Customization, Not Commoditization
Plastic surgery isn’t one-size-fits-all, and Dr. Lawrence Bass wants to keep it that way.
As aesthetic care becomes more mainstream, there’s a growing risk of “fast-food” beauty—standardized treatments that ignore individual features and cultural nuances. Dr. Bass explains how the field has evolved from cookie-cutter results to true customization, driven by better techniques and a broader understanding of what beauty looks like across different faces and body types.
From rhinoplasty that celebrates ethnicity to body contouring that embraces diverse silhouettes, the focus now is on harmony, not uniformity. His advice: skip the trends, find a surgeon who shares your vision, and aim for results that feel authentically you.
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
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Summer Hardy (00:01):
Welcome to Park Avenue Plastic Surgery Class, the podcast where we explore controversies and breaking issues in plastic surgery. I'm your cohost, summer Hardy, a clinical assistant at Bass plastic surgery in New York City. I'm excited to be here with Dr. Lawrence Bass, Park Avenue plastic surgeon, educator and technology innovator. The title of today's episode is Customization, Not Commoditization. Okay. Dr. Bass, what are you getting at here?
Dr. Lawrence Bass (00:28):
Well, a lot of things happen in beauty. There's a lot of money involved or a lot of big corporate entities involved, and there's a lot of media coverage of this subject. So that means that industry and medicine can respond to beauty trends and also as things become more commonplace, plastic surgery now compared to where it was 20 years ago or 40 years ago, it is much more available. It's a product that's consumed by a much broader range of the population. In the old days, we sort of said plastic surgery, cosmetic or aesthetic plastic surgery was for socialites and starlets, and nowadays it's really everybody. So that however means like going to a fast food and getting a commoditized meal, the care can become commoditized, very standardized, uniform and reproducible, and there are some good things about that, but it's not all good.
Summer Hardy (01:46):
Okay. I think I get the idea. So is plastic surgery more about customization or commoditization?
Dr. Lawrence Bass (01:54):
Well, there's a component of both, as I said, just by definition, because we're doing a lot more plastic surgery because a lot more people are providing it because there's a lot more oversight and a lot more education about what's being done. Certain things like safety standards are becoming much more uniform, and that's a really good thing because of course safety has to be number one. But separate from that, the beauty goals to some extent are being commoditized. And that's one trend that's happening certainly in the beauty industry. But on a certain level, even in medical aesthetic care, on the other hand, there's more potential to fine tune the results, which means at least the potential is there for customization for individual patient needs.
Summer Hardy (02:54):
That makes a lot of sense. So what is the history?
Dr. Lawrence Bass (02:58):
So there were relatively small number of treatments being provided by a much smaller group of plastic surgeons, and all aesthetic care was really being given by this very small group. Some people were very famous, and when we talk about historically, I'm talking about 50 to 70 or 80 years ago, so the 1950s, the 1960s, the 1970s, and to a lesser extent after that, in the decade or two after that, and there were people who were very famous for rhinoplasty and everybody would get the Goldman tip because Dr. Goldman was a very famous rhinoplasty surgeon. And whether you were a six foot tall lumberjack or a five foot tall blonde female, you would get the same tip to your nose. That's what he did on everyone. Well, modern plastic surgery is a little bit different, but that's the history of where we came from. Separate from that, there was a sort of European ethnocentrism to plastic surgery in the United States of America that was mostly for, again, the socialites and starlets, most of whom were female, most of whom were Caucasian and of European ethnicity.
Summer Hardy (04:30):
And then what's happening more recently?
Dr. Lawrence Bass (04:34):
So we've talked about this on the podcast before, including in the inaugural episodes, Barbie Meets Star Wars where very much like Barbie in the origins of Barbie's life, she was tall, slim, blonde, and looked a certain way, not totally realistic view of average human, female shape, or even attainable female shape. Nowadays, Barbie is much more diverse. Every ethnicity, all kinds of body shapes, all kinds of appearances. There's much more variation, which is a recognition that there's no one standard of beauty that everyone should aspire to. Everyone's view of beauty is going to be individual, it's going to be different. So plastic surgery, both because the techniques have significantly advanced, allowing more customization, more fine tuning of what you want your features to look like. And because our view of beauty has become more open-minded and more complete plastic has evolved to respond to that newer view of beauty with the newer capabilities and bring more customized treatments and results for patients.
Summer Hardy (06:11):
I think I understand, but just so I know we're on the same page, what are some examples?
Dr. Lawrence Bass (06:16):
So the nose again, is a typical example where rhinoplasty was typically for people of European descent who were Caucasian. It was typically reductive in nature, trying to take something that was over projecting and blunt that down to give a smaller, softer nose. And now rhinoplasty is a procedure that can be adapted with a broad range of techniques for every ethnic group to either blunt some of the ethnic features, if that's the preference of the individual, or to preserve the ethnicity of the nose, but at the same time create more harmony with the existing facial features. So that's a perfect example. Things that we do with injectable fillers give us an exquisite amount of shape, fine tuning to create an exact appearance or look much more closer to the theoretical target than what we are able to do with certain other approaches. And what people find as an undesirable feature on their face or a shape that they like or don't like on their face.
(07:49):
The ability to harmonize their features to project a certain self-image is greatly enhanced by this capability. Again, on body contouring, we see a lot of interest not just in slimming down and making people all look like that heroine chic anorexic look that was popular a few decades back, but there's an acceptance of a much broader range of body shapes, including that, including heavier looks, including curvier looks, including looks that are definitively not Caucasian in origin, and including some looks that are somewhat artificial that have been generated by people in the media, celebrities and others that have been popularized either in print media, television media, or in social media.
Summer Hardy (08:49):
Thank you for those examples. Now it's time for your takeaways, Dr. Bass.
Dr. Lawrence Bass (08:53):
So the real ideal in plastic surgery is to customize the result for your individual preferences because every individual has their own image of what is beautiful, and that image is born out of what you've been exposed to, what your ethnic background is, and your cultural heritage, as well as what features you were born with and how they stand out to you. So that will generate your own individual priorities of what to work on and of what the aesthetic goal, the image, if you will, that you're trying to create is that will be based on time, money, and your aesthetic priorities or your image of what you think is beautiful. Plastic surgery is much more adept at accommodating a broad range of cultural, ethnic, and individual beauty preferences. So rather than making a cookie cutter face or nose or fat grafting in the buttocks or any of those things, there's much more ability to tinker the final result to the change that you individually are trying to achieve.
(10:14):
My suggestion is to find a plastic surgeon who either has your eye or is responsive to your perspective, someone who prioritizes customization over commoditization because what looks good on one body type one face is not necessarily going to look good on another. You really want something that's custom designed for your preferences and your baseline features. So again, I would prioritize customization over commoditization. And lastly, my suggestion is always to avoid beauty trends, especially when it comes to surgery, which is not as easy to undo as temporary or repetitive treatments. So if you want to try a new hairstyle, that's fine. It will always grow out. If you want to try a new makeup style, that's fine. You can wash it off at the end of the evening. Not as easy with surgery. So avoiding beauty trends and focusing on your core sense of beauty is probably a better way to go.
Summer Hardy (11:26):
Thank you, Dr. Bass for sharing your thoughts on this important aspect of plastic surgery. I'm sure all our listeners want to receive customized treatments. Thank you for listening to the Park Avenue Plastic Surgery Class podcast. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, write a review and share the show with your friends. Be sure to join us next time to avoid missing all the great content that is coming your way. If you want to contact us with comments or questions, we'd love to hear from you, send us an email at podcast@drbass.net or DM us on Instagram at @drbassnyc.