Category Archives: surgical dexterity

Surgical Artistry receives Allergan TOP 250 Ranking in the USA

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Written by Surgical Artistry staff member

Dr. Calvin Lee, MD and his team at Surgical Artistry are proud to receive the prestigious distinction of being a TOP 250 level member with Allergan. We are very thankful to our patients for their continued support and trust. And we are grateful to our Surgical Artistry team for their excellence and dedication. We are thankful to Allergan for producing excellent products which we trust and for giving us this top award.

Top 250 Allergan Account

Allergan is the maker of Botox and Juvederm and periodically recognizes the country’s most skilled and prolific specialists using their products in the world of aesthetic medicine and plastic surgery. We estimate that there are over 40,000 Allergan accounts in the USA. It’s a huge honor to have a Top 250 ranking. Dr. Lee has been honored to have a Top 500 ranking since the end of 2016 for 3 years. The ranking fluctuates from day to day and Allergan allows for their Top 500-600 accounts to view the “leaderboard” online.

Allergan products

Allergan makes many products and the ones that we use at Surgical Artistry are: Botox, Juvederm, Kybella, and Latisse. Allergan also makes Skinmedica skin care, Natrelle Breast Implants, Coolsculpting, Cooltone and Diamond Glow. These other products are ones that we have not yet expanded into. We currently use products from other companies such as Mentor or Obagi or other surgical techniques such as liposuction. Surgical Artistry has been using Allergan products since 2006. Dr. Tammy Wu was the original injector of Botox, but in 2008, she turned the art and practice of cosmetic injections over to Dr. Calvin Lee. Now it is the bulk of what Dr. Lee does every day at Surgical Artistry.

Surgical Artistry in Modesto, California

Surgical Artistry was founded by Dr. Calvin Lee, and Dr. Tammy Wu in 2006 in Modesto, California. They are a husband and wife team of surgeons. Dr. Calvin Lee is a board certified general surgeon with trauma experience and Dr. Tammy Wu is a board certified plastic surgeon. Dr. Calvin Lee also does acupuncture.

Our main goal is constant improvement with personalized patient care, safety, and outcomes.

We have a superstar team dedicated to taking care of you throughout your self care journey.

More about Calvin Lee, MD

Dr. Calvin Lee started injecting Botox and Juvederm in April 2008, and has grown to love cosmetic injections. He considers it an extension of his Surgical and Acupuncture practice. He was born in New York City, and was accepted to Harvard, Stanford, and Brown Universities. He graduated from Brown University Medical school and became a General and Trauma Surgeon. Later he also became an acupuncturist. In 2011 he had the privilege to start giving lectures about Latisse for the Allergan Company, and around 2017 he also started doing hands on training for the Allergan Company for injectables such as Botox and Juvederm. Also that year, he was award Top 25 most loved injectors by RealSelf and had a mention in Glamour magazine.

My Botox only lasted 4 months!!! No animals were harmed in producing this picture except for the pizza, Nikki, and Franchesca.

Along with his wife Dr. Tammy Wu (plastic surgeon), they are also founding sponsors of the Modesto Marathon, which is among one of his proudest moments. He now supports with Doctors Medical Center, Ripons Run which has a half marathon and is in May. He practices a Vegan diet and has run 8 marathons. He also is a professional level violinist.

(209) 551-1888 is our telephone number.
We are located at 4754 Dale Road, Modesto, CA

Free Botox and Juvederm Consultations

For 2020, Botox and Juvederm Consultations with Dr. Calvin Lee are free. At the consultation, the purpose is mainly information, and there should be no pressure to purchase anything. Patients get a chance to learn more about what we do and if we are the right fit for a future journey together. We can also discuss customized goals and plans. Our telephone number is 209-551-1888. We are located at 4754 Dale Road, Modesto, CA 95356 – across the street from Kaiser Hospital on Dale Road. We hope to see you at our office!

Getting fired from piano lessons – led to great things

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calvin and tammy with logo

My Piano Biography for the Los Angeles Moments of Music Piano Competition for Amateurs and Teachers

I had almost forgotten about the piano until one day, while settling into our home in Modesto, my plastic-surgeon-wife announced that she was going to buy herself a piano.  She figured since I was a violin playing general surgeon, she needed her own instrument.  Due to space constraints, we had to decide between dining table or piano.  Well, I figured worse case scenario, a grand piano could double up as a very expensive dining table.  Embarrassingly, as a small child, I had been fired from piano lessons (totally my fault) before I could even reach an octave with my fingers.  Fortunately, leaving the piano gave me an opportunity with the violin which led to a highlight of my life: performing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Brown University Orchestra.  And that led to somehow impressing a girl who later became my wife.  Funny how getting fired could lead to wonderful things; I even think that the violin helped me get accepted to all the great colleges I applied to which included Harvard, Stanford, and of course my Brown University.

Being clueless as to how to pick out a piano, we were introduced to a Modesto piano teacher, Dr. Yan Yan Chan, who helped us.  However, being from New York and being an only child, I ended up hogging the piano we purchased; my poor wife barely gets time to play.  On the piano, I found that one of the hardest things was bass clef and the way that the fingering markings for piano and violin are off by one digit (pinky = “4” for violin).  I took a few lessons from Yan Yan to help me get started and also had pointers from a close family friend Dr. Kung-Chin Lin, an university piano professor in Taiwan.  Then I was pretty much on my own due to my somewhat unpredictable schedule as a surgeon.  Yan Yan and I got reunited recently when we heard about the Los Angeles Moments of Music Piano Concerto Competition through another genius piano teacher in our area, Janisse Foresti.  I have since acquired a separate dining table but I still have trouble playing octaves.

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Our piano in the dining room.

 

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YouTube:

Beethoven Piano Concerto #2, 1st Movement

Chopin Etude Opus 25, No. 1 Aeolian Harp

Violin Stuff

Tchaikovsky VIOLIN Concerto 1st Movement:

Tchaikovsky VIOLIN Concerto 3rd Movement:
The second picture (above) is Yan Yan Chan at the piano!

 

Schindler’s List (violin):

Orchestra in Taiwan!

Click here for a link to a short biography about me (geared more toward the violin and academics – I think) – includes a scan of an article about me in STRINGS MAGAZINE

Short Biography for Botox Surgeon Dr. Calvin Lee

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Intro:  I was asked to submit this to the Modesto Symphony when I got awarded an appearance with the Modesto Symphony Orchestra.

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Short Modesto Symphony Biography for Calvin Lee, MD

Calvin Lee was born in New York City, and went to school in the suburbs.  He graduated top of his class in high school and was accepted to all the universities he applied to including Harvard, Stanford, and Brown Universities.  He chose to go to Brown and there he met his wife, Dr. Tammy Wu – Plastic Surgeon.  We continued on to medical school at Brown University where Dr. Tammy Wu graded top of her Ivy League medical school class.  Turning down job offers in San Diego and Los Angeles, Dr. Calvin Lee found a wonderful career in Trauma/General surgery in Modesto, California instead.  We decided to call Modesto our home and eventually established Surgical Artistry in 2006.  Dr. Lee is also an acupuncturist.  Now, he spends 40% of his clinical time with acupuncture, and 50% of his time with cosmetic injections of Botox, Dermal-Fillers, Veins, and Kybella.  The rest of the time is reserved for assisting in Cosmetic Surgeries and pain related spinal surgical implants.  He and his wife are founders of the Gallo Center for the Arts, founding title sponsors for the Surgical Artistry Modesto Symphony Pops Series (2007-2009) / Surgical Artistry Modesto Symphony Fat Cat Classics (2006-2007), and founding title sponsors for the Surgical Artistry Modesto Marathon (2010-current).

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Strings Magazine

Musically, Dr. Lee started violin at age 7.  He studied violin with Mary Canberg till he went to college.  He attended music theory classes at the Manhattan School of Music.  He studied violin with Charles Sherba while at Brown University.  He won the concerto competition at Brown University twice and was the concert master .  He finds it interesting and quite an honor to be listed as one of the 7 notable students listed on the webpage of his Brown University Orchestral Conductor, Paul Phillips.  In 2009 he won a spot in the YouTube Symphony.  A year after that, he was invited to Hong Kong to solo on the violin with a well-established medical orchestra.  This led to other violin solo performances with orchestras in Taipei and Macau.  This trip to Asia was a “tour” that took approximately two months.  After that trip, he was eager to return to his world as a doctor.  Another highlight is a write-up in Strings Magazine.  I still remember reading that magazine from cover to cover as a child, and now I get to be on the inside of the back cover!  He is now dabbling in piano.

a pic of Calvin Lee with violin IMG_6900

YouTube:

Modesto Piano Playing – dexterity challenges

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A drive through car wash in Modesto – video

A Botox injector is should have some time off.  Not only to have time to work on a Botox Blog, but to do other fun things…

Driving through the first few minutes of the Modesto Sparkles Car Wash on Coffee Road. It’s in the northern part of Modesto, and it has a PET WASH component too. I just got this Patriot CT7 camera made in Taiwan, and this is the first video that I’ve processed. I think this is like a Go Pro camera, but I’m not sure, because I’ve never owned a Go Pro camera.

This is my first day with this Patriot CT7 camera, and I just noticed that there is a date/time stamp which I hadn’t set yet – thus the date and time is wrong.

Modesto Sparkles car wash video with Patriot CT7 Dash Camera

But it is an exercise in surgical dexterity – the background music is very technical

For fun, I’m sharing this on YouTube.  Background music is Chopin’s Minute Waltz which I played a few months ago.  I’ve been having this obsession with Chopin.

I’m still working on improving upon it and I actually feel that it getting better – still.

My Day Job: A Botox injector and a bit more

I work in Modesto, CA as a BOTOX injector, acupuncturist, and surgeon. I assist in many plastic surgical procedures with my wife, Dr. Tammy Wu, Board Certified Plastic Surgeon.

 

Accurate, precise, deliberate dexterity for typing and Botox

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Typing, Surgery, and Botox – all demand dexterity

I have always valued accurate, precise, deliberate dexterity. Typing is one of those things that demands a certain amount of dexterity.

An incredible Christmas gift

I got a Christmas gift from a relative when I was probably around 9 years old; it was a how-to-type book. I remember devouring that book up with our family’s type-writer in the basement. Yes, an old fashioned type-writer. The keys got stuck, and I used much ink practicing every page in that book. I think it was one of the best gifts and best memories. Today, I want to thank my relatives for that awesome gift about 35 Christmases ago. I think it helped lead me to a life where dexterity was of utmost importance – especially as a surgeon and Botox injector.

121 words per minute screenshot Calvin Lee Modesto California
Online typing test

Excuses, excuses, excuses

If I could make excuses, for the result above (121 words per minute) I’m typing on an uneven surface, at an unreasonable height. One of these days, I’ll try to find a stable surface to type upon – or a different keyboard for that matter – one that doesn’t squeak and doesn’t bounce around, and I hope to have an even better result. I believe that the height of my typing speed was back in high school, and it’s been somewhat slowed down on purpose because of respect for carpal tunnel syndrome -which I somewhat suffered from during my Surgery training years. My carpal tunnel is just about gone, but I know part of that was from watching the way I type. So I typed this whole paragraph probably at 100 words per minute which is a relaxed pace for me.

– Calvin Lee, MD
Performs surgery and injects Botox in Modesto, California.
Also other things with needles:  Voluma, Radiesse, Juvederm, Asclera (vein), Acupuncture,

Disclaimer: Be careful typing.  It can cause problems if there is too much strain.  There is no medical advice here.

Dexterity for Botox Injections – Chopin?

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Dexterity for Surgery, Piano, and Botox Injections

Surgery depends a lot of dexterity.  So does playing the piano.  And so should Botox injections.

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I have some unique ideas of developing and maintaining my Botox dexterity with Piano Practice.

  • As with piano playing, I like to keep my wrist supple and flexible when injecting Botox.
  • When injecting fillers, there are times where I have to do finger stretches to be able to maintain tension on the skin with my non-dominant hand, and then I also sometimes have to reach for the plunger which may be in slightly awkward positions for my dominant hand – it depends on the style of the plunger.  Radiesse Volume Advantage is one of the larger syringes due to it’s 1.5 cc volume which is more than some of the other syringes of dermal filler.
  • Timing is also key in Botox injections.  Timing is a big deal in music and performing piano.
  • Then there’s the grace in lifting off from the actual Botox injection.  It would be a shame to waste Botox with a heavy handed lift-off – in that case, the Botox isn’t injected into the muscle – it might even be injected into the air.  Thus a light lift-off is key.  It’s akin to musical phrasing with the tapering that occurs and the lifting off of each note too.

Chopin Etude Op. 25, No. 1 (Aeolian Harp) as Botox Dexterity Practice

Here’s a piano piece which is dedicated to finger dexterity building.  It is also one of the most beautiful melodies I have ever encountered in an finger dexterity etude.  This piece is also known as the Aeolian Harp Etude.

Yes, that’s me.  Recorded at my home in Modesto, California.  Yes, this is one of the great things you can do in Modesto – practice piano!  And record piano for YouTube!  And write this blog… ok, the list goes on and on regarding great things  in Modesto, CA.

Quoted from the wikipedia entry on this piece:

“Technically, the piece requires both dexterity and velocity, good balance and weighting of the arms coupled with flexible finger stretches”.

For me my dexterity and musical challenges are: evenness, flexibility in the wrist, and flexibility with finger stretches, light touch, and musical line phrasing. I hope to continue to work on this to make it even better.

Light touch?

And a light touch is very very important in lightening the sensation of any pain from Botox shots.

Consider getting Botox from us in Modesto, CA

Please visit my Modesto Botox injections home page.  We offer other Cosmetic procedures besides Botox.

Our other Procedures include: