A plastic surgeon who has reopened his clinic says he will perform any operation — except lip fillers

27 May 2020, 20:17 by Business Insider

https://static.businessinsider.sg/2020/05/05/5c9de8dc92c8864c61337124.png — Peter Cade / Getty

A Beverly Hills plastic surgeon has resumed procedures in his office and house calls after local health officials said elective medical procedures are now allowed.
He will perform any non-invasive procedure that can be done with a mask on, and invasive procedures after patients undergo a COVID-19 test.
But the doctor, Arash Moradzadeh, said he won’t fulfill patient requests for lip fillers at this time because it requires they remove their face masks.
The CDC recommends all Americans wear face masks in public to lower transmission risk during the coronavirus pandemic.
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As states begin to ease up on coronavirus pandemic lockdowns, doctors are reopening their offices and once again offering elective procedures, filler injections and plastic surgery included.

One of those surgeons is Beverly Hills, California-based Dr. Arash Moradzadeh. He told Insider he started seeing patients again on May 1, after Beverly Hills officials lifted a ban on elective procedures during the coronavirus pandemic.

Now Moradzadeh is seeing patients with postponed appointments, as well as some new patients, in his office and during home visits.

Moradzadeh requires COVID-19 tests and masks for all of his patients

https://static.businessinsider.sg/2020/05/05/5ecebaf4f34d051d0a339b3a.jpeg — Getty

To keep himself and his patients as safe as possible, Moradzadeh has multiple precautions in place that he created based on city and state guidelines.

Whether it’s an office or house call, patients have to do a COVID-19 test 48 hours before their scheduled appointment if they need a procedure that requires being maskless.

He said his office staff has always had cleaning protocols, but they’re cleaning surfaces and equipment even more often than before.

When it comes to home visits, Moradzadeh said he asks all family members to wear masks and brings everything he needs, like injection needles and fillers, with him.

“I just make sure I’m not touching anything and I’m really aware of everything I bring with me. Visits are kept short, so there’s not going to be as much socializing [as usual]. It’s more limited, basically,” Moradzadeh said.

He will perform nose jobs and fat removal, but not lip fillers

Moradzadeh said he’s been getting requests for procedures like eyelid lifts, non-invasive fat removal, nose jobs, and fillers.

Though he’s open to working with patients on most of these, he said he’s not doing lip fillers for the time being.

“It requires their mask to be off, so I just tell them, ‘No, I can’t do lip filler right now,'” he said.

The CDC recommends all Americans wear face masks while in public places, and especially in enclosed ones like grocery stores, to prevent transmission of the coronavirus. Since there’s evidence asymptomatic people could be contagious and COVID-19 tests aren’t full-proof, wearing a mask acts as an extra, though imperfect, line of defense when social distancing isn’t possible, Insider previously reported.

Often, Moradzadeh has to be persistent with this stance because patients perpetually check in to see if he can plump up their lips.

“Even the same [patients], they’ve contacted me like 10 times so far like, ‘Are you doing lip filler yet?’ And I have to tell them no,” he said.

He said he’d be willing to do lip fillers on someone if they got a COVID-19 test and it came back negative, but he assumes most people won’t be willing to get tested just for fillers. Moradzadeh said he’s monitoring what California Gov. Gavin Newsom says about the situation and he’ll consider doing lip filler again when “that feels and seems appropriate.”