Michael S. Godin, MD

What value can you put on getting your self confidence back! Dr. Godin took time to meticulously study my face to give me exactly the Botox and fillers I needed to take years off of my face and yet still look like me. He's a true perfectionist.

I am in my upper 40's and for years I have been fighting the aging process. I have tried almost every cream, serum, and gadget that is out there. Believe me when I say nothing really works like it says. But then I meet Dr. Godin. Dr. Godin was wonderful. We discussed my wants and needs for now and procedures I might want down the road. Then we discussed together what procedures I wanted that day. I hate needles, but he talked me through the whole process and put me at ease. I had botox, juvederm & restylane. I had deep wrinkles on my upper lip area and now they are gone. I am petite and have a small mouth, so to accentuate my lips we added a filler. The outcome is remarkable. I look and feel so much younger. I highly recommend Dr. Godin. He has given me that boost of confidence I have been looking for. I don't regret and you won't either!!

I had a face lift with Dr. Godin about five years ago and everything turned out the way i wanted except my neck lift didn't last as long as i would have liked. Dr. Godin explained that there were no guarantees with the neck, so i waited and returned to him about five years later. Again, the experience with Dr. Godin and his entire staff was nothing other than excellent. Everyone there is warm, caring and knowledgeable about your particular procedure. Everything went smoothly and exactly as they explained. i am very happy with the results and will always recommend Dr. Godin to all my friends and family, which i already have.

One year ago, I had Ultherapy instead of what I really needed - a mini lift. For me, Ultherapy was a waste of time and money which yielded zero results.
I just had my lift (lower face and neck tuck and a little lipo under chip) four days ago so still swollen (more on one side than the other) and bruised but I expect to be very pleased with the results. No real pain, just can't lay down so sleep has been only in short naps. Hubby is taking good care of me but we are both plain bored. I'm not a TV-watcher and have now watched anything I may have had a remote interest in and plenty of crap I wasn't interested in out of boredom. I'm starting to see improvement and can't wait for swelling to diminish.

Updated on 29 Dec 2014:
Well, I'm one week PO and feel my bruising isn't too bad. Much of it is already fading. The bruise on chin is from a little lipo the doctor did there. At my first post op dr appt, he took out 1/2 the stitches and replaced with skin-colored tape and skin glue (?). I'll go back in four days to have the remaining stitches checked and, hopefully, removed. There wasn't any real pain and feel the outcome will be everything I had imagined. I never really experienced any weepiness or second thoughts as some patients mentioned, just anxious to be back to a normal routine. I feel okay, just trouble sleeping since they still want me to sleep upright for another week or two. Ugh. Sleeping upright is not fun or easy but it supposed to help with swelling and bruising. Perhaps I was a bit 'out of it' for the first few days, probably due to lack of sleep but never had trouble walking around the house, dressing, etc. Recovery has been easy but boring, which isn't really a complaint.

The cost includes the anaesthesiologist, post-op nursing care and juvederm. The surgery itself is about $7800 of the total cost.

Ten years ago I had a brow lift, neck plication, deep plane face lift and lower blepheroplasty performed by John Mannes of Marin County, California who did a sensational job for a cost of $12,000+/-. My recovery was very good but I had the usual numbness, tightness and greenish tinge.

It has taken me three years to find the right surgeon. Lots of research and interviews as this was a secondary procedure and I wanted a highly skilled surgeon due to the preexisting scar tissue, but I knew when I was ready to proceed.

Tomorrow I have the above described secondary procedures performed by Michael S. Godin, M.D. of Richmond, VA, double board certified & specializing in facial surgery. I am staying in a nearby hotel for 24 hours post-op with private nursing care.

I have had about ten weeks of pre-op preparation getting super healthy with ultimate life shakes, orgain shakes, vitamin C superdoses, lots of water, working out, staying away from second hand smoke and sick people, reducing sodium, etc., etc. Now I am dutifully taking my arnica montana, bromelian, more vitamin C, and eating pineapple and mango for more post op mojo magic.

I will get some pictures up.



Updated on 27 Sep 2011:
Six hours post surgery. Surgery lasted about four hours. Back in my hotel within a half-hour. Nurse drove me. Immediately post-surgery my face was lopsided as the side done first had swollen, but six hours later the swelling is diminishing on my face. So do not be too alarmed when you see the immediate post op pictures. One of the eyes was taped shut and it was swollen open, but that subsided within a couple of hours.
I had twilight anaesthesia administered by an anaesthesiologist. (They said I was the most talkative patient under anaesthesia that they had ever seen.) No pain in my neck.

Taking my meds (antibiotics (cephalex), arnica montana and extra strength tylenol ),drinking my Orgain shakes and water. Tomorrow the nurse will change my dressing and show me how to put on the antibiotic ointment and cleanse the sutures hydrogen peroxide and water. I will head home tomorrow afternoon.

I am feeling quite good. Taking it easy. Face looks good. I will post more pictures showing what I looked like immediately after surgery with full habit and tomorrow after the head wrap is removed.

I was very disappointed I saw little to no changes after surgery. I had the Neck, Jowl and the Eyebrow Lift. The neck was ok but the eyes are still saggy and the saggy Jowl still no change. At a later date I will have to have these redone with someone else. Dr. Godin said he could redo the eyes for extra charge. I paid $17000.00 and did not see hardly any changes.
Just please do your homework if you are thinking of having a facelift or other work done.
A lot of money not to get want you would like.

I underwent facelift, neck lift, upper blepharoplasty and brow lift. Little to no results at 1 year. Neck began sagging once the extreme swelling subsided. He does not use drains and my neck was extremely swollen and full of fluid for 2 months post op and I was left with a sagging neck. Upper eyes look like nothing was done. This was supposed to be a 6 hours surgery and I was in OR for 10 hours with no explanation. My partner was called 3x between 4:30pm and 7pm to delay my pick up. He will tell you he does a "natural" looking facelift but you WILL need a revision. Disappointed is an understatement. I have to start all over. He offered to do a revision saying he would only charge 50% of his fees but proceeded to raise his costs so that it would only be $2,000 less than original price. He could do it for free and I would not allow him to touch me again. I will be going to a very reputable surgeon who uses drains for faster recovery, will do a deep plane lift that Dr Godin would not do, and will do an upper and lower blepharoplasty. Do your research, wish I had. Save your $$$ and find another surgeon.

Facelift. I awoke a bit being on twilight anesthesia, and a trainee was doing my facelift. Dr Godin had left the building. I was upset, and told them he said he would be doing the surgery, and they said he had a right to leave and do things he wanted to do…That upset me even more….so, they put me back to sleep. Unbelievable that he wasn’t even in the room for half of my facelift-actually, not even in the building. He overcharges if he thinks he can get away with it, so act savvy and not naive about plastic surgery, but I do not think u should go to him. I ended up with wrinkles I’d never had before in front of my ear on one side of my face, so I guess the trainee didn’t pull the skin tight enough behind the ear. What a nightmare!

I had a facelift 7 months ago and have little to show for it except pretty prominent salivary glands. Dr Godin never mentioned this possibility and then didn't want to acknowledge them when I pointed them out. In fact he asked why I kept focusing on them, to which I replied "because they are very obvious and the first thing I see when I look at my neck!" Of course he said they were not that noticeable, to be patient and to come back in 5 months! I had negative vibes about him doing the surgery, but chose to ignore it - which of course I now regret.

Avoid this Dr. at all costs. There are many better Drs. You can actually trust your face to. My face looks the same and in some places, worse than it did before. I am having to pay another dr, for a redo. He couldn't believe I had had a lift! Breaks my heart to come up with that money again. Jowly and neck sags under my chin, sags around my mouth-just excessively frustrating and heartbreaking to have to go thru the surgery and recovery again with a better Dr.

Updated on 30 Nov 2016:
Looks far, far worse than before surgery. Horrible results.

Updated on 30 Apr 2017:
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