POSTED UNDER Eyelid Surgery Reviews
Permanent disfigurement of my eyes and general appearance
ORIGINAL POST
Disfigured by Justin Cohen – Avoid This Doctor!
CAB61October 18, 2022
$11,000
This has been a really hard review for me to write because I hate saying bad things about people. But my life has been so devastated by the poor blepharoplasty performed by Dr. Justin Cohen, and I really have to implore you to not consider him for any plastic surgery. I did, placing my trust in him, and ended up with permanent disfigurement of my eyes and general appearance. It’s a never- ending nightmare to be living in this situation.
The blepharoplasty that he performed in the spring of 2022 was “Part II” of a two-part facial rejuvenation (the necklift and temporal browlift took place in the late fall of 2021; he instructed me to contact him six months later for the bleph).
But sadly, what was supposed to be a ‘gentle refresh’ with minor tweaking of the upper lids and fat grafting with CO2 laser in the lower lids was anything but that. Relying on his miniscule totebag of limited ‘one-size-fits-all’ blepharoplasty techniques, Dr. Cohen permanently disfigured my eyes and general appearance. Within the first week and a half following the bleph, I knew things were not right – in appearance or in sensation.
Along with the awful aesthetic results, he left me with a host of physical problems: on the upper lids -- exaggerated ptosis in both lids, painful sensitivity to the touch and a ‘pulling sensation’ along the scar lines where he sewed too tightly and pulled the skin, nerve damage in same area, inability to fully open my eyes, droopy lids, continual pain and discomfort, and on the lower lids – ectropian, sunken eyes where the fat grafting did not hold, skin bunching and excess skin folding – again where the fat did not hold. The left eye is more butchered than the right, with the crease at 14 mm instead of the standard 6 or 7 mm. This leaves the lid heavy, droopy, and abnormal looking. It has also lost its natural almond shape – it is round and with a surgically harsh appearance. Since the natural anatomical fold and creases were completely eliminated, which are essential to maintain in any blepharoplasty, it affected the stability of the eye shapes and tendons. I was completely skinned like a dead rabbit, and it is an awful mess. Not only do my eyes look entirely different than they were before the blepharoplasty, they are also uneven, deformed, and unnatural.
I had asked Dr. Cohen a few times beforehand if he felt I really needed a bleph, and he was quick to respond that yes, I would look great with one. But realistically, I think he just needed the money and wanted to fill in his surgical time conveniently in his newly-rented office space as a sole entrepreneur after his December 2021 fallout with West End Plastic Surgery. In a pre-op appointment, in fact, he pointed me to the newly-installed credit card machine – twice! – to encourage me to make the commitment and the payment, even though I was hesitant. In spite of my hesitancy, I gave in. An ethical surgeon would have discouraged as well as encouraged any procedure, but it is clear that Dr. Cohen's motives were entirely self-serving. On the morning of the appointed bleph procedure, everyone was impatient – I had a bad feeling, that they just wanted to do this factory-assembly-style, and then move on with their day. Dr. Cohen did a last-minute rushing in, quickly assessing my eyes with a marker, but without measurement, without taking his time.
The ramifications of botched plastic surgery are terrifying. You are constantly in a state of high anxiety, and ultimately this leads to severe chronic crippling and clinical depression. Paralyzing panic attacks hit you daily in unexpected moments. To be been harmed, hurt, mutilated is debilitating. You are in a state of shock and disbelief – how could this have happened? Why did this have to happen to me? Is this forever? What could I have done to prevent this? The flashbacks and PTSD kick in. You try every kind of medication and therapy there is to re-gain your equilibrium, but nothing can work, really, because you've been hurt and damaged and mutilated and traumatized beyond repair.
To make matters much, much worse, Dr. Cohen showed a side of him that was self-serving and untruthful: he lied and gaslighted. In my last face-to-face meeting with him in mid-June, he was very, very quick to exclaim: “This is one of the best blepharoplasties I’ve ever done” “You look so f****** great!” “My mother, my own f****** mother wants me to do a bleph on her. She will be envious when she sees your photos!” all with more and more closed body language and avoiding eye contact. And when I expressed my concern that everything had changed, that he had completely changed my eyes, the shape, contour, size and specific traits, his response was: “Change is good!” and “You’ll get used to it.” You know what? Change is NOT good, and no, you don’t get used to it.
His written emailed and text responses oozed with self-congratulatory compliments of how great everything was healing. Bad and botched jobs can heal as well as good ones -- they just look atrocious instead of looking good. It is clear that Dr. Cohen was following a standard formula from his text book of "Bleph 101" instead of really examining the patient from an aesthetic as well as medical point of view. This job was just sloppy, and unforgiveable.
Dr. Cohen's concern for my mental anguish oozed with falsity: “And how are YOU doing?” “Are you feeling better?” “Have you looked into the therapist I recommended?” As if it were my fragile weakened mental state that was the source of the problem. It was a botched job, and I am living with his substandard workmanship! And in every question I had regarding the bleph “You completely removed the natural anatomical fold and creases!” his response was “And?” while reddening in the face. When I questioned why he had removed almost half of my eyelid, his response was: “You have to remove the shutters to open the window and let the light in” At that point, it was clear to me that he knew his job was botched, and I was staring into the eyes of a serpent. On my drive home that afternoon, I was just shaking.
Dr. Cohen's head was not on his shoulders on that fateful morning, and I’m the one to bear the brunt of it all. I subsequently saw four different revisionist surgeons in different states, and they described Dr. Cohen’s work as “total butchery”, “severe damage to the lids” and “these doctors should not be allowed to perform these procedures” and "he removed way too much skin. This is just a bad job."
So now, I am living with life-long disfigurement and pain. You don’t get over this. You don’t ‘get used to it’. You just have to figure out how to cope. It is daunting and beyond upsetting. The necklift is not holding, and my neck is already sagging – in less than one year! I had entrusted my safety in the hands of Justin Cohen two times, and I’m afraid to say, he failed in both.
When I requested a refund not out of revenge but simply to partly cover the cost of a revision surgery, he sent over a waiver that the refund was "out of good faith" and that I could not post anything negative about him. I could not sign such a waiver; it is untruthful.
So you will see from these pictures the story that I tell. Pictures do not lie; plastic surgeons can and do. This is a ‘one-stop-shop’ that I would strongly recommend for you to completely avoid.
The blepharoplasty that he performed in the spring of 2022 was “Part II” of a two-part facial rejuvenation (the necklift and temporal browlift took place in the late fall of 2021; he instructed me to contact him six months later for the bleph).
But sadly, what was supposed to be a ‘gentle refresh’ with minor tweaking of the upper lids and fat grafting with CO2 laser in the lower lids was anything but that. Relying on his miniscule totebag of limited ‘one-size-fits-all’ blepharoplasty techniques, Dr. Cohen permanently disfigured my eyes and general appearance. Within the first week and a half following the bleph, I knew things were not right – in appearance or in sensation.
Along with the awful aesthetic results, he left me with a host of physical problems: on the upper lids -- exaggerated ptosis in both lids, painful sensitivity to the touch and a ‘pulling sensation’ along the scar lines where he sewed too tightly and pulled the skin, nerve damage in same area, inability to fully open my eyes, droopy lids, continual pain and discomfort, and on the lower lids – ectropian, sunken eyes where the fat grafting did not hold, skin bunching and excess skin folding – again where the fat did not hold. The left eye is more butchered than the right, with the crease at 14 mm instead of the standard 6 or 7 mm. This leaves the lid heavy, droopy, and abnormal looking. It has also lost its natural almond shape – it is round and with a surgically harsh appearance. Since the natural anatomical fold and creases were completely eliminated, which are essential to maintain in any blepharoplasty, it affected the stability of the eye shapes and tendons. I was completely skinned like a dead rabbit, and it is an awful mess. Not only do my eyes look entirely different than they were before the blepharoplasty, they are also uneven, deformed, and unnatural.
I had asked Dr. Cohen a few times beforehand if he felt I really needed a bleph, and he was quick to respond that yes, I would look great with one. But realistically, I think he just needed the money and wanted to fill in his surgical time conveniently in his newly-rented office space as a sole entrepreneur after his December 2021 fallout with West End Plastic Surgery. In a pre-op appointment, in fact, he pointed me to the newly-installed credit card machine – twice! – to encourage me to make the commitment and the payment, even though I was hesitant. In spite of my hesitancy, I gave in. An ethical surgeon would have discouraged as well as encouraged any procedure, but it is clear that Dr. Cohen's motives were entirely self-serving. On the morning of the appointed bleph procedure, everyone was impatient – I had a bad feeling, that they just wanted to do this factory-assembly-style, and then move on with their day. Dr. Cohen did a last-minute rushing in, quickly assessing my eyes with a marker, but without measurement, without taking his time.
The ramifications of botched plastic surgery are terrifying. You are constantly in a state of high anxiety, and ultimately this leads to severe chronic crippling and clinical depression. Paralyzing panic attacks hit you daily in unexpected moments. To be been harmed, hurt, mutilated is debilitating. You are in a state of shock and disbelief – how could this have happened? Why did this have to happen to me? Is this forever? What could I have done to prevent this? The flashbacks and PTSD kick in. You try every kind of medication and therapy there is to re-gain your equilibrium, but nothing can work, really, because you've been hurt and damaged and mutilated and traumatized beyond repair.
To make matters much, much worse, Dr. Cohen showed a side of him that was self-serving and untruthful: he lied and gaslighted. In my last face-to-face meeting with him in mid-June, he was very, very quick to exclaim: “This is one of the best blepharoplasties I’ve ever done” “You look so f****** great!” “My mother, my own f****** mother wants me to do a bleph on her. She will be envious when she sees your photos!” all with more and more closed body language and avoiding eye contact. And when I expressed my concern that everything had changed, that he had completely changed my eyes, the shape, contour, size and specific traits, his response was: “Change is good!” and “You’ll get used to it.” You know what? Change is NOT good, and no, you don’t get used to it.
His written emailed and text responses oozed with self-congratulatory compliments of how great everything was healing. Bad and botched jobs can heal as well as good ones -- they just look atrocious instead of looking good. It is clear that Dr. Cohen was following a standard formula from his text book of "Bleph 101" instead of really examining the patient from an aesthetic as well as medical point of view. This job was just sloppy, and unforgiveable.
Dr. Cohen's concern for my mental anguish oozed with falsity: “And how are YOU doing?” “Are you feeling better?” “Have you looked into the therapist I recommended?” As if it were my fragile weakened mental state that was the source of the problem. It was a botched job, and I am living with his substandard workmanship! And in every question I had regarding the bleph “You completely removed the natural anatomical fold and creases!” his response was “And?” while reddening in the face. When I questioned why he had removed almost half of my eyelid, his response was: “You have to remove the shutters to open the window and let the light in” At that point, it was clear to me that he knew his job was botched, and I was staring into the eyes of a serpent. On my drive home that afternoon, I was just shaking.
Dr. Cohen's head was not on his shoulders on that fateful morning, and I’m the one to bear the brunt of it all. I subsequently saw four different revisionist surgeons in different states, and they described Dr. Cohen’s work as “total butchery”, “severe damage to the lids” and “these doctors should not be allowed to perform these procedures” and "he removed way too much skin. This is just a bad job."
So now, I am living with life-long disfigurement and pain. You don’t get over this. You don’t ‘get used to it’. You just have to figure out how to cope. It is daunting and beyond upsetting. The necklift is not holding, and my neck is already sagging – in less than one year! I had entrusted my safety in the hands of Justin Cohen two times, and I’m afraid to say, he failed in both.
When I requested a refund not out of revenge but simply to partly cover the cost of a revision surgery, he sent over a waiver that the refund was "out of good faith" and that I could not post anything negative about him. I could not sign such a waiver; it is untruthful.
So you will see from these pictures the story that I tell. Pictures do not lie; plastic surgeons can and do. This is a ‘one-stop-shop’ that I would strongly recommend for you to completely avoid.
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