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Fake Plastic Surgeons, Baby Play-Sets, and more! - No Spin Live Ep.39

176 views · Published 9 April 2018 · 20:08 · Indexed 25 September 2026

Channel: The Plastic Surgery Channel · 2018 · Howto & Style

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Board certified plastic surgoens discuss Fake Plastic Surgeons, plastic surgery Baby Play-Sets, breast implant ALCL, and more! - No Spin Live Ep.39

A recent report from Australia noted a string of “cosmetic surgery practices” that were ran and staffed by unqualified “surgeons.” This is a problem both in the US and abroad as plastic surgery becomes more and more mainstream, especially the non-surgical procedures like Botox and facial fillers. That said, unqualified “practices” still offer legitimate surgical procedures at a discounted rate, which is certainly the more worrying of the two.

Board certified plastic surgeons discuss on the latest episode of No Spin Live.

AUSTRALIA? OR MIAMI?
While this story is in regards to an issue down under, this same issue has been occurring with dangerous frequency in the states. “If it wasn’t for the Australian accents, I thought they were in Miami,” shares board certified plastic surgeon Dr. Jason Pozner. “We’ve got this 50 miles from here, the same stuff is going on, now it’s metastasized to another country. It’s the same thing we’ve been going through in the US for awhile with illegal places doing illegal things with people who think they’re getting something cheaper.”

Perhaps one of the more interesting points is how the businesses were shut down. Dr. Pozner shares that had this exact same story happened in the US, they may have been shut down quicker. “Watching the video was interesting because if it were the US, they would have closed down those places much more rapidly than they did in Australia.”

While “shutting them down” seems like a good thing, that doesn’t necessarily mean the beast is dead. Unfortunately with the legal situations surrounding these enterprises, it’s more like cutting off the head of a Hydra, to have it replaced by 3 more.

UNDERSTANDING CORPORATE MEDICINE IN THE COSMETIC INDUSTRY
Much of the issues has to do with how readily a business can form and the modern marketing tools at their disposal. Dr. Dan Del Vecchio, a board certified plastic surgeon in Boston, describes the typical process: “The corporate practice of medicine is very easy to unwind,” he begins. “If you create a corporation called X, Y, Z Corporation, open up in a strip mall, and hire a [veterinarian] to inject Botox into patients… If you get caught, there are very few consequences. In most states, the practice of medicine without a license is like a $500 fine. It’s not prison time. You don’t go to jail for practicing medicine without a license. And the corporation just dissolves, it’s an LLC!”

A business dissolving because it unintentionally hurt, or killed, a patient isn’t such a big deal. Why? Well, the same people in charge can just begin another business and start all over again. “Nobody gets hurt in the long-run besides the patient, and then they pop up again in another strip mall!” says Del Vecchio. “That’s the problem we see with all of the deaths in Florida with all these boutique clinics – they just open back up. The physician is the only one who is really liable because they have a conscious and licenses that they have to hold. But corporations can just change the name and start again.”

PATIENTS HAVE TO VET THEIR SURGEONS, WHICH CAN BE A CHALLENGE
Part of the difficulty in addressing this issue is medical licensing isn’t as stringent as one might be led to believe. Receiving a state license to practice medicine – in this case plastic surgery – has very little to do with the amount of training the license applicant has. Because of this, it becomes even more difficult for patients to separate the wheat from the chaff. “These are non-doctors and aren’t under the same requirements we are,” shares board certified plastic surgeon Dr. Brad Calobrace of Kentucky. “That’s what becomes the real problem. The government ultimately has to step in at some point in time. I think they’ve needed to step in for a long, long time, even as it relate to physicians. All you need in most states is a license to practice medicine and really you need no credentials in that particular specialty – especially in plastic surgery – to go ahead and hang your shingle and actually do these procedures.”

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