Things to consider before a breast surgery

There are many who are curious about our real time minotoring system, therefore I would like to introduce the system to you all.



Although the purpose for it’s application is saddending, real time monitoring system was applied to build up the trust between the patient and the clinic. The patient’s trust on the doctor is strong in developed countries such as US or Japan and such trust was not built up in a day or two but in many years.




Our country has developed really quickly and the idea of capitalism entered our country really easily. This is why the hospitals are also focused on earing money and expansion leading to bad perception from the patients. The patients think that the hospitals are only concerned with making money and power hungry doctors.

Also, national insurance cannot be applied to cosmetic surgeries therefore cosmetic surgeries tha consume much money have lost more trust of the patients.

There are many patients who visit 5 to 10 clinics before coming to us, as it is located in Gang-nam. As I see more of such patients, I think that the doctor and the patient have been distanced very far apart.

We used to call such behavior “doctor shopping” when I was in school. It is not the doctor who decides on the proper procedure and method for the patient, but it is the patient who chooses the doctor and the clinic just like when they are shopping for something.

Doctor shopping can be one of the characteristics of the IT world that we are living in today, but there has been too much commercial influence on this. The consumers are searching for cheap surgeries, and the clinics are marketing on low cost as well leading to a fierce price competition and what we call low price, high volume strategy.
Low price, high volume is appropriate if you conduct many surgeries. If one doctor has to take care of treatment, surgery, post-surgery treatment, the hourly cost would not be higher than the profit earned.



In order to get to the break even point, there are many clinics that use a “shadow surgeon” method. This method includes different person for each process. A consulting staff before the surgery, a doctor for pre-surgery treatment, and a doctor dedicated to only the surgery itself. This helps to save time, as the patient can move onto the next process without any boundaries. It would be more time consuming if one doctor has to take care of all these processes. This woul lead to low price, high volume and highest hourly revenue as well.

The first doctor to think of such process should be acknowledge in economic world but this is ethically and morally wrong for the doctor. Surgery should not be perceived economically. The management has to hire shadow surgeon at low income to save costs. This would not gurantee quality. Also, one person has to repeat his/her task one after another, therefore, a loss in concentration could lead to medical accident. Also, the surgeon would be somebody absolutely new to the patient therefore, the surgery itself could be a lie and a cheat to the patient.

When I was in school, the students would take care of the pre and post surgical treatment with the professor perfomrning the main surgery. This might have been right at that time, but when I come to think of it right now, it might not make sense. However, the residents spend more time with the patient in the university hospital more so than the professors. This is different to that of shadow surgeon in a small clinic.
There are xx clinics that are opening in all districts today. These are more of an “office clinics” that are focused solely in making money and appropriate to the system today. A person (not a doctor, but a business man) with marketing ability sits as the persident and manages the hospital. The clinics can only be opened by those with medical license so the beginning doctors or very cheap income doctors are hired to sit in such position. Such clinics have never ending medical accidents. There are lots of personal and civil complatins, but those presidents with much know-how can still bring in more patients.




Such clinics disappear in 2~3 years and the doctors are changed as well. This is one way to avoid taxation, medical inspection, etc. The patients who have suffered damages during this time cannot be compensated properly because everything has changed and the owner of the clinic is hiding behind somewhere.

Anyway, how do you think that we can differentiate such clinics from proper ones? I think that this is nearly impossible. There is no way if the owner is hiding or not, if the president of the clinic is fake or not or when the clinic will disappear.

Real time monitoring system is applied to cover up the mistrust between the patient and the doctor. This is just a policy. This system might temporarily make the patient to trust you but it cannot change the root or the origin of the mistrust.

I feel sad that I have to share what is happening int he operating room through the CCTV> However, this is the only method that can help the patients at the present moment. I don’t think that there is no other way to slowly build up trust between the patient and the doctor without this.

Thank you for reading. Have a good day.

Getting to know about breast augmentation

Today I would like to share details on treatment and follow-up service of breast augmentation.

1.
‘Treatment’ refers to activites that involve taking care of the wound, protecting the scar and bleeding, stabilizing  the surgery area, dressing, and prescribing medication.

Treatment means
Sterilizing the wound and providing dressing for it
Applying pressure bandage
Prescribing / injecting antibiotics, pain killers
Providing painless injecting
Providing drainage tubes
Removing stitches

Treatment is mostly conducted by the nurses



2.
Follow-up service refers to checking up on the patient to see if she is on the proper recovery process after the surgery, and proving appropriate care when necessary.

There are those patients who think that it would be more comfortable if they could as for whatever they want just like what the people do as they ask for specific spots when getting a massage. It is important to check if the patient is at a normal recovery status rather than doing what the patient wants.

Laser treatment for wound should be decided after finding out if there is pigmentation or not. Those with redness would only make it worse with the laser toning. But, there are those who want laser toning no matter what because they have paid some amount for treatment. I actually do not know what to do in such cases.

There is no preset process for follow-up service as it is with treatment. Follow-up service is conducted differently case by case.  There are various types of follow-up service such as,


Swelling, Helium-neon laser
Fulguration, managing pain
Hand massage ; to enlarge the breast skin (only for tight skin)
Ultrasonography ; To check if there is anythin wrong with the implant and surrounding area
Caring the wound, scar ; taping, laser toning, injecting, whitening etc




This is what I have for treatment and follow-up service.

There are many of those who are confused on the two. Maybe it is because they do not know the difference between treatment and follow-up service. Also, it may be because many think that follow-up is something similar to a social service.

Both treatment and follow-up service are medical actions. Medical actions are only to be conducted by the experts through their accurate decisions. Such are decided through examining ont the patient staturs and progress.

I believe that our clinic has all the experience and know-how in conducting treatment and foolow-up service for all types of patients. If you think that you need something after a surgery, please be sure to share about it with the doctor and the nurses.
 

Thank you for reading. Have a good night.

Non-invasive antiaging methods

Today, I would like to continue with sharing more information on mono thread, ie. thread without any hooks, for face lifting.

Its more close to tightening rather than lifting. Mono thread does not have a hook like that on the cloth hanger, therefore, is cannot have a lifting power without a fixation point.

Tightening effect is very important in making the face look younger. It is applied for improving on the whole face and neck on skin elasticity, forehear, eyes, double chin, marionette line, and nasobial wrinkles.


Also, there are  other modification of mono thread such as twin thread (two pieces of thread tangled) and tornado thread (tornado shaped mono thread). I mostly use the tornado thread.

Mono thread penetrates through the wrinkles and works at the opposite direction of the gravity from bottom to top, and in cross strip shape.

The more thread you use, the better the tightening effect.

Cog thread goes beneath the subbutaneous fat in order to fix on the fascial plane, but the mono thread is applied near the derma. There are those who are worried about sticking out effect on the thread because it is applied to close to the skin, but that much thin thread is used with a very thin needle, therefore, you do not need to be worried.



When using the mono thread  near marionette line, one penetrates through the marionette line, and the other is diagonally penetrated, so that the two crosses one another.



The mono thread is put in vertically with the marionette line, and the other set of threads are used for crossing one another. The more the thread are use, the better the tightening effect as well.

Then there are those who question on which thread to use. Should I use cog thread or mono thead for tightening effect?

The answer is a mixture of both. There is no one common aging effect, there are a mixture of various aging effects. You might have to use Botox on the forehead, use mono thread and Botox together for mid part of the forehead, combination of mono thread and cog thread for marionette line,  and filler ,skin botox, combination of cog and mono thread on marionette line.



Today, I wrote a brief summary on the application of mono thread for face lifting. It would be good if you check what kind of aging effects are happening to you and then decide on what procedure to take.

Thank you and have a good day.

Basic knowledge of anti-aging

Today, I would like to share about U-shaped thread for face thread lifting.

There are basically two types of threads, melting one and non-melting one. There is a non- melting thread called aptos, however this is not used today. The threads used today are all melting ones.

The melting threads can also be classifed into two groups, one with hooks and the other without any hooks. The hooks are used for strong lifting. We call the threads without the hooks, mono threads. You might wonder how no hook threads can lift up the skin? However, these threads are also very effective in providing anti-aging effect. The no-hook thread acts as a stimulant and gathers fiberous tissue making the skin come together. The hook is designed for lifting but the thread without the hook is used to tightening.




Most procedures mix the use of threads with and without the hook to provide anti-aging effect. There are many types of threads with hook also. There are hooks that are ties up or shaped like a cone. The most common one is the hook. The hook can be made by cutting or by sticking the cog. So there are many who are concerned with the thread being weak because it is somewhat damaged by the cutting.

There are U-shape and I-shape for cog thread. U-shaped cog has the most strength to maintain the lifting power. The principle behind is one fixation spot is not enough for the tensile strength therefore the fixation is done with the whole thread itself.




There is a procedure where the surface is used for the fixation. This would lead to strong resisting power but if the fixation space is wide, there must be more anesthesia used and there would be more pain with the suage of more substances.
Therefore, u-shaped cog thread is used most commonly.


Today, we shared various threading methods and a focus on the u-shaped thread for lifting.

Thank you and have a good day.

Managing breast augmentation and its side effects

There are those who are ask questions such as “How do you take care of capsular contracture in this clinic?” when I talk to the patients.

I have felt that many patients are unclear about what the hospital can do if the patient suffers side effects or other complications after breast augmentation as they gather information on the hospital.

Today, I would like to share about a complication that patients are most concerned about, capsular contracture.

1. Can it be avoided? Why does it happen?
Let’s first look into this and then carry on.
Capsular contracture is something that the doctors are still not biochemically clear about to this day.

It happens to some, and it does not to others. It gets formed to some within 6 months and disappears. One might not have any problem for 5 years but then suddenly it gets formed. What is the reason for this? We still do not have an answer.
The incidence rate, referred to a publishment and FDA report, is found to be at less than 20% but Tebetts and others have stated that it is less than 1%. The fact is that the incidence rate of capsular contracture is dramatically low at present than that in the past.

In the past, there were much bleeding during breast augmentation, and it was done above the pectoralis muscle. There was no method or concept such as dual plane. Also, not many textured implants were used. The doctors may not know the cause of the capsular contracture, but they have built up knowledge on how one could avoid it, therefore, limiting its incidence rate. However, we cannot make the incidence rate 0% with the usage of silicone implants. It can be formed although you take much care of your body.

One common cause that most doctors agree on is that the capsular contracture gets formed with infection in the part of the body that we cannot see and the inflammation that is caused. When substance such as an implant goes into the body, it gets polluted with air outside. Such pollutant reacts with the body and the matabolism system causes a capsule that is strong and hard. This capsule which makes the breast hard is called capsular contracture.

The most effective method in preventing the capsular contracture would then be to prevent pollution as much as possible. There are techniques for this, and these techniques are shared in my other posts.

2. Who is responsible for capsular contracture?
Unwanted happening after a surger is called “side effects” or “complications”.
One would argues if complications such as capsular contracture after breast augmentation is medically responsible or if it is something that happens naturally. It is difficult to say that this is something that is caused through medical reasonsing based on the sources and experiments conducted so far. This means that it is not caused due to the surgeons’s act, misdirection, or any other related actions.

Then, can the patient not have the hospital responsible for capsular contracture?
This is not true either because a doctor has a responsibility to do the best he/she can to achieve best result for the patient.



Although, there is no medical fault, the doctor needs to be somewhat responsible for the result. Therefore, he/she has the responsibility to make things right. Therefore, is the capsular contracture is formed, there are invasive methods such as correction, or non-invasive methods such as massaging that can be conducted. We, at our clinic, provide non-invasive methods for free of charge. If correction is necessary, it is free also. However, we charge for anesthesia, medication, and other material costs.



The gel within the implant gets dispersed and at times may feel that it gets folded
If there is malpractice or medical fault such as leaving the gauze near the implant, not knowing about it, and causing inflammation, I think that the hospital cannot charge the patient for breast augmentation. If the hospital does not react to such problem quickly enough leading to worsening of the inflammation and implant collapse, then this is a medical accident and the hospital must be reliable for compensation as well.
However, this is not the case for capsular contracture. That is the solution to it is vague and the hospital cannot give a clear answer.

3. Does correction help recover from capsular contracture?



When corrrecting a severe case of capsular contracture, we open up the epithelium. A complete removal of the epitheium might be necessary at times. The implant can be replaced as well.

There are patients who ask if the recurrence of capsular contracture can be completely avoided. The recurrence is avoided 90% of the times after the epithelium is opened up.
There are many who search for “capsular contracture” on the internet and think that it is the scariest complication. From my much experience, I believer that it is not the worst complication that one can suffer. Also, your interview with the doctor is very important before the surgery.

Therefore, you do not need to worry or be scared off capsular contracture. This applies to those who are waiting for the breast augmentation and those who already have got one. The assumptions from the internets are much different from statistically known facts.

I hope that today’s content has helped you. Have a great weekend. Thank you very much.