Young Leninist | Penzyaks are hooked on plastic surgery
Vladimir Andreev started as a pediatric surgeon, but then switched to adult patients. And at some point he decided that his calling was to make people beautiful. And for 16 years now, a doctor of the highest category has been working in the plastic surgery department. Thousands of patients passed through his hands!
FROM MATTERS TO BODYBUILDERS
— Vladimir Alexandrovich, has the number of people wanting to change something in their appearance increased in recent years?
— This is a nationwide trend, and it is associated with the increased availability of plastic surgery. Penza did not stand aside; we perform 2-3 operations a day. Although plastic surgery is an order of magnitude more complicated than usual.
For example, a patient comes and takes out a tablet or phone: “I want a nose like this and eyelids like this. And also tweak here and there.” You begin to explain that, according to the structure of the skull or skeleton, this will not work, but it is often very difficult to convince. People come to a plastic surgeon like they go to a store: “I want to buy this, this and this from you.”
Moreover, in terms of the quality of services, we are not inferior to the capital’s clinics, and the cost of similar procedures is several times lower. For example, a circular facelift from leading plastic surgeons in Moscow costs 500 thousand rubles, but here it is four times cheaper.
It is not surprising that patients from the capital and big cities come to us. Our former compatriots even come from abroad!
— What requests do you most often receive?
- Usually these are age-related changes in the face. People want to look younger than their age. Also often dealt with are the consequences of childbirth, after which the configuration of the chest, abdominal wall, and so on changes. Therefore, mammoplasty, abdominoplasty and liposuction are some of the most popular types of surgical intervention.
You also have to reconstruct your breasts after a mastectomy using implants. Women who have had breast cancer and its removal are in a state of depression, and we help patients feel full by restoring the mammary gland from their own tissue or using implants. Even the nipple can be restored!
Women literally blossom after such operations! They begin to understand that life goes on. Some of my patients even got married.
— Do you encounter anything exotic among the patients’ wishes?
— There are people who want to enlarge their buttocks, this is done using implants or their own fat - the procedure is called lipofilling. We take fat from one part of the body and move it where it is needed.
And after the new year we will begin to introduce the water-jet liposuction method thanks to the new Body Jet device. With water-jet liposuction, the destruction of adipose tissue is achieved not by heating (as in laser or ultrasound liposuction) or mechanically, but by a jet of a special solution supplied under high pressure. A powerful thin jet breaks up loose fatty tissue, while more elastic vessels and connective tissue are not injured, but move apart, allowing the cannula (special tube) to move without interference, without tearing them.
With this method, you can turn mattresses into bodybuilders! In any case, they will look like this after the fat distribution procedure.
— Are there any dissatisfied patients?
“Anything can happen during our work, since during the operation there is a wound process. In aesthetic surgery, rhinoplasty is considered the most difficult operation. This is due to the movement of the cartilage and bone structures of the nose, and even if everything looks perfect on the operating table or after removing the plaster splint, when a callus begins to form, the bone can tighten, causing asymmetry.
Of course, the patient is unhappy with this! And the doctor is dissatisfied, because he always wants to do well...
“DOCTOR, CUT THEM OFF FOR ME!”
— Are people more often asked to enlarge or reduce their breasts?
- Mainly increase. For example, just yesterday two women approached me about this. Ladies do this not only to make their breasts appear larger and more attractive, but also often because after childbirth and breastfeeding, the breasts lose their shape and drop, excuse me, to the navel. If you just put an implant, it won’t look beautiful, everything should look harmonious. Accordingly, at the same time as bust enlargement, we also lift it.
However, in recent years, representatives of the fair sex have begun to apply for breast reduction. Because carrying two “backpacks” in front is very problematic. A woman is pulled forward, osteochondrosis immediately develops, she has to wear underwear with wide straps, since the narrow ones dig into her shoulders, diaper rash appears under her breasts...
People come literally with the words: “Doctor, cut them off for me!” Why cut it off? Let's make this breast small and neat.
— How true are the rumors that breast augmentation surgery can cause cancer?
— A study was conducted according to which the incidence of breast cancer in women operated on for breast augmentation and operated on for another reason is the same. But now large cell lymphoma has begun to occur in patients who receive implants. The cases are isolated, but still, there is probably some kind of predisposition due to a certain autoimmune reaction of the body to a foreign body.
Implant manufacturers now offer a lifetime warranty on their products. I have always been wary of such assurances. No matter how good the implant is, the body must always react to a foreign body. The breast needs to be protected, so I install more than 90% of implants under the muscle, that is, there is practically no contact between the implant and the mammary gland. And in 15 years of work, I have never encountered lymphoma in my patients.
WE REJUVENATED GRANDMOTHER
— Can any defect on the face be corrected?
— Not always, since there is a congenital defect that can be very difficult to correct, for example, a cleft lip or cleft palate. In such cases, it is necessary to operate in conjunction with dentists and orthodontists. Therefore, such operations are most often performed in specialized centers.
As for acquired problems... Let's say paresis of the facial nerve is a very serious pathology when the facial muscles stop working and it becomes distorted. Entire institutes are dealing with this problem, where they perform complex operations involving reattachment of muscles and nerves.
We also take these categories of patients, but we cannot perform extensive surgical interventions, there are specifics, including bone breaking. We do thread lifting, thereby at least visually eliminating asymmetry.
— Have you met patients who became dependent on plastic surgery?
- There are some, but they can be understood. Having once received a good result in aesthetic terms, they want to look perfect. And often this can be extremely difficult to achieve. You have to have a conversation with them, dissuade them from another operation, so the surgeon must also be a good psychologist.
— Do men contact you?
“The stronger sex also began to take care of themselves, and this makes us happy.” We treat gynecomastia (enlarged breasts), abdominoptosis (abdominal apron), liposuction, nose, ears, blepharoplasty - changing the shape of the eyelids.
— Have you encountered any unusual patients in your practice?
— About 8 years ago, a 76-year-old woman came to an appointment. And she said that she wanted to have plastic surgery. My look was so eloquent that she immediately added: “Doctor, I’m normal, don’t think so... Here’s my outpatient card, I didn’t have anything serious. Yes, I’m 76 years old, but all my life I was married to a military man, he and I bounced around the garrisons, and I didn’t see anything in this life. But now I sing in the choir and I want to look younger.”
As a result, we performed blepharoplasty, mid-zone lift and lip lipofilling on this lady under local anesthesia. And the grandmother was transformed, it was as if her wings had grown! At such moments you realize that it was not in vain that you chose your profession!
AND YOU DIDN'T KNOW!
— The first rhinoplasty, the description of which has reached our times, was performed back in 600 BC. e. in Ancient India. To restore the nose, the doctor used the skin of the cheeks and forehead, and two wooden tubes were inserted into the nostrils to maintain breathing function during the operation.
— The procedure for correcting scars, which is popular today, was carried out back in Ancient Rome. At that time, scars were considered a disgrace, as it meant that a person had either fled from the battlefield and therefore turned his back on the enemy, or, even worse, he had been lashed like a slave.
— The first full-fledged work on plastic surgery was the book of Professor Tagliacozzi, published in Venice in 1597.
— Plastic surgery developed enormously during the First World War - thousands of people were disfigured, mutilated and mutilated.
— Breast augmentation with silicone implants dates back to 1962, when doctors Thomas Cronin and Frank Gerow introduced the idea of creating such an endoprosthesis filled with gel. The idea itself came to Frank Gerow while he was looking at a bag filled with blood for a transfusion. At some point, the bag took the shape of a woman’s breast, which was the impetus for the creation of a technique that is still used today.
— There are more than 700 plastic surgeons working in the Russian Federation. There are more than 80 private clinics in Moscow alone. Today, one of the most common operations in Russia is mammoplasty. And in the United States, liposuction and breast augmentation are the most popular.
Yakov Belkin
“Young Leninist” No. 43, October 23, 2022
