Before You Book: What to Expect During a Plastic Surgery Consultation

Dr. G (00:02):
You are listening to another episode of All the B's with me, Dr. G and my scrub tech Bri. Good morning. I'm Dr. Kat Gallus and you're listening to All the B's, our unfiltered plastic surgery podcast with me, usually Bri, our scrub tech, but today my patient coordinator, Ava, is here with me instead of Bri.

Ava (00:20):
Hi.

Dr. G (00:21):
Good morning.

Ava (00:22):
Good morning. I'm so happy to be here.

Dr. G (00:24):
Yeah, We're excited to have you on. Bri's dropping off her oldest child at school this morning and we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to talk about the plastic surgery consultation process, which you pretty much run.

Ava (00:40):
Yes.

Dr. G (00:42):
So let's, as usual, before we launch into what you can expect if you come in for a plastic surgery consultation with us at Restore, we like to talk about the celebrity gossip, so.

Ava (00:56):
The fun things.

Dr. G (00:57):
Yeah, so I mean, I feel like everybody's heard about the Sydney Sweeney great jeans debacle, pro or I don't know how, I mean, it's great publicity I think for American Eagle. No one's been paying attention to their clothing for a minute, I don't think.

Ava (01:19):
Now everyone's paying attention.

Dr. G (01:23):
So in case you've been living under a rock, I guess she says in these multiple little video ads that her body's composition is determined by her genes and then genes are passed down. She talks a lot about genes, meaning genetic traits, and then it's a terrible pun about jeans as in denim. So people were upset for lots of reasons. I don't know. What did you think, Ava?

Ava (01:55):
Yeah, well, first of all, her voice sounds like she just woke up from a nap, and I feel like what is her voice doing? And then, I don't know, it's definitely, I don't know what the intentions were there, but it's definitely caused some little bit of chaos.

Dr. G (02:16):
I feel like I read somewhere that American Eagle was trying to boost their valuation in an attempt to sell it or some other behind the scenes, something that's so far removed from what's actually going on, and this makes the company look like it holds more value. So that's my cynical take on it. And then Sydney Sweeney is just a little pawn in this whole game. I'm sure for her, no attention is negative attention. I think it is drawing attention to what her maybe political leanings are, but I don't think that's confirmed or not. I feel like it was a little aggressive to call it eugenics.

Ava (03:00):
Yeah. And then at the end, my jeans are blue. It just kind of wraps it up, but I don't know. Everyone's mocking it. There are celebrity's making fun of it. I think Doja Cut did some kind of reenactment, kind of clowning on it.

Dr. G (03:15):
Yeah. My favorite one's actually on TikTok are people who dress their pets up in a denim shirt. There's some great ones where they're like my jeans or whatever, and it's like a dog with a shirt on or a cat with a shirt on, and I love it. And then, yeah, they could have done this better, honestly, but I think they wanted the controversy because you could have said, my jeans are and had different celebrities with different characteristics and ethnicities and have different styles of jeans. There's a million way to lean into diversity. Or you could just go with a blonde blue eye girl.

Ava (04:00):
Blonde hair, blue eyes. Yeah. Yeah, I agree.

Dr. G (04:03):
Yikes.

Ava (04:04):
They could have done it a little different.

Dr. G (04:08):
I've seen, I feel like I as an Asian model or actress who wore yellow jeans, now it's just become, everyone's mocking it, but.

Ava (04:17):
It's definitely getting attention.

Dr. G (04:19):
Yeah. It got the attention it wanted, whatever, and we all know if you have enough money to spend on plastic surgery, you can kind of alter your genes to some degree anyway. Right. Whatever. Good for Sydney Sweeney. I don't think she has a movie coming out, so I'm not really sure what she got out of it. Whatever. No news is bad news. Alright, so that's speaking of, did you see this Andrew Garfield leaves fans confused? I spent way too much time scrutinizing Andrew Garfield's face, which I had never done. I don't, what?

Ava (05:01):
Looking up the before and afters of what changed?

Dr. G (05:06):
Yeah, he shaved.

Ava (05:08):
He shaved his beard. That's what I noticed. But I'm not sure

Dr. G (05:16):
Anything else is different. I am looking for telltale lack of wrinkles. No, I mean, he has some crow's feet there. He has maybe less crow's feet there, but I mean, I don't know. I feel like a guy can just shave his beard and look totally different period.

Ava (05:33):
Yeah, I think it just gave him a baby face and it looks different, but it's nothing. I don't notice really anything surgical.

Dr. G (05:42):
No, it's not like he has filler or he's Botox weird or I don't know what people are getting excited about, but it's an interesting movie he's filming. I mean, again, I feel like now we've gotten to the point where paparazzi are tracking people while they're trying to film movies if they're not on set so that we get behind the scenes and then it's good publicity for this movie Artificial where I think he plays, I can't remember. He's not Elon Musk, but he's somebody.

Ava (06:16):
Yeah, I'm not too sure.

Dr. G (06:20):
Because all I pay attention to are the behind the scenes paparazzi shots of Devil,

Ava (06:25):
Not the actual movie.

Dr. G (06:27):
Yeah. I don't ever watch the actual movie, but the Devil Wears Prada that they've been shooting tons of clips of that, of people and outfits and they're like, they're ruining the movie. We're going to see all the outfits before the movie launches. I'm like, okay.

Ava (06:41):
They're doing it on purpose.

Dr. G (06:43):
Calm down.

Ava (06:44):
Yeah. It's ruining the whole film.

Dr. G (06:46):
Yes. Which that's all you really need. I just want to see the fits.

Ava (06:51):
That's the important part.

Dr. G (06:54):
Right? Especially in that movie. I don't know about this artificial, it's like tech bro land, so it's just going to be like he's got a Patagonia puffer on there. That's all you need to know, and maybe a hoodie. Okay. All right. Let's next, and a last little thing for discussion, cuz to be honest, it's been a really slow celebrity week. Jamie Lee Curtis, as you aptly noted, Ava has a movie coming out, and so she's circling back in with her hate of plastic surgery and ageism in Hollywood. But I feel like she might've taken it a step too far.

Ava (07:39):
A little too far. Yeah. I mean, the quote on its own is just too much. She didn't need to say that. She didn't need to go there.

Dr. G (07:51):
I mean, I think she does for anyone to pay attention at this point because she's been sounding that alarm for a while. So she calls it the genocide of a generation of women by the Cosmeceutical industrial complex who've disfigured themselves. That's aggressive.

Ava (08:16):
That's very aggressive. I guess she's just coming because she has a movie coming out. She's just coming back with full force.

Dr. G (08:26):
Yeah, I mean, so then she's talking about the filter filtering. Are we responsible for that? I feel like skincare, cosmetics, I mean, I don't think any of that is new. So since Egyptian times people have been coaling their eyes or using berries to stain their lips, it's a kind of natural instinct to do something to enhance your appearance. And I don't know how you can call it genocide. First of all, no one's dying.

Ava (09:06):
Yeah,

Dr. G (09:07):
I can't.

Ava (09:10):
It's just over the years, obviously beauty has expanded, but that's just the world we live in.

Dr. G (09:18):
Yeah, go ahead. Sorry.

Ava (09:19):
Girls want to be pretty and there are things that we can do to enhance and you don't need to bash it or make us feel bad about it.

Dr. G (09:29):
Yeah, I think if we want to look nice and put mascara on, that's okay. If you want to not wear makeup, I feel like we're at the point where that's also okay. Yesterday I forgot to put mascara on for I don't know what reason, and then Rachel, one of our nurses was saying, I mean, I think that's trending now. The no mascara look, I'm like, it might be, but it doesn't work for me.

Ava (09:55):
No, this happened to me this morning and my eyelash curler somehow went missing. So I just went no mascara today, and I was like the day of the podcast. Perfect.

Dr. G (10:04):
That's awesome.

Ava (10:04):
Just my luck. Yeah, I mean, it's your choice. If you don't want to wear makeup, great, but you don't have to. I mean, genocide is a strong word to use here.

Dr. G (10:19):
And she's saying we're wiping out a generation or two of natural human appearance, which I disagree with. I think anything in the last 50 years, we're seeing a somewhat more variety. Maybe we'll lose that, but in what we consider aesthetically appealing, I review abstracts for presentation at our national meeting, and there's several about how the changing aesthetic norms have shifted to allow for ethnic differences. So if you look at the seventies and eighties, plastic surgery was sort of trying to bring everybody to one look, and that look was based on strong aesthetic ideals of what the Caucasian female looks like, for example. And now it's not about that. It's more about enhancing the dimensions of your face. Can you take that to an extreme and a request to look like a cat and find someone who will do it? Sure. But that's not, I think generally speaking what we're talking about.

Ava (11:27):
Right, right. Yeah. I mean, it's like when men are like, oh, I don't like women who have plastic surgery or wear a ton of makeup. I like natural. And it's like, well, I'm wearing a full face of makeup. It's just a natural look.

Dr. G (11:44):
The no makeup makeup.

Ava (11:45):
The no makeup look, I'm like, everyone has a certain extent of wanting to look. Everyone's different. So maybe you don't want any makeup, any surgery, let your eyebrows grow out, whatever. But everyone's different. I don't know.

Dr. G (12:04):
Yeah. I think, yeah, she's great that she's interested in taking her stand, but I feel like you can't also argue that no one gets, I don't know, what's your point? Everyone just needs to not do anything. That's the world you want to live in, I guess so. Whatever. Okay, at least I will say this, and Jamie Lee Curtis is strong in her conviction to not do anything. You know what I mean? Sometimes women come out and do this, the actresses, and you're like, yeah, you don't believe in plastic surgery, but you clearly have had it.

Ava (12:46):
Right, right.

Dr. G (12:48):
You're like, okay. Or you don't believe in plastic surgery anymore after you've had it all done. You're like, that's not fair. You've had everything done already, so now you can say that you wouldn't do it, or you're just lying because you've definitely had it done and you're trying to keep,

Ava (13:05):
You just want people to think you look natural.

Dr. G (13:07):
Yeah. Let us believe that it's olive oil, lemon juice, and chia seeds. That's even worse. That's disingenuous in my opinion.

Ava (13:15):
Yeah. At least she practices what she preaches here, I guess.

Dr. G (13:19):
Yes, yes. Alright. So we won't expect to see Jamie Lee Curtis drop in for a consultation, but we're thinking about the person who is ready to come in and talk to us about a procedure or a goal. They have the first step, generally speaking, after they listen to our podcast or find us on social media or check out our website is call. Right. So what do callers ask you when they call in and ask for a consultation?

Ava (13:55):
So one of the biggest questions is definitely healing time. I think that's huge for a lot of our patients because you have to plan ahead of time. You have to know how long you have to take off work or stop exercising. So healing time is definitely one of the top questions. A lot of people also ask pricing. That's a huge question. Is there a consultation fee and whatnot?

Dr. G (14:23):
Is that the first thing they should be asking? What's the first things? If you were to give somebody advice like, Hey, you want to call in and you're asking about a breast augmentation, what's the number one question you should ask? Is it price?

Ava (14:40):
Price is always one of the first few because that's people need to know their budget. But I'd say healing time, where is the surgery performed is huge. People want to know if we have our own operating room at the facility or if they're going elsewhere for their surgery. So that's a big one. I think a lot of questions are asked about the doctor experience.

Dr. G (15:13):
I think that's great.

Ava (15:15):
Board certifications.

Dr. G (15:16):
Yeah. I mean, I think the issue is that when people call and ask about credentialing, what do you tell them? Them about me, for example, because I think it gets confusing with credentialing in the state of California and in a lot of other places.

Ava (15:35):
Right. So I always start with Dr. Gallus is a board certified plastic surgeon. She's been in practice for about 20 years. I do touch on, she's one of the few female surgeons in the area. That's nice and comforting for a lot of women coming to get surgery on their body. So yeah, those are kind of the points that I touch on. If they kind of ask for more information, we'll dive in deeper. But usually it's the board certification that they ask about and how long you've been in practice for.

Dr. G (16:13):
And so what's the deal with board certification? Do you need to be board certified in plastic surgery to perform plastic surgery?

Ava (16:20):
You don't, you don't need to. No. And a lot of surgeons, but I mean you are at a higher level of expertise if you are.

Dr. G (16:31):
I think that's important. And I think when you're credentialed as a plastic surgeon, that means I have hospital privileges. If you're a general surgeon practicing plastic surgery out in town or an ENT surgeon who doesn't have any plastic surgery training or an ER doctor practicing plastic surgery, you cannot do that at a hospital. You can't do that at a major surgery center. You won't get credentialed to do that. So those physicians are always operating in their own little and sometimes not abiding by the same rules and regulations that somebody who's fully credentialed at every level has to and should. So I think that's kind of important because I think it is confusing in the state of California, if you say you're board certified, you have to say in what? Because that was an issue on advertising. They were like board certified. I'm a cosmetic surgeon. And you're like, but you're board certified in pediatrics, so how does that help me when you're doing my lipo?

Ava (17:44):
Right, right. I always touch, she specializes in breast and body surgery. And that kind of ties into insurance too, when people are like, well, why can't I go through insurance for this? Because you can maybe if you get approved first of all, but then also your surgeon isn't going to be, I mean maybe, but it's unlikely that your surgeon's going to be a board certified plastic surgeon.

Dr. G (18:09):
Depending on the procedure. Yeah, I think if you're trying to get something approved by insurance, let's say breast reduction, you're going to be able to see a board certified plastic surgeon, but you're going to be limited in who those surgeons are in town who offer or still take insurance or you're part of a system like UCSD or Scripps or Kaiser. And as we're learning, the insurance companies are stricter and some of the bigger systems are stricter, so there's hoops to jump through. So we see Kaiser patients that maybe they don't meet the criteria for breast reduction per what Kaiser's decided, or someone's not comfortable with the surgeon that is assigned to them in their insurance plan, or they want a little bit more flexibility and they want to do liposuction with the reduction or they want to be a certain specific size. And insurance type stuff is usually kind of cookie cutter. So those are all things that end up coming into play when you choose to go down the insurance pathway, nevermind the hassle of trying to get approved depending on what your plan is. And I feel like you're pretty well versed in all of that. So you're able to talk the patient through a lot of those things. How do you help somebody who's just calling to know how much things cost?

Ava (19:37):
Yeah, so when their first question right off the bat is cost, you have to think, are they shopping around? Are they just starting their journey? What is their budget? So I definitely will give a ballpark over the phone. I will never give an exact price quote because at the end of the day, you don't know what the patient needs over the phone. They might say they need liposuction to the abdomen, but really they need a tummy tuck. So I really just try to dive into what their specific goals are and what they try to figure out what exactly they need. And then I'll be able to give them a ballpark price over the phone. You can tell also if the price is a little high for them, I'll go into our finance options and let them know that there are options that they can use to help them out. Sometimes I'll have them apply for those finance options ahead of time so that when they come in for the consultation, they know what their budget is.

Dr. G (20:32):
And I think that patients find that hard to accept sometimes some of them do, but I think it is because without seeing you evaluating you, hearing from you doing the full consultation, we can't say that what you're calling and asking about pricing for is the surgery that we recommend. So can we give you Botox pricing per unit? Sure, but do you need 20 units? Do you need 64 units? Do you want to try Daxify?

Ava (21:05):
Such a wide variety of different options and different things that a patient could need and not even know that they need. Some people they need a lift, a breast lift, but they might just come in and be like, oh, well I just want this or that. So it really just depends. So we can't really give pricing until we see you in person and do the full evaluation.

Dr. G (21:31):
Exactly. And I think we just saw somebody back who I saw a couple years ago recommended a lift with their augmentation, stood by that recommendation for the results she wanted, and now she's returning because she went elsewhere where they didn't do the lift and it didn't give her the results she wanted. And she's had it revised and we're still now in kind of a tough spot.

Ava (21:53):
As long as you're clear from the beginning and let them know this may not give you the exact result you're looking for so they're clear on it, then at the end of the day, if they're still determined that that's what they want, then they can't be upset after the fact.

Dr. G (22:08):
And I think I've met those patients that have reasonable expectations. Sometimes I have patients that do not want to go through a tummy attack because they don't want to do the recovery or they don't want the incisions. And I try to explain liposuction only is going to give you a much different result. And I do have examples of a patient who did that. She was about to get married, she wanted the liposuction so that she could fit in her wedding dress, and she understood she was going to have loose skin afterwards, but she was also planning to have kids. So it seemed unreasonable to go through a tummy tuck and then know she was young, know that she was then again going to maybe need a second one after having kids. And she was pleased. We gave her enough lead time so that she was healed and minimal swelling went on to get married and and she'll circle back around when her kids are older, whatever, and everything works out.

(23:09):
And if she wants a tummy tuck, then she can do that. But just I don't really want to do it is you just have to be in the right spot to understand what the pros and cons are. So yeah, it's hard to suss all that out over the phone or via text, but you do a great job of trying to get that information for the patients. And I think having them think about some of these things too before they come in for a consultation helps me a lot because it's not like the first time you're hearing, oh, or the different recovery or there might be incisions. I think those, or this is what financing looks like. If you hadn't considered that before. I think one of the best options to have for women that you talk to before consultation are those that are coming in and have implants in place trying to figure out, Hey, when was the last time you had a mammogram? And do you have any idea what's in there? Because a lot of times they'll say, I don't know. I don't know what implants I have. But then after they get off the phone with you, they look around.

Ava (24:19):
Yeah, let me go find my implant card. Some people don't know if they're silicone saline above the muscle below the muscle. There's so many details that I try to ask. So I think after being asked those questions, they're more likely to go kind of like, oh, I'm curious. What do I have?

Dr. G (24:37):
Yes, they figure that out a little bit and then it makes the consultation process a little more efficient for us because I can speak to some things with a little more specificity if I know what you have in there. If you don't, we're used to that too. I always say we're like the CSI of breast implants here.

Ava (24:56):
We'll figure it out.

Dr. G (24:57):
Yes, we do figure it out. And then so what do we ask of our patients or prospective patients when they call? We have a consultation fee. What are the reasons for that fee?

Ava (25:12):
Yeah, we have a $50 consultation fee. It's because it's an hour of the doctor's time. They get to come in, we take photos of them with our advanced photo imaging, and we're sometimes able to image the photos for them to kind of give a glimpse at their final result or something close. So Dr. Gallus spends a lot of time with the patient. Definitely we'll work with them to tailor to their goals and meet what they're looking for. So the $50 fee is for the hour of her time, but it does go towards your surgical quote if you end up booking. It is applied towards the overall cost of surgery.

Dr. G (25:50):
And I think it's also important for the patient to be invested in the appointment. I think we've learned over time that your commitment to that appointment time is a little, I mean, not just us. I think if you book a massage, my core power classes charge me a I nohow.

Ava (26:08):
Sometimes restaurant reservations require a deposit. It's just we want to make sure your committed and you're serious about having the surgery,

Dr. G (26:17):
Just a little investment in knowing that you are going to make time for this appointment. Maybe be as prepared as you can be for the appointment. And I feel like it's a nominal fee to come in and be committed to that because also we have limited appointments. My schedule's pretty busy, and so it's really hard when we set aside an hour of my time for a patient and then at the last minute they cancel and there's people waiting to come in and be seen. So it's a little give and take there. But yeah, we just want to understand that that's committed and that's why it's important to talk to Ava too. And then also we like to know that you're a candidate. What's one of my, what's one we're not going to probably operate on you. What's my one no? Do you know? I'm always like, are they smoking?

Ava (27:13):
Oh, nicotine. Yeah. That's a hard no. Yeah, so that's something we ask over the phone as well and make it very clear that they're going to have to stop a few weeks prior to surgery. And are you okay with that before bringing you in? Because if not, it's not going to happen unfortunately.

Dr. G (27:32):
And so part of that is we don't want to waste people's time. So if you're an active smoker, if I will see patients who have a high BMI, if they're losing weight, you just have to understand that if you're actively losing weight, we probably want you to be at a stable weight before we operate. So if you're just coming in to kind of make a plan and think ahead, that's great. We can do that. But again, it's hitting a moving target and we want you to be at a stable, healthy weight before surgery.

Ava (28:06):
And that's another thing. If they're at a higher BMI and they're actively trying to lose weight and then they want surgery, then we recommend waiting to come in for your consultation until you're kind of closer to your goal weight because then we're going to be able to better assess you at that time because if you come in too early, we're just going to end up bringing you back in for another consultation when you're closer to your weight. And so the first consultation is kind of a waste of time at that point.

Dr. G (28:34):
Yeah. I think most of the information you can get is by talking to Ava first. We also want to make sure you're healthy. So people on blood thinners or have major medical problems, it'd be nice to know that in advance if you can tell Ava. Sometimes people don't and then wait until the end of the consultation to mention their major cardiac risk factors.

Ava (28:59):
Which we like to touch on any health concerns over the phone as well.

Dr. G (29:07):
Or at least know that you are being cared for by a physician and you have recent checkups, you're going to need that medical, I know primary care physicians don't like to hear medical clearance, so medical optimization prior to undergoing any surgery, our goal is to be safe. What about bringing photos or getting ready for the consultation? What do you recommend patients do to be ready?

Ava (29:33):
Yeah, it's really helpful when they have looked at our website and pick out women that kind of looks similar to them and then bring in goal photos sometimes or are able to tell us what their goals are as long as they're realistic.

Dr. G (29:53):
And it also just helps kind of frame, frame because words like C cup and natural can mean different things to different people. And so if you show me a photo of somebody you think looks natural on Instagram and they have 600 cc implants in, then your version of natural is just different from somebody who wants to look like barely, nobody can notice that they have implants. So yeah, I think it's important to have kind of thought about it and maybe bring photos of things that are goals for you if you don't. Okay, we will have a big conversation about the surgery planned and all that stuff. And then at pre-op, I do like people to then narrow it down. So at pre-op a couple of weeks before your procedure, we really know what your aesthetic goal is. And so sometimes the consultation process is food for thought. What about parking? Is there somewhere? Do you tell them where to park?

Ava (30:55):
Yeah, we have our underground parking garage. We validate parking tickets. So I always tell them, you can park in the garage, take the elevator straight up to the second floor, tell them our suite number and then make sure they bring their ticket up with them. We take care of parking.

Dr. G (31:10):
Yes. I feel like there is a limit in the parking garage. We have some people that come from Alpine and horse ranches and they have these giant trucks. I feel like there's some sort of six foot or I don't know, because obviously my car doesn't meet that, but definitely if you have some giant truck on huge wheels, then maybe don't park in the underground garage. You're not going to make it.

Ava (31:34):
There is street parking too though, and it's free. So that's another option.

Dr. G (31:37):
Yeah, if you have a giant truck. And then, what's our wait time? Is there a lot of people coming and going in and out of our office? Do you have to hang out in the lobby for an hour?

Ava (31:51):
No, we're pretty quick with patients. We plan out the schedule so that no one's waiting a super long time to be seen. And then wait-wise for surgery, I would say the earlier you come in for your consultation, the better. So that way you can choose a date that you want. We usually booked about two months out, one to two months out. So if you have a timeframe in mind and you want a set date, come in as early as possible so you can be able to secure that and kind of have your pick of what works with your schedule.

Dr. G (32:29):
I know sometimes people have very specific dates, but they come in kind of late to the game and then we're scrambling to get it done. What about paperwork? Do they do paperwork before coming in?

Ava (32:40):
Yeah, so that's a good way to prepare for your consultation. I always email a link to fill out your new patient paperwork online prior to the consultation. It's very helpful. Just saves a little bit of time in office. It gives you more time with Dr. Gallus, so it is helpful. If you have any issues with it online, you are welcome to fill it out in office as well on paper.

Dr. G (33:05):
That's just a few more minutes it's going to take when you get here, but it's doable, but we love to have it done online. And then do we take photos before photos? And how do those photos get stored? I don't know if you're, you know all the answers to that question.

Ava (33:23):
Yeah, we take photos with our, it's called our Vectra camera. So we take you to the photo room. It creates kind of like a 3D image that Dr. Gallus is able to image your photos kind of tailor to your goals there. They get stored, they're in your patient portal. It's a secure chart.

Dr. G (33:43):
Yeah, it goes straight into, so the Vectra photo is just stored in the Vectra system. It doesn't connect to our EMR anymore because it just crashes it out. So it's on its own secure server. And then any photos we take with the iPad, or even if Dr. Chao or I take photos with our phone, we have the RX photo app on our phone and on the iPads. Those are securely connected to the electronic medical records. So I think I called them 2D photos the other day and Bri gave me a look like, what the hell is that? But just a regular photo. A regular photo, yeah.

Ava (34:19):
What's a 2D photo?

Dr. G (34:21):
She was like, what magic are you asking me to do? I'm like, no, just a photo. Sorry. I don't know why I said 2D. So those photos go right into our secure electronic medical record. It's all connected, so that's nice. It's all password protected. And we do keep those photos stored. We have all the cybersecurity stuff in line, and we will email you the photos if you request them. We tend not to print 'em out because they never look quite right with the printer ink, but we are always happy to email those. So that's kind of photos. And then what about, do you want to walk us through the consultation process? They've come in, their paperwork's done. Cynthia's checked them in. What happens next Ava?

Ava (35:08):
Yeah, so I will greet you. I'm your first point of contact. I'm the one speaking with you on the phone, so we've already kind of met via phone call. So I'll come greet you, we'll take you to an exam room. That's when you'll meet with our nurse. She'll go over details with you and just some medical information. And then we'll take a few of the Vectra photos, which are always pretty quick, take you back to the room, Dr. Gallus, come meet with you. She'll spend the majority of the consultation talking with you and discussing your goals and the surgery process. And then after that you'll meet with me at the end. We'll go over pricing. I'll give you a quote. We talk about finance options if you're interested and scheduling.

Dr. G (35:56):
Are you allowed to bring a friend to your consult or spouse?

Ava (35:59):
Yeah. Yeah. You're definitely allowed to bring someone, maybe not little kids, sometimes that can get a little distracting. We like you to be very present and just be able to take full advantage of the consultation. But yeah, friends, spouse, definitely welcome, especially if they're the one caring for you after the procedure, welcome to join. We also invite them to your pre-op appointment. That's kind of where we go over more of the recovery process, medications and whatnot. So yeah, they're definitely welcome.

Dr. G (36:32):
Yeah, it's good to have a caregiver on board, especially if you have a, maybe you're trying to decide what to do or you have a little bit more variation, like somebody who was doing breast implant removal or revision or something. It's nice to have somebody else there who's also listening. Maybe ask the questions that you forgot to ask a lot of times then you don't have to go when you go home and try to explain what the plan is. They've already also heard it. So I like it when, I can tell my high energy patients that are like, how long do I have to not run? Or whatever it is that they're exercise, that they're addicted to have the spouse there that's like, yeah, we're going to need to rein her in and for them to understand. She can't turn around two days after surgery and say, no, no, no, the doctor said it was cool if I run 10 miles today. And they'll be like, no, she never said that.

Ava (37:26):
They'll hold them accountable. So that's nice.

Dr. G (37:29):
And also so that they understand, yeah, you really need to support this person during their journey. And the caregiving is a big role in anybody's surgery journey, if you will. Will you have to take your clothes off during the appointment? Yes. Right. I mean, you're going to have the initial little bit of the visit. You're going to be dressed, then we're going to give you an opportunity to change. So we can take the photos and then I'll come in, do the consultation, the exam, review the photos that we took with you, and then we let you get dressed, and then Ava takes you to her office so that she can go over all the financing and scheduling and any other questions that you might have. I think a good question is, can I ask multiple cosmetic concern questions or is it limited to one issue?

Ava (38:26):
I think letting us know over the phone ahead of time what exactly you're coming in for. So we allow enough time for the consultation. Sometimes if you start talking about different areas and topics, then we're losing focus of the original surgery that you came in to talk about.

Dr. G (38:45):
And then everything else that blows out the window in your head, you might have the ballpark figure Ava gave you, but now you're adding on arm liposuction and maybe fat transfer to the butt or whatever, you know, we're not a coffee cart. So you want to make sure that you have a plan and then your expectations are met. If you are coming in for, let's say a mommy makeover or a body contouring, then yeah, those patients know. They're like, I'm interested in addressing my breasts, my abdomen, my arms, my thighs, but at least we're prepared in advance to let you know all of that is not happening at one time. So we can talk briefly about all the body contouring operations, but you have to prioritize what's your biggest concern right now and what surgery can be combined with other surgery. I never do arms and legs together because the recovery is just not possible. So usually arms and breasts, thighs and abdomen or breast and abdomen are good combinations, but having that kind of plan makes your consultation process more focused. What if you're not ready to decide at the consultation whether you want surgery or not? How does that work?

Ava (39:58):
Yeah, so your quote is good for 90 days. You are welcome of course, to go home if you want to think about it or talk to your husband and whatnot. We do have an easy booking process over the phone. If you needed the night to think about it and want to call back the next day to schedule your surgery, you can call me or email me directly. I provide all that information at the time of your consult. And then it's definitely easy to schedule over the phone, but your quote is good for 90 days.

Dr. G (40:31):
And so I think it's nice if people are ready to book on the day of and they come in with a plan, but a lot of times people then have to give it some thought or run it by that caregiver or figure out

Ava (40:47):
Work schedule.

Dr. G (40:48):
The work is, yeah, usually they're like, we do operate on a fair amount of nurses, and so then they need to turn around and get, request the time off and their schedules are built out usually weeks in advance. So that's a common one. We love people who work from home. They're always able to make it work, honestly. But if you're planning to take advantage of holiday weekends, like Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's, then the sooner you have that plan set, the better. Because I mean, I think I was talking to a patient the other day who wanted that timeframe for different reasons, and I said, yeah, we can do it, but December fills up very quickly, and so the sooner you let us know what those dates are, and she was like, why? And I was like, because people like to take advantage of those slow times. I mean, honestly, nothing happens in a lot of industries between Christmas and New Years, so it's a good time to have surgery. A lot of my women, my female patients are like, yeah, and then I get to opt out of all the nonsense, maybe I don't have to handle Thanksgiving because I'm recovering from surgery, put it on somebody else. It's someone else's turn that year. So there's a lot of advantages of doing it then it's just a busy time of year for us personally. So making sure you're organized and ready, don't call us on December 5th, hoping to get in between those two weeks. And then I think, so you stay in touch with the patient after the consultation, right?

Ava (42:19):
I do. Yeah. I'll follow up with them. A lot of times they'll have additional questions that they forgot to ask in the consultation, so I'll help them out with that.

Dr. G (42:27):
Yeah, you're really great at being accessible and available for our patients. And if there's a question that you ask afterwards that she doesn't know, she'll reach out to me and I'll help us figure it out. And if somebody has a lot of questions, then after the consultation, then I feel like we haven't prepared to move forward for surgery. And we'll often set up a second consultation, so we can do that virtually over a secure HIPAA compliant video call. I can do it over the phone or you can come back in person. Those are sort of your options, and we've done that before. A lot of times a common one is I have implants. I don't know if I want to take 'em out and go down that pathway or if I want to exchange them. And we can talk about all of it in the consultation, but once you decide whether you're keeping them or keeping them and exchanging them or getting rid of them forever, then we can have a second conversation about what that's going to look like and the recovery for that specifically. And then for virtual consults, I would say we do offer those. Again, it's a video chat, HIPAA compliant, but we do request patient photos in advance for those because I can't evaluate anything through the phone.

Ava (43:48):
You send photos ahead of time, that way you don't have to undress on camera. And we already have the photos ahead of time to reference for when we get on the FaceTime call.

Dr. G (43:58):
Correct. And then how does the process change for out of town patients?

Ava (44:06):
So for out of town patients, we would do the virtual consultation, and then from there, after doing the whole consultation process with you, we can do your pre-op virtually as well. We'll usually have you come in a few days or at least one day prior to surgery, just so that you can see our facility. We can take Vectra photos of you, we can do just necessary things that we need to get done in person prior to surgery. And then you'll come in the next morning for your procedure. We do offer overnight, we have an overnight nurse program. We have a hotel that we offer our out of town patients as well that I can help set up and assist with because you will need to stay a few nights in San Diego post-surgery.

Dr. G (44:56):
Right. And we like patients to stick around for a week to two weeks. It sort of depends on the procedure itself, but we iron all that out in advance. We have patients that come from Hawaii, we have patients that come from the Northwest. I have patients that come from Texas, Idaho, a lot of different places. A lot of patients come from LA, which is a different set of challenges, but having the opportunity for you to stay locally. A lot of patients maybe have some connection to San Diego and have friends or family here, and so that's how they make arrangements to stick around after surgery. But yeah, we're pretty flexible. And Ava has all the tools you need to make sure that your stay is safe and accommodating and that you have options for that. So yeah, no issues. And then a lot of times we'll mix up the post-op appointments with both virtual and in person, depending on your schedule. So if you're listening today, you have questions or need information about scheduling, financing, you want to take a look at pictures or you just want to find out a little bit more about a certain procedure, definitely give us a call. You'll speak with Ava and she can sort out if a consultation's the right next move for you. So thanks for listening. And check the show notes for links.

Ava (46:26):
Thank you.

Dr. G (46:29):
If you're listening today and have questions, need info about scheduling, financing, reviews, or photos, check out the show notes for links. Restore SD Plastic Surgery is located in La Jolla, California. To learn more about us, go to restoresdplasticsurgery.com or follow us on Instagram @restoreSDplasticsurgery. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it and subscribe to All the B's on YouTube, apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen to podcasts.