Surgeons preparing for an operation

Two plastic surgeries at once? By two surgeons? Yes.

It’s extremely efficient for one patient to have two plastic surgery procedures by two rejuvenation surgeons — Drs. Linder and Kotler–during a single session.

It’s a common service offered by the eminent Beverly Hills board-certified cosmetic plastic surgeon Robert Kotler, M.D.  (who blogs as Dr. Face) and Beverly Hills board certified plastic surgeon Stuart Linder, M.D (the Dr. Body blogger) tell why it’s to a patient’s advantage to have several cosmetic plastic surgeries in one session when he or she wants procedures of the face and body.

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Dr. Face (Dr. Kotler):  We’ve already talked a great deal about how a patient is well served by seeing a superspecialist cosmetic plastic surgeon, one who specializes in just a handful of procedures and performs them at least weekly, if not daily.

Dr. Body (Dr. Linder): Because that surgeon performs the procedure so often, he or she is swift and efficient. That leads to less bruising, bleeding and soreness so healing is usually quicker.

Another benefit is that surgeon has seen all the wrinkles in a particular surgery. For instance, one rare complication of breast surgery is when a patient’s breast implants roll together under the skin. Known as symastia, many refer to it as a “uniboob” deformity.  It is extremely difficult to repair but many cases are referred to me because I specialize in surgery of the breast.

(See a picture of a breast augmentation that resulted in symastia.)

Dr. Face:  The two surgeon approach translates to a savings of time, money and convenience.  Two cosmetic plastic surgeons teaming up to do their respective cosmetic surgery work during one operation equals one session under anesthesia, one charge for the M.D.-anesthesiologist and one recovery and healing period. Not to mention one stay in Beverly Hills if you have traveled here from abroad as many of our patients do.

Dr. Body: Recently, a patient wanted to have liposuction of the body and cosmetic nasal surgery as well as some surgery inside the nose to correct and improve her breathing. Of course, we can’t work simultaneously. So I go first because liposuction requires vigorous movement, using long, thin tools through fatty areas of the body and that creates a little jostling. Dr. Face’s nasal surgery, however, is extremely delicate and the patient cannot be jostled.

Dr. Face: As you may know, I specialize in cosmetic procedures of the head and – on a daily basis — perform rhinoplasty and other nose surgery, face lift, eyelid lift, ear pinning, or otoplasty plus nonsurgical wrinkle removal. I was trained in all aspects of  face and neck plastic surgery but limit my practice to just the cosmetic procedures, including revision rhinoplasty.

Dr. Body: I, on the other hand, only perform procedures of the body and specialize in breast surgery, including breast surgery revision and reduction – for both men and women – plus liposuction and tummy tuck. Revision breast surgery is also one of my specialties.

Dr. Face: When the patient goes under anesthesia, one or the other of us will do our procedure and then step aside for the other surgeon. The anesthesia time considered safe in cosmetic plastic surgery is up to ten hours.

Dr. Body: But because we are both highly focused specialists, the total time for our joint procedures is usually somewhere around two and one-half hours.

Dr. Face: There are over 125 different plastic surgery procedures. It’s impossible for any one surgeon to master them all. Plastic surgeons are becoming ever more specialized. For  instance, some do only plastic surgery of the hand while still others only do reconstructive surgery.

Dr. Body:  In fact, all of American medicine is becoming extremely superspecialized.  While some surgeons specialize in chest surgery, others specialize in heart surgery only. Some eye surgery specialists only perform surgery on the retina while others limit their practice to cataract surgery.

Dr. Face: Today,  some heart surgeons super specialize in one area like the coronary arteries while another will specialize in operating on heart values.

Dr. Face: I know superspecialization is great for the patient because I was a surgical patient not long ago.

Dr. Body: What did you have?

Dr. Face:  I needed a hernia repair and choose a surgeon who does nothing but hernia repair. A neighbor of mine had the same procedure but went to a general surgeon who does many other operations.

Result? I was hiking  the next day! But my neighbor took weeks to recover.

Look at Dr. Body’s before and after breast augmentation pictures.

See Dr. Face’s before and after rhinoplasty (nose job) pictures.