6 Interesting Facts About Plastic Surgery That You Probably Did Not Know About

Plastic surgery these days uses some pretty cool tech.

Did you ever think about getting a tummy tuck, but can’t stand the thought of getting surgery? The truth is that plastic surgery has changed drastically in the past 20 years. Dr. Burton Sundin, a prominent Richmond plastic surgeon, shared with me 6 things about plastic surgery that you probably didn’t know.

EVERY PERSON IS TOTALLY DIFFERENT

"Every person is totally different. Every case is a unique case and you really can't just take a total cookie cutter approach. So if you're doing cool sculpting on one person, it's going to be generally similar in another person, but there's always differences that need to be addressed. So it's a very unique and kind of custom tailored experience. With all of the information on the Internet that the people read, it’s important to know that everyone’s case is unique."

IT IS AN ART NOT A COMMODITY

"I think sometimes people think of plastic surgery as more of a commodity, but it's really not. There is an art to it and there is a process that the surgeon goes through with them on an individual basis."

AS SAFE AS DRIVING IN YOUR CAR

"Another thing I think people may not know about plastic surgery and the modern age, is that it is very safe. I always tell people when they express concerns about something bad happening, that of course you can have complications, but we do this every day, every week and people have it safely done all over the country. We’ve really entered an age where the modern age of surgery is as safe as driving in your car or flying on a plane."

COUNTLESS OPTIONS

"If you were getting plastic surgery in the 70s or 80s, there were one or two things that you might be able to get done for a particular problem. Now there are always several good things that are going on on all different levels and there's something for everybody. So somebody might think, I would never want to do surgery, that's much too invasive for me or that's too much of a time commitment or there's too much downtime. But now there are many things that we can find to help them improve both on the body or the face."

WHAT BOARD CERTIFIED MEANS

"The process of becoming a board certified plastic surgeon is such a rigorous and intense process that occurs over a number of years. First six or seven years of medical school and then afterwards you have the process for the board with written and oral examinations. It's a process that prepares you, not only for the technical things that you're going to do, but also for the interaction with the patient.

That's why in this field, we always try to promote the message that you should see a board certified plastic surgeon. So many people out there are doing cosmetic procedures and they don't always know the details of the process that enables one to really care for patients on both an emotional and a technical level."

COOL NEW TECHNOLOGIES

"Cool sculpting, the non-surgical freezing of fat, is an example of something that like Botox - was avant garde at first, but now it’s here to stay.

Also, now we're getting into technologies that tighten skin on the body. This allows us to deal with the skin from a non-surgical perspective, to get results that are comparable to surgery.

There's another procedure coming on the market that we're looking at very carefully, called J-Plasma. This is a face-lift alternative that combines cold helium plasma with RF energy. That is real cutting edge technology."