The Insiders

Plastic Surgery’s Best Doctors Shine A Light On Endoscopic Surgery Innovations.

Inside a retrofitted ballroom in one of downtown Austin’s most exclusive hotels, five of endoscopic plastic surgery’s leading visionaries take turns guiding fellow surgeons on a tour through the inside of a human upper forehead. An image from a tiny endoscopic camera is blown up to fill the large projector screen beside their table, showing how this remarkable tool (in the right hands) can allow a surgeon to lift and reposition tissues in the upper face without making large incisions that lead to visible scars. 

Welcome to “Endoscopic and Minimally Invasive Techniques for Middle and Upper-Third Facial Rejuvenation” a comprehensive endoscopic plastic surgery training session offered at The Aesthetic Meeting 2025 (colloquially known as “The Meet”). Here, surgeons can learn how to perform endoscopic facelifts and brow lifts from some of the world’s top endoscopic surgeons: Dr. Greg Albert, Dr. Grady Core, Dr. Kiya Movassaghi, Dr. Chia Chi Kao, and Dr. Renato Saltz. 

With growing interest among surgeons and patients alike in how to achieve their aesthetic goals with less recovery time, the instructors show on the video how surgeons can carefully hook a small, triangular piece of dissolvable polymer to the forehead, raising the forehead skin into a more youthful position, and anchoring it to the crown of the head. Over the next few months, those polymer anchors shown on the screen will dissolve, leaving a clean, long-lasting brow lift with minimal visible scarring. The surgeons stare at the screen, jotting down notes and committing every moment of the surgery to memory. Plastic surgery’s endoscopic revolution isn’t just building — it’s televised. 

Making The Cut… Smaller

What is endoscopic plastic surgery?

Taken from the Greek words “endo” and “skopein,” endoscopy means “to look inside.” In endoscopic plastic surgery, surgeons use small cameras attached to wands to guide their journeys beneath the skin, often applying small incisions or moving tissues around without having to make larger incisions (the kinds that often lead to big, visible scars). Endoscopic surgeries are more complex than previous iterations of plastic surgery, but when performed well, ultimately result in better outcomes for patients by delivering shorter downtimes and less visible scarring for the same (or in some cases, even better) results. 

For Dr. Greg Albert, the brow lift training at The Aesthetic Meeting 2025 is hardly a first. Dr. Albert and his endoscopic collaborators offered this same course at last year’s meeting, and it was so well received that fellow surgeons clamored for it to be included in this year’s program as well. Dr. Albert has also trained surgeons in endoscopic procedures of all kinds at the American-Brazilian Aesthetic Meeting (ABAM) and other conferences. For these up-and-coming surgeons, these are coveted chances to learn from experts like Dr. Albert, a longtime advocate for endoscopic plastic surgery who has been training other surgeons in minimally invasive techniques since the mid-aughts. As a key opinion leader and innovator in the space, Dr. Albert believes that popularizing endoscopic plastic surgery will lead to better patient outcomes and more innovation within the surgical community.

Beyond the Brow

What plastic surgery procedures can be done endoscopically?

While innovative surgeons are finding novel uses for endoscopy, a few core procedures pair well with endoscopic plastic surgery techniques: facelifts, brow lifts, neck lifts, breast augmentation, and abdominoplasty (tummy tucks). Dr. Albert has been performing many of these surgeries for decades and has worked with other surgeons to expand and refine the effectiveness of each technique.

Endoscopic Facelift

An endoscopic facelift is a minimally invasive procedure that uses small incisions to lift and tighten the midface and cheeks. The endoscopic camera allows surgeons to see what tissues they need to free and reposition tissues as they work beneath the skin, eliminating the need for longer incisions. Endoscopic facelifts deliver excellent results with less overall swelling, fewer visible scars (if any), and less downtime than more invasive alternatives.

Endoscopic Brow Lift

In an endoscopic brow lift, tiny incisions are made near the crown of the head, allowing the surgeon to insert the endoscope and raise the position of the skin, reducing forehead wrinkles and improving sagging skin. Surgeons often use dissolvable barbed polymer implants like Endotine® to secure the skin into the new position for more rapid healing and natural-looking results.

Endoscopic Neck Lift

An endoscopic neck lift tightens loose neck skin and underlying muscles using small incisions, delivering a more defined jawline and neck contour with a quicker recovery time. An endoscopic camera/scalpel combo allows surgeons to make precise adjustments with minimal outer skin incisions. In some cases, incisions can be made inside the mouth to enable the surgeon to enter the neck without any visible scarring.

Endoscopic Breast Augmentation

Endoscopic breast augmentation uses a small camera-guided technique to place implants through discreet incisions, often in the underarm area, reducing visible scarring and enhancing precision. This type of transaxillary (underarm) breast augmentation lets the surgeon endoscopically insert the deflated implant through a small incision in the underarm. The same incision is then used to fill the implant, allowing for minimal tissue disruption during implantation.

Endoscopic Abdominoplasty

Endoscopic abdominoplasty flattens and firms the abdomen by tightening muscles and removing limited fat through small incisions, which is ideal for patients with mild to moderate abdominal laxity seeking less invasive correction. The endoscope allows surgeons to make corrections beneath the skin, reducing the need for a long lateral incision across the midsection. 

The Skin’s The Limit

Why don’t more surgeons offer endoscopic plastic surgery?

Despite the packed convention center ballroom and the high volume of continuing education courses in aesthetic surgery that involve endoscopic procedures, the technique has some limitations that have kept it from being more widely used. Endoscopic plastic surgery has a high barrier to entry and requires lots of practice time to get it right before a surgeon can even think about offering it to patients. Cadaver training sessions (where surgeons practice their craft on human bodies that have been donated to science) and time spent shadowing more experienced surgeons can be rare opportunities that require money, travel time, and planning — all of which can make them difficult for surgeons to squeeze into their hectic schedules.

Another limiting factor is skill. Endoscopic plastic surgery requires surgeons to take their anatomical knowledge and recognize it when staring at an image of interior tissue on a screen in real time. Surgeons must have the ability to know the body inside and out to perform endoscopic procedures well, or else risk getting “lost” beneath the skin as they look for particular structures, and then be able to make incisions with precision and confidence. This skill can also fade with a lack of practice, which is why surgeons like Dr. Albert (who does endoscopic procedures almost daily) are often in high demand for their surgical prowess and wealth of knowledge.

Putting It All Together

What’s next for endoscopic plastic surgery?

Walk through the aisles of The Aesthetic Meeting or any surgical conference, and you will immediately see that technological progress in the aesthetic world is making exponential gains. Robotic surgical enhancements allow surgeons to make more precise incisions than ever before, potentially unlocking more versatility in the type of procedures that can be performed endoscopically. Some of these attachments can even be strapped onto the surgeons’ bodies as a sort of powered exosuit, allowing them to have near-superhuman endurance and dexterity when working on patients.

AI is also flooding the OR with numerous next-gen body scanning and analysis implications that could augment endoscopic surgery by giving surgeons more data. For example, Dr. Albert is already using Lipo AI technology to enhance liposuction surgery with artificial intelligence to ensure smooth and symmetrical results. At the pace of innovation, tools like a real-time “moving map” of where surgeons are inside a patient’s body using AI extrapolation of camera and body scanning data are not out of the realm of possibility. 

Like fellow “endoscophiles” Dr. Core, Dr. Saltz, and Dr. Movassaghi, Dr. Albert prides himself on being at the forefront of these advances, allowing him to deliver outstanding endoscopic plastic surgery results and share these techniques with others (the foursome even wore t-shirts sporting the phrase “Endo Mafia” at a recent conference). Moreover, Dr. Albert believes every research and learning opportunity involving endoscopy is a chance to expand the potential of this versatile aesthetic technique. Based on his recent training attendance, he’s not alone. As tech progresses and the number of surgeons joining Dr. Albert to explore the boundaries of minimally invasive techniques continues to grow, the potential for expanding the list of cosmetic surgeries that can be done endoscopically is wide open.