Dr. Michael Bermant, a plastic surgeon in Virginia, says he was attracted
to plastic surgery because it's the last area of surgery where you're
still a full general surgeon. "The old idea of general surgery that allows
you to do many different types of surgery has changed," he says.
"Today's general surgeon is restricted to a small area of expertise.
The advantage of plastic surgery is that we take care of so many different
parts of the body that the potential for problem solving is just much greater."
A plastic surgeon is constantly presented with challenges. "The best thing
about plastic surgery is that it keeps your mind going and constantly presents
you with unusual problems to solve and conquer," Bermant says.
"It gives you a fun chance to bring a patient through a potentially emotional
process and help him understand what needs to be done and how best to accomplish
it."
Not only are plastic surgeons highly skilled, but they're also understanding
listeners and gifted artists. They must be able to read their patients and
understand what they want and expect.
"In the first few minutes, you have to show people that you're with
them and not above them," says Dr. Donald Capuano, a plastic surgeon in New
York. "You have to show you understand what's going on with them. Your
experience says that you can help them."
Pediatric plastic surgeon Dr. Cynthia Verchere says her field is excellent
for women. "Gender-sensitive fields such as breast reconstruction, cosmetic
surgery and even pediatrics sometimes seem to be areas where patients express
a preference for female surgeons -- fairly or unfairly," Verchere says.
"The job itself is great. The patients, the surgical techniques and the
collegiality of other plastic surgeons make the day-to-day plastics practice
very enjoyable."
A typical case most plastic surgeons have probably seen is cancer of the
mouth, in which patients don't survive more than three to seven months
after diagnosis.
Bermant remembers one particularly difficult case of mouth cancer. "The
patient was referred to me by an oral surgeon," Bermant says.
"In the operating room, we split his jaw open, took the tumor out from
the floor of the mouth and took out the lymph nodes from both sides of his
neck. We then rebuilt the floor of his mouth with a piece of skin and fascia
from one of his arms, then rebuilt the artery that the skin and fascia came
from, using a piece of vein from his leg. We then had to put a skin graft
on the arm and then close everything up. That was 23 hours worth of surgery."
Capuano says he was inspired to become a plastic surgeon after watching
a moving operation. "I was under the tutelage of a world-famous plastic surgeon,"
he says.
"One day I was supposed to help him work on a little baby with a cleft
palate. I looked in there and said, 'My God, how can that be closed up?'
Within an hour, it was closed, and it was extremely fascinating. From that
day on, I knew this was something I really wanted to do."
Plastic surgery carries with it a huge amount of responsibility. "You definitely
have to be as consistently excellent as you can be," Capuano says. "You can't
do good work 80 percent of the time. You have to try to make it as close to
100 percent of the time as you can."
Plastic surgeon Dr. Robert Stubbs offers this insight into the field of
plastic surgery: "A plastic surgeon must be both an artist and a physician,"
he says.
"But above all, he must have an innate creative sense. Each day, he's
challenged by surgical problems that often have no known solution. Combining
a broad surgical training and his innovative abilities, the plastic surgeon
constantly seeks to expand surgical frontiers."
Stubbs notes that plastic surgery isn't restricted to any anatomical
region. "The plastic surgeon is limited only by his imagination. Historically,
plastic surgeons have accepted the challenges and problems that other doctors
have avoided -- burns, hand surgery, craniofacial reconstruction, congenital
deformities, microvascular and cosmetic.
"Each patient, each problem, and every day are different. It gives me a
creative outlet and almost immediate gratification," says Stubbs.