Daniel Pyo, MD - Plastic & Reconstructive Surgeon in Morristown, NJ

Eva Sheie (00:03):
The purpose of this podcast is simple. We want you to get to know your doctor before meeting them in person, because you're making a life-changing decision, and time is scarce. The more you can learn about who your doctor is before you meet them, the better that first meeting will be. There's no substitute for an in-person appointment, but we hope this comes close. I'm your host, Eva Sheie and you're listening to Meet the Doctor. Today, on Meet the Doctor, my guest is Dr. Daniel Pyo. He's a plastic surgeon in New Jersey and the New York City area, and I'm excited to bring you his story because it's a little different from what we usually cover on this podcast. Welcome to the podcast, Dr. Pyo.

Dr. Pyo (00:47):
Oh, thank you, Eva. Uh, thanks for having me. And, uh, I look forward to being able to share, uh, some of my story with you.

Eva Sheie (00:54):
So I want to start at the beginning and, and ask you a really important question, which is, what did you have for breakfast today?

Dr. Pyo (01:01):
I actually just had a, uh, banana. A banana and, uh, and a little, uh, a fruit bar.

Eva Sheie (01:07):
Great. So I can see right away that you're not gonna laugh at my jokes, so I'll have to dial it up a notch or, or skip it. I'm not sure which. <laugh> We met a couple of weeks ago, and I learned that the unusual thing about you is that, where most plastic surgeons start with reconstructive surgery and move into cosmetic, you kind of went the other direction and you did a lot of cosmetic. You've done a lot of really interesting things, but then you transitioned into more reconstruction. So I'd love to start there and hear a little bit about the arc of your career and how that happened.

Dr. Pyo (01:44):
Sure. I, uh, started in practice about 28 years ago, and I was, uh, in private practice doing what many young, newly finished plastic surgeons do in terms of, uh, taking whatever came in the door. I would also cover some, uh, emergency room work, so taking care of kids and, uh, other, uh, folks with lacerations and other trauma that they sustained that, uh, required, uh, the expertise of a plastic surgeon. And slowly built up my practice that way. But after about four or five years, I was slowly increasing my cosmetic, uh, work, and I really enjoyed that and, uh, grew that part of my practice, uh, for many years.

Eva Sheie (02:28):
So I, I was gonna ask you, when you, when you said you took call when you were younger. When you were working in the emergency room and taking call, did you ever get woken up in the middle of the night for stuff?

Dr. Pyo (02:39):
I always woke up in the middle of the night. I covered four separate hospitals, and the two furthest hospitals were almost uh 40 minutes to an hour apart. And sometimes I would get called from both of them on the same evening, which made for a significant amount of driving. But, you know, I paid my dues for many, many years and, uh, ultimately didn't have to take call at either of those hospitals, uh, any further, but it taught me how to sleep very lightly. And so to this day, I can wake up on a dime.

Eva Sheie (03:11):
Now, this was before cell phones, right?

Dr. Pyo (03:13):
It was when we had our, the flip phones, uhhuh. So we did have cell phones, uh, at that time.

Eva Sheie (03:18):
But this was when we were like, dude, I can't use up my minutes, so make it quick.

Dr. Pyo (03:22):
Yeah, I think it was almost two to $3 per call. So it was very, uh, yeah, <laugh>.

Eva Sheie (03:27):
Right. So you were driving and it wasn't peaceful driving, you were going back and forth, and then eventually that came to an end. So I'll let you continue.

Dr. Pyo (03:37):
Not a problem. Uh, it was funny because one of those hospitals was out further west from where I am in the mountains. And so getting out there sometimes was a little treacherous because there, there were a lot of windy, twisty roads without much, uh, visibility. And if there's any bad weather, it was a slow go, so, um,

Eva Sheie (03:57):
And what kinda car did you have?

Dr. Pyo (03:58):
Uh, I did have a small Audi at that time, so I did have four wheel drive, but it was still unfamiliar road, so I always had to pause and really check, uh, my speed and, and be, be much more careful than, than I usually would've been.

Eva Sheie (04:13):
Did you ever get pulled over?

Dr. Pyo (04:15):
I did, uh, on several occasions, but by that time, most of the officers knew me, uh, because they usually would hang around the emergency room as well. So, um, I was lucky not to get written up, uh, many times. So, uh, I was grateful for that.

Eva Sheie (04:29):
Yeah, that's one of the perks, I think. Okay. So take us into the next part of your career.

Dr. Pyo (04:38):
Well, I, I was describing before about my, uh, the development of my aesthetic practice, and I was a little different than most the other plastic students in the area in that I embraced the non-surgical rejuvenation in much greater, uh, depth. So I really tried to understand exactly, uh, what was missing and what was happening to patients as they were aging. Uh, concentrating mostly on the face, and we had many fewer options at that point than we do now. But I always was much more interested in volume augmentation and volume, uh, rejuvenation rather than surgical management of, uh, of a lot of the aging issues. So I came up with a fairly comprehensive planning system that I would discuss with patients. At that time, I was seeing a lot of patients who were dabbling in the aesthetic, uh, world, and they were going to different providers getting injections haphazardly, and I wanted to sort of give them a little bit more of a goal based or, uh, timing based milestone type of planning system for, you know, the next year and for five years and for 10 years.

(05:53)
And most of the patients really were happy to have a, that, uh, they could, uh, sort of look forward to. And, uh, I think it saved them a lot more money just because rather than just going here and there to get sporadic injections, we would come up with a system and a way for them to know what to expect over the next, uh, several years. And I was very happy to see many of the, um, aesthetic companies start to become more specialized in terms of the types of fillers that were available and some of the other non-surgical, you know, modalities that we had at our, um, disposal to help, uh, improve the, uh, appearance and quality of the skin.

Eva Sheie (06:31):
Was there something that sparked your interest in this approach to managing, you're talking about faces, so managing non, non-surgically instead of just talking everyone into surgery. How did that come about?

Dr. Pyo (06:46):
When I was, I attended several of the meetings early on in my practice, you know, faces were a very hot topic, and I would attend many of the facelift sessions, and there were definitely some surgeons who had better results than others, and I tried to really identify what the difference was. At the end of the day, surgeons had pretty similar techniques. There are only so many things you can manipulate in the face surgically, but the biggest thing that I saw was, was the volume issue. And if you have somebody who has good volume and you reposition the volume, they look much better. But if they were deficient of volume and they underwent a facelift, they looked older because they didn't have contour, they were flatter. And it was in that moment that I thought that the volume restoration, pre-surgical management was going to be so important in getting better results.

(07:50)
And through that sort of process of, of thinking about that, I thought that earlier management of, of volume, rejuvenation for, for patients would give them a bit more time, uh, and just it would give them a more, um, defined and logical way to approach, you know, the next phase of their journey, which was surgery. At the end of the day, most patients still did require surgery, but I think, at least in my practice or in in this area, uh, people are much more conservative and they wanted to hold off surgery as long as possible, which I tried to discourage that as an isolated concept. But if it's part of a plan, then at least they know when to expect it or when we should start thinking about it. Uh, after going through the non-surgical path, until we could go no further.

Eva Sheie (08:44):
Was there a moment where you realized your approach was right? I think we see this being talked about a lot right now, that it it's a combination and I I think you were a little bit ahead of your time on this.

Dr. Pyo (08:58):
Yeah, I think that just the fact that the patients stayed, uh, in the practice for such a long time, there were some patients that still needed volume even after surgery. So it wasn't that the facelift was the be all and end all and was the end of the road because most patients wanted to maintain that youthful appearance. But after surgery's finished and after the healing's finished, we still age. And the same processes that are occurring in terms of the aging process still affect the patient as time goes by. And you can't just wait and sit and wait the next 10 years for them to have another facelift, because at that point they won't have enough volume. And it's not that they will automatically, or, or just, you know, out of thin air generate volume. So you still have to maintain that non-surgical component of the process in between surgical procedures. And so I felt that my patients, in my estimation, looked better than at least some of my colleagues and some of the other folks in the area. And I started seeing patients coming from other physicians who had undergone procedures, but were still not quite happy. So that kind of helped me get into this whole secondary and revisional surgical, uh, arena, which now comprises a significant part of my practice, not just in aesthetics, but breast reconstruction and other types of reconstruction, which I find very, uh, enjoyable and fulfilling at this point in my practice.

Eva Sheie (10:26):
When you started doing this, which fillers were you using?

Dr. Pyo (10:30):
We did have some collagen. We had the human collagen at that time, and we had the early stages of Restylane and we had a product called Sculptura which was just coming out, which I also thought made a lot of sense, and I still use it today, and I find that that's, uh, one of the better products for, uh, global rejuvenation versus the traditional hyaluronic acid fillers. So I use a combination of everything, but those were the three main products that I used at that time.

Eva Sheie (11:01):
Now there's like 10 kinds of Restylane and 10 kinds of Juvederm, but I think there's still just one Sculptra, isn't that right? They haven't changed the Sculptra?

Dr. Pyo (11:09):
Uh, that's correct. And it's been fascinating to see the change in the hyaluronic acids just because now with the different molecule sizes, you can really customize different products within the family of each company of their portfolio to different parts of the face. And I think that that, uh, customization will, can, has enhanced the results, and I've been very pleased with that. Yeah, the sculpture is, I don't think it there really is a way to change that. It is the collagen stimulator, so wherever you're putting it, uh, it will do the same job.

Eva Sheie (11:43):
Let's talk about secondary surgery and revision surgery a little bit, because it's really scary thing for people to have to get something redone, especially a cosmetic procedure, and there's a lot of emotion that can come with a situation like that. You did something for yourself and it didn't work out, or it didn't turn out the way you wanted it to. How do you think about revision patients and what's different about helping people who are coming back to do something again for the second time?

Dr. Pyo (12:12):
I think it varies depending on what is driving them to come back in. There are definitely patients that come in who enthusiastically are seeking the next step in their progression or maintaining their, their youthful appearance. And then I have patients who come in who are displeased with their initial procedure or the results that they received, uh, initially or they had complications from their previous procedures, so they're seeking improvement. So the level of improvement is different, and the level of expectation, I think is, is also different. I have some patients who have been suffering for a long period of time where they really couldn't find anybody to help them or didn't know that they could have a revisional procedure. And so their mindset is different in that they just want some relief, they wanna look normal instead of looking better than normal. And, uh, a lot of my practice, and from the very beginning, I was a big proponent of restoration or restorative surgery to bring people back to normal.

(13:20)
Uh, and with all my congenital or my, my pediatric patients, that's the mantra and that's what we discuss all the time, is making them look like they're like everybody else. And that goes a long way with, with those patients. So they, they are different in terms of their levels of expectations, and I have to spend a lot of time with the revision patients more, more than my primary patients because we have to really go through a lot of their history and their emotional state, their baggage, you know, the things that they've been carrying around for so long. And, you know, without knowing that or understanding that, I think you can get into a lot of trouble because they don't come from the same places as the, the patients who, uh, are primary patients.

Eva Sheie (14:07):
You're part therapist and part surgeon.

Dr. Pyo (14:09):
I think you have to really be quite skilled at having a discernment for where people are and what they've been through. And I think that you have to have a way for them to see the light or see what the possibilities are and what the potential is to give them hope. Because part of why they come to you is because they need hope. And if you can provide some potential improvement for them, they are extremely gratified.

Eva Sheie (14:38):
Is there a procedure or maybe a set of procedures that you're well known for in the area where you practice at this point in your career?

Dr. Pyo (14:47):
I do a lot of revisional breast surgery, and I do the primary, uh, pediatric plastic surgery in my area. So I'm very, um, busy with our craniofacial center, and I do almost all the cleft lip and palettes. And, uh, I work with our pediatric neurosurgeons to do the children with the cranio vault anomalies. So we do a lot of the kids with the funny shaped heads. So that's, I see patients from a fairly wide geographic distance in terms of, uh, being in New Jersey. They have craniofacial centers in New York City, and they have craniofacial centers in Philadelphia, and we're right in the middle. And for those patients and families who can't travel to either of those cities or who don't wanna travel, you know, they know that they have a center, uh, at least in, in a closer area that will provide excellent care for them and take care of their kids. So, uh, we provide that middle zone so that the patients can, uh, stay in New Jersey and they're very grateful for that.

Eva Sheie (15:45):
I would bet that you have some good tricks up your sleeve for making little kids feel safe and comfortable in a scary situation. <laugh> Dad jokes?

Dr. Pyo (15:56):
I'm a big proponent of music. Yeah. So we play a lot of kids' music. When I have pediatric patients in the office, I have puppets that, uh, I kind of play with. I bring a lot of stuff to animals and, and puppets on my missions when I go overseas, uh, to do, uh, uh, cleft missions. And so the kids all respond the same way. Their eyes get really wide and, uh, and, and they, they smile and it tends to disarm them quite a bit when you can sort of show them something that they weren't expecting or something that, that they recognize as as being, uh, fun.

Eva Sheie (16:29):
Do you have a go-to puppet and can we meet him?

Dr. Pyo (16:32):
Unfortunately, I don't have him at,

Eva Sheie (16:34):
He's not there.

Dr. Pyo (16:35):
Because he is in my office, <laugh>. Uh, but yeah, I have a, a little ugly, uh, whale puppet that I, that I use.

Eva Sheie (16:44):
A whale interesting choice. Okay. You're gonna need to send me a picture tomorrow.

Dr. Pyo (16:49):
We will do that.

Eva Sheie (16:50):
Does he have name?

Dr. Pyo (16:52):
He has different names depending on where I am, but he was, uh, originally Sparky the Whale, but Sparky wasn't a really good whale name, so, um, we just call him Willie, Willie the Whale. So <laugh>

Eva Sheie (17:05):
Okay, good. Alliteration is always good.

Dr. Pyo (17:08):
Yeah.

Eva Sheie (17:10):
Was Free Willie a whale?

Dr. Pyo (17:12):
Yeah, he was, he was a killer whale.

Eva Sheie (17:14):
Okay. Got it. All right. It's all making sense now. <laugh>. So craniofacial, you're doing a lot of stuff with kids, cleft, lip and palate. I think most people know what that is. And then if their head is shaped funny, these are kids whose helmets couldn't do the trick and some they needed to go beyond the what the helmet could fix. Is that right?

Dr. Pyo (17:37):
Right, right, exactly. And a lot of these kids get helmets after surgery, but with the craniosynostosis, which is the, the medical term for that entity, we have sutures in skull that fuse at different parts of our different ages, but if the sutures fuse prematurely, then the skull can't grow in that direction. So you'll see kids with really long, narrow heads, you'll see kids with very tall heads that look a little unusual. You'll see kids with their foreheads are, are, are way too far forward, those types of things. So the helmets will not address or, or can't fix those problems because you can't change the shape of something that's already fused. And so the procedure is essentially to remove those components, remove those bones, uh, so we actually just cut those bones out and then rotate them and shape 'em around and then stick 'em back on using, uh, absorbable plates. So you're essentially reshaping the top of the head. And for me, it was one of the reasons why I went to plastic surgery when I saw some, uh, you know, some of my kids who had that situation.

Eva Sheie (18:53):
You mentioned your missions, and I knew this about you already, but, uh, I wanna hear a lot more about this work. Let's start with what countries have you been to?

Dr. Pyo (19:05):
I've been to most of the countries in South America, so I want to say Columbia, Venezuela, Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Peru. I've been to several countries in Central America, so Honduras is my go-to country. I've been there the most and I find that the travel is easiest. It's within the similar time zone and, uh, it's not too far a distance. And they have, they're almost one of the poorest countries in the world, so they have very few resources. Early on when I was younger and had a lot of stamina, I would go to Asia. So I've been to China several times. I've been to Africa, uh, several times to Kenya and to Ethiopia and to various other countries there. But it's been a labor of a journey of love because, uh, I started when I was just a first year resident in plastic surgery when I was in training and had the opportunity to go to Columbia on a mission.

(20:01)
And it was life changing for me. You know, you walk into this tiny little gymnasium with 500 families with their kids, and if you hear their stories, and some of the kids and the families would travel for weeks through the jungle on foot, and it was heartbreaking not to be able to operate on everybody but the humanity that you feel when you enter that room, because you are their hope and you will affect the entire life of that child if you can perform surgery on them. So that really set me up for the rest of my career. And to this day, I still go on at least two to three missions a year, and that will probably continue, I'll try to do more as I enter or get close to retirement, and I'll probably go for longer term missions after I retire and stay in country for months at a time.

Eva Sheie (20:54):
What organization is it that you're doing these missions with?

Dr. Pyo (20:57):
I have done the most of my missions, and I'm currently, uh, working with Operation Smile. And so the organization is roughly 30 plus years old at this point, and they're in most countries of the world. It's pretty seamless now in that, uh, the logistics are all all set, so it's very, um, smooth. Whenever they need a cleft surgeon at, at a specific site, they usually send out a blast email. And if I have the ability to rework my schedule, then I'll, I'll sign up and go that way. But, um, many sites now just call me directly asking if I can, uh, make some time and, and so I'll set aside some time and, and do that. So, um, I think my next mission will be toward the fall back to Honduras. Uh, at this point.

Eva Sheie (21:46):
What kinds of conditions do you see outside the US that you don't usually see in the US?

Dr. Pyo (21:54):
Within the same patient grouping, we, we see kids that have more exaggerated deformities because they don't have the same access to earlier care. In the US we have the ability to help mold and, uh, and remodel things through these appliances, and, um, it gives them better results because by putting things closer together or by setting the, the jawline a little closer, when we do our lips, they get better results. So we see much more exaggerated deformities in these other countries, especially in my African, uh, patients. I see lots and lots of massive keloids, keloids are large scars that develop in patients that can be quite deforming. The philosophy with keloids are that you shouldn't just remove them because they'll come back bigger. But in many of these countries, patients who get taken advantage of and you know, they'll go because they're just desperate, and they'll find somebody who will cut it off and it comes back twice the size.

(23:01)
And, and so I I, I've seen some major, major keloids in, in some of these other countries, we see some horrendous burns. When I was in, uh, Kenya, it was, um, quite frightening because if you see pictures of women in Kenya or, or see any documentaries, they, they carry around this large tub on the top of their head, and it has all of their, their whole life there. They have, it has blankets, it has cooking utensils, but they also use it to cook. And so they would build this large fire and the kids would be playing around the fire and the kids fall into the fire and they get these horrendous, horrendous burns. And in the pediatric hospital, uh, I was in, when we went to Kenya, the entire floor was just these pediatric burns. And because they don't have the technology and the, the manpower to take care of these burns, none of them ever get fixed.

(23:54)
None of them ever get any treatment. And so it's heartbreaking to see, you know, these kids with their faces pretty much melted away. They can't move their head because the chin is fused to their chest. The hands are unusable because they're all deformed and, you know, everything's melted together. And even in the US managing those deformities would be difficult, but, uh, if you can treat them early, then at least they would have some potential for, for function and, and some recovery. But they end up dying pretty early because really nobody can take care of them. And, uh, they're pretty much outcast, you know, and these are toddlers and these are young kids that, uh, that are suffering these burns. So it is quite, uh, quite devastating.

Eva Sheie (24:37):
Now has anyone from your family ever gone with you on one of these mission trips?

Dr. Pyo (24:42):
So, my family's very involved with supporting Operation Smile. And when both my boys, I have two, uh, sons, Christopher and Michael, and when they were in their, um, grade school years, they would do fundraisers, uh, to help support, uh, mission. The mantra or the, the slogan with Operation Smile was it cost $300 to support one surgery for one child. And so, um, they would do Beanie Baby drives and we did several, um, garage sales. And so they would sell, you know, their Pokemon cards, they would sell their, uh, their little Hot Wheels cars and whatever money that they able to generate, we sent into Operation Smile and helped to support the organization that way. So, uh, luckily my son, my younger son, Michael was able to accompany me on a mission to Paraguay several years ago. He was about 10 or 11. And, you know, it really was a nice father-son travel adventure, and he was able to see what I did, and he was able to experience and, uh, see what these children had to go through.

(25:51)
And it really changed him. And, uh, from that point on, he continued to fundraise and to try to support the organization as, as much as possible. My oldest son went through, they have a high school program for students, uh, through Operation Smiles. So he went through that leadership program and then was able to go on a mission to China. Uh, unfortunately I couldn't go with him at at that point, but he really came back and, uh, really enjoyed that as well. My wife is the only one who hasn't been able to go, but right before the pandemic I had arranged a family mission to Nicaragua. So all of us were going to go, she was going to do music therapy, she's a, a conductor by trade, and we were all set to go, and then the pandemic hit and they closed the borders and we couldn't go. So we, um, we put that on hold and I'm trying to see if we can get that, uh, started again, at least in some, in some way. But yeah, I would love to go as entire family at some point.

Eva Sheie (26:46):
That would be incredible. Your wife is not unfamiliar with serving children, though, <laugh>?

Dr. Pyo (26:53):
Yes.

Eva Sheie (26:55):
What does she do?

Dr. Pyo (26:56):
Well, she's, she's a conductor. Uh, she currently is a director of the, uh, the New Jersey Youth Symphony. She was the, um, director of the New York Youth Symphony of the Empire State Youth Youth Orchestra for roughly 17 years, and was commuting from where we lived, New Jersey to Albany, New York several times a week. And she got a lot of speeding tickets, and she went through a lots and lots of cars. Unfortunately, the, the state troopers weren't as lenient to her as they <laugh>

Eva Sheie (27:23):
<laugh> They don't let conductors off the hook, like ER doctors.

Dr. Pyo (27:28):
Exactly. So, um, we, we had to retain a, an attorney up there to help us no, with, uh, with some of her, uh, <laugh>, some of her violations. But, uh, she

Eva Sheie (27:37):
It was a music emergency.

Dr. Pyo (27:38):
That's right. But she was happy to, uh, be offered the New Jersey job. So she's been with the New Jersey, uh, Youth Symphony for roughly four years now.

Eva Sheie (27:46):
Less expensive to work in New Jersey. <laugh>

Dr. Pyo (27:48):
That's exactly right. <laugh> As we speak, she's taking her orchestra to Italy, so they're currently in Rome, and they will spend, uh, several days in Rome and then go to Florence and then finish up in, uh, Milan. So, uh, there with my older son right now, um, he's 25 as a first year law student, but, uh, he was a violinist and he still plays violin recreationally, but she was short one violinist, so he offered to go and play in the orchestra, uh, while they were there.

Eva Sheie (28:18):
So he's the ringer.

Dr. Pyo (28:19):
He's he was happy to go.

Eva Sheie (28:21):
Yeah. Who wouldn't be. That's great.

Dr. Pyo (28:24):
Yeah.

Eva Sheie (28:25):
Oh, that's just wonderful that you've been able to travel with those two and do what you do while you're traveling with your kids.

Dr. Pyo (28:33):
Yeah, you know, a lot of people ask me about missions and what they could do potentially if they were to be able to go on one. And other than, you know, being in, in the medical profession, there's so many tasks and so many jobs that, uh, that are needed, uh, on a mission. And Michael was a great example. I mean, he did everything. He was helping to take pictures with the kids to, uh, the child life folks, helping to get the kids ready for surgery, helping to put charts together, helping to transport patients back and forth, running around to get water or food for different people, or he really was busy, nonstop the entire mission. And most people who go on missions tend to feel the same way. We always find something for them to do, and they always come back, uh, quite, uh, fulfilled with, uh, being able to contribute to the mission.

Eva Sheie (29:26):
So it sounds like anyone can volunteer and I, I will hunt down the links to that and make sure they're in the show notes of this episode. So if anybody's listening that wants to see more, we'll make that easy to find.

Dr. Pyo (29:38):
Great.

Eva Sheie (29:40):
We've been talking for a while and we've covered a lot of ground, and I, I, I think before we kind of wrap it up, I'd love to know, what could I expect from you? If I was a patient coming to see you for the first time, what would that look like?

Dr. Pyo (29:57):
I have a small office, and so you're not gonna see 10 different people when you first come in the door. You'll be greeted by a receptionist who's a very lovely, uh, woman, and once you sort of go through the registration process and you'll meet my nurse, but at the end of the day, my role and my job is to try to develop a relationship with, with the patients. I am pretty laid back and, and pretty calm, and I try to make patients, try to keep them at ease. Uh, and so I like to make sure that we can talk about things other than, you know, what they came in for, just to have them get to know me a little bit. And, uh, I try to get to know them as much as I can, and then we, um, go into the problem that they're coming in for.

(30:42)
And unfortunately, I've been told that I spend much, too much time in giving information. I am a huge over educator, and many times patients don't remember everything that I tell them, but, uh, I, I make sure that they leave the consultation saying, wow, um, I really wasn't expecting to hear so much information about the problem that I'm having and, uh, what we can do to, to address it. And so I, I like to make sure that my patients are really, really well informed and I spend a lot of time drawing diagrams for them and, uh, you know, going through befores and afters and, and just really having them understand. And, you know, at this point in my practice, in my career, it doesn't upset me if they decide not to schedule with me, even if they go somewhere else. I know that, uh, at least they've heard much more information than I think that they would normally hear. I see patients in second opinion, and they always tell me when they leave that, you know, we went through three times as much material as, as kind of what they, uh, had heard before. So that to me is something that, uh, I really work, uh, hard at trying to make sure that they're completely, um, informed about, uh, what, what they're facing. And, uh, that's for me, my biggest role that I find myself.

Eva Sheie (32:07):
Is your practice in independent, are you part of a bigger group? What does that look like?

Dr. Pyo (32:11):
Yeah, so after being in private practice for 20 years, I joined the multi-specialty group. So toward the end of my practice in my solo practice as I was doing these reconstructive cases, I was out of network. And so that made it almost impossible to continue the reconstructive work. And so I really sat down and said, how do I want to finish out my career? Do I want to keep pushing the aesthetic portion of my practice or do I want to follow what makes me happy? <laugh>? And so it, it was just serendipity that the group, uh, the organization was looking for somebody who's based in Morristown and, you know, it was kind of, uh, a seamless integration. Uh, they kept me in my office, so I'm in the same office that I had been in for 20 years. They just brought some people in, but everything else was the same.

(33:02)
Nothing else changed, but by joining the group, I joined all their insurance plans. And so it's made my life a lot easier not having to do hr, so I don't have to worry about hiring and, and, and sort of firing people. And if somebody doesn't show up or calls out sick, then you know, the group sends somebody else. So that makes it easy. But being in the insurance plans makes it so that I don't have to worry about whether or not I can take care of the patient or not. It just allows me to focus on that relationship rather than sort of any of the financial implications. And I felt so liberated that I can just focus on the problem and the patient rather than having to deal with everything else, you know, financially. Yeah.

Eva Sheie (33:42):
Is it possible to schedule with you directly or do you have to get a referral? Do you have to jump through hoops to actually get on your schedule or can you just call?

Dr. Pyo (33:51):
Yeah, most patients will call and if we do surgery, then sometimes they will need a referral. But to see me in consultation, it's quite simple. Um, just a simple call to the office, we'll get you in.

Eva Sheie (34:03):
And is that the best way to reach out?

Dr. Pyo (34:05):
Yeah, that's the best way. Just, yeah, because we, we, we don't, uh, we don't schedule appointments online. I think the group has a portal that some patients who are within the group can set up appointments that way, but typically it requires a phone call.

Eva Sheie (34:19):
We won't DM you on TikTok.

Dr. Pyo (34:21):
<laugh>. Not a problem.

Eva Sheie (34:22):
Ever. <laugh>, I so appreciate you sharing so much of yourself with us today. It's been a real pleasure getting to know you.

Dr. Pyo (34:32):
Well, it's been, uh, a wonderful, uh, being able to speak with you as well. And, uh, I thank you for the opportunity and you know, I hope that, uh, whoever listens to this will, uh, gain some understanding to who I am.

Eva Sheie (34:43):
I hope so too. If you are considering making an appointment or are on your way to meet this doctor, be sure to let them know you heard them on the Meet The Doctor podcast. Check the show notes for links including the doctor's website and Instagram to learn more. Are you a doctor or do you know a doctor who'd like to be on the Meet the Doctor podcast? Book your free recording session at Meet the Doctor podcast.com. Meet the Doctor is Made with Love in Austin, Texas and is a production of The Axis, t h e a x i s .io.