Patients are from Mars, and doctors are from Venus [Plastic surgery Korea KIES-U]

The Importance of a Consultation before Breast Surgery

A doctor’s concerning points about breast surgery


I think that this area is more confusing and difficult as I talk to more patients.

I feel hopeless when.....
the patient’s response is completely the opposite of what I am trying to get across.

Plastic surgery Korea KIES-U

This is a communication problem. It is not easy to get an agreement with a person trying to convey one thing to another.

There are some patients who catch on what I am trying to say accurately and understand it well but this is not always the case. Sometimes, both sides are talking about different things.

I thought about why this happens.

There are many reasons but I think that one important one is the pre-information that the patient has before visiting a doctor.

A patient has a need for plastic surgery (including breast augmentation) and asks things to those around and also searches information on line.

In this stage, she catches both right and wrong information. There are some information that oppose one another.

Breast surgery Korea KIES-U

There is some wrong information from non-experts that they get.
The fundamental behind a medical activity is to provide a treatment to an ill patient.

But breast augmentation is not for illness but for those who want to improve on some beauty related problem and therefore this is much related to product sales and advertising.

I think there is a big problem here. I think that the miscommunication between a doctor and a patient starts at this very point.

Plastic Surgery Korea KIES-U

Commercialized hospitals or non-experts spend much money to advertise on 000 surgery,  000 methods, to cover up a surgical method and communicate on a product.

This would lead to differentiation. For example, if you are advertising on an energy drink, you will talk about different substances in it and say that is why the drink is more superior than the competitor products.

But this type of thinking cannot be applied on to the surgery method or any other medical activity that requires dissection.
All patients have different problems and characteristics.

A surgery should be applied according to the patient. A certain '000 surgical method' should not be mentioned as the most outstanding one and advertised as the best one for everyone.

Breast augmentation Korea KIES-U

A patient needs to quickly forget or disregard any information on the internet that says you will have an uniform effect if you use '000 surgical method' or '000 implant', etc.
A medical activity is different from a bag shopping.

In the first meeting between the doctor and a patient, the doctor analyzes on the patient’s body and any special characteristics.

And needs to look at
1) What is necessary to improve on and what can be improved on
2) What is necessary to improve on but cannot be improved
3) What does not need an improvement

A doctor needs to differentiate the things above and communicate them to the patients. One should not say that he can improve on something that he cannot.

Breast surgery Korea KIES-U

Everyone can buy the same bag with a certain amount of money, but this is not the same for a medical activity, especially in a surgery. If there are 1000 patients, all 1000 patients have different problems and after a surgery, all of them would have different results.

This is the part that the patients do not understand and this is why the communication gets difficult. I spend the most time explaining on the problem that the patient has in the very first interviews.

It is difficult for a person to have a rational thought about one’s body. However, this is necessary prior to any surgeries.

I have small breasts

There are many with small breasts. But it is important to think about what are my special characteristics, and what is different about me comparing to others.

Plastic Surgery Korea KIES-U

Is there asymmetry? Why is this caused?
Are the nipples in the correct position when comparing to the shoulder bone and the belly button? What caused this wrong position?
Is the width and the under-band diameter appropriate compared to the body shape?
Are both axillary creases symmetric or not?
How is the extensibility or the elasticity of the skin? Too weak or too strong? Why?
Is the tissue close to one another or not? How is this caused?
Is there something that you can feel on the breast? Does the patient have past records? Is this related to breast augmentation?
How big is the areola? How is the costal cartilage?
Are the ribs or spine bent? Or shaped differently than normal?
Are the breastbones shaped evenly?
And finally, do I hope for mentally normal and appropriate results? Or am I expecting unrealistic results?

All these things are important during the communication stage. If you disregards these things, then the interview with the patient might not be worthwhile.
It would just be like any simple talk on beauty surgery.

Breast augmentation Korea KIES-U

But surprisingly many patients….

When I talk to the patients about the body and breast, they cut me off and say things like “I have heard that 00 brand smooth round type implant is good. I want it.”

This is similar to when you are buying a house.
You are busily talking about school district, house size, price, location, distance from public transportation, noise level, accessibility, but then all of a sudden you say that you like a certain lighting system in a particular house and decide to buy it.

If you look at the patients who want beauty surgery with a perception of marketing, the suppliers would explain things with the purpose of selling any good that they make. This is not a consultation, this is sales.

Consumers would just talk about what they want and try to get discounts, whereas, the suppliers will try to promote and sell the products that they have. The communication would be centered about these points and nothing more.

The problem is that there are too many people who are like this. The hospitals too, try to what the patients want and are not focused or interested on how the patients would be in 10 or 20 years.

Breast surgery Korea KIES-U

Looking at those who want breast augmentation to solve a problem as a patient and looking at them as just another consumer who wants a product are different.

The hospital should to observe and analyze the patient, communicate on the problems and have the patients realize what the problem is.
Then provide information on how the problem can be solved with what limitations, and finally decide on whether to have the surgery or not.

But in today’s capital oriented society, the hospitals, whether they like it or not, have characteristics of a salesperson.

But a surgery that uses knife for dissection needs to remove such sales thinking, and strive to communicate on how to solve the problem that a patient has.

This would lead to great mental and physical satisfaction of the patient with minimized dissatisfaction, surgical accidents, side effects, or any other problems.

This is all for today, thank you for reading.

Have a great day.