Plastic Surgery

Rarely has such a thin torso caused such a fat commotion. When a paparazzo last week smashed into Lindsay Lohan's Mercedes-Benz, photographers say, it was clear what he was after: Telltale shots of the tween idol's rapidly diminishing frame. "She's lost tons of weight -- that's the hot story. How anorexic she looks," said veteran celebrity photographer Phil Ramey before the car crash. That, plus the inevitable Hollywood follow-up question: Did she or didn't she?

At least one Beverly Hills High School senior went back to school with more than just a new wardrobe this fall. Her cosmetic surgeon gave her a new chin and cheekbones. Last year she sported a new nose. Not far away at a private high school in Los Angeles, two girls talk about their cosmetic surgery. Each underwent liposuction, a surgical method of vacuuming fat out of bulging areas. One had her chin line revamped, another slimmed her thighs.

Six months after the mother of Kanye West died following liposuction and breast implant surgery, the reverberations of the tragedy continue to be felt. Now lawmakers and physicians are urging greater protections for patients undergoing cosmetic surgery. Across the country, such surgeries are increasingly done outside hospital settings in outpatient clinics, where a doctor can avoid the rigorous review that, say, a heart surgeon would face at a traditional hospital.

It's instant sculpture. You walk into a photography studio, sit in a standard office chair. Hold extremely still for 15 seconds. No blinking for five. A computerized camera shaped like the light over a dentist's chair swivels around you, shining a laser beam at your face and measuring distances to your head and shoulders from two fixed points. A quarter of a million different measurements are recorded in those 15 seconds.

After a five-month investigation, auditors for the UC Irvine College of Medicine concluded Friday that allegations brought by a whistle-blower against the school's division of plastic surgery were essentially without merit and revealed conditions that were "not fundamentally detrimental" to anyone at the school. The investigation, initiated at the request of UCI's general counsel, stemmed from allegations raised by Dr. J.A.

Pop megastar Michael Jackson said Wednesday that he has a disorder that destroys his skin pigment and insisted during a live television interview with Oprah Winfrey that he has had "very little" plastic surgery. In his first solo interview in nearly a decade, Jackson said that he regrets working through his childhood and that he was beaten by his father. He also assailed some news stories about him as "garbage."

Like many plastic surgeons, Dr. Randal Haworth has developed a complex relationship with reality TV shows that feature surgical makeovers. Haworth, who set up shop in Beverly Hills in 1995, readily acknowledges that he has benefited from the increased interest in plastic surgery that productions such as ABC's "Extreme Makeover" and MTV's "I Want a Famous Face" have sparked.

A Santa Ana plastic/cosmetic surgeon who lost his license two months ago on a court restraining order based on patient complaints won it back Monday when a Superior Court judge said the state so far has failed to prove its case against him. Dr. James D. Dean, 54, who claims he is caught up in a political battle between plastic surgeons and cosmetic surgeons, will now be permitted to practice until a hearing scheduled for September before the state Board of Medical Quality Assurance.

Gabriela Sanchez always felt self-conscious about her small breasts, and at age 40 she decided to do something about it. At 41, she has no breasts at all -- they had to be surgically removed after implants inserted by an allegedly phony plastic surgeon caused a severe infection. The charges against Agustin Huerta, a sweet-talking snappy dresser who zipped around town in a blue Jaguar, raise new questions about how easily untrained scam artists can pose as qualified doctors in Mexico.