Top plastic surgeons in the country

Weirdoc said:

Is there somewhere I can find a list of these people.

Click to expand...

This kind of list is by nature subjective & reflects publicity as much as skill but I'll throw in on it with the best I've personally seen either work on video or on site. This is definately not a comprehensive list, but kind of a thumbnail sketch of some of the more well-known authorities. There are many anonymous surgeons (ie. ones not on the talking head circuit) who produce results at least as good as the more well-known ones.

Breast work - Pat Maxwell (Nashville), Scott Spears (Georgetown U.), John Tebbets (Dallas), Mark Jewel (Eugene,Oregon)

Reconstructive/reoperative Breast surgery - Pat Maxwell (Nashville)

Eyelid/periorbita - glen Jelks (NYC), Mark codner (Atlanta), Steve Fagien (Boca Raton)

Face Lifts - John Owlsley (San Francisco), Sam Hamra (Dallas), Fritz Barton (Dallas), Dan Baker (NYC), Sherrel Aston (NYC)

Rhinoplasy - dean Toriumi (Chicago), Jack Gunter (dallas), Mark Constantinian (New Hampshire), Rod Rohrich (Dallas)

Hair Transplantation - Jack Fisher (Nashville)

Body work - Alan Matarasso (NYC), Peter rubin (Pittsburgh)

Post Bariatric body work - Al Aly (Iowa), Jeff Kenkel (Dallas), Mary Gingrass (Nashville), Joe Capello (New Jersey)

I agree with droliver in that this is very subjective, and furthermore you have to better define what you mean by being a "top" plastic surgeon. Being labeled as a "top plastic surgeon" is often the result of an excellent publicist rather than excellent surgical skills.

There are, however, notorious plastic surgeons, who have elevated themselves among their peers for one reason or another. Maybe they're experts in one particular area, or they are known for innovations that have influenced the specialty in some way. Some become notorious when they author a text, publish many articles on a topic that establishes them as an expert in that area, or become chairman of a department or president of a society.

Some of these notorious plastic surgeons who fall into one of the above categories include:

reconstructive: steve mathes-ucsf (authored a very famous text on flaps), henry kawamoto-ucla (craniofacial surgeon, got a lot of publicity for separating those siamese twins a few years ago), joseph mccarthy-nyu (legendary craniofacial surgeon, authored a leading plastics textbook, chair of nyu plastics for a while), john mulliken-harvard (famous old-school craniofacial plastic surgeon), bill mcgee (founded operation smile)

rhinoplasty: dan baker-nyc (VERY high volume in nyc; you may hear of the eponymous "baker nose" among the ladies who lunch on the upper east side)

facelift: j. william little-georgetown (known for his work on malar imbrication--his results are excellent and he publishes a lot on the subject), sherrel aston-nyc (chief of plastics at manhattan eye and ear, very high patient volume)

eyelid: there are a few surgeons who trained in plastics and ophthalmology and publish a lot on this topic, such as glenn jelks (mentioned above) and henry spinelli (nyc, recently published a textbook on aesthetic eyelid surgery).

body lift: peter rubin-pitt (as mentioned above; started the first body lift fellowship in the country at pitt)

other notorious plastic surgeons:
-rod rohrich (editor of PRS; notorious for writing the most unsophisticated and mind-numbingly trite editorials for the journal)
-robert goldwyn (the previous editor of PRS, a legend in plastics; notorious for his sage and erudite editorials in the journal)
-james stuzin (famous miami cosmetic surgeon)

the list goes on....but that's enough for now.

Plastics is a relatively small community, and if you do rotations at any program you're likely going to work with someone who's either notorious or knows a lot about those who are. Many of the well-known figures are often visiting professors at other programs (which just means they visit for a day or two, participate in some teaching activities, and give a grand rounds presentation). If you go to a national or regional plastics meeting or conference, many of these people attend and you can meet them or watch them give a talk. For example, at one meeting I saw Dr. Little give a talk on facelift techniques and he illustrated his points with photos of his patients pre- and post-op, and I was very impressed with the results (as were the others in the room) and that's how you can show the rest of the community the work you're doing. Then people like me can hold surgeons like him in high esteem and drop his name on forums like this even though I don't know the guy personally nor have I watched him operate.

mcindoe said:

For example, at one meeting I saw Dr. Little give a talk on facelift techniques and he illustrated his points with photos of his patients pre- and post-op, and I was very impressed with the results

Click to expand...

Dr. Little gives the most psychedelic powerpoint shows for sure! I'm more impressed with his analytic points on volumetric changes and aging rather then his technique (or some would say Tessier's technique previously). The extremely prolonged recovery period (8 weeks+) from his subperiosteal disection has limited the popularity of this approach. His pictures are great but there's only a handful of people doing what he does I believe. That's why I didn't include him on that list of influential face-lift surgeons although I thought about it. The Baker (SMASectomy or plication), Owlsley (SMAS flap), and Hamra (deep-plane) popularized-concepts are really what everyone is doing.


I was a little surprised @ your inclusion of dan Baker on the rhinoplasty list. I (through a friend who was a fellow of his a few years ago) was under the impression he almost was exclusively doing 2-3 facelifts a day with a few brow lifts/blephs thrown in. When you mentioned the "Baker nose" it reminded me of the "Diamond nose". Dr. Diamond was the premier rhinoplasty surgeon in Manhattan for a long time in the 1950's-70's, especially if you were Jewish & from Long Island. He had a very characteristic "ski slope" (straight dorsum with no supra-tip break) look that he did on everyone & you see a lot of women in Manhattan in their 60-70's with a nose you can instantly attribute to him

droliver said:

I was a little surprised @ your inclusion of dan Baker on the rhinoplasty list. I (through a friend who was a fellow of his a few years ago) was under the impression he almost was exclusively doing 2-3 facelifts a day with a few brow lifts/blephs thrown in. When you mentioned the "Baker nose" it reminded me of the "Diamond nose". Dr. Diamond was the premier rhinoplasty surgeon in Manhattan for a long time in the 1950's-70's, especially if you were Jewish & from Long Island. He had a very characteristic "ski slope" (straight dorsum with no supra-tip break) look that he did on everyone & you see a lot of women in Manhattan in their 60-70's with a nose you can instantly attribute to him

Click to expand...

As I mentioned above, my limited list is comprised of some of the more notorious plastic surgeons; I will be the first to admit that I have far too little experience to make any informed judgments about their surgical acumen and skill. I'm just waiting to see if anyone will explain the criteria are for being labeled as a "top" plastic surgeon anyway.

As for the eponymous Baker nose, all I know is that I've heard about how he regularly has his rhinoplasty patients set up in multiple rooms so that he can go from one to the next without having to waste time waiting around for the next case to start. This isn't necessarily uncommon; his fee, on the other hand, is definitely...um...let's just say 2 standard deviations above the mean. Nevertheless he is always booked solid and despite the fees he must be doing something right (or at least his work is perceived to be good by patients).

The "Diamond nose" story is funny, because I grew up in a different Jewish suberbia (you know, the type where the girls get a rhinoplasty for their 16th birthday instead of having a "sweet 16" party) and there was a notorious surgeon in the area who gave every patient the same shape, kind of like the description you gave, and he became known for his eponymous rhinoplasty.

Lastly, you're very right about Dr. Little and his exotic approach to the facelift. Others reading this thread should know that his facelifts are full day procedure, he dissects throughout the entire face, and it doesn't come cheap-- his surgeon fee is well over $20K for a facelift. But his results are great and he really understands and appreciates the mechanisms of the aging face and has a very systematic and logical (albeit lengthy) approach to correcting it. Plus it's rather unique. For everyone reading this, you can see a lot of his before-and-after photos in his PRS articles (do a pubmed search and enter "little jw"). He happens to be an excellent writer so his articles are great to read.

I'm looking forward to learning (and trying) the different facelift techniques during residency--I've been impressed with the malar imbrication results and I'd like to learn that for sure.

Does Dr. Aston perform quality rhinoplasty? Someone told me Nicholas Tabbal is the guru of nosejobs. Or should i got to Baker?

I think it's funny how not one hand or brachial plexus surgeon (nor even those categories) was mentioned on this.

SocialistMD said:

I think it's funny how not one hand or brachial plexus surgeon (nor even those categories) was mentioned on this.

Click to expand...

Norman Weinzweig, MD; CHicago; expert on the mutilated hand

James Stuzin, MD, Miami is not a cosmetic surgeon; but rather a leader of the facelift, teaching/training residents and surgeons,and co-editor of PRS with Rodich.
Ted Lockwood - Denver region; hip, glutal, abdomen expert

Dennis Hurwitz (over Peter Rubin) for full body lift post bariatric


There is no official ranking list

Jocomama said:

Ted Lockwood - Denver region; hip, glutal, abdomen expert

There is no official ranking list

Click to expand...

Are you kidding me? Where do you get your information? First of all, Ted Lockwood was not in the Denver area, he was in Overland Park. Second, he passed away 3 or 4 years ago from brain cancer I believe. You are correct though, in that he was a marvelous surgeon and even better person.

I agree about Lockwood. He was a very kind man. I didn't know him in a professional sense, but everyone references his work on body lifts.

hi i also know a eye surgeon from new york here u can find him easily

www.puffyeyes.com

heworks for botox , cosmetic surgery ryrlid lift and many more go ahead take a look may be this will helps you
rubia

Dr. Robert Rey, Beverly Hills, CA. lol... But truely as over the top as he gets in his shows, I like the guy.

Weirdoc said:

I guess my question is besides asking other physicians, which can be biased, is their some sort of listing or recommendation from an official source who is considered the best in each particular field.

Click to expand...

No, there isn't. In plastics, which is a small field, you have guys who are well-known for a variety of reasons...well-published, on TV, well-known from word-of-mouth. There is no consensus on which surgeon is the "best" because there is no such thing as "the best" in plastic surgery. Even the most famous surgeons have outcomes that are suboptimal. Of course, there are a huge number of private practice surgeons who have fantastic results but are not reknowned nationally because they aren't on TV or have no desire to publish.

Also, would add a few names to the reconstruction list, under the heading "reconstuction post head and neck cancer resection".

-Mark Urken (NY), Gerry Funk (IA), Neal Futran (WA)

I've been watching this thread for a while now. Since I've actually rotated thru NYC (Lenox Hill and Manhattan Eye/Ear), I think I provide an opinion based on what I've actually seen.

The guys mentioned (Aston, Baker, Jelks, Tabbal) are all fine surgeons. I would probably add Matarasso and Zide to this list. As I did my med school in Pittsburgh, I've seen Hurwitz operate but I've changed my opinion about him as time has gone on. I've also been exposed to others that have been around a long time (i.e., trained by Aufricht) and have learned much about the history of plastics (mostly NYC) from them.

All that being said, here's my point:

Aston and Matarasso can do a facelift in 1.5 to 2 hours. That's because that's all these guys do (along with blephs and noses). They don't do anything different than anyone else, there is no "magic;" they became good thru repetition and reputation. Reputation is based on perception by the patient that the job was well done. Believe it or not, there are plenty of guys out there who do good but not great work that have great reps because their patients like them. Of course, Aston being married to a NY socialite didn't hurt his career much either.

The other guys mentioned (Jelks, Baker, Zide) are also fine surgeons who have made major contibutions to the field and thus have a reputation as well.

But I'm going to tell you that there are also plenty of other peope who do really good work (i.e., community guys) who you've never heard of and won't because they don't publish in PRS or Annals. They do solid, consistent, predictable surgery and take care of their patients.

Conversely, while someone like Lockwood had a great rep and was universally considered to be a great person, some of those that knew him did not consider him to be good techically. He also didn't do body lifts on the post bariatric surgery patients we see now.

In my opinion, the best plastic surgeons are those that get good, consistent results who care about the patient (see a theme here?) and aren't completely focused on the bottom line or their reputation in the academic community.

You do know, don't you, that "notorious" means famous or well known for some BAD behavior or reason? For that reason, I would never want to see a "notorious" surgeon! Famous, yes. Celebrated, admired, iconic, yes. Notorious, no.

By the way, one superb breast surgeon is Dr. Leonard Roudner in the Miami area. I have personally worked with him and have seen his awesome results. He does great augmentation mammoplasty, as well as reduction and "redo" of other physicians' botched work.
I have also worked with Dr. Tracy Baker on in Miami. His specialty is the best abdominoplasty you could imagine. He is superb there. No "dog ears." Hides the umbilical scar inside the umbilicus. Does lipo on flanks and abdomen and creates a "champagne groove."
Finally, I have been told that Dr. Jim Stuzin in Miami does nice facelifts. I have not personally worked with Dr. Stuzin.

Disclaimer: I am an anesthesiologist MD. I am not a surgeon. However, as an anesthesiologist I've worked with many different surgeons and have seen great, good, bad and indifferent results.

FYI, this thread is 7+ years old

This thread is very old....

kellycola said:

You do know, don't you, that "notorious" means famous or well known for some BAD behavior or reason? For that reason, I would never want to see a "notorious" surgeon! Famous, yes. Celebrated, admired, iconic, yes. Notorious, no.

Click to expand...

Holy crap, your account is 14 years old and you bumped a 7 year old thread with your 6th post

I'm glad that KellyCola did that because the person who used the word incorrectly is obviously an intelligent person and it's very embarrassing to make such a mistake. I was wondering why the original poster was bad-mouthing doctors, and then I realized that they just did not know the definition of the word they were using - so funny, but not in a nice way.