False Advertising from LifeStyle Lift

I have gotten numerous quesions about this “revolutionary” procedure over the last few years as they advertise heavily on television. LifeStyle Lift is a company, not a procedure. Their model is that everything is done in the office, rather than in an accredited operating room. Patients call the national number and a salesperson – not a doctor – meets with them and “sells’ them the procedures. Then they are referred to a contracted “LifeStyle Lift” doctor within the company’s network. The patient meets the surgeon the morning of surgery and they proceed with whatever has already been sold. There are so many problems with this. First and foremost, the surgeon should be assessing the patient at the first visit to see how best to meet their goals, and whether the patient is being realistic, as well as to discuss recovery and postop pain. Common complaints from the company are that the patient has been promised an office procedure with no pain or downtime by the sales dept, only to find that they have major pain, postop brusing, scars, etc… In addition, while certain patients are good candidates for so called “minimal” lifts that can be performed in office, many are not and they find that the procedures do not meet their goals or can be long, painful, and very unpleasant. These same patients would be better served by a regular anesthetic. The final note is that there is nothing “revolutionary” about any of it, except their marketing approach. This has been challenged in court in multiple states, and Florida has deemed their entire approach to be false advertising. In short, it sounds too good to be true, because it is. Check out the articles below for more info:

http://www.plasticsurgerypractice.com/news/20261-lifestyle-lift-to-rein-in-marketing-efforts-after-florida-probe/

http://m.usatoday.com/article/news/2434697