Tony Youn Interview with Dr. Dustin Portela

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:02]Dr. Tony Yun, welcome to the podcast.

[00:00:04]It's good to see you again.

[00:00:05]>> Hey, thanks so much for having me on, my friend.

[00:00:08]>> So, um, I wish I'd have known you when I was, uh, training in dermatology in Michigan because I I had offices. I rotated right in your area. Tell us where you practice at.

[00:00:19]>> So, I'm in Troy, Michigan, which is one of the suburbs of Detroit. I actually did my training at Michigan State. I did my residency in Grand Rapids. I did five years of plastic surgery. Uh, and then I did a year uh, fellowship out in Beverly Hills uh, with a top-name plastic surgeon out there. And I came here to Michigan in ' 04, started up my own practice and have been a solo practitioner pretty much the whole time.

[00:00:42]>> Very good. And you are now known as America's holistic plastic surgeon. And this can be a confusing term on social media because there's so many people who are calling themselves holistic or natural functional medicine alternative.

[00:00:56]And so I'd love to hear from you. What does it mean to be a holistic plastic surgeon? How do you define that?

[00:01:02]>> So, I define it as basically using plastic surgery as a last resort. Uh there are so many things that we can do to turn back the clock naturally to get beautiful healthylook skin. And really what it starts with, it starts with the food that you eat. it progresses to uh possibly nutritional supplements if you're into those, then to skin care, and then all of the various non-invasive and minimally invasive options that we have. There's so much that you should consider doing before you go under the knife. Uh and the hope really is that if you are educated in these types of things that maybe a vast percentage of people won't need to feel the need to go under the knife because really I tell my patients say, "Hey, Dr. Yian, if I have this operation with you, what's the worst thing that can happen?" I'll tell them you can die. Like that's the worst thing. And it's pretty bad. You know, you can die. And so I really want to save that for, you know, putting yourself at risk uh only when we need it. And and really the main thing that these types of non-surgical interventions still can't really handle is is excess skin, you know. So if you've got excess skin of your body, then unfortunately usually surgery is your only real option. But short of that, there's so many different things we can do that really can help people get where they want to be.

[00:02:14]>> Yeah. Yeah. And then I think there's an argument to be made that approaching your practice in that way could be against your own self-interest because the the old trope of surgeons like to cut and they often will, >> you know, I I don't want to paint too broad of a brush because I I think there's so many good surgeons that have such a good approach, but it could be very tempting to just everybody that comes in your office gets a procedure because that's how you would drive the most revenue. Well, and I mean when I look at training, you know, I did three years of general surgery training where it was all about, you know, treating trauma and, you know, bowel surgery and and, you know, taking out gallbladders and stuff like that. uh then I did two years of plastic surgery where you know you really spend a lot of time doing reconstructive surgery whether it's uh surgery after breast cancer or we spend months in the burn unit we spend many many months doing hand surgery that when you think about you know what we come out with with the education we are lacking education and all these other things and you know it's interesting because when I was in residency one of the things I really really wanted to do is I wanted to spend some time with a dermatologist because I didn't know anything about you know true skinincare you know I knew how take care of the skin surgically, you know, and wound care. We're great with wounds and stuff, but not actual just preventative, you know, skin therapies and and all of that, but because there unfortunately are turf battles between plastic surgeons and dermatologists, like we didn't get to spend any time with dermatology. Uh and so I spent a lot of time actually in my training actually reading about dermatology and skin conditions and skin care to the point where when I was a resident I actually gave a talk on skincare to all the other residents and the faculty members uh because we never got that type of education ourselves.

[00:03:59]>> Yeah. Yeah. I would I would love to get invited to talk to, you know, plastic surgeons when I was a resident about this stuff because I think it's just personality differences that I I've never really felt like there's a huge turf war in any situation that I've been in um except with maybe med spas, but uh you know, some of them are really great and I'm friends with a lot of good estheticians. But you you talked a little bit about your training pathway um and ended up doing a fellowship and do you think that that's a requirement for co for plastic surgeons who want to do a lot of cosmetic work or do you think that now most plastic surgeons get sufficient exposure in their residency training?

[00:04:38]>> Um I think that you don't get enough exposure in general in residency training to be a really good to be really really good at cosmetics right away. You know that is something that does take time. Um, and most residency programs to my knowledge, and I may be wrong about some of these, but in general, spend most of the time doing reconstructive surgery. Uh, and the cosmetics, you know, because really, you know, when you're doing actual surgical procedures, it really is a situation where you aren't going to get good at it unless you're actually doing the operation. And when you're doing reconstructive surgery, uh it's easier in general for the surgeons to pass the surgery to you. Let you as a resident do the operation than if they're doing a facelift on somebody who's paying them $20,000. You know, that facelift patient doesn't really want a resident doing their facelift. Uh if you know, they're paying all this money to have the surgeon do it. Uh and so there it's difficult when you're doing cosmetic training to actually get hands-on, much harder than if you're doing reconstructive surgery. Um, and so that's where a fellowship can really come in handy. Now, I'll tell you, I have colleagues of mine who are fantastic cosmetic plastic surgeons and they didn't do a fellowship in aesthetics like I did and they're fantastic because they've been practiced long enough, you know. But if you're brand new in practice, you know, may not be quite ready for the prime time. Uh, you do, you know, want to take your time learning your craft and getting better and better at it.

[00:06:01]Yeah, I think that's sound advice and it really is true for any specialty is that you you're equipped to handle certain things when you come out and if you want to branch out beyond that or be be really good at one particular thing, >> you certainly have to put in some extra work and sometimes that's a fellowship and sometimes that's um just going to take time doing the real deal.

[00:06:21]>> Yeah, in plastic surgery now it we really are subsp specialcializing a lot more than we used to. I mean when I first started in practice in '04 and with the doctors that I trained with you know between 98 and 2003 most of the plaster surgeons I worked with were doing kind of everything. They would do breast reconstruction after cancer. They would do cosmetic surgery. They would do facial trauma reconstruction. Uh they would do lower um like lower limb reconstruction all that type of stuff.

[00:06:47]And some of them would even do hand surgery. Now I feel like you know 20 plus years later we are really subsp specialcializing. You know, for me, I just do cosmetics. I have I have colleagues of mine where they even subsp specialcialize more than that. They just do nose jobs. You know, like Dr. Nassiff on the Bosch show, all he does is nose jobs. Like that would bore the the Jesus out of me just in one operation. Um, but there's some, you know, I have colleagues of mine that they just do breast reconstruction after uh breast cancer. Uh, there are some that just do hand surgery. So I think quick you know very gradually maybe maybe quickly if you look at it from a whole we are really becoming a subsp specialcialized field where there's very few jackof alltrades plastic surgeons anymore and and there are studies too that have been done that show that the more you do of a specific operation the lower the likelihood of a bad outcome. you know, meaning that it's better if you subsp specialize and do just a handful of operations, a lot versus doing like everything, you know, a little bit.

[00:07:48]>> Yeah. And it makes total sense. Um, that's why you have a general contractor for your house and they sub it out to different, you know, areas of specialty.

[00:07:56]The guy doing the plumbing isn't doing your electrical. So, >> Exactly.

[00:07:59]>> Even though they probably have some knowledge overlap.

[00:08:02]>> So, why why did you decide to take a holistic approach to plastic surgery?

[00:08:06]Was this in your mind from the very beginning of opening your practice or was it an evolution in the way you decided to practice?

[00:08:13]>> Uh, this was more of an evolution. I think I came to a realization um after a patient had a really bad complication that I really started rethinking the practice of medicine uh and plastic surgery specifically of like am I doing the right thing for my patients? you know, because I went into plastic surgery really with the idea of like, oh, I want to help people to feel better about themselves, you know, and that's why I'm doing this. Um, and we really, you know, I was trained in a very cut first mentality of like I was trained to be a surgeon. And so, as a surgeon, you think about what's your goal as a surgeon is to operate on people. And when and so there's a financial incentive to do that. Uh, that's what you're trained to do. But I realized, I think after being in practice for a while, that maybe that's not the goal.

[00:08:59]Maybe that shouldn't be my goal. Maybe my goal should be the opposite is to try to keep my patients out of the O. And after having a patient with a bad complication, that really is what opened my eyes to it. But also opened my eyes to the fact that there was so much out there that I did not know. Uh and so I started thinking like you know I started realizing that geez it's funny because I think uh physicians and you and I think are on a very similar page with uh alternative medicine and lifestyle medicine and all of that. I think that there's a lot that we're taught and we are in some ways as physicians brainwashed into thinking that just because we have an MD we know better about everything health related than other people. uh and just because we had the MD and and I realized pretty quickly how much I didn't know about nutrition, about skin care, uh about um you know why people um age more quickly than others. And I started really studying, this was many years ago, things like longevity medicine and functional medicine and and really learning about all that stuff that I was not taught in medical school. Now, >> you know, we're they're starting to get there. I think that that's being taught more now in medical school, especially with the current administration and some of their required changes, which I agree with. I disagree with a lot of stuff going on there, but that's something I do agree with. Um, >> and so I think that there's a there's a there is a trend towards looking at nutrition and a lot of these things that we didn't spend much time with in medical school. Um, but that's something that that I realized many many years ago.

[00:10:34]>> Yeah. Um, how often do you, and maybe this is too broad of a question, but do you find that people come in seeking plastic surgery when the problem can actually be resolved through some of these other means or maybe they're just they need to find a different way to be confident in themselves and your approach is able to help that?

[00:10:53]>> Yeah. You know, I think a lot of it the good thing is I have a weight list that's like two years long. Yeah. And so by the time patients come in to see me, they're pretty driven and they know what they want and all of that. Um, but I do spend a lot of time talking to patients about lifestyle. You know, I had a patient almost every day I have a patient who comes in who um is interested in plastic surgery and honestly what would help them better are lifestyle modifications. And it's been challenging up until about the last six to 12 months with the GLP1 medications.

[00:11:25]You know, I have so many patients who come to see me that they want a tummy tuck, but they're, you know, but unfortunately their BMI is very high and they think erroneously that a tummy tuck is going to be a weight loss procedure for them. Um, and in the past it's been really challenging because I think a lot of people, a lot of my patients will come in and they do have weight issues.

[00:11:45]Um, and those weight issues lead to skin problems, you know, or large breasts.

[00:11:49]Uh, oftentimes, like I said, the tummy sometimes I'll come in, a patient came in the other day and she said, "I just I feel like I have so much heaviness in my neck and in my lower face. Can you do a facelift on me?" And it's like, "You know what? Let's actually help you with your weight first."

[00:12:03]>> Yeah.

[00:12:04]>> And one of the big huge things now is I'm actually able to refer people uh to get help non-surgically with the GLP-1 medications. Now, I don't prescribe them myself. I have my own personal feelings about plastic surgeons prescribing them, but in general, I think that that's been a gamecher because now I can get patients on an actual plan where it's like, okay, I'm going to send you to this doctor. We're going to help you to improve your health. We're going to take your weight down and then we're going to help you deal with the skin that may be left over afterwards. Uh, and that's something that even a few years ago was much much more difficult.

[00:12:37]>> Yeah. Yeah. Um, one thing I want to get into is the difference between a plastic surgeon and a cosmetic surgeon. And this is very confusing for patients on the internet um, or just in real life. And I remember a video that you responded to as as well as a couple other plastic surgeons recently where a cosmetic surgeon was coming out, you know, against or not in favor of the new microtextured implants and saying that they weren't on board with them yet. And the response from from this female plastic surgeon was, "Why don't you just say the truth is that you can't buy them because they are only available to board-certified plastic surgeons?" And that may have been a surprise to people on the internet. So, what is the difference between a quote unquote cosmetic surgeon and a plastic surgeon?

[00:13:24]And how can patients find out who they're going to and get the best information?

[00:13:29]>> Yeah, that's a great question. So the term plast to be a plastic surgeon essentially you have to be certified by the American board of plastic surgery and why that's important is that there are a group of boards underneath the American board of medical specialties.

[00:13:43]So the American board of medical specialties is really the overlying um group that certifies boards which certify actual physicians. So you are a dermatologist. There's the American Board of Dermatology which is part of the American Board of Medical Specialties. Same with pediatrics, family medicine, internal medicine, cardiology, like all the main specialties are underneath this huge kind of umbrella of boards and that includes the American Board of Plastic Surgery. Now, to become a board-certified plastic surgeon, you have to do at least three years of general surgery and then you do two to three years of plastic surgery residency afterwards and you have to pass oral and written boards and you have to do continuing medical education and and live up to certain ethical standards.

[00:14:24]like you have to do that to be a board-certified plastic surgeon. Now, the term cosmetic surgeon technically applies to anybody who does cosmetic surgery, you know, so it could be an emergency room physician who takes a weekend course on breast implants or on liposuction and then they decide they're going to do that procedure in the office in their operating room that they just built out of their office. Um, and so the term cosmetic surgeon is not as specific as this term plastic surgeon.

[00:14:51]Where this gets more confusing though is that there is an American board of cosmetic surgery and this is a board a board that certifies people doctors after they do a certain amount of training in cosmetic surgery uh and then they pass their board exams as well. The American Board of Cosmetic Surgery is not part of the American Board of Medical Specialties. And so plastic surgeons like myself, we don't necessarily consider it on the same level. Now, >> board-certified cosmetic surgeons will argue that they are, but once again, it's not part of the American Board of Medical Specialties. It's part of their own kind of group.

[00:15:27]>> Uh, just as an example, okay, when you talk about boards, um, Rand Paul, the senator uh, from >> is it Kentucky? I think is he Kentucky?

[00:15:36]Senator Ran Paul, >> he actually is an opthalmologist who never passed his boards for, uh, for his, my understanding, for his American Board of Opthalmology. So, he created his own board. his family actually did and it's something like the national board of opthalmology or something like that which he became board certified in.

[00:15:53]I could create my own board of Dr. board of holistic plastic cosmetic surgery and I could certify people and that doesn't mean anything you know it just >> so I think that's why you know as plastic surgeons where we do all of this stuff it's a very competitive especially to get into um we are protective of the term plastic surgery because we know that we have done everything the right way and yes there are doctors who are taking shortcuts and try to claim that they are the same and they just aren't now >> now there's also two other groups though to consider that I think are on as a a similar level as plastic surgeons.

[00:16:28]There's the American Board of Facial Plastic Surgery. So, you need to to to pass your ENT boards and then and they do extra training in that. I think that's a very reasonable one if you're going to do facial plastic surgery. And then there's also a board for the opthalmologists who do opthalmic plastic surgery whereas plastic surgery the eyes. We consider that to be an equivalent board. That and the facial plastic surgery, but we don't consider cosmetic surgery to be an equivalent board.

[00:16:53]>> Right. Yeah. Uh, and that's an important distinction. And when a patient is going to somebody who's proposing a cosmetic treatment, it's very reasonable to ask, "What are you board certified in?" um, from the National Board of Medical Specialties because it could be an emergency medicine doctor, a family doctor. When I was in Michigan doing my residency, I remember a case where I believe it was a family or emergency medicine doctor who was doing liposuction in a makeshift surgical theater in a barn on their property >> and a patient had died. And so one clue is that a cosmetic surgeon probably is not doing that procedure at an accredited hospital or an accredited space because they will require you to be appropriately board certified.

[00:17:40]>> And and the fact is is I'm sorry just to really quick add to it. Hospitals will vet the surgeons for you. And the problem is if let's say you undergo a tummy tuck by a cosmetic surgeon that does not have hospital privileges to perform that operation because let's say they don't have the training for it.

[00:17:56]>> Well, if you have a complication and you need to go to the hospital, that surgeon can't take care of you. You got to hope that whoever's on call or even if they have somebody on call in plastic surgery, we'll take care of you instead.

[00:18:07]And that can be a very scary situation.

[00:18:09]>> Yeah. And not one you want to find yourself in. And patients are surprised.

[00:18:13]I I will tell people when they're looking for a reference and I refer to a plastic surgeon, they're like, "Well, I had a consultation at this place." And you know, I'll tell them, "If I wanted to do surgery in this room and take out your gallbladder, it legally I could do that.

[00:18:29]>> It would not be smart of you to let me.

[00:18:31]It would not be smart of me to do it.

[00:18:33]But I have a physician's license that allows me to do anything within the scope of practice of a physician." And so the the practice here locally was was founded by an anesthesiologist who decided to go to the other side of the curtain and start doing cosmetic surgery >> and ended up, you know, undergoing the largest malpractice suit in the history of the state of Idaho for a complication that they endured.

[00:18:58]>> And so I just want patients to have the right information as you do.

[00:19:03]>> Yeah. And I think you know you see it too as a dermatologist where there are all these med spas that are opening and they have medical directors who oftentimes have zero knowledge in either plastic surgery or dermatology. It could be a family doctor that are just coming in and signing the charts on the weekends to make extra money. And I'm sure you like me have seen just horrible complications come out of places. And you know anybody can get a complication.

[00:19:26]You know you inject filler, you can get an intravascular injection. you could you know have parts of the face technically become eskeemic and can even die. That can happen even with the best injectors. But the problem comes is if you are let's say a an extender, a nurse or a PA or nurse practitioner, you're doing these injections and you rely on your medical um your your medical director to to be really the person who oversees. And if that person doesn't know what to do, I've had patients come to see me and say, "Look, I had this horrible injection. I've got these complications and the first thing I ask them is well what did the medical director say and very often times they say they'll tell me well the medical director doesn't know what to do or they're never there they don't know who it is >> and it's just it's wrong like if you're going to undergo any type of an invasive cosmetic treatment you need to make sure you do it uh either in the office of a board-certified dermatologist or a plastic surgeon who knows anatomy and who can take care of you if you have a complication anything less than that in my opinion is substandard and you're putting yourself at risk Yeah, I completely agree. There's a a med spa close uh to where we first opened practice, and it took me a couple of weeks to find who the medical director was because it was being run by a nurse, not even a nurse practitioner.

[00:20:39]>> And the medical director >> that was supposed to be the one to handle any complications that this place might have was a nurse practitioner that worked in hospice, which is about as far away as you can get from >> um plastic surgery or dermatology. And so when I called the nurse, I was like, "You have to tell me who your medical director is because we're around the corner from you and if there's a complication, they're coming to me and I just need to know."

[00:21:02]>> Yeah.

[00:21:04]>> Yeah. I've had I had one patient who came and she actually she had was a surgery patient of mine, a really nice woman and she went with a friend to a med spa locally and that person injected Bellafhil under her eyes >> and she came to see me a couple months later with these huge masses under both eyes and I said, "Well, where did you go?" And she said, "I went here and this nurse did it." And I said, "Okay." I mean, I have nurses that inject in my practice, you know, and I trust them and but I'm in charge. If anything bad happens, I'm there. Like that's my responsibility. So I said, 'Well, what did the medical director say? And they said, 'Well, it's a family doc who doesn't know anything about this. So they said, 'You need to find somebody else to treat you. And it's like, thank God, at least she knew me, you know, from the fact that I did breast and tummy surgery on her a couple years before, but for somebody who doesn't, like it's it can be a very scary situation. So, man, I always tell patients if you're going to have an injection, like just board-certified dermatologist or plast surgeon in their office because if something goes wrong, you need to be in the right hands.

[00:22:01]>> Yeah. And I'm a big advocate for that because I firmly believe that it's very easy to train somebody to stick a needle in and push a plunger. But part of the proper training is how to manage every potential complication that can happen once you do that. And the weekend courses just simply can't provide you that kind of education. And along with that education, I'm a firm believer that properly educated physicians also know when to say no to something.

[00:22:28]>> Yeah. I think that it's it's interesting because I've seen some bad stuff happen.

[00:22:32]You know, I've had intravascular occlusion. I've seen it twice in my practice.

[00:22:37]>> Um and sometimes you talk to doctors will say, "Oh, I've never seen it." And the fact is, and you just haven't done enough treatments then.

[00:22:43]>> Exactly. Yeah.

[00:22:44]>> Because you get to a point where >> those shoes, >> you've been doing it long enough, it's like you've seen everything. And that's who you want to take care of you if something goes wrong. Not somebody who's comes in saying, "Well, I've never seen it because I'm so good." And it's like, nah, it's because you've been lucky. At some point, you're going to see it.

[00:23:00]>> Yeah. I frequently find myself in awe of what modern medicine is able to do. We have, you know, heart valve replacements being done through the veins in the legs now. And plastic surgeons are often at the forefront of cutting edge technology and procedures that help us to advance the field of medicine, not just in cosmetics, but in all areas of medicine.

[00:23:21]Um, one of the approaches that you take that you describe on your website is to um, basically have a standard of holistic safety and efficacy and you may choose not to do all of the kinds of procedures that other plastic surgeons may be pioneering and may be incredibly popular on social media. How do you determine what procedures that meet your standard of holistic safety and efficacy?

[00:23:47]Yeah, I think that we're, you know, in plastic surgery, we tend to, and you probably see it, I think too, with laser treatments and cosmetic treatments, we tend to put results over safety sometimes, um, or results or like um promise of results over the actual results that you get. Uh I do think that you know there is a level of safety that is um acceptable to the general public of plastic surgeons for example that is different than what I would put for my own practice. So for example um one of the things that's really popular right now is injecting fat into breasts you know fat grafting into breasts. Uh it's an alternative to breast implants and breast implants I do a lot of them but you know there are issues with implants you know breast implant illness and things like that. So I understand why somebody would want to do fat grafting to the breasts. Um it is a hot topic right now. A lot of doctors are recommending it. A lot of plastic surgeons are because the surgery itself is not that difficult to perform. You lipos suction some fat, you purify the fat and then essentially inject it into the breast. Like it's not that hard.

[00:24:51]>> The risk of a complication from that procedure is very low and the studies that have looked at it show a very low risk of complications. The first issue that people were concerned about with this operation, for example, you know, just to give you an example of what you're asking me, um, is alterations of mammograms. And initially, there were, uh, some some studies showing that yes, if you get this fat inject into your breast, it may alter your mammograms.

[00:25:15]You may, you know, it may potentially obscure finding breast cancer. And, and one in seven women get breast cancer in their lifetime.

[00:25:23]uh that th those fears have been for the most part resolved now with better memography screening and reading of this type of thing. But the one thing that they haven't really resolved that plaster really just won't talk about is the the fact that fat is chalk full of stem cells. We know that um one in seven women as I mentioned will get breast cancer in the lifetime. And how do we know that if you inject a bunch of stem cell rich fat into a cancerprone organ that you may not potentiate future breast cancer quicker than it would develop more naturally, you know? So, for example, you may have a cluster of displastic, you know, precancerous cells in your breast that won't turn into an actual tumor until maybe you're 95 years old. Um, but now that you've injected a bunch of stem cell rich fat into and around it, now you're 65 and all of a sudden you get a lump there. You know these are things that studies go out about five years and that's about it.

[00:26:15]Yet there are plasticians who are performing this on patients you know all over the country telling them that it's safe and so that's just an example for me like what I try to do is I think about you know if this is my family member you know would I recommend that and I try to always as a surgeon think about what's the worst thing that can happen and how do I prevent that. So if you're doing fat wrap to the breast what's the worst thing that can happen maybe you could you know influence a skin cancer or a a breast cancer to show up quicker. uh do we know that that's not going to happen? And for me, I don't I don't think we know that yet. And so that's one of those procedures that I just wouldn't do.

[00:26:48]>> Yeah, that makes very good sense. And and it just speaks to the type of standard that you'd like to hold and the way that you approach your uh practice and you also have the benefit that you're as busy as you could possibly be.

[00:27:01]So you don't have to have that pressure to to try to find other other things. So >> it's a nice place to be.

[00:27:08]>> Yeah, very nice place to be. and it's a a place I'm very comfortable at in my practice and I've really narrowed down the things that I like to do every day that I've become very good at. So, >> um I want to talk about your social media presence. You're very active on social media. Um I would assume you're probably coming up on 8 to 10 million followers across all platforms. Why did you get start 14? Man, I got to update my numbers.

[00:27:31]>> Yeah, sorry man.

[00:27:32]>> Um why do you why did you get on social media and why do you keep showing up?

[00:27:36]What's your goal with with social media?

[00:27:39]Yeah. So, I actually I've been really in involved with media ever since I started my practice in '04. When I was in fellowship in LA, I was on a show called Dr. 90210. Um, literally I was on it for like three minutes and it I had just started my practice here in Michigan.

[00:27:55]The show aired when I was about two or three months in. I was like destitute. I had no money, a ton of debt, living in a small apartment, no patience, and I was like scrambling just to try to make a living. And then all of a sudden the show airs and I had 10 new cosmetic consults the next day and it literally powered my practice for two years. It was insane what this show did. Um and so that taught me the power of actual media. Uh from there um I parlayed that into I actually started this right after that kind of the blogs became really popular like Perez Hilton hit then this was like the mid 2000s. Uh, and so I started a blog called Celeb Cosmetic Surgery and that became the number one um, plastic surgeon blog in the country and I was enjoying writing and stuff for that. Um, I ended up getting sued by a paparazzi because of a photo I put up of Cindy Loer and that killed my site.

[00:28:54]>> That was Yeah, I got sued for $150,000 by a paparazzi. It was a reverse class action lawsuit suing me for 150 grand because of one picture of Cindy Loer who appeared to have had a chemical peel done on her face I put on my blog. So that killed my blog unfortunately. And then from there I parlayed into actual national TV. I did a lot of national TV shows. I did Rachel Ray's talk show like 25 times. I was on Dr. Oz's show maybe 10 times and stuff like that. And then we probably hit about 10 years ago and I started they stopped the producers stopped calling me as much I think because I was starting to age out a little bit and they're like oh they're picking like Whitney Bo like our friend Dr. Whitney Bo started Rachel Ray all of a sudden's like oh we don't want Dr. Yumi we want Dr. Oh, like I could see why she's a lot cuter, prettier, and younger than me. And so, and then I started transitioning over towards social media because I have this like um creative streak that I I I need to create something. You I've written four books. Uh I used to be in a band like I've always have something creative that I like to work on and over the past, you know, eight plus years now, it's been social media and creating content. So, that's been kind of my creative outlet.

[00:30:04]uh and I see that as being the creative outlet for the foreseeable future.

[00:30:08]>> What do you hope that consumers get out of the information that you put on social media?

[00:30:13]>> You know, when we were really start doing this a lot during the pandemic, one of the big things that really um touched me was all the people that would message me saying, "Hey, you kept me company during the pandemic when it was such a scary place and I was by myself like on the 24th floor of a high-rise like where I couldn't leave." Um and that really touched me. And so for me, I think it's just the ability to touch people and to um you know, even give them company to to have give them a chuckle um and to help make their life even even if it's just a tiny tiny fraction of an amount more enjoyable or better, then that to me is a privilege, you know? So, it's like I can see 20 people in my office a day and potentially change their lives by doing surgery or cosmetic treatment. Um, but you and I both know that in the power of social media, we can touch hundreds of people in a day in different ways. Maybe not quite as profound. Um, but we can still help them even if it's just like I said, giving them a chuckle or maybe we help them, you know, to improve the health, their health and their quality of life. All of that I think is just so powerful and it really is such a privilege to be able to have that uh influence um and and to use it for good.

[00:31:27]>> Yeah, it really is. Uh, I I love seeing the good that can come from it and just having fun in the creative process. So, I'll have to pick your brain sometime on uh getting some of those connections because I love doing TV and commercials when I've had the chance to do Oh, yeah.

[00:31:40]that kind of stuff. I I would say the highlight of my career so far was being on Saturday Night Live. So, >> I saw that one. I was like, "Dang, Dustin." And I was supposed to, you know, I got called to do a um Sarah thing with Cade Cunningham, who's like the Detroit Pistons, like our star player.

[00:31:58]>> And I think they gave the the the spot to you because you did one with was it um >> it was uh uh KG or something, right?

[00:32:06]>> Um yeah, I didn't do the live shoot with KG. That was um someone else, but >> Okay. I was like, "Oh, I think Dustin got this instead of me." But it's all good.

[00:32:15]>> No, it must have gone to somebody else.

[00:32:16]They skipped us both. So, um, as we look into the future, what really excites you about the future of plastic surgery, things coming down the pipeline that are going to be, uh, potentially gamechanging?

[00:32:29]>> You know, I think what I'm seeing that's really exciting is it really is plastic surgery melding in with a lot of what dermatologists are doing and even biohackers. Like, I feel like there is a certain amount of overlap between the three groups. you know, biohackers being kind of like way on the one end of like experimentation and stuff, but non-invasive, you know, dermatologists, you guys being all about the skin and, you know, with exoomes and stem cells and then us also, you know, looking at more of the surgical. I do think that there's a really interesting um uh overlap that we're all going to kind of achieve in the middle somewhere where we are looking at things like stem cell therapy, like exoome therapy, like bio stimulators and uh in addition to devices, you know, that are getting so much more exciting. I mean, just in the last 20 years, you know, I would have never thought 20 years ago that we would have a laser that can actually reduce fat non-invasively. Like that's crazy, you know, that we have that or cool sculpting that freezes it, you know. So, I think it's really exciting. Those are some of the things I'm excited about. I think what we the pan the thing that we just don't have yet that I'm hoping they come out with at some point is a really effective body skin tightening device >> because that's I think one thing we just have not developed is how do you tighten the skin of the body without having to cut it out and I know these laser companies and you know they're working on that. If they can get one that would get pretty good results then I think that could be a huge gamecher for all of us.

[00:33:53]>> Yeah, certainly an unmet need. Um, have you used or or looked into Elor and do you have thoughts on Elor?

[00:34:00]>> Um, so yeah, Elor I think the idea is really interesting and so for people who are you know for your listeners um the idea like if I do a tummy tuck I'm cutting out many many centimeters of excess skin. All right. And so we're removing skin but to do that it creates a scar a lengthy scar. Same thing I do a facelift. I may remove a couple centimeters on each side of skin um with a facelift but it creates scars. Eloor basically is a handheld device that has multiple basically hollow needles that are hooked up to suction. So every time that needle goes into your skin, it sucks out a little core of skin. That core of skin may be like a millimeter or half a millimeter in size. But if you do that, let's say hundreds of times, now you're removing hundreds of cores. And those cores are so small, they don't leave a visible scar, but they will actually then remove technically a certain amount of skin. Mhm.

[00:34:51]>> The idea I think is fantastic. It's like a no cutting facelift. I've, you know, I know people use it for the abdomen and stuff like that. Uh just my, you know, two things. First thing, it is a bloody mess.

[00:35:02]I've seen it done. It's a bloody mess.

[00:35:04]Uh and then the second thing is the results that I've seen so far have not lived up to what I would hope to see. Um and so my hope is that the company continues to refine, improve the device to try to get even better results because I think the idea is a really, really good one. It's just >> like I said, I just haven't seen the results out of it yet.

[00:35:22]>> Yeah.

[00:35:24]>> Very good. Well, Dr. Yun, where can people find you on the internet and uh share your podcast with us, which I just did an appearance on as well.

[00:35:31]>> Yeah. So, my podcast is the Dr. Yun Show. It's available on all the different podcast platforms. And um I have actually a skincare line called Yune Beauty. My website is yunbeautyy.com where we've got all sorts of great um really healthy skin care, retinols, vitamin C, coll I'm a big fan of collagen supplements. We've got that.

[00:35:52]We just added a fiber supplement and a retinol body cream. The retinol body cream is something I'm really proud of.

[00:35:58]So yeah, you beauty is a skincare line and podcast, The Dr. Yun Show.

[00:36:03]>> Well, to the audience, definitely check that out if you like the approach that Dr. Yun takes for holistic plastic surgery and his presurgical approach to helping you look and feel your best. Y beauty and his website have much more information as well as his podcast. So I encourage you to check that out. Thank you for joining us on this episode and hope you found it as fun as I have had to uh interview Dr. Yun and take a minute to leave us a fivestar review wherever you listen to podcasts. Share this episode with a friend and as always we'll see you next week.

[00:36:35]Hey, thanks man.