Nov. 30, 2021
Barbie vs. Star Wars: Part II - Customization and Ethnic Diversity in Plastic Surgery
Customization and Ethnic Diversity in Plastic Surgery
In the last episode, Dr Bass discussed the technological revolution in plastic surgery. This episode covers the other major transformation over the past 3 decades, the transition from a monolithic yardstick of beauty based on classic Greco-Roman ideals of facial harmony to a broader view of what beauty looks like. As more of the population became plastic surgery consumers and the economy became more global, an expanded range of beauty endpoints started to become routine. Both individual patient preference and a recognition of ethnic differences in beauty goals has fueled the development of an expanded range of procedures and techniques to address patient’s beauty wishes is a much more precise and customized fashion. Improved artistry and customization in plastic surgery has made the field more relatable and responsive to people everywhere.
Don’t miss our upcoming episodes on the role facelifting plays in modern plastic surgery as well as non-surgical steps to take before and after facelifting to keep your appearance its best without going under the knife.
Check out our blog for more information on this episode
About Dr. Lawrence Bass
Innovator. Industry veteran. In-demand Park Avenue board certified plastic surgeon, Dr. Lawrence Bass is a true master of his craft, not only in the OR but as an industry pioneer in the development and evaluation of new aesthetic technologies. With locations in both Manhattan (on Park Avenue between 62nd and 63rd Streets) and in Great Neck, Long Island, Dr. Bass has earned his reputation as the plastic surgeon for the most discerning patients in NYC and beyond.
To learn more, visit the Bass Plastic Surgery website or follow the team on Instagram @drbassnyc
Subscribe to the Park Avenue Plastic Surgery Class newsletter to be notified of new episodes & receive exclusive invitations, offers, and information from Dr. Bass.
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Welcome back to the Park
Avenue Plastic Surgery Class.
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I'm your co-host Doreen Wu. And I'm
here with Dr. Lauren Bass Park Avenue,
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plastic surgeon, educator,
and technology innovator.
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Together. In every episode,
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we will explore various controversies
and breaking issues in the world of
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plastic surgery.
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The title of this episode is
"Barbie Versus Star Wars Part Two:
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Customization and Ethnic
Diversity in Plastic Surgery."
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So Dr. Bass, continuing on
conversation from the previous episode,
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how has plastic surgery strayed away
from the traditional cookie cutter
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approach?
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Well, there are two big
ways in my thinking.
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One is we have many,
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many more procedures if we go back to
the 1980s and again that the history
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lesson about lasers started in the 1980s.
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And so the second factor,
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the Barbie factor started then also
there were probably about seven or eight
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procedures in all of aesthetic
plastic surgery. There was facelift,
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eyelidplasty, brow lift, breast lift,
breast augmentation, tummy tuck,
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liposuction, rhinoplasty. That was it.
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Now all of those procedures
have many more variations and
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many versions,
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and there are all kinds of noninvasive
and minimally invasive treatments.
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So that's a really big
change at the same time.
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These procedures are increasingly
being done in a way that's customized
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for each patient. So rather than
just giving everybody the same nose,
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putting the same nose on
a hundred different faces,
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we're putting a hundred different noses
on a hundred different faces based on
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the other features on that face. Um,
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that's where it started.
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But from there it's
really moved on to taking
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a broader view of what's
beautiful and applying that
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based on patient preferences.
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It sounds like this changing
view of beauty has really
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affected how plastic surgeons are
now approaching their practice.
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So I'm really curious
and I wanted to ask you
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has the group of people requesting
plastic surgery changed in the last
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20 or so years?
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So, yes. Before, before
I address that, you know,
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we've really been able to,
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because because of these
changes to go from very light to
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very heavy treatments in a
much more gradable fashion,
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depending on where you are in
the aging spectrum, for example,
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with a rejuvenation treatment
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before it was one size fits all. And now
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if you're on the younger side, but
seeing a few things you don't like,
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there are little things that can be done.
And if a lot of things are going on,
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then something much more extensive
can be done and anywhere in between.
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And that great ability is really,
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really powerful and important for people
because you want to get the results you
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need,
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but you don't want to have to go
through or invest in time or effort
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anymore than is necessary to get
what you need at that point in time.
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Um, because of all of
those extra treatments,
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we're also able to come in and
address all kinds of features
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that were simply ignored
before in the 1980s. Well,
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if you picked the skin up and
took away the laxity, you,
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you were as young again,
as you were going to look,
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and now we're going to do that.
We're going to restore volume.
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We're going to address the appearance
of the skin surface itself,
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all of those things to get you
to a more complete endpoint.
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So that's affected, you know,
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that powerful capability has
been very well expressed in
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all forms of media, TV, radio,
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newspapers have really taken
up the banner for plastic
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surgery and featured
what it's able to create.
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That's fueled tremendous interest in
the public, and I'm not sure whether,
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you know, it's like the
chicken and the egg.
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I'm not sure whether the public's interest
induced the media to cover plastic
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surgery more and more
or media covering it,
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got the public interested.
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But what in the old days was said
to be an undertaking for socialites
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and starlets is now something
that almost everybody
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pursues to whatever degree
it bothers them. You know,
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it's very permissive,
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but that's brought in a
little bit of everybody.
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And of course in the United States,
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everybody is literally a little bit
of everybody from around the world.
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So that means we're now looking at
people who are very ethnically diverse
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compared to the average patient walked
in a plastic surgeon's office in 1985 or
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even 1995.
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That's really interesting. And I,
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I was thinking when you were talking
about the term mommy makeover,
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so it seems like a lot of
women in their late thirties,
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once they've had their children,
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they come into a plastic surgeon's office
and they're interested in getting this
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so-called mommy makeover.
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Can you talk a little bit about how
you kind of customize the treatment
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to get every patient
where they want to be?
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So, you know, that's, that's
a good example on the body,
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uh, of some of the variations.
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So mommy makeover in
broad terms describes a
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combination of some
treatment for the tummy area,
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like an abdominoplasty or tummy tuck
and some treatment for the breast
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area, like a breast lift or a
breast augmentation. But again,
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some patients lost volume.
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Some patients got droopier in the breast
area after pregnancy and breastfeeding
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and others didn't have as
big a change there, uh,
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or have a different size preference.
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And all of that has to be
taken in consideration.
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Some people in the tummy area
have a fair amount of extra fat.
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They may have had difficulty getting rid
of some weight gain after pregnancy and
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others may be very slim,
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but they've had a lot of
change in their abdominal wall,
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muscle stretching, or a lot of
change in the skin envelope.
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And so you're going to adjust which
components of the procedure you put
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in as part of the mommy makeover,
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depending on what you find
when you examine someone.
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And depending on what they're
telling you is bugging them,
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because remember this is about
the patient's preference for what
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bothers them enough to be worth
going through some kind of treatment.
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Exactly. That makes a lot of sense. Um,
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I also wanted to kind of touch on another
point that you brought up earlier.
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You mentioned how the patients that
are seeking plastic surgery have
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really changed in the last 20 or so years.
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So how has the field of plastic surgery
responded to these changes in patients?
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So
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everybody just as a human characteristic,
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I believe loves youth and
beauty. We find that appealing.
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It's probably biological programming,
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but everyone's view of
beauty is different.
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And this goes to the, again,
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the Barbie component in Barbie
versus star wars, you know,
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Barbie used to be this iconic image of
what was supposed to be beautiful in the
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way the way girls or women
were supposed to look.
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And Barbie now is ethnically
more diverse and has a more real
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human appearance. And in that
same way, I think plastic surgery,
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as we see a little bit of
everybody coming in to get treated
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really needs not only to
customize to patient preference,
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but customize to
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ethnicity and made those two
concerns because it's really,
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it's really doing something that
harmonizes with the rest of the
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patient's beauty,
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rather than creating a stylized iconic
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monolithic image of beauty.
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So that customization also
addresses ethnic diversity
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as well as just preference.
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But there's an intersection there cuz
some patients are looking to blunt
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or change the ethnicity
of their appearance or
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amplify an ethnic look that they,
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they weren't born with and other patients
want to preserve their ethnicity,
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but just harmonize their features.
And you know, this is about freedom.
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It's really their choice, which
direction their treatment should go,
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not a standard plastic surgery view.
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So I think in the 21st century,
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there is not a standard plastic
surgery view anymore of what beauty is.
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It's a patient driven view of what
beauty is and that's as it should be.
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Right. I think the,
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the patient centered focus and
really listening and understanding
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their preferences and what they want
prevents a lot of misunderstandings and
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miscommunication down the road,
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especially when it comes to
something like plastic surgery.
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I, I, I think that's right. And you know,
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it's really about looking at details. Uh,
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you know,
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we have to address the big picture issues
in any given procedure that may not
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vary in huge amounts from
one patient to another.
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But details of what you're trying to
do is very specific to each individual.
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And it's important to take the
time and discuss those things so
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that what the plastic surgeon walks
into the operating room or the treatment
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room as a picture in his or
her head and what the patient's
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walking in as a picture in
his or her head is as close
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to the same thing as possible.
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Exactly that congruency. You
want to be on the same page.
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So before we wrap all of this up,
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I want to close with one final question.
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Why are all of these changes in
the world of plastic surgery,
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a positive thing for both
patients and plastic surgeons?
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I think there are a couple of things here.
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I'm not a believer that
change is inherently good,
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but having all of these options,
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I think gives us a great
deal. More precision,
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more scalability for patient
needs than anything we had
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before. And the nature of a lot of
these noninvasive treatments has
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really transformed plastic surgery
from a field that was solely
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about performing operations,
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where you would see the patient a few
times to make sure they healed and then
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maybe never see them again to a mutual
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planning process between
the doctor and the
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patient to care for appearance
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beauty over time.
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So I see patients several times a year,
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the patients in the driver's
seat, how often they get seen,
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but we have a long term
relationship and that allows
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more precision.
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And it allows you to come closer to
hitting the nail on the head when it comes
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to customization because you
learn and learn and learn
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what in the individual's preferences
and goals are much better over
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time than you can in a single encounter.
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I think that's a really important point
that you bring up being able to truly
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understand your patient and what
their goals, their motivations,
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and all of that are.
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So thank you so much for
providing all this information.
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I definitely learned a lot all about, um,
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the Barbie versus star wars and the
two big factors that really transformed
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plastic surgery stay tuned
and join us for the next
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episode of the Park avenue Plastic
Surgery Class with Dr. Bass.
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Thank you for joining us in this episode
of the Park Avenue Plastic Surgery
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Class podcast with Dr. Lawrence
Bass Park Avenue plastic surgeon,
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educator, and technology innovator.
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The commentary in this
podcast represents opinion.
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This podcast does not
present medical advice,
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but rather general information about
plastic surgery that does not necessarily
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relate to the specific conditions
of any individual patient.
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No doctor patient relationship
is established by listening
to or participating
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in this podcast,
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consult your physician to advise you
about your individual healthcare.
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If you enjoyed this episode,
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please share it with your friends and
be sure to subscribe to our podcast on
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Apple Podcasts, Google, Spotify, Stitcher,
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or wherever you listen to podcasts.
00:00:00,610 --> 00:00:03,940
Welcome back to the Park
Avenue Plastic Surgery Class.
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I'm your co-host Doreen Wu. And I'm
here with Dr. Lauren Bass Park Avenue,
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00:00:09,690 --> 00:00:13,740
plastic surgeon, educator,
and technology innovator.
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00:00:14,740 --> 00:00:15,940
Together. In every episode,
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00:00:16,280 --> 00:00:20,730
we will explore various controversies
and breaking issues in the world of
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00:00:20,731 --> 00:00:21,564
plastic surgery.
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00:00:22,710 --> 00:00:27,130
The title of this episode is
"Barbie Versus Star Wars Part Two:
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00:00:27,800 --> 00:00:31,250
Customization and Ethnic
Diversity in Plastic Surgery."
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00:00:33,590 --> 00:00:37,490
So Dr. Bass, continuing on
conversation from the previous episode,
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how has plastic surgery strayed away
from the traditional cookie cutter
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approach?
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Well, there are two big
ways in my thinking.
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One is we have many,
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many more procedures if we go back to
the 1980s and again that the history
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lesson about lasers started in the 1980s.
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And so the second factor,
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the Barbie factor started then also
there were probably about seven or eight
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procedures in all of aesthetic
plastic surgery. There was facelift,
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eyelidplasty, brow lift, breast lift,
breast augmentation, tummy tuck,
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liposuction, rhinoplasty. That was it.
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Now all of those procedures
have many more variations and
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many versions,
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and there are all kinds of noninvasive
and minimally invasive treatments.
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So that's a really big
change at the same time.
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These procedures are increasingly
being done in a way that's customized
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for each patient. So rather than
just giving everybody the same nose,
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putting the same nose on
a hundred different faces,
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we're putting a hundred different noses
on a hundred different faces based on
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the other features on that face. Um,
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that's where it started.
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But from there it's
really moved on to taking
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a broader view of what's
beautiful and applying that
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based on patient preferences.
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It sounds like this changing
view of beauty has really
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affected how plastic surgeons are
now approaching their practice.
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So I'm really curious
and I wanted to ask you
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has the group of people requesting
plastic surgery changed in the last
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20 or so years?
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So, yes. Before, before
I address that, you know,
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we've really been able to,
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because because of these
changes to go from very light to
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very heavy treatments in a
much more gradable fashion,
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depending on where you are in
the aging spectrum, for example,
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with a rejuvenation treatment
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before it was one size fits all. And now
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if you're on the younger side, but
seeing a few things you don't like,
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there are little things that can be done.
And if a lot of things are going on,
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then something much more extensive
can be done and anywhere in between.
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And that great ability is really,
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really powerful and important for people
because you want to get the results you
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need,
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but you don't want to have to go
through or invest in time or effort
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anymore than is necessary to get
what you need at that point in time.
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Um, because of all of
those extra treatments,
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we're also able to come in and
address all kinds of features
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that were simply ignored
before in the 1980s. Well,
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if you picked the skin up and
took away the laxity, you,
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you were as young again,
as you were going to look,
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and now we're going to do that.
We're going to restore volume.
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We're going to address the appearance
of the skin surface itself,
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all of those things to get you
to a more complete endpoint.
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So that's affected, you know,
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that powerful capability has
been very well expressed in
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all forms of media, TV, radio,
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newspapers have really taken
up the banner for plastic
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surgery and featured
what it's able to create.
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That's fueled tremendous interest in
the public, and I'm not sure whether,
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you know, it's like the
chicken and the egg.
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I'm not sure whether the public's interest
induced the media to cover plastic
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surgery more and more
or media covering it,
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got the public interested.
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But what in the old days was said
to be an undertaking for socialites
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and starlets is now something
that almost everybody
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pursues to whatever degree
it bothers them. You know,
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it's very permissive,
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00:04:59,510 --> 00:05:02,610
but that's brought in a
little bit of everybody.
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00:05:02,830 --> 00:05:04,330
And of course in the United States,
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everybody is literally a little bit
of everybody from around the world.
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00:05:10,150 --> 00:05:14,520
So that means we're now looking at
people who are very ethnically diverse
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compared to the average patient walked
in a plastic surgeon's office in 1985 or
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00:05:20,561 --> 00:05:21,960
even 1995.
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That's really interesting. And I,
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I was thinking when you were talking
about the term mommy makeover,
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so it seems like a lot of
women in their late thirties,
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once they've had their children,
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they come into a plastic surgeon's office
and they're interested in getting this
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00:05:39,180 --> 00:05:40,590
so-called mommy makeover.
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Can you talk a little bit about how
you kind of customize the treatment
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to get every patient
where they want to be?
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00:05:51,120 --> 00:05:55,140
So, you know, that's, that's
a good example on the body,
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uh, of some of the variations.
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00:05:59,380 --> 00:06:03,800
So mommy makeover in
broad terms describes a
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00:06:04,480 --> 00:06:08,000
combination of some
treatment for the tummy area,
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like an abdominoplasty or tummy tuck
and some treatment for the breast
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area, like a breast lift or a
breast augmentation. But again,
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some patients lost volume.
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00:06:22,580 --> 00:06:27,020
Some patients got droopier in the breast
area after pregnancy and breastfeeding
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00:06:27,340 --> 00:06:30,260
and others didn't have as
big a change there, uh,
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or have a different size preference.
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And all of that has to be
taken in consideration.
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Some people in the tummy area
have a fair amount of extra fat.
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They may have had difficulty getting rid
of some weight gain after pregnancy and
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others may be very slim,
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but they've had a lot of
change in their abdominal wall,
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muscle stretching, or a lot of
change in the skin envelope.
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And so you're going to adjust which
components of the procedure you put
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in as part of the mommy makeover,
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depending on what you find
when you examine someone.
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And depending on what they're
telling you is bugging them,
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because remember this is about
the patient's preference for what
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bothers them enough to be worth
going through some kind of treatment.
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Exactly. That makes a lot of sense. Um,
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I also wanted to kind of touch on another
point that you brought up earlier.
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You mentioned how the patients that
are seeking plastic surgery have
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really changed in the last 20 or so years.
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So how has the field of plastic surgery
responded to these changes in patients?
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So
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everybody just as a human characteristic,
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I believe loves youth and
beauty. We find that appealing.
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It's probably biological programming,
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but everyone's view of
beauty is different.
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And this goes to the, again,
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the Barbie component in Barbie
versus star wars, you know,
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Barbie used to be this iconic image of
what was supposed to be beautiful in the
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way the way girls or women
were supposed to look.
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And Barbie now is ethnically
more diverse and has a more real
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human appearance. And in that
same way, I think plastic surgery,
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as we see a little bit of
everybody coming in to get treated
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really needs not only to
customize to patient preference,
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but customize to
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ethnicity and made those two
concerns because it's really,
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it's really doing something that
harmonizes with the rest of the
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patient's beauty,
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rather than creating a stylized iconic
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monolithic image of beauty.
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So that customization also
addresses ethnic diversity
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as well as just preference.
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But there's an intersection there cuz
some patients are looking to blunt
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or change the ethnicity
of their appearance or
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amplify an ethnic look that they,
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they weren't born with and other patients
want to preserve their ethnicity,
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but just harmonize their features.
And you know, this is about freedom.
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It's really their choice, which
direction their treatment should go,
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not a standard plastic surgery view.
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So I think in the 21st century,
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there is not a standard plastic
surgery view anymore of what beauty is.
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It's a patient driven view of what
beauty is and that's as it should be.
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Right. I think the,
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the patient centered focus and
really listening and understanding
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00:10:02,340 --> 00:10:06,410
their preferences and what they want
prevents a lot of misunderstandings and
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00:10:06,430 --> 00:10:07,890
miscommunication down the road,
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00:10:07,980 --> 00:10:10,800
especially when it comes to
something like plastic surgery.
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00:10:11,840 --> 00:10:13,600
I, I, I think that's right. And you know,
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00:10:13,630 --> 00:10:18,570
it's really about looking at details. Uh,
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00:10:18,630 --> 00:10:18,971
you know,
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00:10:18,971 --> 00:10:23,690
we have to address the big picture issues
in any given procedure that may not
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vary in huge amounts from
one patient to another.
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But details of what you're trying to
do is very specific to each individual.
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And it's important to take the
time and discuss those things so
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that what the plastic surgeon walks
into the operating room or the treatment
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00:10:40,470 --> 00:10:45,320
room as a picture in his or
her head and what the patient's
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00:10:45,321 --> 00:10:50,230
walking in as a picture in
his or her head is as close
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00:10:50,250 --> 00:10:51,870
to the same thing as possible.
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Exactly that congruency. You
want to be on the same page.
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So before we wrap all of this up,
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00:11:00,990 --> 00:11:03,550
I want to close with one final question.
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00:11:05,210 --> 00:11:08,860
Why are all of these changes in
the world of plastic surgery,
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00:11:09,620 --> 00:11:13,340
a positive thing for both
patients and plastic surgeons?
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00:11:14,390 --> 00:11:15,990
I think there are a couple of things here.
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I'm not a believer that
change is inherently good,
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00:11:21,450 --> 00:11:24,350
but having all of these options,
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I think gives us a great
deal. More precision,
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00:11:28,570 --> 00:11:33,340
more scalability for patient
needs than anything we had
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before. And the nature of a lot of
these noninvasive treatments has
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00:11:39,490 --> 00:11:44,410
really transformed plastic surgery
from a field that was solely
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00:11:45,240 --> 00:11:48,270
about performing operations,
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00:11:48,271 --> 00:11:51,750
where you would see the patient a few
times to make sure they healed and then
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00:11:51,760 --> 00:11:56,550
maybe never see them again to a mutual
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00:11:56,620 --> 00:11:59,710
planning process between
the doctor and the
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00:12:01,490 --> 00:12:05,070
patient to care for appearance
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00:12:07,200 --> 00:12:08,570
beauty over time.
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00:12:08,650 --> 00:12:12,370
So I see patients several times a year,
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00:12:12,371 --> 00:12:15,920
the patients in the driver's
seat, how often they get seen,
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00:12:16,420 --> 00:12:20,760
but we have a long term
relationship and that allows
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00:12:20,950 --> 00:12:22,520
more precision.
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00:12:22,660 --> 00:12:26,400
And it allows you to come closer to
hitting the nail on the head when it comes
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00:12:26,401 --> 00:12:31,280
to customization because you
learn and learn and learn
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what in the individual's preferences
and goals are much better over
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00:12:36,231 --> 00:12:38,390
time than you can in a single encounter.
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00:12:39,770 --> 00:12:44,050
I think that's a really important point
that you bring up being able to truly
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00:12:44,051 --> 00:12:47,570
understand your patient and what
their goals, their motivations,
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00:12:47,790 --> 00:12:48,970
and all of that are.
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00:12:50,100 --> 00:12:52,910
So thank you so much for
providing all this information.
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I definitely learned a lot all about, um,
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the Barbie versus star wars and the
two big factors that really transformed
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00:13:01,860 --> 00:13:06,550
plastic surgery stay tuned
and join us for the next
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00:13:06,580 --> 00:13:10,980
episode of the Park avenue Plastic
Surgery Class with Dr. Bass.
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00:13:11,710 --> 00:13:15,740
Thank you for joining us in this episode
of the Park Avenue Plastic Surgery
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00:13:15,830 --> 00:13:20,380
Class podcast with Dr. Lawrence
Bass Park Avenue plastic surgeon,
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00:13:21,180 --> 00:13:23,020
educator, and technology innovator.
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00:13:23,320 --> 00:13:25,780
The commentary in this
podcast represents opinion.
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00:13:25,930 --> 00:13:28,530
This podcast does not
present medical advice,
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00:13:28,870 --> 00:13:32,890
but rather general information about
plastic surgery that does not necessarily
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00:13:32,950 --> 00:13:36,050
relate to the specific conditions
of any individual patient.
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00:13:36,430 --> 00:13:41,090
No doctor patient relationship
is established by listening
to or participating
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00:13:41,190 --> 00:13:42,023
in this podcast,
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00:13:42,280 --> 00:13:46,400
consult your physician to advise you
about your individual healthcare.
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00:13:46,700 --> 00:13:48,120
If you enjoyed this episode,
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00:13:48,300 --> 00:13:52,440
please share it with your friends and
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