A Plastic Surgeon On Why He Views Surgery As A Last Resort

Again, Youn likes to see cosmetic surgery as a last resort—an option to turn to after you’ve genuinely tried your hand at other avenues. “I turn down one out of every five or six patients who come to see me, and usually the answer is because they have unrealistic expectations,” he states. 

Here’s an example: When Youn receives liposuction requests, “I get people who say, “Just lipo my whole body down,’ and that’s just not the way that it goes,” he says. See, if someone wants to contour a stubborn area, that’s one thing, but for those who want an entire weight loss procedure? There are other less invasive ways to reach that goal. 

Additionally, Youn likes to recommend long-term recommendations for skin longevity before finally resorting to surgery. (Find some of his tips here.) For instance, he won’t perform any surgical skin care treatments on patients who smoke—because the procedure is only a Band-Aid for the damage underneath the surface. “I can tell if somebody is a smoker the moment I meet them, because you can see it in the quality of their skin,” he says. “Their skin is drier. They’ve got more wrinkles.” It’s perhaps an extreme example, but the point is that Youn likes to get to the bottom of his patients’ motivations—and if they don’t take care of their skin and body, he views surgery as an unreasonable step.

He also believes that cosmetic procedures are catering to a younger and younger crowd: “There have been articles about [teens] having plastic surgery because they’re getting bullied,” he notes. “That bothers me, because the idea is not, ‘Oh, you’re getting bullied, so let’s change you.’ We need to change the actions of the person who’s bullying you.” To that end, Youn doesn’t see any patients under 18 years old.