Dr. Bae:
I’m great, Greg. Good to see you.

Greg:
It is good to see you too, especially now. I mean, have you noticed the weather’s getting a little bit better? We’re finally seeing the sun again. It was a bleak summer for a while.

Dr. Bae:
July. Yeah, we got out of July and it’s beautiful again.

Greg:
Yeah. July was pretty bad. Speaking of pretty bad, this new COVID variant, this Delta and Delta Plus I guess, is in the mix again. I mean, what is happening with the new variant and what can we expect over the next couple of months?

The Delta Variant

Dr. Bae:
Yeah, the Delta variant is… What they’ve said is about a thousand times more infectious than the original Wuhan variant, and what that means is that there’s just so many more viral copies of the virus that build up in your respiratory tract, specifically in your nose. And so that, back before you weren’t putting out as many viral particles, maybe you’d have to be in consistent contact with somebody for 15 minutes indoors to pass it along. Now you could be outdoors potentially and have just a passing interface with somebody. And because there’s more viruses that you’re expelling.

Greg:
Masks again, right? Pull out the masks again.

Dr. Bae:
Masks again for sure. And you know, some people are saying N95s, particularly in a close quarters, like an airplane. So yeah, we are going backwards. It’s very frustrating. And it’s because not everybody’s getting vaccinated. We’re allowing this new Delta variant to get a foothold on all of the unvaccinated people. Yes, there are some breakthrough cases of people who’ve been vaccinated getting the new Delta variant, but it’s definitely significantly fewer vaccinated people are getting sick compared to the unvaccinated people and more critically important as the unvaccinated people are getting seriously ill, more likely to be admitted to the hospital, more likely to die.

Dr. Bae:
Whereas the vaccinated people are less sick. And maybe after a 24 hours or 48 hours of feeling like you have the cold, those people get better that are vaccinated without having to go to the hospital. So obviously [inaudible 00:02:08]… I don’t think I have to say it again, but I will that it would be beneficial if you go get vaccinated, whatever data you’re reading out there that the vaccination is unsafe or something like that. I don’t know how many hundreds of millions of people you have to have entered into a study, getting a vaccine and obviously a huge majority of them, over 99% of them are doing fine with the vaccine. It’s going to convince you.

Long term immunization and boosters

Greg:
Well, let me say this. Yeah. Even though that is kind of the bad news that we’re getting right now and the Delta thing is going on, I do think there’s been two pieces of good news that have come out recently. Number one, we just found out that Moderna said that, I think, even after six months, that vaccine is still 93% effective. So that is great news to know that we now have that study. And of course my girl, Dolly Parton, she funded that one. So of course that one works.

Dr. Bae:
Of course, of course. Yeah. No, a lot of good studies coming out of Israel also, cause they’ve done a lot of the studies with Pfizer showing that, the more antibodies you have that the more protection you have. And so that’s why they’re talking about maybe getting a booster, which isn’t unusual. Because that’s what you do with the regular flu vaccine every year is you’re essentially getting a booster of the new variants that are coming out every year. So to some extent, this Delta variant is no different than… I mean it’s much more serious and obviously… But as far as getting the vaccine, it’s no different than what you would typically get annually for the flu vaccine.

Greg:
Because flu strains change, right? I mean they change every year.

Dr. Bae:
Every year. Exactly right.

Greg:
It’s not the same flu last year that it was this year. And so they change the vaccine every year a little bit.

Annual flu shot will include protection against COVID variants

Dr. Bae:
Exactly. And people think that this is a new thing just because it’s always in the news and you’re hearing about it more, but it’s just obviously rising to our top of mind because of the pandemic and everything. But yes, that is going to be a pretty typical thing I think is that maybe even the annual flu vaccine will include some aspects of the COVID virus in the future, moving forward as that variant changes. So, I think what I’ve read before is that the typical flu vaccine is trivalent, meaning it’s effective against three strains. Now it’s going to be four strains, five strains, but including these different COVID strains, it’s going to be a much bigger needle next year, probably.

Greg:
Yeah, well the other piece of good news is that with the Delta variant, which is not the good news, more people are getting vaccinated. I think people have kind of wised up to the fact that, okay, this is really serious. So we’ve seen numbers, I think going about the 50% range to going over 70% with people at least have one shot.

Herd immunity

Dr. Bae:
Correct. And I think what they were talking about with the original Wuhan strain, that if they got to 70% vaccination rate, that that would give us herd immunity. Now with this more infectious Delta variant, that has got to be closer to 90%, but yeah, we’re definitely moving in the right direction. I think people are getting scared now, they’re realizing, oh wow, this is actually happening to people I know. And so, yes, you’re right. I agree with you. More people are getting vaccinated. And I think just seeing those numbers from the hospital where a huge majority of the people admitted to the hospital are unvaccinated. So people are starting to realize that’s the way to go.

What if the Delta variant was around before the vaccine?!

Dr. Bae:
Something I’ve said before, that blows me away though, is that how many people are getting admitted to the hospital right now in Florida, Louisiana that are overwhelming those systems like no previous surge was overwhelming them. Keep in mind that with this Delta variant, that not everybody’s going to the hospital because we have the vaccine right now. But think about back in March of 2020, if we didn’t have any protection, no vaccine, if the Delta variant was the original strain back in March of 2020, how much more infectious it would have been, how much more sick everybody would have been, how many more people had been going to the hospital, it would have really been like Armageddon. It would have been unbelievable experience. Like we think this was bad. It would have been even worse.

Go get vaccinated!

Greg:
It could have been worse, but you know what, here’s the deal. I’ll make it easy for you. It is… So we were all begging to try to get the vaccine back in the day, right. A year ago, or whenever we started doing it, six months ago, it is so easy. The Safeway across from where I work out, you could walk in, it’s free. You don’t need an appointment. It takes under five minutes. I’ve seen people do it when I’m in there shopping. It is so easy to get vaccinated and it is free. So if you’re not… Go in and do it and you will feel so much better I think.

Dr. Bae:
It’s so true. Do you remember the days where people were getting up early in the morning to log in on multiple websites, trying to find an appointment? And now, the Walgreens in our building, they say walk-ins welcome, walking [crosstalk 00:06:46] available. [crosstalk 00:06:46].

Greg:
Absolutely. And we are lucky again. I know everybody knows this. We’re lucky to live in this country. I was just in Puerto Vallarta a couple of months ago for my birthday. Did you send me… You sent me an email, but where’s my card Dr. Bae? Anyway, there were people, 300 deep, around a building in sweltering heat, just waiting to get the vaccine. So we’re so lucky to be able to just walk into a Safeway. So please do that. And if you have any questions, Dr. Bae can answer them or get you to somebody. If he doesn’t know the answer, he’ll get the answer for you. You’re so good about answering everything on your social media. So can you tell people how to ask you anything really, right?

Where to find Dr. Bae

Dr. Bae:
Absolutely. Anybody can get in touch with us at Real Dr. Bae, R-E-A-L-D-R-B-A-E on Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and just direct messages. And then you can also come to our website and message us through our contact page, or even schedule a consult, well for cosmetic things, obviously, but if you have questions about COVID and the vaccine just absolutely go through our contact submission form at realdrbae.com, R-E-A-L-D-R-B-A-E.com.

Greg:
Great information. Great to see you again, Dr. Bae.

Dr. Bae:
Great to see you, Greg. Thanks for having me.

The post Bae Break with Greg: What is breakthrough COVID? [video] first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Dr. Bae:
Hey, Greg.

Greg:
I was thinking about you the other day. I was driving through your neighborhood. I was like, “Where is he? Maybe I can find him in this coffee shop and he can buy me some coffee.”

Dr. Bae:
Shoutout to Wrecking Ball!

Neuromodulators

Greg:
Absolutely. It’s good to see you. I wanted to start with this question. Now, it’s commonly now referred to as getting Botox, if you get an injectable to stop the lines and the wrinkles. However, Botox is actually a brand name. There are many different types of injectables that do the same thing as Botox. So how do we pick the right one?

Dr. Bae:
Exactly right. The idea is that Kleenex or Puffs are a type of tissue paper, and Botox has just been used just the way everybody says, “I’ll give you some Kleenex.” It’s that generic term. Or, get me some Coke to drink. The same thing is happening with Botox. It’s just that term that’s become the generic form of what is actually called a neuromodulator. So you have facial tissues-

Greg:
A what?

Dr. Bae:
Neuromodulator, N-E-U-R-O-M-O-D-U-L-A-T-O-R. If we’re taking the SAT and we’re talking about those analogies, we’re going to be thinking of, tissue paper is to Kleenex as neuromodulator is to Botox. Botox is the brand. There are other brands. Aside from Botox, there is Jeuveau, which is a newer one on the market. They go by #newtox on social media. There’s Dysport and Xeomin, X-E-O-M-I-N. These are all versions of neuromodulators. They’re also just basically called botulinum toxins. The toxin that’s made that you’re not supposed to have kids… No children under six months are supposed to eat honey, because it could have botulinum toxin in it, which could cause botulism. But if you do it the right way, you inject it in your face and it’s fine.

Treatment areas

Dr. Bae:
You’re essentially injecting poison in your face. But whatever product you’re using, Botox, Jeuveau, Xeomin, Dysport, the idea is you inject it into the elevens here or into the forehead, the crow’s feet, you can even do in the upper lip to treat a gummy smile or down here to help with, if you have a bitchy resting face, it can help the corners of your mouth go up.

Greg:
I want to keep mine. I’m not changing that. I’m keeping my bitch resting face.

Dr. Bae:
But the way it works is, you inject into those muscles in those areas and it relaxes those muscles. That makes those wrinkles go away that are caused by those overactive muscles. So again, the elevens, the forehead, crow’s feet, upper lip, along the jaw line. People sometimes think, “Oh, well, you can use Botox for these lines here, the parentheses lines.” That doesn’t work, because these parentheses lines aren’t caused by overactive muscles, so Botox won’t work there. That’s caused by loss of collagen and that’s where you would use fillers.

Greg:
Then how do you find the right brand for you? Are they all basically the same and go with whatever’s on sale?

Is one brand better than another?

Dr. Bae:
Well, every company will tell you that they’re the best for one reason or another. Well, first off, just so you know, right off the top, is that I am a speaker, a paid spokesperson, for Xeomin. A company, Merz, makes Xeomin. It’s a company based in Germany. But they have a North American unit here and that’s where the Xeomin comes from. But I feel they’re all pretty much the same. I would treat all of these on my family members. I think they all have essentially the same result. The only one I don’t use is Dysport and not because there’s anything wrong with the product. It’s because they use a different gradation or measurement technique as far as how much you inject somebody with. But Botox, Jeuveau, Xeomin, you basically can treat 20 units to this area in the forehead, 20 units to the eyes, so it’s all pretty much the same.

How do you choose one brand over another?

Dr. Bae:
But the thing that’s interesting is whenever a new company comes out, they don’t necessarily just come out right and say, “We’re better than Botox.” Because you would think if a car dealer comes out with a new car, a new model, a car company comes out with a new model, they’ll say, “Oh, this car is better than that Ford truck,” or, “This Chevy truck is better than that Ford truck.” What I find with the neuromodulators is they just say, “We’re the same as Botox.” They don’t necessarily say they’re better. They just say, “We’re the same,” because they know that’s the benchmark. They say, “Well, we’re as good as it gets. We’re the same as everybody else. So you can utilize us.” The thing that may make a difference is that some of them have loyalty rewards programs that are different. Maybe you get more points and more freebies, depending on which company you go with.

Greg:
Oh, my God, it’s like every thing else. It’s like choosing an airline or whatever. You choose the one where you can get the most advantages, points, maybe a sale, something from them. Okay, so-

Dr. Bae:
Credit cards.

How to see Dr. Bae

Greg:
Yeah. They’re basically all the same. They’re all safe. And, of course, you can always be educated in Dr. Bae’s office about these types of things. Tell them how to find you and how to book an appointment.

Dr. Bae:
You can always find us, if you’re watching this, you’re already probably on our website at realdrbae.com, R-E-A-L-D-R-B-A-E, not B-A-Y. Or you can watch us on social media, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram at realdrbae. You can watch us operate. You can actually watch us do injectables on patients that are okay with us showing them on social media. Because it’s different, when we’re doing operations, the patients are covered up. You never see their face. But when you’re doing injectables, the patients are a little bit more reticent to be shown on social media, because you’re actually injecting their face. It’s hard to hide their face, even though sometimes we’ll try and zoom in really well, or we’ll put an emoji over part of their face. You can watch us do those types of injectables with neuromodulators, i.e., Botox, Xeomin, Jeuveau or Dysport in our office, anytime on any social media.

Dr. Bae:
And you can check pricing on all of these injectables on realdrbae.com/pricing. You can even purchase non-surgical services through our website. So you can actually pay for it online and come in and get the treatment and just walk out as though it was free. You didn’t have to pay for it. You [crosstalk 00:06:10].

Greg:
Perfect. And you can show my photos there. I’m such a big boy. I hardly even grimace when the needle goes in.

Dr. Bae:
Thanks. That’s good to know. Thank you.

The post All about Botox, Xeomin, Dysport and Jeuveau first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Dr. Bae:
Doing great, Greg. Thanks for having me.

Greg:
Hey, I had a question. So I had a friend who went in for a consultation for some work, let’s just say, recently. And she went in thinking she needed one thing and the doctor told her she needed something completely different to help with her issue that she was having. So how often does that happen, and how do you guide patients into the right direction?

Dr. Bae:
Right. Usually when patients come in, they have an idea of what they want, and you might need to tweak that expectation. Maybe they’re coming in, they want a breast augmentation and they want really big implants. And maybe you need to tweak that and say, “Well, you know what? You’ve already got a lot of breast tissue. Just because you saw somebody on Instagram that had 500cc implants and you liked the way they look, maybe they didn’t have any breast tissue to begin with so they needed all 500ccs.

Dr. Bae:
But if you’ve got it, you got some breast tissue, maybe you only need 300ccs. So we’re not totally changing them from what they want in general, maybe just trying to give them a little nuance to what their expectations are. The one time that I find that I’m completely telling people a completely different operation than what they’re expecting, it ends up typically involving the neck or the jawline or the chin. And what I mean by that is that patients will come in and say, “You know what? I think I need a bigger chin,” or, “I need a more streamlined jawline.” And what it really is is they have a very full neck that’s enveloping their jawline and their chin. And so I’ll show them-

Greg:
Is that like the turkey neck or the overgrown thing?

Dr. Bae:
Exactly. They just have… The muscle that’s in the neck is called the platysma, P-L-A-T-Y-S-M-A. And it’s like this hammock across the neck, and it just kind of holds everything in.

Greg:
I love when you use big words like that.

Dr. Bae:
And sometimes the platysma… At least I’m spelling them for you. You can go back and check my spelling. But yeah, that hammock of muscle, the platysma, sometimes it’s really lax and it could cause the neck to look really full. And like I said, it just engulfs and swallows up the jawline and the chin. And they’re thinking, “Oh, I need a bigger chin. And like, “No, you really need a smaller neck.” Of course, I say it more polite and more diplomatic than that.

Greg:
You say it nicely.

Dr. Bae:
Exactly. But that’s one of the things that we’ll talk about, like doing the different neck procedures. Maybe they just need neck liposuction, or maybe they need that SIMI neck lift that I do, the single incision, minimally invasive neck-lift. Or maybe they even need a full neck-lift. But by contouring their neck, it shows their jawline better. It shows their chin. And I’m able to show them other photos of patients that I’ve operated on, where before, they looked like they had a really small chin, and that you would think, “Yes, they need a chin implant.”

Dr. Bae:
But that’s why you go to somebody that’s been doing this a while is that when I show them the after photo, they can see that the chin looks bigger, the jawline looks more refined. But I didn’t do anything to the chin. I didn’t do anything to the jawline. I just took care of the neck. So it’s really interesting to see when they come in thinking one thing. And I’m just glad that I have photos to show them to prove to them that I’m not making this up, that, “No, you really don’t need a chin implant,” which is nice if you can avoid certain types of implants, if you can just do some natural contouring to the body.

Greg:
Well, I can speak from experience because one of my friends flew from Texas to get this SIMI neck lift with you, Dr. Bae. And she always thought maybe she needed liposuction there, which I know you can do. Or she needed another procedure, because she was always worried she looked, she said, like a bullfrog. And she had a small frame, but big here, which made her look big and round. And since she’s had that procedure, she really has just slimmed up. She has a neck, she has a profile, she has a chin. So it’s a really amazing transformation. And she’s so happy.

Dr. Bae:
Yeah, no, no. I’m glad to hear that. Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate it. One other example of people coming in and thinking they want one thing and that they really maybe just need another is when it comes to fillers, this might be more applicable to more of the audience, is that people think, “Oh, I have these deep grooves in my face right here, the parentheses lines. And I need fillers there.”

Dr. Bae:
Well, that was one of the ways… It still is one of the ways to treat it. But there are other ways to treat that now. What you can actually do is kill two birds with one stone, is that you can actually give them a little bit more cheekbone fullness here by doing fillers to the cheekbones. And by volumizing the cheekbones, not making them look like a balloon face or anything, but by volumizing the cheekbones, you can actually lift the face and it makes these parentheses lines less deep.

Dr. Bae:
So instead of them having these deep lines, you lift the cheeks, and you can actually see in the video, how I’m making my parentheses lines look less deep by volumizing here. So now what you’re doing is, like I said, killing two birds with one stone. You’re volumizing the cheekbones, which is a nice look, if not overdone. And it can lessen the depth of these creases here without also putting in filler there.

Dr. Bae:
So pretty nice what we’ve learned over the years, techniques that have improved, and steering the patient towards the right thing, not necessarily what I want them to do or what they want to do, but just steering them to the right thing that’s best for them.

Greg:
All right. Well, if you’re watching this video, you’re already on the website, right? So-

Dr. Bae:
Correct.

Greg:
… check pricing right here. Use the price estimator. Also, you can book your appointment right here, or you can always book and ask questions on Dr. Bae’s Instagram, which is…

Dr. Bae:
Real Dr. Bae, R-E-A-L-D-R-B-A-E, not B-A-Y.

Greg:
All right. Thanks, Dr. Bae.

Dr. Bae:
Always a pleasure, Greg.

The post Are you getting the right procedure?! first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Greg:
Hey, this is Greg from Big Bay Mornings on 99.7 NOW, and I’m here with our resident certified plastic surgeon, Dr. Bae. Hey, Dr. Bae.

Dr. Bae:
Hey, Greg.

Greg:
You look like you just got out of surgery. What you been doing today?

Dr. Bae:
I just dressed up in scrubs so people think I’m a doctor.

Greg:
That’s good. Well, I hope you are a doctor because you have one of the, or you do one of the most popular procedures out there right now. It’s a mommy makeover but I hear that phrase all the time, but I don’t quite know everything that’s going on during a mommy makeover.

Definition of the Mommy Makeover

Dr. Bae:
Every doctor maybe has a little bit different definition of a mommy makeover, but I’ll definitely try to explain what I think is the common denominator for all doctors and a mommy maker just includes making you over, getting you back to your pre-pregnancy state. And so that always includes at a minimum, something to reshape the breast and to reshape the abdomen, two things that are obviously affected by breastfeeding and pregnancy and everything. So a mommy makeover, you can be pretty confident in it, it involves a breast procedure and a tummy tuck. And just to clarify, a tummy tuck is when we remove excess skin, but also we tighten up the abdominal wall because it’s something called a rectus diastasis where the abdominal wall stretches out from pregnancy. And we reposition the belly button after removing the excess skin and the stretch marks. So that’s the tummy tuck.

Dr. Bae:
With the breast procedure, it could either be a breast lift where we just remove excess skin to lift the breast. If they’re looking pendulous from having by breastfeeding, we can-

Greg:
Love that word. [crosstalk 00:01:33]. Pendulous.

Dr. Bae:
Ain’t that a great word. I try to use it in every conversation. But we remove the excess skin to lift the breast at the very minimum, or if somebody doesn’t have really droopy breasts, but they’re deflated, then we can just put in implants. And if they have a combination of droopiness and deflation, then we can do a breast lift with implants. And the way I try to explain this to make it a little easier to remember for patients is that we talk about a mommy makeover, but then we talk about a type one, two or three. So mommy makeover, breast procedure, tummy tuck. Type one is just a breast lift. Type two is a breast augmentation where we put in implants. And type three is a breast lift with implants. So the types just help discern what breast procedure we’re doing, but hopefully that makes sense to the patient. But yeah, mommy makeover, great procedure. We can do all those procedures, the breast procedure, the tummy tuck, all in one operation.

Postop Recovery

Greg:
And the nice thing about that is if you get several procedures at once, you can do the recovery all at once and you’re not having to recover several different times.

Dr. Bae:
It’s true. Because I know people are worried about, “Oh, if I do the breast and the tummy tuck all at the same time, I’m not going to be in too much pain,” but the truth is if you get the tummy tuck, you might as well get the breast procedure because most of the discomfort or pain is going to be from the tummy tuck. You’ll have some abdominal cramping where we tighten up the abdominal wall and the breast procedure is maybe, yes, more painful, but within a couple of days, you’re going to be so happy you did them together because if you do them separately, then you have two recoveries and it’s more expensive when you do them separately, because we can save a little bit of time by combining them. So definitely [crosstalk 00:03:10] combining is the way to go.

Greg:
Save the money. Save the pain. Save the recovery. And my last question is, I don’t actually have to give birth to have a mommy makeover. Do I?

You don’t have to be a Mommy for a Mommy Makeover

Dr. Bae:
No, no. That’s a really good point. If, for whatever reason, you’ve lost some weight, maybe you’ve lost about 20 pounds, you had a gastric bypass, something like that. Surgical weight loss, medical weight loss, you’re just eating better and dieting and working out, if you’ve lost some fat and your abdomen is looking a little deflated, your breasts are looking a little deflated, then yes, you can do a mommy makeover without having kids. The other thing is we also can combine a Brazilian butt lift with a mommy makeover, because just the way the breast deflate, the butt can deflate. And we can take fat from your whole torso, liposuction, inject that into the butt. We call that a mommy makeover deluxe. That’s what I’ll say [crosstalk 00:03:59]. Every doctor has their different definitions of mommy makeover, so that’s kind of our made up term is a mommy makeover deluxe, which includes breast procedure, tummy talk, and then Brazilian butt lift. So now you know everything you need to know.

Greg:
The deluxe is with sour cream, because it always goes to the booty. Thanks Dr. Bae.

Dr. Bae:
Exactly right. My pleasure.

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Bae Break: What’s a Mommy Makeover and does your mommy need one?! [video] first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

The origin of Dr. Bae

Greg:
I got a couple things I want you to clear up for me. The two biggest questions I get. Number one, is Dr. Bae your real name? And when I go to the office, what’s the name I’m looking for on that thing?
Dr. Bae:
That’s a great question.
Greg:
Yeah.
Dr. Bae:
Yeah. When you show up to our office building is the 2100 Webster Building here in San Francisco in Pacific Heights. And yes, if you’re coming into the building and you’re looking on the marquee looking for Dr. Bae, you will end up at a Korean doctor’s office. You will not end up in my office. So you need to be looking for Jonathan Kaplan, K-A-P-L-A-N.
Dr. Bae:
But the reason we came up with Dr. Bae… I shouldn’t say “we”. Got to give a shout out to Dr. Miami and his CEO, Rosie. They had the idea for calling me Dr. Bae because I’m in the San Francisco Bay area, but it’s B-A-E, not B-A-Y, just to be a little more hip for the millennials.
Greg:
There you go.
Dr. Bae:
But, yeah. So look for Jonathan Kaplan. But it is funny how everybody when they come in, the patients and the families, they all refer to me as Dr. Bae. And I’m not sure they know what my real name is, and that’s fine. As long as they’re in my office and we’re having a good time, and I’m taking good care of them, it’s all good.

What makes someone Board Certified?

Greg:
Jonathan Kaplan or Dr. Bae. You can find him both ways. And Dr. Bae, here’s the other thing I wanted to ask you. I say it all the time, board certified plastic surgeon. What exactly does that mean? And what’s the difference between a plastic surgeon and a cosmetic surgeon?
Dr. Bae:
All right, yeah, this is a big can of worms that you’re opening up, but it is important. So, for the patient, if you’re going to somebody for a particular procedure, you want to make sure that they are board certified in the thing that they are doing on you. So for example, if you’re going to an orthopedic surgeon for a cosmetic liposuction procedure, that’s not a good idea. If you’re going to an orthopedic surgeon, you want them board certified in orthopedic surgery, and you’re doing an orthopedic procedure, that makes sense.
Dr. Bae:
The thing is, and this really comes down to money, is that over the last decade, as insurance reimbursements have gone down and doctors aren’t getting paid enough, a lot of them are looking for other alternative sources of revenue. So you’ll see ER doctors or OBGYNs looking for alternative sources of revenue, which means going outside of insurance and going to cash pay. And one of the things you can do that’s cash pay is cosmetics.
Dr. Bae:
So that’s why you really got to be looking for somebody that is not just doing cosmetics, but actually is board certified in plastic surgery. Or if they’re doing something on your face, you know that they’re a facial plastic surgeon or that they’re a dermatologist. You can find that stuff out on their website. But it’s tricky because-
Greg:
[crosstalk 00:02:53]. Yeah, what I was going to say is, just because you can stitch me up when I go to the emergency room doesn’t mean you necessarily are qualified to do my liposuction. And so, people need to be careful about that. You want somebody who specialized and went to school for plastic surgery like you did.
Dr. Bae:
Right. And so the thing is, saying they’re a cosmetic surgeon, that’s not really the same thing as saying that they’re a board certified plastic surgeon. And I’m not saying that anybody that says that they’re a cosmetic surgeon doesn’t have some technical ability to do a good job. I’m just saying that if it’s truth in advertising, let’s be honest about it.
Dr. Bae:
The thing is, anybody can say they’re a cosmetic surgeon. If they’re an ER doctor, OBGYN, and they’re doing Botox or liposuction in their office, they can actually call themselves a cosmetic surgeon. They’re not necessarily board certified in that in a way that’s recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties. You might think, “Well, that’s illegal. If they’re an orthopedic surgeon, OBGYN, or an ER doctor, how can they do cosmetic procedures in their office?”
Dr. Bae:
It’s not technically illegal. They just may not have gone through the formal training that you are thinking they went through. Like, yes, they did med school. Yes, they did at least one year of residency training. But they might not have gone through a plastic surgery training program, or a dermatology training program, or facial plastic surgery. So you just have to look on their website to read. And if they say they’re just a cosmetic surgeon, then they may not be telling you everything. Maybe they were a primary care doctor first.

Do your research!

Greg:
The key here is do your research.
Dr. Bae:
Correct.
Greg:
Do your research before you do anything. You don’t want a podiatrist doing your facelift.
Dr. Bae:
And you don’t want me doing your bunions. It’s not an unreasonable thing. It goes both ways.
Greg:
I’ll let you try. I’ll let you try. All right. Well, thanks, doc… Oh.
Dr. Bae:
Yeah, yeah, no. I was just going to say… Yeah, you’re trying to cut me off, man. All I was going to say is that if people have questions about this, it is very complicated and we just touched the surface of it. If people have questions about if this person is board certified in plastic surgery, or dermatology, or facial plastic surgery, you can direct message me on my Instagram, which is Real Dr. Bae, R-E-A-L-D-R-B-A-E. Not B-A-Y. If you direct message me and you say, “This is the doctor I want to know more about,” I can direct message you back and tell you what I think as far as their board certification. I’m not going to talk badly about the doctor one way or the other. I’m just going to state the facts of what I see on their website.
Dr. Bae:
The other option is you can go to our YouTube page, which isn’t as memorable a YouTube page. It’s youtube.com/pacificheightsps, as in Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery. If you go to that YouTube page, we have a video on there about how to look at a doctor’s website to determine what they’re board certified in. And a lot of people just, again, just type in a doctor’s name in the comment section. I get that message, and then I reply to them about what I think that that doctor’s board certified in based on what I see on their website.
Dr. Bae:
So if you’re feeling lazy and you don’t want to do all the research yourself, you just message me the doctor’s name, and I can get the information back. Again, I am not badmouthing anybody in the process. I am just stating what I see on their website.
Greg:
I was going to say, then you don’t have to do the research. Let Dr. Bae do the research for you. He’ll do it all. All right.
Dr. Bae:
What else do I have to do?
Greg:
All right, now go edit this video, Dr. Bae. Thanks.
Dr. Bae:
Thanks. Great seeing you.

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Bae Break: The meaning behind “Board Certified” [video] first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.