I Would Select a Different Doctor for Any Future Procedures - Cincinnati, OH

Dr. Mendelsohn's pre-surgery bedside manner was terrific. He personally called the night before the surgery to check in and quite frankly I was impressed. I've had a facelift every 10 years since 35 so pretty much know not to expect perfection and quite frankly that wasn't my goal--for me this was maintenance.

My surgery was scheduled, but then the date and time changed several times. Again, not a big deal because I had some flexibility in my schedule. My first uneasiness came the day of the surgery. The woman who started my IV was very inexperienced and after 5 sticks found someone else to do it. BTW, I've not had problems with IVs before or since and have been told I have good veins. 

Also, several people who examined me and touched my face didn't wear gloves or came into the room already wearing gloves.  The surgery went fine and I had less bruising than with my other lifts, but four days later I had a lot of redness and pain. I called the office and he prescribed an antibiotic over the phone. I was going in for my 1 week post-op in a few days and by that time the antibiotics seemed to be having an effect.

A day after I went off the antibiotics the infection came raging back. I called and he ordered another round of of the same antibiotics. The same thing happened as the time before and I went to my internist who said that I should have been given a different drug on the second round. By this time things were really bad and I had to go on really strong drugs and was sent to an infection control specilist the next day. It took another month to get the infection under control and competely gone. In hindsight I could kick myself for not speaking up on the "gloves" issue at the time.

The results of the surgery were somewhat disappointing as well. My neck showed little if any improvement. The jawline is definitely better, but he did a poor job of suturing by my earlobes and left little folds of skin which was noticeable. I had that fixed by another plastic surgeon in Cincinnati and that is all good now.

The rhinoplasty revision was the biggest disappointment as my nose is more crooked than ever. My hairdresser even mentioned it (he said I also wasn't his first client who had disappointing results with Dr. Mendelsohn.) At my post-op visit Dr. Mendelsohn said it would take a year for my nose to look right, something I already knew from my research. It has now been well over a year and no improvement so I'm scheduling with the plastic surgeon that fixed the suture problem. 

I wish I had gone to the other guy for the facelift. My experience was Dr. Mendelsohn was below average and I certainly wouldn't use him again or recommend him to anyone who wanted anything more than botox.