Presenter: Katherine
Guest: Dr. Michael Rich
Guest Bio:  Dr. Michael Rich is the principal doctor at EnRich Dermatology and Cosmetic Centre in Melbourne. There, theyspecialise in cosmetic dermatology, cosmetic surgery and laser therapy. He is a true pioneer of cosmetic lasers. Dr. Michael Rich is a key founding member of the Melbourne Laser Clinic.

Segment Overview: Dr. Michael Rich shares his experiences in his practice as a cosmetic surgeon. He talks about the common procedures being done for men and other related information.

Transcription

Health Professional Radio

Katherine: Thank you for joining us at Health Professional Radio. Today we have Dr. Michael Rich. He is the principal doctor at Enrich Dermatology and Cosmetic Centre in Melbourne. At the centre, they specialise in cosmetic dermatology, cosmetic surgery, and also laser therapy. Welcome to our show.

Michael Rich: It is nice to speak to you, Katherine.

Katherine: Dr. Rich, we’ve all heard of the metrosexual, we’ve heard of even men and manscaping, but some men, they want something a little bit more permanent with cosmetic surgery. What are some of the common procedures that men get done?

Michael: Well, the most common procedure of the aggressive procedures is liposuction. Men are usually android and not gynaeoid, so they don’t carry their fat in the same way as women externally, but the areas that they get fat is the abdomen, love handles and the man boobs and sometimes the chin and neck area. The procedures which have a bit more downtime, which are a little more expensive, that’s the most common one they can have done.

But they do, obviously, they have the treatments, for example, the red flushed faces. That’s a procedure that they often have carried out with a laser that treats the open vessels, the open plumbing. There’s conditions like rosacea where they flush and go red and get pimples, and the solution studies have shown that treating that with vascular lasers, lasers that treat the vessels also has a very good result.

Katherine: I see. It’s fairly newish in Australia, maybe not for you, but I couldn’t find any statistics pertaining to Australian plastic surgery, but according to the British Association of Plastic Surgeons, about 10% of all cosmetic surgery is done with men. Is this pretty much a similar amount you see in your patients, about 10%?

Michael: Yeah, I think so. I think certainly with let’s say with liposuction it’s even more than 10%, it’s 15 to 20. Other things are becoming fashionable. Hair removal, which they never used to do, their body and so on. Men are even having Brazilians these days. Hair removal…

Katherine: Are they?

Michael: Yes, they are having Brazilians. It’s not only the gay men. I mean it’s important for … look, if something is important for someone they do it irrespective of their sexuality. Brazilians are becoming popular and men are having Botox, and men like women, when we talk about what happens with aging, is that one of the things that ages us the most is the loss of structure in our skin. Our skin can become loose, but losing volume, losing fat and bone makes us hollow.

Even tightening the skin like a face lift doesn’t replace the volume lost, so men are having fillers a lot and that really is a nice anti-aging procedure, but they are doing it, yes.

Katherine: Right. Do you find the male patient come in voluntarily, or is it more their partners are urging them to maybe go for a procedure or…?

Michael: It’s very much a unilateral decision. There’s those men who don’t care how they look and it’s not an issue for them, but there are men where this is very important for, and in that population, I know they want treatment, they want to look better. It’s not my job to validate them. If it’s important to someone they can look at what they can do. If it’s not important to someone then they really should do nothing.

Katherine: Right. What are some of the primary motivations for some of your clients to get some of these procedures done?

Michael: Well, it’s not too different to my female patients in many ways. There’s nothing wrong when someone wants to look more beautiful, right, men or women, that’s the first thing. Some people are finding it difficult to cope with the process of aging, and really the group that that’s the most difficult thing, believe it or not, that those who were attractive and beautiful because that was their prime asset. If you’re losing that you’ve lost something that’s been an important part of your life.

It’s something that people have complimented you on, and that’s a group that finds it really difficult. So, vanity for these people, it [indecipherable 04:40], but it’s important for them to look their best.

Katherine: Right. Maybe it’s our media, but I think a lot of people feel some pressure to look as young as possible for as long as possible. Do you get any of your clients coming in, and I think some women can be like this, they will cut out a photo in a magazine and say, “I want her nose,” or “I want her chin.” Do you have some of your male clients coming in with maybe photos of Brad Pitt or someone else and say, I’d like a jaw line like this or that, or are they less … I guess some are people driven?

Michael: No, no that does happen. People do bring photos of what they want to look like, and some thing … and that sometimes is not achievable. It’s a matter of perspective and I’ve had … I once had someone wanting to come in – it was a female actually but not a male as in this case – but she was 120 kilos and five foot tall and she brought me the photo, that was a few years ago, of Claudia Schiffer.

Now, the point is, it wasn’t going to happen. People can have a … they can want to do things which they can’t achieve. But many, yes, they do bring in pictures of what they want to look like, but sometimes it’s achievable, sometimes it’s not.

Katherine: Right. Some of these surgeries such as … like the liposuction, what downtime are people looking at?

Michael: Well, it depends how you carry out the … most of my liposuction is carried out with a local anaesthetic. People worry about that, but in real terms if one looks at the figures…Jeffery Klein is the father of modern liposuction in America. There’s never been a death with liposuction carried out under local [indecipherable 06:24]. So, my patients because it’s done under local, because they don’t have a general anaesthetic, most of them are up and about the next day. They’re working within a day, one to three days.

Katherine: Okay, all right.

Michael: It’s quite … whereby if you have an anaesthetic or you have a procedure with a lot more trauma [indecipherable 06:46] thatminimises pain and bruising, then you have far more significant downtime.

Katherine: Right.

Michael: It’s a good procedure under local.

Katherine: You touched on it before … yeah.

Michael: Yeah, go on, sorry, touched on before, yeah.

Katherine: Sorry.

Michael: Yeah, sorry.

Katherine: You touched on before about man boobs, or some people even call them moobs, but is this … can you clear up a few things about this? It’s not because some men are overweight that they have man boobs? You can be thin and have man boobs as well, is this correct?

Michael: Absolutely. Some is due to excess fat deposition on the chest as everywhere else, but some men have female type breasts. Like female breasts they’ve got fat, they have fibrous tissue and they’ve got glands. It’s a combination of all three and they were born with that genetically, and absolutely it’s a proper breast and the internal structure is in many ways feminine.

Those people can be of normal weight and they do very well with removing the contents of that chest and the skin usually retracts quite nicely. Not always but usually it does [indecipherable 08:02] very well.

Katherine: How do people go about choosing a good surgeon? What should they be looking for? People do get confused.

Michael: It is very difficult, and really personal recommendations is one, asking your own family doctor who they recommend, number two, and then looking at the experience and how many cases they’ve done and how well they’ve done it. Really most doctors who’ve done this for a long time and are experienced should be able to show lots of photography, and give examples of what they’ve done and the results. But, it’s also … sometimes it’s the best thing other … family affair … as I said before, family and doctors that you deal with.

Katherine: That’s [indecipherable 08:51], right. If you go to any pharmacy or supermarket, the men’s skincare section has grown substantially in the last maybe decade. You also have developed your own skin care range, the Enrich range.

Michael: Yeah.

Katherine: And that focuses on anti-aging and also skin refining. What led you to develop this range?

Michael: Well, some of the things you see commercially and everyone’s tried them. Companies like Clinique and [indecipherable 09:23] Revlon, Ultima try to do the best they can, but there is commercial aspects involved in terms of aesthetics. Looking at these creams, they have preservatives, they have ingredients which are fashionable such as peptides and the snap factors. Really, if you look … in my opinion is that these products don’t have much value.

There are certain products which the Vitamin As, the Vitamin Cs and the retinols and niacinamides, they have significant anti-aging properties. There is no need to put in unnecessary ingredients into products because they increase the risk of allergies. It’s not necessary to put unnecessary fragrances into product because they can irritate. Let’s stick to what works. There’s no need to put in other things. There’s no need to make false claims about the benefits of certain ingredients. I think that’s one of the problems that I’m seeing.

Katherine: Right. Well, thank you so much for your time today and for all the insights.

Michael: It’s a pleasure to speak to you, Katherine.

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