Dr Woffles Wu
MBBS (Singapore)
FRCS (Edin)
FAMS (Plastic Surgery)
Think of plastic surgery in Asia and one name immediately springs to mind – Dr Woffles Wu! This innovative and exciting plastic surgeon from Singapore has for years been the name on the lips of men and women seeking aesthetic perfection. Armed with an impeccable eye for beauty, balance and harmony Dr Wu, dubbed Asia’s Beauty Guru by the Hongkong press has reinvented and promoted the concept of Non Surgical Facial Rejuvenation(NSFR). He is today one of the most sought after speakers around the world on this topic demonstrating his combination of Injectables, Fillers, IPL Photorejuvenation and his invention, the WOFFLES LIFT to achieve facial rejuvenation without downtime.
Dr Wu, a craniofacial surgeon by training, conceptualised and evolved the four pillars of NSFR with his 4R Principle: “RELAX, RESTORE, RESURFACE and REDRAPE”. He RELAXES key muscles of the face that create negative lines with the use of Botox, RESTORES the volume lost from the face by ageing using synthetic fillers and RESURFACES the skin envelope with the use of Intense Pulsed Light(IPL), non ablative lasers and Radiofrequency. He finally REDRAPES the facial and neck skin using a unique non surgical technique he invented that injects several lines of self retaining barbed threads into the face and out through the scalp elevating the sagging tissues in a more natural, upward direction.
Called the WOFFLES LIFT, this latest innovation by Dr Wu is creating a buzz in the aesthetic arena as doctors from around the world flock to Singapore or to the many international workshops that he conducts to learn how he manages to create a facelift without excising any skin and where the patients are able to resume activities that very day!
“I’m delighted that surgeons and patients alike find my technique useful and simple to execute, said Dr Wu enthusiastically, “the idea came to me in a flash as I was examining a patient who told me that she wanted to have a facelift but also wanted to attend a party that weekend. None of the techniques we have now enabled me to do this so I came up with the Woffles Lift just for her.”
This technique is fast capturing the attention of surgeons around the world as patients demand faster recovery times from rejuvenative procedures. The WOFFLES LIFT utilises long lines of self retaining, barbed threads used as a sling to suspend sagging facial tissues to the firm and immovable tissues of the scalp. The lines are inserted via a long needle passed from the face to the scalp and no skin excision is required. Consequently, the procedure is performed under local anaesthesia, takes 20-40 minutes to perform, has minimal swelling or bruising and patients recover within 24 hrs. “I feel that this represents the first significant leap forward in facelifting techniques since the advent of endoscopic techniques a decade ago.” Said Dr Wu.
In addition, Dr Wu is an Advanced Botox trainer for the Asia Pacific region and is constantly training physicians worldwide his techniques of Botox Browlifting, Facialsculpting and Chin rejuvenation and how to incorporate the use of BOTOX at all levels of Facial rejuvenation, with or without surgery. With over a hundred television and magazine appearances throughout Asia, India, Australia and the USA, Dr Wu’s name is synonymous with the word Botox and he is acclaimed by many as the Botox King of Asia. “ Nobody taught me how to use it. I started analysing the complex facial movements we have and relating them to the anatomical studies I had performed in my residency,” says Dr Wu, “this gave me the confidence to accurately deliver the Botox to the target muscles so that I could create a variety of appearances and different nuances of rejuvenation from what other injectors were achieving.”
Dr Wu has also refined the art of breast augmentation surgery by introducing a simple technique he developed called the WW Stealth (Invisible) Incision. This is a zig zag incision placed at the areola rim of the patients nipple that allows the breast implant to be inserted with virtually no scarring at all, a significant improvement over the sometimes unpredictable scarring that can occur in the traditional breast or armpit crease incisions. A significant part of his busy practice at Camden Medical Centre, off swanky Orchard Boulevard in Singapore consists of Aesthetic Breast Surgery and Body contouring Liposculpture.
In 1987, Dr Wu worked under Cleft Palate surgeon, Prof ST Lee in Singapore and has remained firm friends with his mentor ever since, crediting him with the early spark and guiding hand in his career. A breakthrough came in 1990 when Dr Wu won the Young Surgeon of the Year Award for his groundbreaking research on Nasal Anatomy, discovering a new vascular distribution that allows more radical yet safer surgery on the nose. That same year he was awarded the SEAMIC scholarship that enabled him to visit and study under distinguished Reconstructive and Aesthetic surgeons in Thailand, the Philippines and Japan, including a period with Prof. Onizuka in Tokyo. He has operated with luminaries of the craniofacial arena such as Ian Jackson, Joe Gruss, Jeff Marsh, David David, Francoise Firmin and Paul Tessier whom he counts as a friend and tremendous influence on his early career. “I am extremely fortunate and lucky to have learnt so much from these great minds in plastic surgery,” says Dr Wu, “without their influence I would not have developed the vision I now have.”
An accomplished sportsman, Dr Wu was a national level ten pin bowler in his teens before switching to Billiards and Snooker where he went on to represent Singapore at International level between 1984-88. He has played with the likes of Alex Higgins, Steve Davis, Dennis Taylor, Terry Griffiths, Michael Ferreira and Geet Sethi, all World Champions at one time or another. “As plastic surgery took over my life, I had to ease out of the competitive sports scene as it was impossible to devote long hours to my work and practice at the same time,” he says nonchalantly, “there is a time and place for everything in life. I found that I was going in to tournaments unprepared and unable to give of my best so it was natural to stop. Reconstructing people’s faces and lives was just too important and had become my main priority.”
One thing this fascinating Renaissance surgeon has not given up is painting and sculpting. A hobby he started in his teens as part of a visual dialogue he had with his grandfather, himself a Chinese painter, Dr Wu has gone on to exhibit his unique style of Psychoerotic paintings in Taiwan and Singapore and continues to use his art to raise money for charity. Dr Wu said, “my artistic output is much less these days as I tend to channel more of my creative energy into the creation of beautiful faces and satisfied patients. Some aesthetic procedures can be extremely demanding, stretching one’s powers of ingenuity, and dexterity – quite enough for a day’s work!”
Together with a handful of international surgeons, Dr Wu is helping to change the way aesthetic procedures are performed and is at the forefront of technology. Where the future lies nobody knows, but Dr Woffles Wu will be there.
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