Plastic Surgery in Hawaii

Hey everybody i’m here with dr kevin dieffenbach at plastic surgery oahu you can find them at plasticsurgeryoahu.com so we’re here to talk about cosmetic surgery and some of the common treatments and the new exciting procedures that are out there for it so dr d thank you very much for joining us today i appreciate it thank you caleb pleasure to be here yeah absolutely and i wanted to start off just by asking how long you’ve been working as a plastic surgeon well actually i’ve been doing this for over 30 years now as a board-certified plastic surgeon and a member of the american society of plastic surgery and we’ve also had our own operating room now for the past 10 years okay awesome was there anything in particular that made you want to get into that space and be able to help people with their cosmetic goals yeah i have uh an uncle who was a plastic surgeon in new orleans that i spent a couple of summers with during college and then also during medical school and i really got to see the amazing things that he was able to do both from a reconstructive standpoint but also from a cosmetic surgery standpoint um and that really inspired me to pursue uh plastic surgery for my career as well okay definitely yeah it’s awesome to hear was there anything in anything in particular that you know about that situation that really made you kind of want to be able to help people as far as their cosmetic goals with that well yeah just just seeing the the positive chain that changes that it brought to people’s lives and how how uh they really felt so much better about themselves after the procedures that were done um it was just seemed really rewarding uh from from a surgeon’s standpoint but also from the patient standpoint yeah absolutely and i was curious since uh you know towards the end of the pandemic here have you guys noticed an increase in patients coming in for procedures again absolutely uh in hawaii we were fairly fortunate in that the pandemic uh never really shut us down completely so we always had a slow stream of patients coming in even at the height of the pandemic but as as things have improved here uh we’ve certainly seen an increased uh demand for plastic surgery procedures um unfortunately we’ve been able to uh meet that demand for the most part okay definitely and then um have you guys um do you mainly focus on like the facial aspect of the procedures or more of the body contouring are you guys pretty much all inclusive there actually we are pretty all inclusive of face breast body non-surgical alternatives things like old therapy and we’ve added a couple of new lasers uh to kind of round out uh all the different treatment options that we can offer patients so basically anything head to toe we can we can take care of it okay awesome is there a particular procedure too that you wanted to give some good education to the viewers about well one of our more popular procedures uh is the mommy makeover and and by that i mean uh a combination of breast and stomach work uh which can include breast implants with a with or without a breast lift a tummy tuck with or without liposuction and we’re really getting a lot of demand for that from our middle aged female population who just want to restore their body to the condition it was before their pregnancies okay yeah definitely and what is the um the average surgical time with that procedure well it can vary widely depending on all the details of the procedure required but typically four to six hours for surgical time and then recovery time can take a week or two um in terms of getting back to work and being able to get around on your own full recovery to get back to strenuous activities can take a month or two so it can be a major procedure and definitely needs to be planned out in terms of work and having help around the house especially for women with small children yeah definitely and then is there any um you know treatments or procedures that you guys recommend before or after that um just to make sure that you maximize the results with those uh well we like those patients to be in general good health reasonably close to their ideal weight and and sometimes that means that we have to postpone surgery for a period of time if they’re in the process of of trying to lose weight because if we can have them at a stable weight that they can maintain it will allow me to do a better job in terms of tightening and lifting and help the results last longer okay definitely and then like you said so the main benefits of having that procedure done are just uh slimming the midsection there and then it’s typically accompanied with with breast augmentation yes and and some some women will even want uh some facial procedures done like their eyelids or a facelift o therapy would be a a good non-surgical option for a facelift so we really just want to help restore not only a woman’s body but also their self-esteem and confidence okay yeah definitely and then how long do the the results with those typically last well for the most part these are our long-term if not permanent results certainly things like a tummy tuck should really only need to be once done once in a lifetime however things like breast implants may need to be replaced every 10 to 20 years and if there’s a breast lift done we may need to do a little touch up on the lift due to gravity and the effects of normal aging and if there are our significant weight changes we may need to do touch-ups on the liposuction but for the most part these are our fairly long-lasting procedures that may never need to be repeated okay definitely and then um you know i know with the cosmetic treatments and with everything you know coming such a long way in the advancements is there any specific techniques or instruments that you guys use to really help you out with those procedures definitely uh for things like mommy makeover for the liposuction aspect we have uh purchased a power assisted liposuction machine which significantly uh improves the results by helping to break up stubborn fat and making it easier to remove and also doing it with less pain and less recovery in addition to that for smaller procedures we’ve introduced a pronox system which is nitrous oxide otherwise known as laughing gas that you may have seen in your dentist or oral surgery office but is also now used in labor and delivery suites and is becoming more popular in cosmetic surgery practices pronox or nitrous oxide helps relieve the anxiety and lessen the pain from procedures that could be done under just local anesthesia with the advantage being that there’s very little recovery time and patients can literally drive themselves home afterwards so not only does it save on the cost of having to bring in an anesthesiologist to provide anesthesia for their surgery the recovery is much easier and they can be back to work the next day yeah and i think a lot of patients are now realizing the benefits of having you know just the local anesthesia and then i’m sure um with the laughing guests while being able to not have the complications and the extra you know issues that they’re gonna deal with with general anesthesia yes it’s it’s much safer and and they don’t need to get a checkup from their family doctor beforehand so even for patients that have uh high blood pressure or diabetes it’s a much safer uh way to go and that helps save on the cost as well okay definitely and then who would you say is really you know an ideal candidate for those procedures well again someone that doesn’t need or want the the full uh treatment maybe they just need some liposuction or maybe they just need a mini tummy tuck um or maybe they just need a minor breast lift or a breast implant exchange those are procedures that we used to have to do using iv sedation and now we can do them under products um and the patients love it because one of the positives of it is that the patients actually control how much anesthesia they get because they’re the ones actually holding the tubing to control when and how much anesthesia they get okay definitely yeah that’s very interesting and uh lastly i was curious if you had any you know advice for a patient that’s you know hearing this and is thinking you know that this might be a good treatment for them well i think the first step would be to come in for a consultation or for those who uh in hawaii we have many patients on the outer islands we do offer uh not just the the 3d imaging but we can do that virtually so for patients from outer islands or even patients who have busy work schedules and can’t find the time to come into our office we can do their consults virtually uh and with the 3d imaging really give them a really good idea of what their results might be and what different options might be okay definitely and then what would be the best way for them to get in contact with you guys well the best way or the easiest way would be to to go to our website at plasticsurgeryoahu.com or they can call us directly at 808 678-1955 and we’d be happy to give them more information and go from there okay perfect all right well thank you so much for the information dr d i really appreciate that thank you caleb it’s been my pleasure absolutely all right well have a good rest of your day thank you you too hello