TOPIC: the switch to 10% pmma

@ Mustang

Glad to know its going well for you will check your thread later. Yes they will build cost into anything so who knows. I think the answer for me is....1500 dollars times two or three for the kind of results I have gotten so far its been worth it and if there is an added safety or aesthetic benefit then even better!

I highly doubt the switch from 20% to 10% has anything to do with the cost of materials or a marketing ploy for more repeat business, I think it all has to do with safety and aesthetics and I believe we will be seeing more of a drop down to 5% as well. Dr. C could easily charge more for the procedure and I doubt anyone seriously considering it would flinch at the price being much more (although I did make sure to get locked in at the $1500 rate for future procedures!) . When talking with the staff them they all seem pretty overwhelmed by the sudden increase in PMMA patients as Dr. C has a whole practice he runs and doesn\'t solely rely on this procedure as of right now.

I agree with Zmann.

I highly doubt the switch from 20% to 10% has anything to do with the cost of materials or a marketing ploy for more repeat business. I doubt anyone seriously considering it would flinch at the price being much more

Speak for yourself Zmann. I agree with mustang on this subject, I\'ve titrated my share of solutions in the lab, and never once has it been known for my dept to buy solutions with a lower molar concentration, since items are purchased in higher concentrations its fiscally cheaper to prepare a diluted solution from a more concentration one. As a TA, i know of it to be a very common practice to prepare a lower concentration out of a higher concentration of a given solution inorder to order to save my chem dept money. i hope his nurse is not preparing these solutions. this is way beyond his scope of practice and science background, Dr. Casavantes would find himself better off with any senior undergrad biochem student or graduate. these solutions & materials need to titrated in a approved medical laboratory with government regulation. Mexico can be a very shady place which i don\'t think many members are taking to , and so many short cuts are taken at the expense of someone else. If i decide to risk going through with this proceedure, I am going to ask Dr.Casavantes the hard questions. someone with a science & mid-level clinician background can easily put a physician on the spot to justify sound clinical judgement & practice. An open-attitude & dialog is going to be a huge indicator of my trust. You can\'t think of healthcare without thinking of greed these days, folks like mustang have horror stories they\'ve shared with us that cause my stomach to turn. S.O use to be the large skepitic on the original forum, he still is the voice of reason in my humble opinion, but while friends of the board are worshipping this extremely new therapy i know members like EP and myself will be the watchdogs of this therapy. I\'m already seeing too many preemtive and overly enthusiatic emotions concerning this treatment. A reputation can be glorified and also damaged, especially in healthcare. And being a foreign physician we can easily see them coming under more scrutiny than ever. And i wouldn\'t doubt if somehow Dr.Casavantes is indirectly updated about our little sewing circle\'s conversations. I admire his practice, but i implore him (directly), to think of us.
i have some more thoughts on this, but lets continue to exercise discernment in regards to the unknown spectrum of this therapy.

I\'ll end this thread with my favorite quote:

\"The warrior uses that touch of madness. For-in both love and war-it is impossible to foresee everything.\" -Paulo Coelho

~Coolhandluke

Not trying to offend anyone, but compared to the other options price shouldn\'t be the determining factor for most. The fact that this isn\'t Dr. Cs primary livelihood as with some doctors who won\'t be named is comforting for me.

@Zmann No offense taken here. Also, I agree on both accounts.

@coolhandluke--

You mentioned asking Dr C the \"hard questions.\". What would those be?

@ripple
I think he meant the hard questions would be \"how do you get your greater dilution PMMA\" as in do you buy 30% and dilute it yourself in coffee cups in some grubby back room or is this done with state of the art medicalized anitiseptic lab equipment by a trained specialized technician? I\'m pretty sure he\'ll either learn that it is sourced directly from a highly professional lab or it done with the utmost circumspection by competent personnel in very sanitary conditions. These are not fly by night operators but responsible members of the medical community.
I think our tempers are inflamed by an understandable reaction that we may suddenly be getting less for our money. However let us remember that when you go to see Dr C for PMMA injections it isn\'t for the product or its cost factoring that you are there. Otherwise find some and try to inject it yourself or find some other bloke to do it to you, I hope you enjoy the results. It is the high degree of skill and craftsmanship of Dr C in resculpting a penis with PMMA which you are considering. He is an artist at it ably assisted by Nurse Wade, and you get plenty for your money if this were merely their fee, with the cost of PMMA added. Dr Abecassis in Paris who has done more than 2000 FFT procedures said to me that in his own hands he can\'t get even half way decent results with PMMA. The stuff is hard to master and only a two so far are apt to do this, the other being in Brazil.

@Mustang2020
You\'re quite right to assume that product is related to cost to produce, and it would be great if it were always so, this is to me the only valid economic rationality. However we are in the era of twisted marketing interfering with every form of logic known to man, so this is why I suspect that maybe something isn\'t as meets the eye. JMHO.
HC

Greetings HunkChunk,

You are absolutely right, I admire your level of perception.

I\'m interested in Quality Control Reports of New Plastic (batch to batch variations in product)
-Deformation analysis (trace analysis)
-Comparative analysis of product defect/liability
-Polymer test (additive analysis)
-Newplastic failure analysis, contaminant identification rate, Infrared spectoscopy report of the polymer beads, the known temperature degradation of the polymer beads, pH testing.
-Source of quality control funding
-Is Newplastic deemed safe by the SSA (Mexico\'s FDA)
-any microbiology analysis (specify testing facility)
These are all textbook questions that an obessive student or analytic Chemist may ask which i\'m not the latter. Questions above and beyond my paygrade as a science major or part-time RT/Chem tutor, but these questions are not obvious enough, because they would have rippled* into someones thoughts a long time ago. In 5-10 years i don\'t want to find out that Dr.Casavantes was injecting Pirelli\'s Miracle Elixir into our penis when quality control report indicated newplastic to be unsafe or unstable.

Gent\'s someone has to be Papabear in this discussion since i can\'t find any indication of the SSA\'s involvement or pending approval of Newplastic and Girth enhancement. I love the results that many are receiving, but I think my expensive, yet limited education can count for something here. I wish more experts had documented opinions of this product/therapy that contribute to our community. My added curiosity is i want a more sound indication from the physician\'s practice of if and why Dr. Casavantes is using 10% versus 20%, i want justification as a peer reviewer and potential client of his services, and no better justification for my trust could to be satified from having a 1 on 1 discussion with the physician. 1 small ego to another one may say but Enough said.

A chime from Coelho
\" A warrior * is never predictable. He might dance down the street ON HIS WAY TO WORK, GAZE INTO THE EYES OF A COMPLETE STRANGER AND SPEAK OF LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT, OR DEFEND AN APPARENTLY ABSURD IDEA. WARRIORS OF THE LIGHT ALLOW THEMSELVES DAYS LIKE THESE...BUT WHEN HE REALIZES THAT HE CAN DO NO MORE, HE ABANDONS THE FIGHT, BUT NEVER BLAMES HIMSELF FOR HAVING COMMITTED A FEW UNEXPECTED ACTS OF FOLLY.\"

Salute friends

~Coolhandluke

@coolhandlukeGood questions but why ask Dr C, he is not the manufacturer? Ask Biomedical instead. www.biomedical.med.br/site/en/processo.asp

i was aware of the website. No detail on quality control or SSA approval for Girth enhancement. I have many questions, but as Hunkchunk mentioned, i was concerned to know if Dr.Casavantes fabricates his own solutions, titrating the %5 or diluting the %30 to %20 & %10. No reason in hiding it, our circle puts practice & theory right under the microscope, cosmetic physicians are selling a practice, and his art gallery are the patients who\'ve had the proceedure, but we\'re dealing more with the likes of a cermanic art gallery that hasn\'t even hit the kiln yet. In chemistry you agitate, turn up the heat, introduce a catalyst to speed up a reaction. Right now i feel, its too soon to predict the result of these lower concentrations, hopefully he can enlighten me when i consult with him. Hungry minds want to be the catalyst in gaining the ins and outs of this therapy. Having a idea of expected results, safety standards, lucrative cost....

CHL

@coolhandluke
While I wholeheartedly agree that your approach is an important addition to the Phalloplasty community which lacks in the comfort of validated methodologies under scientific observation, at least in terms of lab reports and third party studies, however we must take care to not scare off those whose contribution to this field is not as much medical and scientific as it is artistic and skilled.
It is sort of like going at Michelangelo for which marble he used for his David, and asking him why he used certain tools or hammer strikes to chisel away the features. Sure this is interesting and scientifically valid, but demanding that he work in a sterile sculpting studio rather than in one with strung up with ageing hams Hanging from the rafters will do precious little to improve the artistic results and might even discourage his efforts.
We must not fail to recognize that Dr Casavantes reunites a special mix of science and talented artistry which makes our penises into something far better. Other surgeons cannot achieve anywhere near such results without skirting with the dangers of irreversible negatives. For this we have the testimonial of Europe\'s leading FFT pioneer, surgeon Dr Abecassis, as well as the glaring absence of competition in this procedure by others worldwide (aside from the possibly similarly gifted Dr Samy Passy in Brazil).
He is like a tightrope walker who is as sure footed as can be. You can tell him to march like a soldier but don\'t be surprised if this throws him off balance. We are individually and as a community tributary to him for the recent benefits of PMMA enhancement, so I think while pursuing valid questions it is essential to not affect this important balance nor to unnecessarily shake the delicate trust and confidence established between Dr C and his patients over the past decades.
You might also want to take this occasion to reflect on the absolute invariable validity of the premises of such draconian safety procedures. Sure the more adamant they are the better they reassure. However this sometimes costs more than what benefits might be provided. It is much like the TSA at airports strip searching everyone and putting us through body scan health hazards, presumably to safeguard us against greater risks. I doubt we need a PMMA TSA hijacking our current best hope procedure...
FWIW
HC

@HC I wholeheartedly agree.

humored.

Every medical therapy needs its checks and balances, regardless of the current exemplified bias brewing prematurely on this board in favor of this cosmetic option. I never disagree with my patients, i just let them have the last word. I\'m not interested in tar or feathering any foreign physician, as a fellow clinician i have a high regard for reputation. But i covet the bare-naked truth, and without further demand i expect professional & scientific transparency concerning any physician\'s practice. This is my professional and academic personality.

With all Brotherly respect, your fellow Watchdog

~Coolhandluke

@Coolhandluke
Yeah, thanks for not taking it personally, it wasn\'t directed against you as I do think you do this board a great service by bringing your critical analysis and rigor to the table. It is only to underline that for Phalloplasty procedures which are filler dependent, there is an important left brain component to the process for which right brain demands may not be entirely met.

Cheers,
HC