Plastic surgeon can 'mesh artistry with medicine'

By Anita Manning

Most kids feel awkward at some time in the years between elementary and high school, but Anthony Youn, in his new memoir, In Stitches, written with Alan Eisenstock, describes being the only Asian kid in school, and one with an abnormally protruding jaw. The experience, and the surgery that corrected his jaw, gave him an empathy for others and led to his life's work as a plastic surgeon. He now practices near Detroit, where he lives with his wife and two children. He spoke with USA TODAY.

Q: You spent a year working with a Beverly Hillsplastic surgeon. Why did you move back to the Midwest to practice medicine?

A: I trained as a general surgeon for three years and two years in plastic surgery residency, both in Grand Rapids. Then I had a year in Beverly Hills, where I got involved with Dr. 90210. (He also has appeared on The Rachel Ray Show, The Doctors and others.) It was my first taste of fame and Hollywood, and it was fun for a year, but it wasn't my personality. To be a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, you have to be crazy. It's an insane business out there. … I'm a Midwesterner. That's what I am. We were planning to have kids, and I didn't want to raise them in Beverly Hills.

Q: There are laugh-out-loud scenes in your memoir. Do most doctors have a good sense of humor?

These stars are looking good

Youn's take on celebrities who he thinks may have benefited from plastic surgery.

Megan Fox: I believe (she) has had rhinoplasty (a "nose job"), breast implants and lip enhancement, although she has not admitted to it. This is just my speculation. Before I believe she had work done, she was extremely attractive; afterward, she could be the prettiest woman in Hollywood. She went from being extremely attractive to being a bombshell.

Ashlee Simpson: Prior to having her rumored nose job — she has admitted to deviated septum repair, but I think she had cosmetic rhinoplasty, too — prior to that, she was the awkward little sister of Jessica Simpson, and after, she's a Hollywood starlet. It transformed her. Her nose hid all the other attractive characteristics of her face.

Patrick Dempsey: Dr. McDreamy has admitted to having Botox. It was very well done, because it’s conservative.

A: There are no funny books about medicine. My hope is to try to expose the fact that there's real humor in medicine. There's more truth in a screwball comedy likeScrubs than in a drama like Grey's Anatomy or House.

Q: What appeals to you about your specialty?

A: I'm a very visual person and have always been interested in art. It's the ability to mesh artistry with medicine that appeals to me, and seeing those instant results. I don't like waiting to see what happens.

Q: As a teenager, you needed plastic surgery to correct a protruding jaw. Has that helped you to relate to patients?

A: It does help me to understand how my patients think, but we all come in with our own insecurities. I've found that even those we think of as the most classically good-looking people still have insecurities, even the most beautiful among us. I may be a successful plastic surgeon, but I'm still, deep-down, a skinny, nerdy kid.

Q: What kind of surgeries do you do?

A: My practice is mainly cosmetic surgery. The first surgery today was a breast augmentation. Then there was breast reduction on a young woman with massive breasts and terrible back, neck and shoulder pain. Then I did cancer reconstruction on a man's nose. I do a little of everything.

Q: Do you ever refuse to do a surgery?

A: I turn down one out of every four or five patients; last week it was three out of four. I had a woman come in for breast augmentation and asked her what size bra she wears. She said 34D. I asked what size she wanted, and her boyfriend said an F. So I turned her down. There are women 5-foot-4 and 115 pounds who want liposuction. I'm not going to operate on somebody just to change them. The benefit has to outweigh the risks.

Q: What about teenagers?

A: It's almost becoming an epidemic where teenagers are having plastic surgery as graduation gifts — 16-year-old girls having breast augmentation, liposuction, nose jobs. Teenagers are having Botox as a way of preventing wrinkles. Those are the ones that are disturbing, but there is reconstruction that is valid. I had jaw surgery you could say was cosmetic, but I had problems eating. I have done surgeries on teen girls with gigantomastia, massively enlarged breasts, where girls can't exercise and are in constant pain. My wife is a pediatrician, so I'm keenly aware of not operating on kids. If my wife found out I did a breast augmentation on a 16-year-old, she would kill me. I wouldn't do it anyway.