Greg:
Hey, this is Greg from Big Bay Mornings on 99.7 NOW. And I’m here with board certified plastic surgeon, Dr. Bae. Hey, Dr. Bae.
Dr. Bae:
Hey, Greg. Glad to be here. Thanks for joining me for our second episode.
The origin of Dr. Bae
Greg:
I got a couple things I want you to clear up for me. The two biggest questions I get. Number one, is Dr. Bae your real name? And when I go to the office, what’s the name I’m looking for on that thing?
Dr. Bae:
That’s a great question.
Greg:
Yeah.
Dr. Bae:
Yeah. When you show up to our office building is the 2100 Webster Building here in San Francisco in Pacific Heights. And yes, if you’re coming into the building and you’re looking on the marquee looking for Dr. Bae, you will end up at a Korean doctor’s office. You will not end up in my office. So you need to be looking for Jonathan Kaplan, K-A-P-L-A-N.
Dr. Bae:
But the reason we came up with Dr. Bae… I shouldn’t say “we”. Got to give a shout out to Dr. Miami and his CEO, Rosie. They had the idea for calling me Dr. Bae because I’m in the San Francisco Bay area, but it’s B-A-E, not B-A-Y, just to be a little more hip for the millennials.
Greg:
There you go.
Dr. Bae:
But, yeah. So look for Jonathan Kaplan. But it is funny how everybody when they come in, the patients and the families, they all refer to me as Dr. Bae. And I’m not sure they know what my real name is, and that’s fine. As long as they’re in my office and we’re having a good time, and I’m taking good care of them, it’s all good.
What makes someone Board Certified?
Greg:
Jonathan Kaplan or Dr. Bae. You can find him both ways. And Dr. Bae, here’s the other thing I wanted to ask you. I say it all the time, board certified plastic surgeon. What exactly does that mean? And what’s the difference between a plastic surgeon and a cosmetic surgeon?
Dr. Bae:
All right, yeah, this is a big can of worms that you’re opening up, but it is important. So, for the patient, if you’re going to somebody for a particular procedure, you want to make sure that they are board certified in the thing that they are doing on you. So for example, if you’re going to an orthopedic surgeon for a cosmetic liposuction procedure, that’s not a good idea. If you’re going to an orthopedic surgeon, you want them board certified in orthopedic surgery, and you’re doing an orthopedic procedure, that makes sense.
Dr. Bae:
The thing is, and this really comes down to money, is that over the last decade, as insurance reimbursements have gone down and doctors aren’t getting paid enough, a lot of them are looking for other alternative sources of revenue. So you’ll see ER doctors or OBGYNs looking for alternative sources of revenue, which means going outside of insurance and going to cash pay. And one of the things you can do that’s cash pay is cosmetics.
Dr. Bae:
So that’s why you really got to be looking for somebody that is not just doing cosmetics, but actually is board certified in plastic surgery. Or if they’re doing something on your face, you know that they’re a facial plastic surgeon or that they’re a dermatologist. You can find that stuff out on their website. But it’s tricky because-
Greg:
[crosstalk 00:02:53]. Yeah, what I was going to say is, just because you can stitch me up when I go to the emergency room doesn’t mean you necessarily are qualified to do my liposuction. And so, people need to be careful about that. You want somebody who specialized and went to school for plastic surgery like you did.
Dr. Bae:
Right. And so the thing is, saying they’re a cosmetic surgeon, that’s not really the same thing as saying that they’re a board certified plastic surgeon. And I’m not saying that anybody that says that they’re a cosmetic surgeon doesn’t have some technical ability to do a good job. I’m just saying that if it’s truth in advertising, let’s be honest about it.
Dr. Bae:
The thing is, anybody can say they’re a cosmetic surgeon. If they’re an ER doctor, OBGYN, and they’re doing Botox or liposuction in their office, they can actually call themselves a cosmetic surgeon. They’re not necessarily board certified in that in a way that’s recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties. You might think, “Well, that’s illegal. If they’re an orthopedic surgeon, OBGYN, or an ER doctor, how can they do cosmetic procedures in their office?”
Dr. Bae:
It’s not technically illegal. They just may not have gone through the formal training that you are thinking they went through. Like, yes, they did med school. Yes, they did at least one year of residency training. But they might not have gone through a plastic surgery training program, or a dermatology training program, or facial plastic surgery. So you just have to look on their website to read. And if they say they’re just a cosmetic surgeon, then they may not be telling you everything. Maybe they were a primary care doctor first.
Do your research!
Greg:
The key here is do your research.
Dr. Bae:
Correct.
Greg:
Do your research before you do anything. You don’t want a podiatrist doing your facelift.
Dr. Bae:
And you don’t want me doing your bunions. It’s not an unreasonable thing. It goes both ways.
Greg:
I’ll let you try. I’ll let you try. All right. Well, thanks, doc… Oh.
Dr. Bae:
Yeah, yeah, no. I was just going to say… Yeah, you’re trying to cut me off, man. All I was going to say is that if people have questions about this, it is very complicated and we just touched the surface of it. If people have questions about if this person is board certified in plastic surgery, or dermatology, or facial plastic surgery, you can direct message me on my Instagram, which is Real Dr. Bae, R-E-A-L-D-R-B-A-E. Not B-A-Y. If you direct message me and you say, “This is the doctor I want to know more about,” I can direct message you back and tell you what I think as far as their board certification. I’m not going to talk badly about the doctor one way or the other. I’m just going to state the facts of what I see on their website.
Dr. Bae:
The other option is you can go to our YouTube page, which isn’t as memorable a YouTube page. It’s youtube.com/pacificheightsps, as in Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery. If you go to that YouTube page, we have a video on there about how to look at a doctor’s website to determine what they’re board certified in. And a lot of people just, again, just type in a doctor’s name in the comment section. I get that message, and then I reply to them about what I think that that doctor’s board certified in based on what I see on their website.
Dr. Bae:
So if you’re feeling lazy and you don’t want to do all the research yourself, you just message me the doctor’s name, and I can get the information back. Again, I am not badmouthing anybody in the process. I am just stating what I see on their website.
Greg:
I was going to say, then you don’t have to do the research. Let Dr. Bae do the research for you. He’ll do it all. All right.
Dr. Bae:
What else do I have to do?
Greg:
All right, now go edit this video, Dr. Bae. Thanks.
Dr. Bae:
Thanks. Great seeing you.
Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.
