Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: You're listening to the Doc Lounge Podcast. This is a place for candid conversations with the healthcare industry's top physicians, executives and thought leaders.
This podcast is made possible by Pacific Companies, your trusted advisor in physician recruitment.
[00:00:19] Speaker B: Hello and welcome to the Doc Lounge Podcast. I'm Stacy Doyle, senior Director of Marketing at Pacific Companies. Today we have a very special guest joining us. Dr. Michael J. McNeil is a board certified plastic surgeon and senior partner at Marietta Plastic surgery with over 25 years of experience. Renowned for his expertise in endoscopic, plastic and reconstructive surgery, Dr. McNeil is at the forefront of revolutionizing the field with minimally invasive techniques. These endoscopic methods not only offer enhanced precision, but also significantly reduce scarring and recovery time for patients.
In addition to his clinical practice, Dr. McNeil is a dedicated educator training surgeons across the globe in these cutting edge techniques, ensuring that the next generation of plastic surgeons are equipped with the latest innovations.
Dr. McNeil, welcome to the Doc Lounge Podcast. We're thrilled to have you today.
[00:01:15] Speaker C: Well, thank you, Stacy. It's great to be here and excited to have a conversation today.
[00:01:21] Speaker B: Love it. Love it. Well, tell us. First, explain how did you get into plastic surgery?
[00:01:28] Speaker C: Oh, it's. It's always a long story, right? But basically, when I was young and I knew I wanted to be a physician, my father was an internist and I thought, oh, I'll just go into his practice. That would be easy. But in medical school, you get to rotate through all the specialties. And as I was rotating through surgery, I was like, oh, gosh, I really like surgery. And that's the opposite of what my father did. And so I kind of told him, I said, well, I really like surgery, so don't hold a spot for me in the practice. And I have an uncle who was a plastic surgeon at the time, so I was kind of familiar with what they did. And so I did a plastic surgery rotation in medical school and really enjoyed it. So I think the thing that kind of cemented plastic surgery for me was that I liked surgery. But one problem with surgery is, is you're usually going in and you're taking care of people who have cancer or they have, you know, an organ that's not functioning properly, and you're taking that out or you're doing, you know, something like that. So as much as the patients are appreciative, it's, It's. They don't really want to seek you out. Whereas in plastic surgery, especially aesthetic or cosmetic plastic surgery, they want to come to you and they want you to operate on them or be involved in their care. So I thought that's kind of a cool combination of surgery, which I love, and the patients want to come to you.
[00:02:50] Speaker B: Love that. Love the family. You know, the family history there. And it sounds like you found the right specialty. We do hear that a lot of times, once you're going through the training and the different programs, you kind of find that natural fit.
And I'm sure it's very rewarding because you're doing surgery and you're changing people's lives and really their total outcomes of how they look and feel. So tell us a little bit. Can you explain what minimally invasive plastic surgery is and how that represents a shift from the more traditional models?
[00:03:24] Speaker C: Yeah. So just to kind of redirect your intro a little bit.
When it started, and I was in training, my generation of people who trained in general surgery, we were some of the first ones to do the laparoscopic gallbladder removal, laparoscopic cholecystectomy, as it's called. And so that was on the forefront when I was coming through. So we all kind of transitioned to, hey, you know, instead of making a big incision, having a long hospital stay, we can do these kind of procedures as an outpatient through minimal scars. And then in my plastic surgery training, we took those same principles, and we said, hey, can we fix facial fractures through minimal incisions? Can we do facelifts through minimal incisions? Can we harvest flaps for breast reconstruction through minimal incisions? And so that kind of took our general surgery experience and moved it into the plastic surgery world. And there's some things that you can do well with that, and there's some things that you can't. But certainly over the last 27 years of being in private practice, technology and innovation with products and things like that has really moved, you know, what I consider minimally invasive surgery more to the forefront of what patients are frequently wanting, even though it's not always the perfect option for them.
[00:04:39] Speaker B: So I'm assuming there's a lot of benefits with this, and a lot of that was. Is healing or tell us a little bit about some examples of that.
[00:04:49] Speaker C: Sure. So, you know, easy examples of minimally invasive cosmetic procedures are things that we're all familiar with. Botox and fillers, for example.
You know, I think everybody in the world in the United States anyway, knows what Botox and fillers are, whether they get them or may get them in the future. So they're minimally invasive things. But instead of having Wrinkles develop on our forehead or in our creases and things like that. We can treat people early with these innovations. And, you know, 35 years ago, these things weren't a thing. So it can be as simple as that. Facial fillers can add volume back to the face. Whereas in the past, we thought a facelift was the biggest thing we could do for facial volume. But now we know it's really combining facelifts with adding fat or adding fillers and doing other things at the same time, sometimes even lasers and combining these techniques. So this is how it's kind of evolved.
We tried minimally invasive facelifts, for example, when I was at Emory in training, and we were like, okay, we can lift up all the skin and we can pull it, but there's some people who just have extra skin and they need skin removed. So as much as we were trying to save them scars, there were some people who were a good candidate for that. There's some people who aren't.
[00:06:06] Speaker B: Okay, that's what I. My next question was, when you're doing more larger, like a facelift, are there any innovations there that, you know, you've seen, you know, obviously through your experience and where things have moved?
[00:06:19] Speaker C: Absolutely. One thing is brow lifts, or forehead lifts, as they're called. And in my training days, we made big incisions all the way across the top of the forehead and kind of peeled the forehead down and lifted that way. When I was in Emory, we were fortunate enough to have the lab and taught people from all around the country how to do minimally invasive forehead lifts. So we could do it through three or five little one, one and a half centimeter incisions instead of this big incision with staples and things like that across the forehead. So that made healing easier, it made hair loss less of a problem for women, and it made recovery much faster. These were some of the innovations that were. That were on the early side of electing to do this. And patients, if they could have a procedure that had less downtime, quicker recovery, and less scarring, they're typically interested in it.
[00:07:20] Speaker B: Right.
It sounds like then they can get back to kind of their normal lives and not be down as much. So tell us, I mean, are there.
You're really a pioneer in this field. What are some of the. Beyond filler and Botox. Are there any other, you know, innovations that you really think, you know, people should know about? And.
[00:07:43] Speaker C: Of course, yeah. So we've kind of kind of evolved. Lasers were a catch term for many years, and people were getting Laser treatments and lasers are still kind of used as a general term. But really these devices, these technology, devices that have come across the plastic surgery world over the last 10 years or so started off with ultrasound energy and then radio frequency energy. And these were energies that weren't usually used in aesthetic medicine. And so we have been using those. And so we can do minimally invasive neck tightening procedures with radiofrequency energy. That and many patients in their 40s and early to mid-50s will rival what a neck lift looks like.
And so these are awesome. Through three little small incisions, healing, healing time, that's three to five days before they can be in public. It's called a face tight procedure. We call it necktight in our practice because it's more descriptive. But that kind of a radiofrequency procedure has been a game changer for people who weren't really ready for a big incision and scar of a necklift. Didn't need a whole lot of skin taken out, but just had fullness and laxity in their neck. So that's been a huge thing is the device side. And the device side is continuing to grow. There's been a few devices, devices that have come through that haven't really done what they hoped they would do. They were minimally invasive skin tightening devices that you would just put on your skin and let them sit there.
But they just didn't work out real well yet. But I think that over the next 10 to 15 years, these things are going to continue to evolve.
[00:09:27] Speaker B: What are some of the, you know, the devices that you like and use a lot at your practice? So for other, you know, for other plastic surgeons out there that are listening, sure.
[00:09:38] Speaker C: So one of the ones that's been around for quite some time now, about 10 years, is made by N Mode, I, N M O D E. And N Mode is an Israeli backed research and development technology group. And they came out with some devices in that face tight, or as we call it, necktight and then body tight that's used on the body. Those were minimally invasive skin tightening devices that we've had for over 10 years. And so they have been, you know, nice adjuncts to our liposuction patients and things like that. I did a case of this today. I did liposuction on a lady's tummy and her love handles and her inner thighs and the inner thigh. Skin doesn't always tighten as much as we want it to. So if we can do the liposuction and then add a layer of Skin tightening underneath, where it doesn't show on the skin, we do it through our liposuction, our liposuction cannulas. Then we can tighten the skin a little bit more. And they don't have to have a thigh lift to improve that skin contour. And they feel more comfortable in their swimwear and in their clothing not having that scar. So these are the kind of things that have been good, and there's new ones all the time. The new skin tightening device that I've been using for the last two years is called Renuvion. And so that took radio frequency like we've been using, and combined it with the plasma gas. And so these elements heat the under surface of the skin through an access incision like we use for liposuction. And by heating that slowly, there's no change to the skin that's visible like a burn or anything, but it lends to contraction of the collagen underneath. And that contraction of collagen underneath the skin gives a skin tightening effect. So these are things that we have utilized for many years in our practice for people who weren't ready for a skin excision and a scar, but wanted some improvement. And they also had to be somebody who is a good candidate. If you lose £150, you might not be a good candidate for something like this, but if you just have a few extra pounds or just some genetic areas that are hard to lose lose weight in, then you're a good candidate, typically for these kind of minimally invasive procedures.
[00:11:46] Speaker B: Love that. Thank you for sharing that. Those sound like some, you know, some great technologies and tools that you're utilizing now. Tell us, how do you. I know you're an educator and you're training a lot of, you know, up and coming, you know, younger surgeons. How do you stay up to date with what's new and what's the latest and greatest?
[00:12:07] Speaker C: Yeah, well, it's always tough. Our Plastic Surgery Society does a great job at our national meetings of having what's new in innovation and things like that. And they'll usually have a segment of our meeting that's dedicated to this. So I keep up with that of what's new and what's trending.
But there's still bias built into those kind of discussions. And so really I find that you just have to go and research and go somewhere where these devices are being utilized on the, on the front horizon and get hands on. And so I've done that. I went to New York when this body tight and face tight device was relatively new in the United States. I went up for a weekend, went to a meeting and learned about it, and I was like, okay, that's really interesting. And the same thing for the Renuvion skin tightening for fillers and Botox. I'm a trainer for nationally. In fact, tomorrow I'm scheduled to fly down to Florida and do a training down in Florida for these. And so I would just tell the younger, you know, people who want to do cosmetic plastic surgery, you know, get trained in these things. These are something that are going to be the future. I brought them to our practice 27 years ago, and nobody really knew what they were, so I've just kind of grown up with them. But there's different levels of sophisticated users, plastic surgeons, and things are usually on the highest level of sophistication of being able to get great results with these kind of treatments.
[00:13:37] Speaker B: Love that. And it sounds like you have a passion for, you know, staying, staying ahead of the trends and then, you know, also educating. So I'm sure, you know, our audience will appreciate that. Now tell us, I mean, I'm sure there are some very, you know, remarkable stories that you have of lives that you've changed with your work. Is there one that sticks out to you where you're, you know, you really know that you made a difference in their life?
[00:14:04] Speaker C: Well, there's a. There's so many over the years, two along the topics that we've kind of discussed. One of them was a woman and her son was getting married, and she had some loose skin on her arms that bothered her. And it was her goal to wear a sleeveless dress to dance with her son as the mother, you know, groom dance. That's traditional at weddings. And, you know, she had seen the arm lift or brachioplasty incisions, and she was like, you know, no matter. Matter how good they are, I just, you know, I don't want to be out there in the crowd of my friends and have that scar that I have to worry about. So in her particular case, several years ago, we incorporated liposuction with the body tight procedure, which helped tighten her arm skin. And we did that about six months before her son's wedding. And she had a wonderful result with her arms, and she was able to wear that sleeveless, you know, dress and dance with their son with confidence. So that's one of the. One of, I think, a great story that's that, you know, a lot of people can associate with. And another one is something we haven't talked about yet. But it's even on traditional procedures like tummy tucks or abdominoplasties where we do have incisions and scars in order to remove skin.
I do a minimally invasive thing where I don't use drain tubes for those procedures. And most plastic surgeons use drain tubes and have for the decades and decades we've been doing this procedure. But I learned from some plastic surgeons in Brazil that it could be done without them. So since 2009 I've been doing my abdominoplasties without drain tubes. And let me tell you, I have people who love that procedure. And it's really interesting because abdominoplasties are one procedure that has a super high patient satisfaction. Women have excess skin from childbirth and laxity of their muscles. And if you can go in and you can correct that and they can wear a top that hangs nicely or they can tuck in a top where they haven't been comfortable doing that before, it's just a game changer for them. So it's one of the procedures that we do a lot of and it has a really high satisfaction.
[00:16:21] Speaker B: It seems like a lot of these procedures, it's, it's really, you know, it's changing people's, you know, self esteem and obviously that impacts their quality of life and how they, you know, how they just, you know, how they interact with everyone that in their lives. I'm sure. Now tell, tell me.
I'm sure we have some medical students that are listening. Residence fellows. What advice would you give to somebody starting out in this career?
[00:16:50] Speaker C: Well, I think the best advice is if you're going to be in medicine, you're going to be in health care. Especially if you're going to be a surgeon, make sure you love what you do.
As I mentioned, I've been in practice for 27 years. Every morning I get up super early because we start surgery at 7, I get to my office at 6:15.
And I love going into work every day and that's really essential, especially all these years later. So I would say the best thing I can tell people is as you're searching out a field that you're interested in, make sure you love it and you would do it for free. And you just like to go in and take care of people because that's going to make you treat people well, have good results, enjoy your day to day interaction and that's an awesome part of healthcare. So I think that's one thing I would tell young physician to be or medical students or residents or whatever is Just make sure you find something that you really love. And the second thing is that the way that we're taught to practice medicine will change during your career. And you have to learn that. You're going to learn some basic skills like I learned in general surgery and plastic surgery. But the way I do operations today, in many instances, is totally different than the way I was trained 27 to 30 years ago. And that's because of technology, that's because of trends that we learn, and that's being able to be adaptive and learn how to do things like tummy tucks without drain tubes.
So it's, it's understanding that you're going to learn principles in your training, but you have to learn how to apply those principles every day and advance those principles throughout your career in a safe manner.
[00:18:33] Speaker B: It sounds like you're somebody that's always out there seeking, you know, new ways to do things and, you know, really staying out there and being modern. But so it sounds like that's important for somebody that wants to go into plastic surgery.
[00:18:47] Speaker C: I think, I think it is in medicine in general. You know, my gosh, the way that we interact with patients, we do video conference calls now, as opposed to in person ones all the time. And so you just, you have to be willing to think outside the box, but you want to do so, you know, in a compliant way with healthcare routines and also privacy for the patient, and also safety for the patient. You know, you don't want to cut corners for those things.
[00:19:15] Speaker B: When you were starting and building your practice, obviously you've been in private practice for, you said, you know, over 25 years now. How did you get, you know, business going? What were some of the things that you did to really establish yourself within the community?
[00:19:31] Speaker C: Yeah. My advice is you cast a wide net. At first. When I first came into practice, I got associated with hospitals. I got on call schedules for hospitals. I was in emergency rooms throughout the night sewing up kids who got cut and adults who were in car accidents and just taking care of people.
After about five or so years of doing that, you start to develop a reputation around town and that you're likable and you're available and that you do good work and so that then can build your cosmetic or aesthetic practice in plastic surgery, or if you're still interested in doing a lot of breast reconstruction or other reconstructive procedures, you get to know the other physicians in the community to give you referrals for that. And those patients that I took care of 27 years ago in the Emergency room are sometimes still coming back to me. And I'm seeing them like I was at a wedding the other week. And the mother of the bride, I sewed up her son, who is the brother of the bride, 25 years ago. And so she came up to me and said, I met you all these years ago. Here's my son, he's in town from California. You sewed him up.
So those kind of things come back to help you in a positive manner and people really appreciate that and they remember you. So I'd say cast a wide net, do a lot of things that you're well trained for and then over a five to ten year time and practice many times you can fine tune your practice to what you, what you're most interested in or what's most satisfying to you.
[00:21:04] Speaker B: Great advice for our audience out there. Now, Dr. McNeil, tell us how can people, if anyone's interested in learning more about your practice, you know, what, what areas you serve, tell us more so that, you know, people can be in touch with you and your staff.
[00:21:20] Speaker C: Absolutely. So as you mentioned off the top of the show, the name of our practice is Marietta Plastic Surgery. We're in a subur of Atlanta, Georgia. So we're right here in a, in a, you know, world's busiest airport in Atlanta. So we have lots of people who, who come in and see us. We have a fellowship through our aesthetic society for plastic surgeons who are training, who are looking for fellowship opportunities and things like that. But obviously the World Wide web is the easiest way. Mariettaplasticsurgery.com and you can go on that site and peruse through. It's very tastefully done, I think. And it talks about the four doctors that we have and our staff. And I would just say when you're building a practice, build a good staff because your staff is the first thing that patients learn about you from and they get more interactions with your staff than they do you. And we have developed an amazing staff over the 27 years I've been there and even longer that the practice has been there. And that's, it's just a great extension of us and makes us look better than maybe we deserve to be. So I'd say take care of your staff and just develop a great staff.
[00:22:33] Speaker B: It's very true. I always feel that way when you go into, when you're visiting a doctor. So love that advice. And for anyone that is interested in the fellowship program, they can get that information on the website or what is the best way for them.
[00:22:47] Speaker C: Yeah, so that information is not available on our website. It's available through the Aesthetic Society for Plastic Surgeons and it's our fellowship as a sponsored fellowship through the Aesthetic Society. And so people who are interested in fellowships know how to do that, but they may not know to look for myriad of plastic surgery. And we have one fellowship spot per year.
[00:23:07] Speaker B: Love that. Okay, well, there's, there's a good token for anyone listening, so.
Well, we really appreciate your time. Dr. McNeil learned so much today about, you know, the way, the really the great ways that you're, you know, taking care of your patients and making, you know, positive changes to their lives. So thank you so much for your time.
[00:23:30] Speaker C: It's a pleasure to be on with you. Thank you for having us. And I hope it's been educational.
[00:23:37] Speaker B: It sure has. Thank you.
[00:23:39] Speaker A: Thank you to all of our listeners. If you would like to be notified when new episodes air, make sure to hit that subscribe button. And a big thank you to Pacific companies. Without you guys, this podcast would not be possible. If you would like to be a guest, Please go to www.pacificcompanies.com.
[00:23:57] Speaker B: Thank.
