I’ve Spent Many Years Pondering Plastic Surgery (Yelp Review 10/13/2009)

By Albert Chow on April 5, 2010

I’ve spent many years pondering plastic surgery and interviewing for the best surgeon (I had looked into probably about 15-20 surgeons across the country), and I have to say Dr. Chow has far exceeded expectations in all fronts: his superb credentials (UC Berkeley, UCSF), level of experience (don’t let his youthful appearance fool you as it did for me initially), talent as a doctor and surgeon, the painstaking detail and artistry he puts into his work, congenial bedside manner, and rarely might you hear this in combination with those listed above… reasonable price point.

I was surprised to see relatively fewer Yelp reviews for him, given what an amazing plastic surgeon he is. When I asked him about it, he said he usually takes those things with a grain of salt. I believe he focuses all his energy on ensuring the highest quality of medical care to each of his patients rather than allocating any of his time to self-promotion and advertising to simply pump up patient volume (which can be timely and expensive for doctors who choose to pursue that route, often translating to lower quality, more expensive care for the consumer).

He’s also extremely modest – if I hadn’t looked more closely into his credentials, which he didn’t mention during our consultation – I would have totally overlooked him. While many practice’s websites I looked at touted in capital letters at the top BOARD-CERTIFIED, or even DOUBLE board certified, Dr. Chow is TRIPLE board certified (by the American Board of Plastic Surgery, American Board of Facial Plastic Surgery, and Board of Head and Neck as well as a member with the American Society of Plastic Surgery), which he mentions quite inconspicuously at the bottom of his website. Now, I’ve looked at a lot of doctors, and very rarely have I seen all four of these credentials. You have to be a very talented doctor to be able to achieve all that.

To further demonstrate his focus on quality rather than quantity, I remember I spoke with another doctor and I asked him how long a rhinoplasty would take, and he said with his years of experience, he could bang it out in about an hour. Forgive me, but this is my face we’re talking about… I don’t care if you’re world-renowned and have performed thousands of rhinoplasties, I want my surgeon to take all the time necessary to ensure that my expectations are met. And that is what Dr. Chow did. We’ve spent many consultations discussing rhinoplasty so he knew how particular I was about it – in surgery, he spent FIVE hours to painstaking detail on my nose alone and I am thrilled with the results. He didn’t even charge me for the overtime in the operating room!

Also about Dr. Chow: he can do CLOSED rhinoplasties. This is very difficult and requires a high degree of skill and dexterity of surgical hands. Very few plastic surgeons are capable of doing this well – they usually only can do open rhinoplasties, which as you can imagine, causes more bruising, scarring, and requires longer recovery time. With a closed rhinoplasty, there is absolutely no external scarring. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that Dr. Chow charged less for his closed rhinoplasties than most doctors who can only do open rhinos.

The other great thing about Dr. Chow is that he doesn’t charge consultation fees like many other doctors. I met with him three or four times over the length of about 8-10 months before finally deciding to have the surgery, all without being charged a penny. He will meet with you as many times as you need to get comfortable. And I never felt pressured to commit to surgery with him – he even encouraged me to take a couple more months to think about exactly what I wanted. I’m a very particular customer, so every time I went in, I usually had a list of about 10-20 questions, which he always answered patiently, never making me feel rushed or like I was wasting his time.

With our healthcare system in desperate need of a makeover, it’s such a rare pleasure to find a doctor with the priorities of Dr. Chow. It was apparent to me through our interactions over time that he is genuinely passionate about medicine and helping his patients feel better about their appearance, and that monetary reward is tertiary.

His staff, especially Cassandra, is also warm and fantastic. When I didn’t have a ride home after the surgery, she offered to give me one. Little did I know that this was a much bigger favor than it seemed. After the surgery, she had to wait in the office until about 10pm while I spent several hours recovering from the anesthesia, which she did happily

Here’s some advice I’d like to share if you decide to meet with a plastic surgeon:
- Bring pictures of yourself so you can specify what you may not like
- Pictures of friends or celebrities demonstrating your ideal, helping Dr. Chow understand your standard of beauty
- Do your research
- Speak to former patients

Yelp Review By: Amy

http://www.yelp.com/user_details_reviews_self?userid=fQnSEMUS33V0dJ4lmzeNYw&rec_pagestart=10&review_sort=time

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