Aug. 5, 2025
Beauty Series #5: Travel Beauty
More people are heading out of town or out of the country for plastic surgery, hoping to save money or access treatments not available locally. But travel comes with trade-offs.
Dr. Bass explains why safety, standards, and follow-up care matter just as much as cost. From anesthesia risks to limited legal protections, there’s a lot to consider before choosing surgery abroad.
Traveling for beauty might sound like a bargain—but it’s not always the deal it seems.
About Dr. Lawrence Bass
Innovator. Industry veteran. In-demand Park Avenue board certified plastic surgeon, Dr. Lawrence Bass is a true master of his craft, not only in the OR but as an industry pioneer in the development and evaluation of new aesthetic technologies. With locations in both Manhattan (on Park Avenue between 62nd and 63rd Streets) and in Great Neck, Long Island, Dr. Bass has earned his reputation as the plastic surgeon for the most discerning patients in NYC and beyond.
To learn more, visit the Bass Plastic Surgery website or follow the team on Instagram @drbassnyc
Subscribe to the Park Avenue Plastic Surgery Class newsletter to be notified of new episodes & receive exclusive invitations, offers, and information from Dr. Bass.
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Welcome to Park Avenue
Plastic Surgery Class,
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the podcast where we explore controversies
and breaking issues in plastic
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surgery. I'm your co-host Summer Hardy,
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a clinical assistant at Bass
Plastic Surgery in New York City.
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I'm excited to be here with Dr. Lawrence
Bass, Park Avenue plastic surgeon,
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educator and technology innovator.
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Today's episode is another
in our beauty series.
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The title of today's
episode is Travel Beauty.
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Tell us about the focus
in this episode, Dr. Bass.
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So this is about traveling to get surgery.
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There's been tremendous growth
in this activity and not just in
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cosmetic plastic surgery.
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It's happening in other cosmetic
treatments like dental implants and hair
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transplant,
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traveling for less expensive joint
replacement and even coronary
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artery bypass surgery.
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Okay, but what are the motivations?
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The main reason for traveling
for surgery is trying to save
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money.
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Another big reason that's less common but
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understandable is to get a
special option that's not locally
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available or in some cases is
to get something that's not
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FDA approved in the United States but
is available in another part of the
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world. Occasionally it's traveling
somewhere to be treated by a
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particularly famous surgeon
or some combination of
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those options. So some people will go to
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a smaller town and have
the chairman or chairperson
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treat them in a less expensive
city rather than going to a big
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metro area where just
because of staff salaries and
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rent and the expense of running
a practice in that area,
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the price is necessarily higher.
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And I have experience with this.
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People travel from out of town
to visit me in New York City
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and receive surgery in my setting,
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and I have people come from
all over the northeast,
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from certainly the Washington
DC area, Florida, California,
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London.
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So people will travel to get
surgery in New York City by
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someone who's particularly
skillful in a particular procedure
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because then they feel like
they're getting the best.
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All right. There are a lot of advantages,
but there has to be a flip side.
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What are some of the disadvantages?
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So certainly that's a reality of life,
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that everything has pluses and
minuses so when you travel to
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a different place,
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it's harder to know what the
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qualifications are, the surgical skill,
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the knowledge and experience
of the surgeon you're seeing.
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And in many cases, just
because you're out of town,
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you have less contacts
in a different place,
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even if it's another place
in the United States.
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And it's harder to verify if
you're in some place that's
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not the United States. In New
York state where I practice,
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you can go online to the state licensing
board and see that every surgeon has an
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active license. You can see if
they've had disciplinary activity.
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You can go to the boards of the
American Board of Plastic Surgery
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and you can see if the person was
certified and has maintained their
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certification.
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All of these things are easy to find
and when you're going to another part of
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the world that can be a challenge.
The regulations
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in a different countries also may be
significantly different than what they are
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in the United States,
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and those regulations act
as kind of a safety net
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for ensuring that minimum
standards are being followed.
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So this varies tremendously in
different parts of the world.
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We practice medicine a certain
way in the United States,
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and there are many similarities to how
medicine is practiced here with other
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parts of the world.
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But there are many standards
of care that are different.
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And I'm not saying
they're better or worse,
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but they're definitely different
in other parts of the world.
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And oversight,
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the degree of government surveillance
of what's going on in the
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medical system is very different
in other parts of the world.
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And this is, again, all about safety,
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and safety is always number one.
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The American Society of Plastic
Surgeons and the Aesthetic Society
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both have a commitment that all of their
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activities are first and foremost about a
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culture of patient safety
because that has to be
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the first and foremost
attribute to how care is
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delivered always, always.
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A number of other places,
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the malpractice systems work differently,
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and so the ability to have
any kind of recourse if
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something doesn't work out the
way you're expecting is different.
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And that creates different
incentives also placed with active
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malpractice. Even though doctors
are not fond of malpractice,
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they know that they're going to be
held to account for what they do.
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And in places where that is not so active,
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they're still trying to do a good job,
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but they don't feel quite as
much pressure to do a good job.
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So those are some of the disadvantages
of traveling in particular to another
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part of the world to
receive plastic surgery.
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That makes sense. Are
there other concerns?
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There are a few other
administrative kind of factors.
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So if you're getting surgery in another
part of the world, you traveled there,
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follow-up care is going
to be more limited.
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You're going to stay there for a certain
period of time after the surgery,
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and once you go home, it's
harder to get follow-up care.
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This is a little easier now
with all the telemed options.
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You can talk with your surgeon.
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The surgeon can take a
look at you on video,
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but there's still no hands-on
options once you're back home.
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And so if you needed a revision or you
needed some kind of treatment because
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something healing slowly,
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the revision options are more limited and
they're going to require you to travel
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back at your expense to the place
where you received your care.
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Now, even if you go to another city
in the United States, that's true.
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We have ways of dealing with that in my
practice for our travel patients to come
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from other cities in the US or abroad.
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But it does make it a little more
limited, a little more challenging,
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even with the best of
intentions on all sides.
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Got it. That seems intrinsic to the
travel approach. Is there anything else?
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Now we get to the big safety issues.
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So even though plastic
surgery is very safe,
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that's not an accident.
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It's the result of that culture
of safety I was talking about in
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training and education and
continuing education at the plastic
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surgery societies,
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the establishment of standards
of care by the plastic surgery
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societies as well as government
regulators and a lot of hard
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work behind the scenes by the highly
trained and experienced people,
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the doctors and nurses and surgeons
who deliver plastic surgery
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care. So this is not an
accident that it's very safe.
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And as soon as all of
those things don't happen,
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the safety profile may not be the same.
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And so there are a few big
areas where this is potentially
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noticeably different. Infection
control is a big issue.
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It's about cleanliness in the facility,
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but also most of the United
States is a temperate zone,
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and that works to our advantage
in terms of infection control,
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anesthesia safety is
probably the biggest issue,
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and that's partly about who's giving
the anesthesia. In my practice,
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I have board certified anesthesiologists
as the only individuals
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rendering anesthesia care.
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So these are MDs who have completed
the residency and passed a
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board certification in
anesthesiology that are watching
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the vital signs, administering
the anesthetic meds,
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assessing the response to that making
ensure the patient is safe and comfortable
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during the procedures.
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That is not the way anesthesia
is delivered in many
other parts of the world.
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Sometimes it's in the practice
delivering the anesthesia.
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Sometimes it's some other kind
of anesthesia provider who's not
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an MD or the surgeon is directing
someone to give some of the
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anesthetic medicines or while
they're also trying to concentrate on
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during the operation.
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The equipment that's required and the
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standards of using equipment
in an anesthesia setting in the
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United States are very well defined,
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and that's made anesthesia
extraordinarily safe,
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even though we worry a lot about
anesthesia. If you look at the statistics
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like clean travel, it's
extraordinarily safer.
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Part of that is very good quality
equipment and safety monitors that
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are watching the vital signs of
patients and maintaining that
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equipment in accredited
American operating rooms.
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That equipment is periodically
inspected, tested, calibrated,
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and there's specific requirements
on the scope of equipment that must
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be present.
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And that's all designed to
ensure maximum patient safety.
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In other countries in the world,
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those requirements may differ
sometimes quite substantially,
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and particularly in out of
the hospital settings in
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clinics and surgery
centers and office surgery,
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not in the United States. In
most of the United States,
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accreditation is required in
office surgery, plastic surgery.
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As a society,
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both the big plastic surgery
societies have mandated accreditation
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for the last 20 years plus in office based
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surgery for sedated procedures,
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procedures where anesthesias given.
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So that's important because if
you get some surgery when you
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travel, that maybe isn't quite what you
hoped. It may be able to be revised,
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but if you have a devastating
complication from anesthesia,
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someone can't fix that later.
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So those are the big
safety issues that make us
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worry a little bit about travel,
particularly outside the us.
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Okay. Thanks for covering all of that.
Can you share your takeaways with us,
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Dr. Bass?
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So to summarize and to
backtrack a little bit,
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the United States has very detailed and
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extensive standards of care
that people have spent decades
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training to understand how
to produce and achieve,
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and that ensures as much predictability,
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as much safety as we can
build into the process.
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It's hard when you're traveling because
you don't have good local sources of
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information, and the internet
is not really a good source.
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There's no fact checking on the internet.
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And most of what you're looking at in
people's websites or in discussion on the
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internet, you don't know who's posting.
You don't know what their motivation is.
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So it's very hard to know
what's true and what's real.
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And even a testimonial
from an acquaintance who
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sometimes isn't what you
think may be highly deceptive.
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Travel surgery may be okay if
there's some kind of oversight or
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accreditation like in the United
States and one of the United States,
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accrediting bodies QUAD A,
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formerly American Association for the
Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgical
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Facilities does have
international accreditation.
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But whether they go on site and do
as extensive an inspection as they do
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in the United States is hard to know.
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I don't know how they
approach that process.
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So overall travel,
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particularly just to save money
may really be a false economy
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and plastic surgery.
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Your safety is not the ideal
place to look for a bargain.
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Thank you, Dr. Bass, for sharing
this information about travel beauty.
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Thank you for listening to the Park
Avenue Plastic Surgery Class podcast.
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Follow us on Apple Podcasts,
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write a review and share
the show with your friends.
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Be sure to join us next time to avoid
missing all the great content that is
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coming your way. If you want to
contact us with comments or questions,
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we'd love to hear from you,
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send us an email at
podcast@drbass.net or DM us on
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Instagram @drbassnyc.
00:00:01,470 --> 00:00:03,990
Welcome to Park Avenue
Plastic Surgery Class,
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00:00:04,020 --> 00:00:07,710
the podcast where we explore controversies
and breaking issues in plastic
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00:00:07,710 --> 00:00:10,530
surgery. I'm your co-host Summer Hardy,
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00:00:10,560 --> 00:00:13,770
a clinical assistant at Bass
Plastic Surgery in New York City.
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I'm excited to be here with Dr. Lawrence
Bass, Park Avenue plastic surgeon,
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00:00:17,970 --> 00:00:20,040
educator and technology innovator.
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00:00:20,220 --> 00:00:23,100
Today's episode is another
in our beauty series.
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The title of today's
episode is Travel Beauty.
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Tell us about the focus
in this episode, Dr. Bass.
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So this is about traveling to get surgery.
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There's been tremendous growth
in this activity and not just in
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cosmetic plastic surgery.
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It's happening in other cosmetic
treatments like dental implants and hair
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transplant,
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traveling for less expensive joint
replacement and even coronary
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artery bypass surgery.
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Okay, but what are the motivations?
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The main reason for traveling
for surgery is trying to save
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00:01:02,040 --> 00:01:02,873
money.
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00:01:03,930 --> 00:01:08,400
Another big reason that's less common but
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00:01:08,820 --> 00:01:13,440
understandable is to get a
special option that's not locally
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00:01:13,440 --> 00:01:18,180
available or in some cases is
to get something that's not
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00:01:18,600 --> 00:01:23,100
FDA approved in the United States but
is available in another part of the
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00:01:23,100 --> 00:01:28,050
world. Occasionally it's traveling
somewhere to be treated by a
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00:01:28,050 --> 00:01:32,910
particularly famous surgeon
or some combination of
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00:01:33,180 --> 00:01:36,000
those options. So some people will go to
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00:01:37,740 --> 00:01:42,390
a smaller town and have
the chairman or chairperson
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00:01:42,390 --> 00:01:47,010
treat them in a less expensive
city rather than going to a big
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00:01:47,010 --> 00:01:51,930
metro area where just
because of staff salaries and
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00:01:51,930 --> 00:01:55,500
rent and the expense of running
a practice in that area,
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00:01:55,860 --> 00:01:59,400
the price is necessarily higher.
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00:02:00,450 --> 00:02:02,850
And I have experience with this.
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00:02:02,850 --> 00:02:06,840
People travel from out of town
to visit me in New York City
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00:02:07,530 --> 00:02:09,870
and receive surgery in my setting,
35
00:02:09,870 --> 00:02:12,870
and I have people come from
all over the northeast,
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00:02:13,710 --> 00:02:18,600
from certainly the Washington
DC area, Florida, California,
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00:02:18,600 --> 00:02:19,433
London.
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00:02:20,040 --> 00:02:24,870
So people will travel to get
surgery in New York City by
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00:02:24,870 --> 00:02:29,400
someone who's particularly
skillful in a particular procedure
40
00:02:30,180 --> 00:02:34,740
because then they feel like
they're getting the best.
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00:02:35,430 --> 00:02:39,390
All right. There are a lot of advantages,
but there has to be a flip side.
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00:02:39,540 --> 00:02:41,250
What are some of the disadvantages?
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00:02:41,970 --> 00:02:45,510
So certainly that's a reality of life,
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00:02:45,510 --> 00:02:49,980
that everything has pluses and
minuses so when you travel to
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00:02:50,310 --> 00:02:51,720
a different place,
46
00:02:51,930 --> 00:02:55,590
it's harder to know what the
47
00:02:55,590 --> 00:02:59,250
qualifications are, the surgical skill,
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00:02:59,260 --> 00:03:03,010
the knowledge and experience
of the surgeon you're seeing.
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00:03:03,640 --> 00:03:07,750
And in many cases, just
because you're out of town,
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00:03:07,750 --> 00:03:10,450
you have less contacts
in a different place,
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00:03:10,780 --> 00:03:13,450
even if it's another place
in the United States.
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00:03:13,960 --> 00:03:18,640
And it's harder to verify if
you're in some place that's
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00:03:18,640 --> 00:03:23,020
not the United States. In New
York state where I practice,
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00:03:23,410 --> 00:03:28,180
you can go online to the state licensing
board and see that every surgeon has an
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00:03:28,180 --> 00:03:32,650
active license. You can see if
they've had disciplinary activity.
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00:03:33,010 --> 00:03:37,750
You can go to the boards of the
American Board of Plastic Surgery
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00:03:37,750 --> 00:03:42,430
and you can see if the person was
certified and has maintained their
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00:03:42,430 --> 00:03:43,510
certification.
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00:03:43,870 --> 00:03:47,890
All of these things are easy to find
and when you're going to another part of
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00:03:47,950 --> 00:03:52,840
the world that can be a challenge.
The regulations
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00:03:52,840 --> 00:03:57,820
in a different countries also may be
significantly different than what they are
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00:03:57,820 --> 00:03:59,110
in the United States,
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00:03:59,830 --> 00:04:04,030
and those regulations act
as kind of a safety net
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00:04:04,420 --> 00:04:08,920
for ensuring that minimum
standards are being followed.
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00:04:09,790 --> 00:04:13,450
So this varies tremendously in
different parts of the world.
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00:04:14,440 --> 00:04:17,410
We practice medicine a certain
way in the United States,
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00:04:17,410 --> 00:04:22,210
and there are many similarities to how
medicine is practiced here with other
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00:04:22,210 --> 00:04:23,230
parts of the world.
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00:04:23,230 --> 00:04:27,340
But there are many standards
of care that are different.
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00:04:27,370 --> 00:04:29,260
And I'm not saying
they're better or worse,
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00:04:29,260 --> 00:04:33,280
but they're definitely different
in other parts of the world.
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00:04:33,700 --> 00:04:34,990
And oversight,
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00:04:34,990 --> 00:04:39,670
the degree of government surveillance
of what's going on in the
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00:04:39,670 --> 00:04:44,140
medical system is very different
in other parts of the world.
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00:04:45,850 --> 00:04:48,790
And this is, again, all about safety,
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00:04:48,850 --> 00:04:50,860
and safety is always number one.
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00:04:52,060 --> 00:04:56,800
The American Society of Plastic
Surgeons and the Aesthetic Society
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00:04:57,280 --> 00:05:01,660
both have a commitment that all of their
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00:05:01,660 --> 00:05:05,920
activities are first and foremost about a
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00:05:05,920 --> 00:05:10,210
culture of patient safety
because that has to be
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00:05:11,150 --> 00:05:15,070
the first and foremost
attribute to how care is
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00:05:15,070 --> 00:05:19,240
delivered always, always.
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00:05:19,240 --> 00:05:21,100
A number of other places,
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00:05:22,030 --> 00:05:25,000
the malpractice systems work differently,
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00:05:25,390 --> 00:05:29,920
and so the ability to have
any kind of recourse if
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00:05:29,920 --> 00:05:34,600
something doesn't work out the
way you're expecting is different.
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00:05:34,720 --> 00:05:39,370
And that creates different
incentives also placed with active
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00:05:39,370 --> 00:05:43,930
malpractice. Even though doctors
are not fond of malpractice,
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00:05:44,110 --> 00:05:48,790
they know that they're going to be
held to account for what they do.
90
00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:52,120
And in places where that is not so active,
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00:05:52,690 --> 00:05:54,820
they're still trying to do a good job,
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00:05:54,820 --> 00:05:58,940
but they don't feel quite as
much pressure to do a good job.
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00:05:59,330 --> 00:06:04,250
So those are some of the disadvantages
of traveling in particular to another
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00:06:04,250 --> 00:06:07,160
part of the world to
receive plastic surgery.
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00:06:08,180 --> 00:06:11,090
That makes sense. Are
there other concerns?
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00:06:11,570 --> 00:06:14,510
There are a few other
administrative kind of factors.
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00:06:14,510 --> 00:06:19,040
So if you're getting surgery in another
part of the world, you traveled there,
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00:06:19,220 --> 00:06:22,040
follow-up care is going
to be more limited.
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00:06:22,910 --> 00:06:26,570
You're going to stay there for a certain
period of time after the surgery,
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00:06:26,570 --> 00:06:30,200
and once you go home, it's
harder to get follow-up care.
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00:06:30,200 --> 00:06:34,250
This is a little easier now
with all the telemed options.
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00:06:34,280 --> 00:06:36,350
You can talk with your surgeon.
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00:06:36,650 --> 00:06:39,350
The surgeon can take a
look at you on video,
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00:06:39,680 --> 00:06:43,700
but there's still no hands-on
options once you're back home.
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00:06:44,480 --> 00:06:48,440
And so if you needed a revision or you
needed some kind of treatment because
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00:06:48,440 --> 00:06:50,300
something healing slowly,
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00:06:50,600 --> 00:06:55,220
the revision options are more limited and
they're going to require you to travel
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00:06:55,220 --> 00:07:00,020
back at your expense to the place
where you received your care.
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00:07:00,020 --> 00:07:04,490
Now, even if you go to another city
in the United States, that's true.
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00:07:04,490 --> 00:07:09,440
We have ways of dealing with that in my
practice for our travel patients to come
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00:07:09,440 --> 00:07:12,230
from other cities in the US or abroad.
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00:07:12,470 --> 00:07:16,610
But it does make it a little more
limited, a little more challenging,
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00:07:17,060 --> 00:07:19,970
even with the best of
intentions on all sides.
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00:07:20,750 --> 00:07:25,160
Got it. That seems intrinsic to the
travel approach. Is there anything else?
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00:07:25,730 --> 00:07:28,190
Now we get to the big safety issues.
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00:07:28,190 --> 00:07:32,120
So even though plastic
surgery is very safe,
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00:07:32,600 --> 00:07:33,920
that's not an accident.
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00:07:34,010 --> 00:07:38,870
It's the result of that culture
of safety I was talking about in
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00:07:38,870 --> 00:07:43,520
training and education and
continuing education at the plastic
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00:07:43,520 --> 00:07:44,990
surgery societies,
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00:07:45,440 --> 00:07:50,060
the establishment of standards
of care by the plastic surgery
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00:07:50,060 --> 00:07:54,680
societies as well as government
regulators and a lot of hard
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00:07:54,680 --> 00:07:59,150
work behind the scenes by the highly
trained and experienced people,
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00:07:59,150 --> 00:08:04,070
the doctors and nurses and surgeons
who deliver plastic surgery
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00:08:04,070 --> 00:08:08,240
care. So this is not an
accident that it's very safe.
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00:08:08,840 --> 00:08:11,540
And as soon as all of
those things don't happen,
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00:08:12,110 --> 00:08:15,500
the safety profile may not be the same.
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00:08:15,680 --> 00:08:20,240
And so there are a few big
areas where this is potentially
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00:08:20,240 --> 00:08:24,560
noticeably different. Infection
control is a big issue.
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00:08:24,590 --> 00:08:26,990
It's about cleanliness in the facility,
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00:08:27,440 --> 00:08:30,950
but also most of the United
States is a temperate zone,
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00:08:31,160 --> 00:08:34,880
and that works to our advantage
in terms of infection control,
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00:08:35,570 --> 00:08:39,530
anesthesia safety is
probably the biggest issue,
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00:08:40,160 --> 00:08:44,930
and that's partly about who's giving
the anesthesia. In my practice,
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00:08:44,930 --> 00:08:49,520
I have board certified anesthesiologists
as the only individuals
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00:08:49,520 --> 00:08:51,350
rendering anesthesia care.
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00:08:51,920 --> 00:08:56,880
So these are MDs who have completed
the residency and passed a
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00:08:56,880 --> 00:09:01,440
board certification in
anesthesiology that are watching
139
00:09:02,010 --> 00:09:05,040
the vital signs, administering
the anesthetic meds,
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00:09:05,040 --> 00:09:09,300
assessing the response to that making
ensure the patient is safe and comfortable
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00:09:09,450 --> 00:09:10,590
during the procedures.
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00:09:10,920 --> 00:09:14,680
That is not the way anesthesia
is delivered in many
other parts of the world.
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00:09:14,680 --> 00:09:18,540
Sometimes it's in the practice
delivering the anesthesia.
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00:09:19,080 --> 00:09:23,940
Sometimes it's some other kind
of anesthesia provider who's not
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00:09:23,940 --> 00:09:28,500
an MD or the surgeon is directing
someone to give some of the
146
00:09:28,500 --> 00:09:33,030
anesthetic medicines or while
they're also trying to concentrate on
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00:09:33,270 --> 00:09:35,460
during the operation.
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00:09:35,460 --> 00:09:38,430
The equipment that's required and the
149
00:09:38,430 --> 00:09:42,810
standards of using equipment
in an anesthesia setting in the
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00:09:42,810 --> 00:09:45,360
United States are very well defined,
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00:09:45,990 --> 00:09:49,470
and that's made anesthesia
extraordinarily safe,
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00:09:49,710 --> 00:09:54,510
even though we worry a lot about
anesthesia. If you look at the statistics
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00:09:54,690 --> 00:09:57,570
like clean travel, it's
extraordinarily safer.
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00:09:58,620 --> 00:10:03,570
Part of that is very good quality
equipment and safety monitors that
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00:10:03,570 --> 00:10:08,280
are watching the vital signs of
patients and maintaining that
156
00:10:08,280 --> 00:10:11,310
equipment in accredited
American operating rooms.
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00:10:11,400 --> 00:10:15,510
That equipment is periodically
inspected, tested, calibrated,
158
00:10:15,840 --> 00:10:20,730
and there's specific requirements
on the scope of equipment that must
159
00:10:20,730 --> 00:10:21,563
be present.
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00:10:22,020 --> 00:10:26,850
And that's all designed to
ensure maximum patient safety.
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00:10:27,630 --> 00:10:29,910
In other countries in the world,
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00:10:30,240 --> 00:10:34,590
those requirements may differ
sometimes quite substantially,
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00:10:34,950 --> 00:10:39,630
and particularly in out of
the hospital settings in
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00:10:39,630 --> 00:10:43,560
clinics and surgery
centers and office surgery,
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00:10:44,130 --> 00:10:47,010
not in the United States. In
most of the United States,
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00:10:47,010 --> 00:10:51,690
accreditation is required in
office surgery, plastic surgery.
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00:10:52,080 --> 00:10:53,160
As a society,
168
00:10:53,940 --> 00:10:58,830
both the big plastic surgery
societies have mandated accreditation
169
00:10:58,830 --> 00:11:02,550
for the last 20 years plus in office based
170
00:11:03,090 --> 00:11:06,180
surgery for sedated procedures,
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00:11:06,180 --> 00:11:08,190
procedures where anesthesias given.
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00:11:08,820 --> 00:11:13,680
So that's important because if
you get some surgery when you
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00:11:13,680 --> 00:11:18,540
travel, that maybe isn't quite what you
hoped. It may be able to be revised,
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00:11:19,050 --> 00:11:22,920
but if you have a devastating
complication from anesthesia,
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00:11:23,310 --> 00:11:25,560
someone can't fix that later.
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00:11:26,070 --> 00:11:30,810
So those are the big
safety issues that make us
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00:11:30,810 --> 00:11:35,220
worry a little bit about travel,
particularly outside the us.
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00:11:36,960 --> 00:11:40,830
Okay. Thanks for covering all of that.
Can you share your takeaways with us,
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00:11:40,830 --> 00:11:41,700
Dr. Bass?
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00:11:42,480 --> 00:11:45,840
So to summarize and to
backtrack a little bit,
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00:11:46,410 --> 00:11:51,330
the United States has very detailed and
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00:11:51,330 --> 00:11:55,720
extensive standards of care
that people have spent decades
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00:11:55,720 --> 00:11:59,980
training to understand how
to produce and achieve,
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00:12:00,340 --> 00:12:04,810
and that ensures as much predictability,
185
00:12:05,200 --> 00:12:08,890
as much safety as we can
build into the process.
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00:12:09,490 --> 00:12:13,930
It's hard when you're traveling because
you don't have good local sources of
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00:12:13,930 --> 00:12:17,620
information, and the internet
is not really a good source.
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00:12:17,620 --> 00:12:19,960
There's no fact checking on the internet.
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00:12:20,590 --> 00:12:25,120
And most of what you're looking at in
people's websites or in discussion on the
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00:12:25,120 --> 00:12:29,920
internet, you don't know who's posting.
You don't know what their motivation is.
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00:12:30,190 --> 00:12:34,420
So it's very hard to know
what's true and what's real.
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00:12:34,780 --> 00:12:39,610
And even a testimonial
from an acquaintance who
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00:12:39,610 --> 00:12:44,200
sometimes isn't what you
think may be highly deceptive.
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00:12:45,460 --> 00:12:50,200
Travel surgery may be okay if
there's some kind of oversight or
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00:12:50,200 --> 00:12:54,370
accreditation like in the United
States and one of the United States,
196
00:12:54,370 --> 00:12:56,710
accrediting bodies QUAD A,
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00:12:57,130 --> 00:13:01,030
formerly American Association for the
Accreditation of Ambulatory Surgical
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00:13:01,840 --> 00:13:05,410
Facilities does have
international accreditation.
199
00:13:06,130 --> 00:13:11,020
But whether they go on site and do
as extensive an inspection as they do
200
00:13:11,020 --> 00:13:13,420
in the United States is hard to know.
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00:13:13,420 --> 00:13:16,420
I don't know how they
approach that process.
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00:13:17,110 --> 00:13:19,480
So overall travel,
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00:13:19,480 --> 00:13:24,070
particularly just to save money
may really be a false economy
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00:13:24,880 --> 00:13:27,070
and plastic surgery.
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00:13:27,390 --> 00:13:32,380
Your safety is not the ideal
place to look for a bargain.
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00:13:33,310 --> 00:13:36,880
Thank you, Dr. Bass, for sharing
this information about travel beauty.
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00:13:37,600 --> 00:13:41,680
Thank you for listening to the Park
Avenue Plastic Surgery Class podcast.
208
00:13:41,710 --> 00:13:43,630
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209
00:13:43,690 --> 00:13:45,910
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210
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211
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212
00:13:53,170 --> 00:13:54,370
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213
00:13:54,460 --> 00:13:59,110
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