Est. 2001 · Independent · Australian English
No testimonials · No outcome guarantees
A journal of aesthetic and reconstructive surgery
Cosmetic SurgeonsAn independent Australian journal of aesthetic and reconstructive surgery
28 essays, each written to be read before a consultation rather than instead of one.
Haematoma, infection, pulmonary embolism and filler vascular events are reasons to seek urgent care. This guide separates 000, the surgeon-on-call and Healthdirect 1800 022 222 — without turning a journal into a diagnosis.
Elise Nguyen · 3 June 2025
Recovery after facial, breast and abdominal operations is described in ranges, not promises. Driving, work and exercise return on different clocks. A stranger’s Instagram week is not evidence.
Elise Nguyen · 20 May 2025
The weeks before an operation are part of the treatment. Smoking, weight, medicines, fasting, a support person and time off work all affect risk. They do not purchase a particular result.
Elise Nguyen · 6 May 2025
Lasers, intense pulsed light and other energy devices used in Australian cosmetic clinics sit under TGA device rules. Skin of colour, eye protection and the fact that energy is not a substitute for surgery all belong in the consultation.
Tom Hale · 22 April 2025
Dermal fillers are a regulated health service in Australia. Vascular occlusion is an emergency, visual loss is a recognised risk, and dissolving agents should be discussed as a class — not as a brand — before anyone is treated.
James Okonkwo · 8 April 2025
In Australia, anti-wrinkle injections are prescription-only medicines. Advertising law explains why clinics cannot name the drug, who may prescribe and administer it, and why consent still has to name risks such as eyelid ptosis.
James Okonkwo · 25 March 2025
Plastic surgery in Australia grew from trauma, burns, hands and cancer reconstruction. The old cosmetic-surgeons.com.au practice listed reconstructive work beside aesthetic operations because the same fellowship training covers both.
Clare Whitfield · 11 March 2025
Hypertrophic scars versus keloids, why timing and skin of colour matter, and why silicone, corticosteroid injections and patience usually come before any operation — which is a last step, not a deletion of history.
Elise Nguyen · 25 February 2025
How Australian teams talk about BCC, SCC and melanoma on the face, the difference between flaps and grafts, Mohs collaboration, surgical margins, and why sun protection is part of the aftercare, not an optional extra.
Tom Hale · 11 February 2025
Immediate versus delayed reconstruction, implant and autologous options described in general terms, the public multidisciplinary pathway, and why this is reconstructive medicine rather than cosmetic advertising.
Tom Hale · 28 January 2025
How Australian rooms distinguish true glandular gynaecomastia from chest fat, why an endocrine and medicine review comes first, and what excision versus liposuction and scar position actually involve.
Tom Hale · 14 January 2025
Staging, nutrition and thrombosis risk after massive weight loss, with belt lipectomy, arm and thigh operations described in general terms, and a plain account of public versus private pathways in Australia.
Tom Hale · 10 December 2024
Why liposuction is not a weight-loss method, how fluid shifts and skin quality limit the operation, and why hospital versus office setting and combination surgery change the risk conversation in Australia.
Tom Hale · 26 November 2024
A journalist’s explainer on pannus versus muscle separation, hernia, drains and early walking after abdominoplasty — and why Medicare criteria exist in Australia without promising a rebate.
Priya Menon · 12 November 2024
Why breast-implant revision happens — rupture, contracture, malposition, preference — and how explant with or without a lift is discussed, including imaging and the fact that no operation can promise a return to a pre-implant appearance.
Tom Hale · 29 October 2024
How a mastopexy differs from a reduction and from an implant, what scar patterns are discussed in general terms, why gravity and ageing continue after surgery, and why combining a lift with another breast operation adds risk.
Priya Menon · 15 October 2024
Reduction mammaplasty is discussed for symptoms as well as for appearance. This explainer covers that split, the existence of Medicare criteria without treating a website as an assessor, scars, sensation, and why breastfeeding after reduction cannot be promised.
Priya Menon · 1 October 2024
How the TGA regulates breast implants as devices, what registries are for, why BIA-ALCL is raised as a rare risk, and how sizing and screening are discussed in Australian rooms — without advertising a brand.
Tom Hale · 17 September 2024
Genioplasty, chin implants and orthognathic jaw surgery are different operations. This explainer covers occlusion, joint planning with orthodontics, and why a hospital stay is part of the conversation for some — but not all — of these procedures.
Tom Hale · 3 September 2024
How Australian consultations discuss prominent-ear surgery in children and adults — timing, cartilage, head-band aftercare and the return to school or sport as matters for the operating surgeon, not a website timetable.
Priya Menon · 19 August 2024
A journalist’s guide to how Australian rooms discuss facelift candidacy, SMAS versus skin-only approaches, neck work, anaesthesia and haematoma risk — with recovery described as ranges, not promises.
Priya Menon · 5 August 2024
Upper and lower lids, dry eye, vision assessment, and the Medicare rules that apply only when clinical criteria are met. No promised look, and a reminder of when eyelid symptoms need urgent care.
Priya Menon · 22 July 2024
Functional and aesthetic aims, the airway, grafting, why revision is a different operation, and recovery described in general terms — without a promised shape.
Priya Menon · 8 July 2024
When another registered practitioner is useful, how to request records and use a GP referral, and why a second opinion is not a search for the first person who will say yes.
Clare Whitfield · 20 June 2024
Consent is a process, not a signature. How material risks, alternatives including no surgery, and the cosmetic-surgery cooling-off rules work — and what a first visit cannot legally rush.
Clare Whitfield · 9 May 2024
A working list of consultation questions on facility accreditation, the anaesthetist, revision policy, cooling-off and photographs used for planning rather than advertising — written so you can take it into the rooms.
Clare Whitfield · 18 April 2024
FRACS, specialist registration in plastic surgery, the 2023 title reforms, and why “cosmetic surgeon” is not an Ahpra specialist title. A register check still beats a website biography.
James Okonkwo · 4 March 2024
A practical guide to searching the Ahpra Register of Practitioners, reading registration types and conditions, and treating a clinic website as advertising rather than proof of specialist status.
James Okonkwo · 12 February 2024