Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Bergen County
Good Neighbor Podcast: Bergen
Ep. # 18 Unveiling the Art of Plastic Surgery: Dr. David Abramson on Innovative Techniques and Accessible Transformations
Uncover the secrets of modern plastic surgery with the esteemed Dr. David Abramson, as he shares his groundbreaking journey in enhancing and reconstructing the human form. From microsurgery marvels in breast reconstruction to refining aesthetic techniques like facelifts and tummy tucks, Dr. Abramson's expertise spans a diverse range of procedures. His innovative methods, particularly in breast reconstruction using abdominal tissue, have transformed countless lives and highlight the sophisticated art of contemporary surgery. Tune in to hear about his meticulous approach and how it ensures patient comfort and success from consultation to recovery.
Discover the advanced technologies at Dr. Abramson's Englewood office and learn what distinguishes his practice in a competitive field. With a commitment to personalized care and pioneering techniques, Dr. Abramson opens up about his journey and how you can embark on your own. Whether you're considering cosmetic enhancement or reconstructive surgery, this episode offers invaluable insights into the world of plastic surgery.
David Abramson MD
363 Grand Ave
Englewood, NJ 07631
(201) 731-3134
facebook@drabramson.com
drabramson.com
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Doug Drohan.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Yeah, welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbors Podcast. Today we are joined by Dr David Abramson. Dr David Abramson is a plastic surgeon. He's got three offices. He's with us today from his Englewood location, but he's also in Franken Lakes and New York City and Dr Abramson is basically one of the top or premier plastic surgeons in the area. He's built a solid and amazing reputation in, as I said, new York City, manhattan, englewood and the surrounding areas. He does pretty much all of your different cosmetic procedures and you can only expect top-of-the-line treatments and I think one of the things that comes through is he's really passionate not just Dr Abramson, but the whole staff and they want to help guide you through every step of the process. So, dr Abramson, thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know. What I didn't touch on is how long have you been a plastic surgeon and at what point in medical school did you decide that you wanted to be a plastic surgeon?
Speaker 3:So actually I decided I wanted to be a plastic surgeon, probably in college because I worked in a microsurgery lab. So I had done some of that type of research and, although that's not the main focus of my practice, it's what got me interested in plastic surgery. And then, when I was a medical student, I also did additional microsurgery research. I've been in practice now for 27 years in the area you know, new York, new Jersey area.
Speaker 2:So what is microsurgery? What's a microsurgery lab?
Speaker 3:Well, it's when you hook up blood vessels under the microscope.
Speaker 3:They're very small and we use it for various kinds of reconstruction. I do use it for breast reconstruction, which is one of the main areas of my practice as well, but I don't use it for trauma, things like that. You know there are many other areas you can use microsurgery for, for different kinds of reconstruction. It's now used some in transgender surgery, things like that. So it was some of the early areas of research to try and make the anastomosis, when you hook up the blood vessels, stay patent. We were trying to figure out ways to improve that, because if the if that doesn't stay open, there's no blood flow and what you're trying to move from one place to another won't survive.
Speaker 2:Okay, is that the type of I guess so, for want of a better word technology that goes into grafting like if you're, or implants like if you know, like a transplant?
Speaker 3:I should say Well, it would be like an organ transplant, but with much smaller blood vessels. So we use it frequently I use it to make a breast out of tissue from your abdomen. So we will take the tissue from the abdomen, leave it connected to some blood vessels that run down towards the groin, separate those and then we can plug them into blood vessels in the chest and have an entire breast made of your own tissue, assuming you're a candidate for it. But, so that way you can do a reconstruction without using an implant.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow. And how long has this kind of procedure been around? Has it been for the last 20 years or?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's been around for about 20 years probably a little longer than that with other variations of microsurgery but the techniques that people are using and the way people are doing it now has been around for about 20 years, so it's gotten better. It's gotten more successful because if things don't get more successful, people stop doing them but it's gotten to the point where the success rate is very high and the loss of the flap, which is the biggest risk, is in the low single digits. So you know, it makes it a reliable form of reconstruction for people who are candidates, who don't want implants or who may have had a problem with their implant reconstruction and need to look for something else.
Speaker 2:It's amazing, like you don't think well, I say you meaning me, and maybe many others don't realize all of the intricacies that go into. You know, when you think of plastic surgery think of nose jobs or breast you know obviously there's a lot of medical arteries, veins and all the other types of life-performing functions that have to be adhered to in order for it to. It's not just cosmetic, obviously, is, I guess what I'm getting to.
Speaker 3:Right, well, I had a professor. He used to describe plastic surgery as the skin in all its contents, and he would actually give us a lecture called spare parts, where you could take things from different places and recreate them, whether it be moving toes to fingers and things like that.
Speaker 3:So there's a lot of things you can do, and plastic surgery does encompass many things. Most people don't practice the entire gamut of plastic surgery. They do narrow it down, which I have done. I don't do hand surgery, I don't do certain other things, but you know it. It, especially as a whole, does cover many, many areas.
Speaker 2:So what? What specialties or procedures do you focus on?
Speaker 3:So I I do the breast reconstruction that I post-mastectomy and partial breast reconstruction, but also a lot of cosmetic surgery. You know facelifts, rhinoplasties, tummy tucks, breast surgery whether it be making them bigger, smaller or lifting them, liposuction I do all of those type of things. I use additional technologies, things like BodyTite for skin tightening with liposuction. I do all of those types of things. I use additional technologies, things like body tight for skin tightening with liposuction. I'll also do post-MOSE reconstruction. You know people have skin cancers, particularly their face, and they go and have MOSE surgery. Most MOSE surgeons won't close those because they're on the face and it can be complicated. So sometimes they come to us and I will you know I try to describe I'm the King's horses and Kings man, I back together again.
Speaker 2:Okay, nice. So you know, when I think of plastic surgery you normally just think of women, and I know you have something called a mommy makeover, but you know there are men who are getting plastic surgery. I guess, maybe more now than perhaps ever, are you seeing a trend in more, say, male body contouring or male tummy tucks and things like that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think part of that is obviously men first started doing a little liposuction love handles, or maybe they wanted to have a creation of a six pack. But now with all the weight loss drugs, you're having men who may have lost 80 or 100 pounds and truly have significant excess skin. So we are seeing having people coming to that and needing that extra skin removed. Now it tends to be very different than you know a female tummy tuck because you don't have the problems with the muscles, childbirth, things like that.
Speaker 2:Right, okay.
Speaker 3:You know there are certainly more men coming. It's still, you know, the minority of the practice. You know it's still, only, you know, the minority of the practice. You know it's still, only, you know, maybe 10, 15% in terms of body contouring. But also there's men coming for facial aesthetics. Now too, one, you know men frequently would do things like eyelids. You know you want to make sure you look. You know, look younger you know as age in the workforce, workforce.
Speaker 3:But the other thing that's happened is, since covid, people looking at a zoom men have started to really look at their neck so there's procedures that we can do that, you know, treat the neck similar to a facelift, without a facelift, because men frequently want to deal with it isolated here. But you know, a woman, you're not going to put a scar down here, but a man with beard with beard, skin and stubble can hide a lot of things. So you can do things to the muscle and removing skin right in the neck, which has a very quick recovery and the procedure takes maybe an hour, hour and a half.
Speaker 3:And that's a great thing for men, for rejuvenation, and that's probably something that was much less frequent before everyone started staring at themselves in the Zoom camera. Yeah, that was a harsh reality in 2020, before all the lighting tips and techniques came out where you realize okay yeah, or the modification software to make it look like you're a different person.
Speaker 2:So I'll age myself again. But remember the Jetsons when Judy is, they have like a camera, you know, with the telephone, and she has to put on a different face because she's going to be on camera. So, yeah, what was that? In the sixties that show came out.
Speaker 3:So yeah, listen, you know what, and I guess people never thought it would actually be real. But, and I guess soon with Elon Musk, we're going to have Rosie.
Speaker 2:So yeah, yeah, and then the flying cars, and I mean we have the Dick Tracy watches now. So speaking of trends and technology, so I see something quite often and I know that you also offer is cool skull sculpting.
Speaker 3:What is cool, sculpting cool sculpting is something where you um freeze fat um, it's a machine that freezes fat.
Speaker 3:um, it's been around for about 10 12 years at this point, maybe even a little longer. So it's probably, you know, not as popular as it was, because it was really the first non-invasive fat reduction technology. So what it will do is take fat most of the hand pieces, suck it in between two cold plates and what happens is fat will die at a temperature that's higher than skin being injured, so you can lower the temperature at a certain point. It will kill the fat, which will then get absorbed over time, and it can reduce the amount of fat in an area. It was actually developed because people saw that kids would suck on ice pops in their mouth and then they would get a hollowing in their cheek. So really that was the concept of how this was developed. You know, completely non, wasn, it, wasn't, it was. Why is this happening?
Speaker 3:They figured out what it was happening and then figured out how they would make it a medical device.
Speaker 2:Wow, I mean, that's another discussion. Just, I want to understand how the fat just kind of dissipates over time, but we don't have to. Well, what?
Speaker 3:happens, is it when it freezes. It kills the fat cells and then, as those fat cells break down, the body eliminates it.
Speaker 3:So it's about a 20 percent reduction in an area that's treated and you have to be careful because there's areas that shouldn't be treated and I've seen people have, you know like, unfortunately, a lot of people go to, you know, these med spas where there's not someone trained to identify the right person and you might wind up, and I've had people where they got depressions afterwards and I've had to fix that with something called Renuvo, which requires many treatments.
Speaker 3:So they go and have a small non-invasive procedure that they think is going to take care of everything, and sometimes you get a bad problem and it costs a lot more to fix it. So you know, it's always important to, if you're going to go for these treatments you should go for, even if you think it's non-invasive go to a place where there's a physician, preferably a board certified plastic surgeon who can, you know, offer you the different options? You know, listen, you may want non-invasive surgery, non-invasive procedure like cool sculpting or something else that I may offer. But I may tell you, you know, yeah, you could do that, it's not the right thing for you, but I can offer you something else. This is the alternative. This would be better for you. If you go to a place that only has a nail, the only thing they can do is hit it with a hammer.
Speaker 3:So you know, I think that's one of the problems with so much of this. You know, poorly, not necessarily well supervised. You know, with a limited skill set, you're not necessarily getting the best options for your treatment because there's only one option available in those circumstances.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean there's med spas. You know quote unquote med spas everywhere now and they pop up in different offices or standalones and it's incredible and it's a good point, because you don't know all the time, like quite often probably how trained or qualified people are that are doing something that could, as you said, adversely affect your appearance and your health for forever. So it's important to know. That's great. So one of the things that when you you know, when you think about plastic surgery, is that you know there's a cost involved and it's probably not covered by insurance, but you guys have payment plans. Is that something that makes it a little bit more approachable or affordable for for many people? Or?
Speaker 3:Well, there's some finance companies out there that specifically finance plastic surgery. There's things like we use one called Cherry in the office, another one called Alphion, there's CareCredit and they specifically do plastic surgery finance or cosmetic surgery financing. Some of them even do dental cosmetic financing. But that way the person could you know they'll get approved for whatever the dollar amount is and they can pick a plan there. They offer usually some interest-free plans and some other plans with interest up to 60 months.
Speaker 2:So you know, it's, it's a.
Speaker 3:I guess it's functionally like a loan or at least to own your, of your body or something like that, but I don't run an office, I do want to be a banker. You know if, if, because you know if you want to do it, use the finance company. I don't want to have to have that continued process going on because then if there's problems that goes in between the doctor patient relationship where they won't have an issue with their bank, they can have an issue with their bank right.
Speaker 2:So with four offices, is there one? Well, I include an Englewood Hospital office is there? Is there like one office you'd go to specifically for one treatment more so than the other, or do all of your locations have the same type of services available?
Speaker 3:No, I mean, my main Englewood office has the machines that I would use, whether it be CoolSculpting, cryoskin, bodytite, m-sculpt, those are here. Bodytite moves to the operating room when I use it. The other offices I see consultations. I can do things like injectables, you know, botox fillers, things like that but, the technology.
Speaker 3:You know it's too big to move, so you know it's one and listen. You can come for your consultation one place and have your follow-up in one place and just go someplace else for whatever treatment. It is no different than going to a surgery center for surgery or the hospital for surgery and then getting your follow-up.
Speaker 2:Got it, got it. So you know, there are a few plastic surgeons in our area, in Bergen County and Englewood, englewood Cliffs, franklin Lakes, those areas. So what do you think it is that sets you apart from the others?
Speaker 3:Well, I think it starts always with education. It's where you get trained. So I had great training experience, I think also because I trained up in Boston in the Harvard programs and they were great. They had great people, great teachers and you got to do a lot and experience a lot as you're training that gives you a head start, I also went and taught at Academic Center for State University of New York and ran their residency program.
Speaker 3:So I mean, most people haven't had the experience of actually being the teacher, because if you've been able to teach it to someone, you really know how to do it.
Speaker 1:The other thing is.
Speaker 3:I've published and developed several techniques for different types of procedures. I was the first person who described how you can do liposuction as part of a tummy tuck safely. People used to do them as two separate operations and I've published papers on that. I've published papers on techniques for breast reconstruction and things like that and breast reduction. So I think the difference is I'm always looking for the next thing that can make the treatment plan better and the care better for someone. It's great to do what's been done, but you can always make things a little better and I think you need to think about what the limitations are, whatever you've done in the past, and how you can minimize complications, maximize the result, give people the best option and look at whatever else is out there and examine new technologies to see what's going to be good for people and what's going to be safe.
Speaker 2:That's great. So you went to Harvard. I don't think I mentioned that. I think I left that out, that as part of your bio, so that's good to know. Well, that's great. I think you know there's a lot of I mean, and you know from what I also have learned about you is that you've been named one of the top doctors. You know top plastic surgeons in the area, year after year. So that's you know, a great accolade and speaks to your, your talents and your education as well. I you know, if people were just wanting to take one or two things away from from this episode and and you know to, you know to learn about you or to think you know why, call Dr Abramson. Is there anything like you, aside from what you've already said, that you'd like to leave the listeners with?
Speaker 3:Well, two things. One is, if you come in, we'll spend the time to figure out what really is bothering you and what the options are to give you the best possible result, and that my staff will wrap you in comfort and take care of you from start to finish, because there's parts that I do which are obviously important the surgery, the post-op care, things like that but there's you know I'm not here in the office every minute to answer every question and they can help guide you through the process, make you feel that you're in a safe, nurturing environment where everything's going to look after you from beginning till you know six months afterwards, or if you're a breast implant patient forever, because we need to follow those patients yearly for as long as they're around and I'm around.
Speaker 3:So you know, I think those are the things that help make my practice different.
Speaker 2:That's great, that's great. So how would people contact you, how would they reach you? The?
Speaker 3:best way, the office phone number. The website is drabrimson. com and the phone number is 201-731-3134. And then you can always reach out to my office through the reception. It's reception at drabrimson. com with DR Abramson, like the website. So any of those ways work and we're happy to see anyone who comes in and wants to talk.
Speaker 2:That's great. All right, Dr Abramson, thank you very much for being a guest today and we'll be right back.
Speaker 3:My pleasure.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpbergen. com. That's GNPBergen. com, or call 201-298-8325.