Francis San Francisco on Union Square

335 Powell Street
San Francisco  California  94102

United States

Lots of Breast Augmentation Expertise at the meeting, we will have our own event in Modesto, CA for discussing the latest advaces in Breast Augmentation

We will have our own Breast Augmentation Open House to discuss the latest techniques and breast implants available at our office.  June 1, 2013 (Saturday) 9a-12p at our office in Modesto, CA:  2336 Sylvan Ave. Suite C, Modesto, CA 95355.  (209) 551-1888 for more info.

CAP (Cooperative of American Physicians) is represented in San Francsico at the CSPS meeting!

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cap two - the one to use

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Dr. Wu Plastic Surgeon, Modesto, CA

Calvin Lee CAP table

The last picture above is an actual picture taken at the California Society of Plastic Surgeon’s Event.
Dr. Tammy Wu, Modesto Plastic Surgeon, is a member of the California Society of Plastic Surgeons and she is on the board of directors for the Cooperative of American Physicians.
Some general info about California Malpractice Coverage which I wrote some time ago.

Professional Liability Insurance vs. “Malpractice Insurance”

  • PLI = Professional Liability Insurance
  • Also called professional indemnity insurance (PII)
  • Also called Errors and Omissions (E&O) insurance
  • Professional liability insurance takes on different names depending on the profession.  In reference to health care, it is sometimes called medical malpractice insurance.  For the most part it’s just a choice of terminology.
  • CAP provides California Professional Liability Coverage for doctors.

Other Insurance related Terminology

  • For a Glossary of some of these professional liability terms, please visit: http://www.capphysicians.com/footer/glossary
  • Tail and Nose coverage terms are not in the glossary above so I’ll try to explain that to the best of my ability.
  • Tail Coverage = coverage of events that occur while the policy is in force but are reported after the policy terminates.
  • Nose Coverage = “prior acts” coverage, transfers the retro-active date for an old policy to a new insurance carrier.  Nose coverage eliminates the need to purchase tail coverage from the last carrier.

 

How Much Does Botox Cost in Modesto CA with Dr. Calvin Lee?

by Calvin Lee, MD

written 5/24/13, at this time we charge $11.70 per unit of Botox

Why a strange number like that?  Because it’s 10% off our original price of $13 per unit.

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Empty vials of Botox, Picture by Calvin Lee, MD

 

Average Cost of Botox – all patients – doesn’t matter what area:

But of interest, I had calculated a few months ago the average Botox patient’s check out amount.  The price came out to $339.00.  But the range is huge.  The number came out of sampling of 46 patient charts.

Most Common Cost of Botox, all patients = $304

But most patients aren’t actually paying that figure, the most common charge that is seen is $304 for 26 units of Botox.  The average, as you know, may not be the same number as one that is the most common.

Botox cost broken down per area

This chart is helpful if you know which areas you’d like to have injected with Botox

Location of Botox injection Most Common
cost of Botox		 Common
Cost Range
Area between the eyes (Glabellar area) $234 $140-$280
Crows feet (both) $234 $140-$280
Forehead $117 $70-$234
Around the mouth (top and bottom) $82 $46-$93
Dimpling of the chin $117 $93-$140
Vertical neck bands (each) $70 $70-$93
Jowls (both) $140
Down turn of the mouth (both) $93 $46-$93

The top two (Glabellar and Crows Feet) are the most common areas injected in our Modesto, CA practice.

botox bottles

I was about to go to the operating room today and I heard this question asked at our front desk.  I’m thinking that this is a pretty common question and thought I’d just post my own answer here.  I know my staff did a great job of explaining the ranges and reasons for certain charges related to the question of “How much does Botox cost?”  I did hear a little bit of the conversation which involved discussions of how many units I might use in each area.  I think that’s fine too, but perhaps I’m starting to think that patients don’t entirely care about the units, the primarily care more about the costs.  But of course from our standpoint, as providers of Botox, we think of it in units.  But I am thinking that the consumers of Botox will usually think of it in dollar amounts.  But our office wants to make it clear that we customize the Botox injections to fit a patient’s goals, muscle size, weight, and prior experience with Botox.

For More Info on Botox

dr-wu-and-dr-lee

 

 

Kumquat

a kumquat in a cup 4394 with logo

Miewa Kumquat, Picture by Calvin Lee

 Kumquat

  • Looks like a mini orange
  • Size of an Olive
  • Kumquat in Chinese means Golden Orange
  • Hardier than Oranges
  • The rind is eat by itself or the whole fruit can be eaten.
  • Symbol of good luck
  • Grows reasonably well in Modesto, CA

Kumquat Health Benefits

  • Antioxidants – protect from cancer, aging, inflammation, degenerative diseases, diabetes.
  • Vitamin A
  • Vitamin C
  • Vitamin E
  • Carotene alpha
  • Cryptoxanthin
  • Lutein-zeaxanthin
  • Minerals
  • Calcium
  • Copper
  • Iron
  • Magnesium
  • Manganese
  • Zinc
  • Omega 3 and Omega 6

Varieties of Kumquat

  • Miewa
  • Nagami
  • Morgani / Marumi
  • Fukushu
  • Jiangsu
  • Hong Kong Wild
  • Others

How is this related to Surgical Artistry

We own a Kumquat tree in our Modesto home’s backyard, and we believe it to be a source of good fortune and good health for us.  It is quite pretty to look at as well.  Our tree is a Miewa tree.  The picture above was taken around the end of January 2013.