Dr. Wolf got such a great response on his latest Miami Herald Q & A topic, we figured we'd share it with you here!
Q. Mama Elsa on the  Housewives of Miami said she had bad plastic surgery and that a surgeon did all that to her. What is your opinion of what really happened?
A. Things aren’t always what they seem to be. Take, for example, the name of the show,  
Housewives of Miami. Most of the characters are not housewives, yet the show is named that.
While
 Mama Else may have had some plastic surgery in the past, I believe what
 has caused her more harm is the “other’’ stuff she has had injected 
into her face.
  
      
       I have been practicing in Miami for about 25 years and have seen 
thousands of patients with the same problem, biopolymer injections. The 
patient is often told that that they are being injected with lamb 
embryo, shark cartilage or whatever seems to be in vogue at the time. 
Often, patients are told that the material will last for years. 
Unfortunately the disastrous consequences will last for years as well.
 Initially, the area that receives the injections may look good. But as 
your body recognizes the injected material does not belong to you, your 
body starts to reject it. It literally grows tissue around the area in 
order to protect itself.
I’ve seen many patients who look very 
much like Mama Elsa. I suspect the resemblance between Mama Elsa and her
 daughter is not only genetic but they may have gone to the same 
injector.
Often a “friend” brings in another friend because they are getting a 
free treatment or they are getting a kickback to bring in an 
unsuspecting patient. More times than not, the person doing the 
injections is not a doctor and is usually from a foreign country (that 
way they can get away with this). While I would need to physically 
examine Mama Elsa to confirm this theory, her look is typical of a 
patient in the later stages of biopolymer injections.
Fortunately,
 there is a treatment for this problem. I have treated hundreds of 
patients successfully for this condition over the past many years. 
Depending on what area of the face the deformity exists, treatment may 
consist of steroid injections to mitigate the inflammatory reaction or 
directly cutting out the excess tissue. More recently I have started 
using 5 FU (an anti cancer drug, off label, in severe cases with great 
results).
Clearly, in treating patients with this problem, the 
cure should not be more dangerous than the problem, so each patient 
needs to be evaluated individually.
The best solution to this 
problem is to avoid being injected with materials by non-physicians 
where you do not know what they are injecting you with. Even smart 
people do foolish things when it comes to beauty!    
Read
 more here: 
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/15/3182461/a-lesson-in-injections-from-the.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpy
Read
 more here: 
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/15/3182461/a-lesson-in-injections-from-the.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpy
  
Read
 more here: 
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/15/3182461/a-lesson-in-injections-from-the.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpy