The Get Healthy Tampa Bay Podcast

E41: Plastic Surgery Myths and Realities: From Aesthetics to Reconstruction with Dr. Deepa Bhat

• Kerry Reller • Episode 32

Share episode

Welcome to the Get Healthy Tampa Bay Podcast with Dr. Kerry Reller! This week I am joined by Dr. Deepa Bhat to discuss the true impact of plastic surgery.

Dr. Bhat attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor for her undergraduate studies, where she received a fully funded academic scholarship and double-majored in Spanish and Brain, Behavior, and Cognitive Sciences. She went on to obtain her medical degree at Rush Medical College in Chicago, Illinois.

Dr. Bhat completed her integrated plastic surgery training at Albany Medical College, where she was trained in the full breadth of both reconstructive and aesthetic surgery. She also completed a one-year research fellowship at the prestigious Johns Hopkins University in the tissue-engineering lab working on a novel nanofiber-hydrogel compound to improve outcomes in fat grafting. After residency, Dr. Bhat elected to pursue additional training in aesthetic surgery.

Dr. Bhat has over fifteen peer-reviewed publications and has authored a book chapter in plastic surgery’s premier textbook: Grabb & Smith. She has also given multiple podium presentations at national meetings including at The Aesthetic Society as well as the American Society for Plastic Surgery.

She currently practices in Tampa Bay and has a private practice. She performs the full breadth of plastic surgery including non-surgical rejuvenation, as well as breast, body, and face procedures. Dr. Bhat also performs breast cancer reconstruction surgeries.

00:00 Welcome back! Who is Dr. Bhat
02:20 Dispelling Myths, how can it turn around someone's life?
06:55 Mommy makeover?
10:05 How about the men?
11:25 Other procedure she does
14:45 What are fillers?
16:35 Droopy eyelid syndrome
17:30 Botox
22:00 Who is a good candidate?
25:50 Reality of Post-op
28:30 Skin Laxity in weight mgmt patients
30:50 Popular procedures right now
32:15 Closing Remarks

Connect with Dr. Deepa Bhat
Website: www.raviveplasticsurgery.com
Instagram: @deepabhatmd or @raviveplasticsurgery
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100095130264467
Youtube: @RavivePlasticSurgery

Connect with Dr. Kerry Reller
My linktree: linktr.ee/kerryrellermd
Podcast website: https://gethealthytbpodcast.buzzsprout.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClearwaterFamily
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clearwaterfamilymedicine/
Clearwater Family Medicine and Allergy Website: https://sites.google.com/view/clearwaterallergy/home

Subscribe to the Get Healthy Tampa Bay Podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Amazon music, iheartradio, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Pandora.

Kerry:

Hi, everybody. It's Dr. Kerry Reller. Welcome back to the Get Healthy Tampa Bay podcast. Today we have a very special guest, Dr. Deepa Bhatt. Dr. Bhatt, welcome to the podcast. Why don't you tell us who you are and what you do?

Deepa:

Well, thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited to be here. As you said, my name is Dr. Deepa Bhatt. I am a plastic surgeon. I just recently moved to the Tampa Bay area from California. So big move. I trained in integrated plastic surgery in upstate New York, did an aesthetic fellowship where I focused on only cosmetic procedures and non surgical procedures as well. And so that was out in California and now I'm here. So we are in the Tampa Bay area. I will be starting my very own plastic surgery practice in South Tampa in September of 2023. So very, very excited.

Kerry:

Awesome. Well, welcome to the Tampa Bay area. I did look at your little bio and I noticed that you went to undergrad at university Michigan and I actually went to Notre Dame. So we're rivals.

Deepa:

Okay. Hey, Midwest. So

Kerry:

Exactly. Yeah. And then the other thing I noticed was you did some research at Johns Hopkins and I did that too. So definitely like the Baltimore area. And I think Hopkins obviously can bring a lot of knowledge and depth to any like training program. So I thought that was very impressive. But so you are going to be new to the Tampa Bay area. What did you do in California? Did you do something similar?

Deepa:

So I completed my aesthetic surgery fellowship out in California. So I was with three different practices, really, honestly, some of the top surgeons in plastic surgery in our field today. So that was great. Got to learn a lot of new techniques things like the deep plane facelift, which is not necessarily new, but very popular right now. Things like high definition liposuction, where we can sculpt your torso and your arms and your legs to be a little bit more muscular are more defined. And really great advances in rhinoplasty, like preservation rhinoplasty. It was an amazing year and I feel very lucky to have been able to spend a year out there.

Kerry:

Oh yeah, that's awesome. I think, having a lot of experience with cutting edge procedures is that's one of the things I was going to ask you kind of where is plastic surgery going but we can wait on that question until a little later. But I kind of wanted to ask you a general like dispel a myth on plastic surgery so sometimes plastic surgery can have a significant impact on a person's self esteem and their confidence. I guess I wanted to know if you had any good. stories or what your response would be to that question. Like, is it ridiculous to want to go undergo a procedure and how can it really turn around a patient's life?

Deepa:

Yeah, that's a great question. And I have, I guess Two stories to share. The whole reason I went into plastic surgery was for breast reconstruction. Actually as a medical student, I was going to be a surgeon. I knew it, but didn't really know what kind of surgeon yet. And I remember on my general surgery rotation, we had this patient that had breast cancer and we were to remove her breast and we did. We got her cancer out. It was, you know, I thought it was a home run for us. We're going to have the plastic surgeons come in and start the reconstruction. But her skin ended up being a little bit too thin for her to have reconstruction right away. So, the plastic surgeon said they were going to delay the reconstruction. And I just remember rounding on her the next morning, expecting her to be excited that we had removed her cancer and that it was over and done with, but she was devastated because she had been so looking forward to having at least a part of her reconstruction done. And she was like, I don't feel like me anymore. I've like lost a huge part of who I am because for a female breasts are a huge part of your identity. And I don't think you realize it until you lose them. And so that experience really stuck with me. Because here, you know, so naive I was like we helped cure your cancer. We really did this and she was devastated. And so that really drove the point home that, just because you take some of the cancer out or you, you know, quote unquote cure them doesn't mean that you've really healed them or that you've taken care of them. So from that perspective, I think it's very obvious that yeah plastic surgery is not vain and very, very much a necessary tool in health care. And because of that, I think it's really great that there are no laws out there saying that breast reconstruction has to be covered, et cetera. Even though that's still sometimes something we fight with when it's not necessarily cut and dry. And then in the other sense, from a cosmetic perspective, I think that society is kind of trained to feel like they're being vain or that they're being selfish when they want to improve their appearance or take care of themselves. And it's just not that way at all. For example, a mother who has birthed maybe one child, multiple children and her muscles are a wreck. Her abdominal muscles, her core is splayed wide apart. She has loose skin. No amount of diet and exercise is going to fix that it's never going to cure the problem completely. You can't, out exercise and diet loose skin. And what is so bad about wanting to feel better about yourself and feel like you again, because once again, it all just comes down to like who you are and who your identity is. And there's nothing wrong with wanting to restore that sense of self or just feel a little bit better about yourself. Everybody knows there's so much data to show that. Putting on a nice suit or looking really good makes you feel better about yourself. It gives you more confidence that, presents you to the world as a different person. And so when you think about things like plastic surgery, thinking about changing the appearance of your face, of your breasts, of your body for males or females, it's really the same thing, except it's like 10 times more impactful in my opinion.

Kerry:

I mean, it's so true and so important, Everybody wants to have self confidence in order to not have these other social problems like depression and anxiety and appearance is a big thing of people, you know, want to feel confident and happy. And I think that those are two great stories, very different ends to, of one, getting rid of a cancer and then wanting to, feel like a woman again and having breasts and then the other more on the aesthetic side. And absolutely nothing wrong with that. And I think it's difficult because sometimes it's a financial thing. Right. I did not realize that breast reconstruction is covered and gosh, it should be, I mean, especially after malignancy. So I think that's wonderful. And then obviously, there's that difficulty where some of the other stuff isn't covered, right? So it's very difficult to know what a patient could afford and things like that. So that makes it a little bit harder. You mentioned the mom thing and I was browsing on your website and everything. And you even mentioned this, that you have something called a mommy makeover. Tell me about that a little more, and I don't know what it is. So I'm quite curious. Can you tell us about it and why you, you know, don't like that term.

Deepa:

Yeah, well, I will start off with saying I do use the term mommy makeover on my website just because it is ubiquitous in terms of everybody. That's what people Google. But it is basically any combination breast and body procedure traditionally done on women who have previously given birth. And, like I was saying, maybe have some volume deflation, deflation in their breasts from breastfeeding or have loose skin or a loosened core from being pregnant and having given birth. But it's a very loose term. Traditionally, if you think of the classic mommy makeover, it would involve some sort of breast procedure, like implants and a breast lift and maybe a tummy tuck. But it really could be anything. It could be something like a labiaplasty or a vaginoplasty with a breast procedure, or there's no set defined term. But the reason I really don't like this term is because I just don't like the idea that, you have to be made over because you're a mom. It doesn't carry the right connotation, and I don't think it really properly reflects what we as plastic surgeons are doing or what the patient wants. The patient doesn't want to be, maybe they do, but it shouldn't be that because they're a mom, they have to be completely made over. It really is that we're restoring normal anatomy or restoring what their maybe pre pregnancy body was like. And so I think maybe that is a better word for it. I know that there are plastic surgeons out there that call them mommy restorations. And I think that is a way better term.

Kerry:

Yeah.

Deepa:

I didn't come up with that, but that's really my thoughts on it. It just, it doesn't have the right feel when you say that, oh, you need a mommy makeover. No, nobody needs a mommy makeover. But once again, there's nothing wrong with wanting to restore what you look like before.

Kerry:

It's It's nice to even know that there's a possibility to do something like that. Because after childbirth, pregnancy, breastfeeding, we have, maybe saggy breasts or like you mentioned with the labioplasty and things like that. Some people have to get an episiotomy or, you know, they tear when they deliver and those kinds of things, not only are they painful and uncomfortable, you kind of would like everything to go back the way it was. So you feel normal again. I didn't even know these things were offered, I guess I haven't Googled the term, but I think it's nice that it offers that ability to feel like how you were prior to giving birth because it's a totally different world afterwards too. They got enough stress to deal with.

Deepa:

exactly right. And I think that you are in the majority that not a lot of women know that these procedures are offered or that they can be done safely and effectively. And like you're saying, women do tear or sometimes they need episiotomies and afterwards they're left with this, large hole that, affects their sexual function, it affects their ability to feel pleasure during intercourse, so many things. So it really is very helpful to know that you can restore normal anatomy after childbirth.

Kerry:

Yeah. Well, I have a question. So not let's not leave out the men here. I noticed you have some offerings for the men on the website. What kind of things can you do for men in plastic surgery?

Deepa:

Yeah, that's a great question. And I think men are often left out in the world of plastic surgery men can do anything that women undergo, with the inclusion of even breast implants, you know, there's a transgender population that wants breast implants and we can certainly offer that to patients, but I think the most common male surgery We perform tend to be gynecomastia, which is the removal of excess breast tissue on the male chest and liposuction in various areas, whether it be your abdomen and planks or underneath your neck to give you a little bit more of a sculpted jawline. And then male facelifts are becoming increasingly more popular as well. So I think it's great that men are realizing that there's nothing wrong with wanting to take care of yourself and wanting to improve your appearance and that they're kind of empowering themselves to go for it and break the stigma that plastic surgery is only for females or whatever it may be.

Kerry:

I mean, I definitely think that that's great that they're getting confident to be able to do things like that and not, I think some, it's the same thing as, you know, men don't really go to the doctor, and here you're offering things that they might want to do. So I I think that's wonderful. Other types of procedures that you want to highlight that you'll be doing in your practice?

Deepa:

Yeah, my favorite procedure is something called a blepharoplasty, which is an eyelid lift. And you can do an upper eyelid lift or a lower eyelid lift. And it is one of the most common complaints that we get from patients. And a lot of times these will be patients coming in for non surgical treatment, so it'll be, I really need some filler to help smooth out my under eye area. And sometimes they are a good candidate for filler and sometimes it's something that really needs to be addressed with surgery. So for example, as we age, you know, we all hate Those bags that we get underneath our eyes. There's this really defined crease underneath our eyes. There was some puffiness and sagginess of the skin below it. And so we just want to figure out how to treat it, how to get rid of it. And oftentimes the most permanent solution to, this quote unquote problem is a lower lid blepharoplasty or a lower lid eyelid lift. And the whole reason that we can get these bags under our eyes is because our face, our whole face, just like the rest of our body is held together into little compartments by tissues, by retaining ligaments, et cetera. And those bags that you see protruding out under our eyes, it's actually fat. surprisingly. So what happens is that that fat is normally contained within its own little tiny compartment as it should be, as you know, we're born and we grow by something called the orbital septum and the septum, just tends to loosen and weaken over time. And it doesn't do a very good job at containing that fat anymore. So what happens is that fat starts to pooch out. And that's how we start getting these bags with a combination of loose skin with a combination of deepening of something called your tear trough ligament, which is that crease we see underneath our eyes. So it's a multifactorial thing and it's something that is really, really effectively treated with surgery. And a lot of times, like I was saying, patients are coming and hoping that they can just treat it non surgically with filler. And sometimes in very, very mild cases, you can put a little bit of filler there to kind of even out that volume discrepancy. But I love lower lid lifts and upper lid lift for plasticity as well, because I think they are so transformative. They are appropriate for Someone who maybe is not really ready for a more major surgery, like a full on facelift but really open up the face, really provide some youth to the face and really do transform the base.

Kerry:

So a lot, a lot of interesting things there. One, I wanted to ask more about the orbital septum. Is that the bone or what is that?

Deepa:

It's a tissue that,

Kerry:

Okay. Not the bone.

Deepa:

no,

Kerry:

Okay. So it's just a tissue that is where the little, I guess the fat things that I was saying to please don't look at my eyes, but I think there are different kinds of bags under the eyes, right? So you're talking about maybe a fat pocket that's in a different spot. And then there's also sleepy bags.

Deepa:

Yeah. If was just like, the puffiness from lack of sleep and things like caffeine creams can help with that a little bit as well. Yeah.

Kerry:

so what, what is filler exactly

Deepa:

So there's different types of fillers. The most common types of fillers are the ones that are something containing hyaluronic acid. So HA or hyaluronic acid is something that's naturally occurring in our skin. It's in all of our skin but as we age, we start to lose a little bit of it. So the skin composition changes a little bit. And what HA does is it comes in, restores volume in places that we are lacking volume because as we age, every single one of us start losing volume in our faces. Just everywhere. Globally, it's terrible. And that's why things like fillers and fact crafting exist so that we can kind of restore that natural volume. So fillers they've been around for years they're very safe when done correctly. There are obviously more dangerous areas of the face I'll say to inject than others. Things like, liquid rhinoplasty, which is when you place filler in your nose or even injecting under your tear trough are a little bit more risky than injecting someplace like your lips or your chin because there's, higher risk of Things going wrong, things like vascular occlusions, which can lead to, really catastrophic results like blindness, even so or, you know, tissue death and, you know, your face is the last place you want to have complications. You just don't want to, you know, Go in expecting one thing and then come out with, you know, this awful, awful result, you know, like, including blindness. So fillers are safe when done properly but you really just have to make sure that you're going to the right person. And, they're employing the proper techniques.

Kerry:

Gotcha. Okay. So you mentioned that house with the lower eyelid. And I mean, I hear a lot and send a lot of patients who are ending up getting plastic surgery for upper eyelid for the droopy eyelid syndrome. Is that something that you do a lot of and see a lot of as well

Deepa:

Yeah.

Kerry:

for the upper lid.

Deepa:

Yes. Yeah, exactly. And those are great because that is a procedure that can be done under local anesthesia. You don't even need to go under for it. And it's relatively quick, quick recovery. Your eyelid skin is really great in that it heals really, really quickly. And just like the lower eyelid, it can provide a really, really transformative result. You know, it opens up your eyes, it changes the appearance of your face. And sometimes just due to genetics. Patients that are really young, like in their thirties or forties need to have an upper and lower lid blepharoplasty just because they have that extra skin there. It's not because they're old. It's not because they're aging. It's just how they've always been. And now there's something that can help address it.

Kerry:

Yeah, very nice. Okay. And you mentioned some other aesthetic procedures and you mentioned Botox before. So tell me about Botox. When, when do we start? What's the deal with Botox?

Deepa:

Yeah, I love Botox. And I think a lot of people do. You know, for those of you who aren't familiar with it, Botox is something called it's a neuromodulator. It's botulinum toxin, actually. And what it does is it temporarily freezes your muscles so that you can't move them as well as you were able to without the Botox. And it's really common for both cosmetic and non cosmetic uses. And it addresses a really crazy range of things. So it's used, you know, as you and I know it, you know, you can inject it into the forehead inject it around your eyes for your crow's feet even injected around your mouth to help reduce frowny lines that your mouth, you know, just has that natural downturn sometimes helps address that. But then it also is effective for things like hyperhidrosis, which is excessive sweating. So we can inject it into your palms for really sweaty palms injected into your armpits. So it's really interesting. And then from a more you know, insurance based standpoint, variety of uses, people, even urologists can inject into your bladder. So really, really wide array of uses. But the way that I use Botox it's for cosmetic reasons. And I think it's such an interesting phenomenon because Everyone wants Botox. Everyone's interested in it. But a lot of questions arise around what the right time to use it is. You know, if I use it, you know, for too long, will it cause my muscles to atrophy? Will it cause my muscles to weaken, you know, irreversibly? I also don't want to like age prematurely because my muscles don't work. So all really good questions. I think. You know, in my opinion, the right time to start Botox is probably in your mid to late 20s. There are some people that come in a little bit earlier than that, and to be quite honest, The vast majority of those patients probably don't need Botox that young, but starting in your mid to late twenties is a good idea because it's more preventative at that age. So, with a really light dose, because you don't want, a super heavy, heavy forehead or eyes full of Botox, it can kind of prevent those wrinkles from ever forming in the first place because once you do have really deep set wrinkles, Botox is not going to immediately take those away. It'll soften your wrinkles, it'll kind of reduce how deep they are. But just one round of Botox, your first round of Botox when you're 45 is not going to take them away completely. It will prevent or help prevent the formation of new ones. So I think the best thing to do is start really light in your mid to late twenties and then, work with your injector as you kind of grow with them to figure out if you need to increase your dose, what you like what you don't like. And a lot of it is personal preference to some patients, you know, male or female, like to be completely frozen. They don't want to have any movement. And then there are, you know, some patients that would rather have more movement than not. I'd rather look more natural than not. And my preference is always to have just a teeny bit of movement. So you don't look completely frozen but still have enough where it's actually effective. You know, you want to look natural, but you also want it to work.

Kerry:

So I have heard the recommendation of starting it so young and always surprises me would you still recommend to get it every three to six months or just maybe once a year at that young or what?

Deepa:

Botox only really lasts about three months. And I think taking Botox breaks when you're young is perfectly acceptable. If not recommended, you don't need to religiously come every three months. When you're 26 and get your Botox to be done I think, you know, giving yourself a little bit of breather between those appointments is perfectly acceptable and helps your muscles from atrophying as well because it helps them build back up. So While Botox doesn't really last beyond that time period, you don't necessarily need to come back every single three months when you're that age, but I have found that as patients get older, they really enjoy the look of Botox and they don't like the animation that they get or the movement that they get after three months when it's wearing off. So they just naturally do come back every three months.

Kerry:

Yeah. Well, I kind of want to change gears on back to more of like the surgical things. Is that okay? Okay. I guess I want to discuss who's a good candidate or who's not a good candidate for a plastic surgery procedure. Do you have any comments?

Deepa:

Yeah. Yeah. So I have lots of thoughts on this. I think the ideal patient from a non health perspective is that they have very realistic expectations. I think that a lot of patients, unfortunately, see the super filtered images on social media or they'll put a filter on their face that, Instagram does for you and they'll come in with that photo and say, this is what I want my nose to look like, or, this is what I want my face to look like. And you just kind of have to sit down and, you know, do some education and say, that's not anatomically possible. And that's not real. It's a lot of making sure that whoever is interested in surgery knows what they're getting themselves into knows the wide array of results that can be expected, you know, as surgeons, we will always, always, always. do our darnedest to make sure that your results are perfect every single time. But you also have to understand that there are limitations in what we can and cannot do. And that there is no guarantee of a home run every single time. There will be, you know, and that's why when we talk to patients, we show them Maybe patients with really good results, patients with amazing results and patients that are like singing from the mountaintops at how much they love the results because there is a range. There's no guarantee of that. So, realistic expectations is just the number one thing that you really have to make sure that the patient understands and that's what makes them from a non health perspective, a good candidate. From a health perspective, you just have to make sure that you understand that, things like liposuction are not a weight loss surgery. You have to be a healthy BMI. BMI is not because we don't want to operate on really large people. It's because there are known complications associated with operating on patients with higher BMI. There's thousands and thousands and thousands of papers in the literature. And at the end of the day, you're undergoing what is likely an elective procedure. It would be just the worst thing in the world for you to have a complication because it wasn't safe for you to undergo anesthesia or because. You had some weight related complication. So being a healthy BMI is really important. You know, and your plastic surgeon will certainly work with you to get you in the way with the correct weight range. We'll check in with you, you know, offer you resources. But that's important and different surgeons have different cutoffs. My mentor, his BMI cutoff was 28 versus other surgeons, their BMI cutoff is 35. So it's really a surgeon dependent. And it's honestly, because we want the best results for you. And at the end of the day, patient safety is our number one priority. So I think realistic expectations, just be in good general overall health. You know, if you have really bad sleep apnea, it's probably not a good idea for you to undergo an elective surgery. And have complications from that. If you have a really strong cardiac history and we might ask you to go to your cardiologist and just make sure that you would be cleared for anesthesia and for surgery. So good overall health, realistic expectations, a healthy BMI are all things that would make you a physically and mentally a really good candidate for plastic surgery.

Kerry:

Yeah, I think you, you mentioned a couple of important things, but obviously managing expectations. And I was going to bring up like the, I guess, a post bariatric surgery patient who has a lot of skin removal. I think sometimes that they have these hopes that everything will be fine and go back to whatever way, but I think it can be hard and sometimes there's a lot of pain after is there, can you speak on that at all?

Deepa:

Yeah, that's a really interesting point that you brought up with the post bariatric patient because they do have a lot of loose skin and this is something quite commonly in plastic surgery is that they'd like to come get that excess skin removed. Maybe they need a body lift, maybe they need an arm lift or a brachialplasty. And what I always tell our post bariatric patients is that their skin quality is a little bit different from maybe someone that hasn't had a massive weight loss, the elastic of their skin isn't the same quality as someone, that has not been through this, their body hasn't been through this major journey of being larger than undergoing surgery and then losing all of this weight and it's a known complication that they're at higher risk of wound breakdown, of wound complications, and that there is also a higher risk that they will have some return of their excess skin laxity. So we'll pull them tight when we operate on them. And we'll do everything within our power to make sure that their contour is perfect. But then there is a risk of these patients having recurrence of their skin looseness. It'll obviously never be as bad as it was prior to the surgery. But it's just no complication. So a lot of it has to do with patient counseling and patients being really educated on what they're getting themselves into because it just makes that post op recovery so much easier. And then in terms of managing pain, I think a lot of that is also just about expectations. I tell our patients that You had surgery. It might be an elective surgery, but you still had surgery. So I do tell patients that they need to take it easy, but need to continue moving. My favorite phrase is don't be a slug. We want to prevent things like blood clots things, things like that, that don't need to happen and can be prevented by moving regularly, et cetera. And they are prescribed opioid pain medications if necessary, but we always put them on a pretty regimented non opioid pain medication schedule just because we want to avoid that at all costs. Of course, if you need it, you take it, but we just want to help the recovery process. And there's so much data to show that non opioids are better for the patient and better for recovery than opioids, so.

Kerry:

I'm going to give you a hypothetical. So with all the craze, but also the people who are diabetic and on things like the GLP ones and terzapatide and semaglutide and stuff who are losing weight rather quickly. Do you expect them to have like skin laxity and the same problems that they may need to have removal of skin as well?

Deepa:

Yeah, that's a great question because I think that is happening now. There's a lot of articles coming out talking about how there's things like ozempic face where patients lose a lot of volume in their face or they're losing weight really fast and they do require body contouring surgeries. I think we've seen an uptick of that in the plastic surgery community. But this whole thing is relatively new. So I'm kind of interested to see where it all goes and what ends up happening because And you know, I think as with any weight loss drug, you know, if you stop taking the drug, there's always a chance that you gain weight back. So

Kerry:

Right. I would think it'd be probably something that they're not going to want to go ahead and do a surgery for if, you know. I don't know they lose a lot of, they have a lot of skin loose, but I mean, now at this point in the world, it's difficulty to get their medication on time and things like that. So the possibility that they wouldn't be able to stay on it long term might be something that would inhibit them from wanting to actually do a procedure to, you know, take all the excess skin off of the, from all the weight that they have lost. I don't know.

Deepa:

yeah. Yeah. I, I don't know. That's a good question. I haven't personally had any patients come to me with excess skin from their glutid e tide weight loss drugs. But I know of several plastic surgeons that have and they actually use it. I know, several surgeons that have said that it's actually helped patients. become an appropriate BMI to actually undergo surgery. So maybe a patient comes to them. You know, their BMI is really high and they're not a good candidate for the surgery that they're wanting. You know, unrelated to loose skin, et cetera. Maybe they wanted a tummy tuck or lipo, but they're not really a good candidate yet because of their BMI. And then they go on these drugs and then it does help them maintain and achieve, I guess a healthy BMI. And then they do become more appropriate surgical candidates.

Kerry:

Mm hmm. Yeah, no, I can see that as well. Sticky, sticky situation too much to know and to that is, you know, coming out with these different changes and stuff like that, but I just wanted your opinion. Well, there's any other I guess advances or things that are coming out in plastic surgery that you want to talk about.

Deepa:

Yeah, I think plastic surgery is an amazing field because it's an incredibly old field. But there are, new advances coming out every day. There are new non surgical things that we can do for patients. It's really exciting. I think everything in plastic surgery tends to be a little bit cyclical as well in terms of procedures. You know as I said earlier, the deep plane facelift is super hot right now, but that's not something new. It's been around for years and years and years. And then it kind of fell out of favor, other techniques came into place that have also been around, and now the deep plane facelift is back so I would, I guess caution patients into falling for plastic surgery trends things like the BBL, the Brazilian butt lift used to be huge, and it is still a very, very popular procedure, Or the buckle fat pad removal also very, very popular. I would just caution anybody to think about what they're doing before they undergo a plastic surgery procedure, just because they're seeing a lot of it in the news or just because it's trendy, et cetera because trends fall out of favor and, if you go to the right surgeon, if you go to a plastic surgeon they'll always advise you on what works best for you, for your body shape. And you know, your surgeon will always want the best for you and think it's a it's kind of a collaborative team effort to figure out what the right procedure for you is,

Kerry:

Is there anything else you'd like to share with the audience today.

Deepa:

You know, I don't think so. It's just I'm really excited to be in Tampa Bay. I would love to meet some of you guys if you know, you want to come see me in my South Tampa office. I'll be, like I said, opening in September 2023. And it was a pleasure to be on here. So thank you.

Kerry:

And how can they find you

Deepa:

Yeah, so

Kerry:

website or yeah.

Deepa:

my practice name is Ravive Plastic Surgery. R a v i v e plastic surgery. com. And they can look me up on Instagram at Ravive Plastic Surgery or at DeepaBhatMD.

Kerry:

Awesome. All right. Well, thank you so much for coming on. We'll put all that in the show notes and welcome to Tampa. It'll be

Deepa:

you. Yeah, it was a pleasure. Thanks so much.

Kerry:

All right. Stay tuned everybody for next week.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Dr. Kerry Reller

Host