Dr JSK Video interview with Bondi Beauty TV's Renae Leith-Manos on what do you need to consider when choosing a plastic surgeon

Below is a transcription of the video

Renae: I’m here with Dr. James Southwell-Kelly from Darling Point who is a plastic surgeon who has come to lift the veil on all things plastic surgery and explain what everything is. Now welcome.
James: Thank you. Thank you so much.
Renae: So please explain to us, how do you choose the right plastic surgeon? I mean we all have seen the stories on, you know, 60 minutes of these cowboys who are posing globally as plastic surgeons and they’re not. So please tell us what are the [inaudible 00:35] make sure we choose the right person, when you’re not available.
James: Very good. Alright. Well, qualifications and word of mouth, I think, are the safest means to choose your plastic surgeon.
Renae: Hang on, hang on. Word of mouth in the eastern suburbs, I don’t know a woman in the eastern suburbs who will ever admit to having any injectable. So there’s no way [inaudible 00:55] around here, James.
James: There’s sometimes a special friend, maybe there’s a secret handshake, something like that.
Renae: Shall I start a website?
James: Possibly.
Renae: The Secret Handshake.
James: That’s right.
Renae: Who we recommend.
James: There you go.
Renae: But what qualifications do we look for to make sure that it’s the right person? Is a nurse okay, for example, to inject my face?
James: Look, technically, a nurse under supervision of a doctor is okay.
Renae: Okay.
James: As to the letter of the law.
Renae: Because that would be a bit cheaper, right?
James: It is a bit cheaper, a hundred percent. Yeah. My personal opinion is that you want the person doing your injection or applying the therapy that can deal with any problem that may arise.
Renae: Absolutely.
James: Yeah.
Renae: So, how many years of study have you got? You were telling us earlier.
James: Yeah, that’s right. My gosh. [inaudible 01:39] to be thinking about it.
Renae: 16 years or something?
James: About that, about that.
Renae: Globally, Paris, London, Leon.
James: Yes. All of those international centers because they do things slightly differently over there. Ultimately, the pool of medical knowledge is the same but the nuances are different.
Renae: Well, on that global scale, why are people going to China and South America and why are things so much cheaper there? Is that just an economic thing or is it a…?
James: It is an economic thing. It’s a really good question. So there’s a question of labour cost which is always cheaper over there, so the cost of running an operating suite, the cost of nursing staff, the cost of the trucks delivering the anaesthetic drugs, the oxygen's, everything. All the infrastructure, everything, is cheaper, and so you can fly over there and have your surgery and go home, maybe having had a little holiday as well, for probably 80% of the cost that [inaudible 02:38] have it here.
Renae: How do you feel about that as a practitioner working in Australia?
James: Look, ultimately, it’s up to you, the individual, to decide where you go but this is what I would counsel anyone who was thinking about that. After your surgery, you feel a bit low. You’re in pain. You want that support. That’s when you need the most love. And why be away from home? Why be away from family and friends?
Renae: A hundred percent.
James: So that’s one reason I’d say do it locally. The other reason is, if you have a problem and now you’re back in Sydney - two weeks ago, you had your breast augmentation in Thailand or wherever - …
Renae: Brazil.
James: …what do you do? Who do you go to?
Renae: You’ve got to start from scratch then.
James: You can start from scratch.
Renae: Come to someone like you or you have to work at what they’ve done.
James: Or you go to the emergency department at a public hospital and, you know, when it unravels, it’s a disaster. It’s a disaster for everyone.
Renae: Have you seen some of those?
James: A hundred percent. We’d see…I work at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Darlinghurst and I’d see…well, the unit, plastic surgery department, they would see maybe one case every two to three months.
Renae: Wow.
James: And all manner of different things – silicone implants in noses, infected breast implants, implants extruding from the skin, all sorts of horrors.
Renae: So all of those people trying to look more beautiful and be happy within themselves and coming off second best.
James: Coming off second best and, as you alluded to earlier, it’s always harder to deal with the problem than it is to get it right in the first instance.
Renae: So you pay the 20% more?
James: You pay...
Renae: To be sure.
James: It’s always advertised that it’s much much less than that but by the time you’ve had a [inaudible 04:03] travel insurance and all the other little add-ons that are never advertised in the advertised price, it ends up being not that much cheaper but the risks are so much higher.
Renae: That’s for sure. Now I want you to look into the future and tell us how you see plastic surgery, injectable, the whole thing, being a part of life, because who would have thought ten years ago that having botox would be kind of, you know…I don’t know what the stats are. Is it 1 in 2? Probably. Or 1 in 2 women over a certain age? It’s so common.
James: It’s a great stat and I’m going to run with that.
Renae: But what do you see? I mean, are we all going to be lining up for a face-job at 60 in ten years?
James: Well, look, as the surgical techniques progress and as surgical technology and the medical knowledge increases, procedures become less and less invasive and the down time becomes less and less. You’re back to work, back to your normal social activities sooner. So…
Renae: Signs get less, I mean that you’ve had [inaudible 05:04].
James: Signs get less. Absolutely. And so it will become a more readily available and a more socially acceptable commodity, essentially.
Renae: Well, it’s starting to already, isn’t it?
James: It’s starting to already. Absolutely.
Renae: And can you ever see, you know, someone, probably in America, with all due respect, creating a peel that keeps us young? Do you think that’s possible? I mean, there are people working at that. [inaudible 05:26]
James: There are definitely people working on it. I think we’re probably many generations off that.
Renae: Damn.
James: I’m sure.
Renae: So our childrens’ children’s children, maybe.
James: Yeah. Maybe. Maybe getting close.
Renae: Might stay young forever.
James: Might stay young forever. Okay, so, would you want to stay young forever?
Renae: It’s a good question.
James: There’s a hypothetical...
Renae: And that’s a question that’s been addressed historically since time began and I think, you know, it’s okay to get older.
James: It’s okay to get older and…
Renae: But I want to look as good as I can, as fresh as I can while I’m doing that.
James: Absolutely. Be the best you can be.
Renae: A hundred percent.
James: Through every stage of your life.
Renae: Yes. I agree.