Meet Dr. Serota, Cosmetic Surgeon

Dr. Serota (Credit: Dr. Serota)

Meet Dr. Joseph F. Serota, M.D., FACS – a leading plastic surgeon with over 20 years of experience in the field of cosmetic surgery. Dr. Serota is based just outside Denver, Colorado in Aurora, and performs cosmetic surgery of the face and body, including breast enlargement surgery, liposuction and facelifts, as well as other cosmetic procedures.

SurgeryWatch: Thank you Dr. Serota, for taking the time to speak to SurgeryWatch. You have been practicing cosmetic surgery since 1984; that’s more than 20 years of experience. What made you choose this field of work?

Dr. Serota: Well, it’s a field that offers unlimited opportunities to help patients. It’s a very broad field in that it takes care of many, many different areas of the body. It’s one for which I have the particular set of skills required, including artistic skills and hand eye coordination.

SW: Where did you receive your medical training?

Dr. Serota: I received my M.D. at the Medical College of Ohio.

SW: Breast Augmentation surgery is a very popular surgery among women. How does this procedure help in building confidence in women? Will you share an example with us where breast augmentation surgery has given a boost to a patient’s self esteem?

Dr. Serota: We basically see gals who are interested in surgery in two groups: gals who have had kids already and gals who haven’t had kids. Gals who haven’t had kids are looking for surgery to restore their proportions, which allows them to wear certain clothes and enjoy certain activities, for example, it allows them to feel good enough to wear bikinis and attend pool parties. The other group, those who have had their kids have developed some sort of problem with their breasts as a result of breast-feeding. They typically have small, saggy breasts and need a different type of repair. It’s an important task, to restore the self-esteem of a mom who has given her body to her children and would now like to have some of it back.

SW: What sort of breast surgery do women want after pregnancy?

Dr. Serota: They want the procedures that restore the volume that was lost, and they also typically want lifting to correct the sagging and drooping that has also occurred.

SW: How is a breast reduction surgery carried out and how is this surgery beneficial for women with large breasts?

Dr. Serota: Breast reduction is a surgery that’s designed to reduce the size of weight of breasts in gals whose breasts are too large. These women suffer discomfort from their breasts. In the surgery, the breast is typically reduced by half in terms of its size and weight. This reduction will alleviate the problems the patient had as a result of their larger breasts.

SW: Please tell us more about the procedure of tummy tucks.

Dr. Serota: Tummy tuck is a another procedure that’s typically for the mom after having had her kids, where her tummy has been so stretched out that it just won’t return to normal. This is a very good procedure for the mom, where excess skin and fat are removed, and muscles are tightened to restore the abdomen to a healthy, normal appearance.

SW: Should abdominoplasty be an option for people who can’t lose that extra skin and weight, in spite of regular exercise?

Dr. Serota: Absolutely. In general, diet and exercise is not effective in either getting rid of excess skin or helping muscles that have been stretched apart due to pregnancies. The only solution for these women is through pregnancy.

SW: What are the Ultra sonic and tumescent liposuction procedures and how are these two methods different from the traditional liposuction?

Dr. Serota: Liposuction began as a procedure where a simple cannula or metal tube was inserted to vacuum out excess fat. In that procedure the force applied to the cannula was the muscle power from the surgeon and this result in more trauma to the area. It was discovered that adding large volumes of fluid during liposuction reduced the amount of work necessary and reduced the amount of bleeding and discomfort for the patient. Using ultrasonic waves at the tip of the cannula would melt the fat and greatly facilitate its removal. So the tumescent and ultrasonic liposuction procedures represent advances in the technique of liposuction to ease discomfort and healing time.

SW: You’ve mentioned in your website that facelift surgery is particularly challenging. Since each patient has a different facial structure, how do you customize a facelift for each patient? How is a facelift more challenging than other cosmetic surgery procedures?

Dr. Serota: In a facelift, it’s just that; the variation of faces among the various patients that make the procedures so challenging. So the procedure is not the same for everyone, the procedure is tailored to fit the specific problems that the patient presents us with.

SW: Which cosmetic surgery procedure is the most popular among people these days, and which procedure is your favorite?

Dr. Serota: Well, in my practice, it’s about one third facial one third breast and one third body contouring. Body contouring being things like liposuction and tummy tuck. My favorite procedure is the eyelid procedure, blepharoplasty because this procedure gives the most noticeable improvement of any of the procedures that we do. It’s an operation that is relatively inexpensive, safe, and has very few possible complications.

SW: What kind of care do you offer your patients before and after cosmetic surgery? What are the basic guidelines that patients should follow after their surgery?

Dr. Serota: We believe that the pre and post operative care is as, if not more, important than the actual surgery. We spend a great deal of time with our patients in education pre operation and offer videos and handouts. After surgery we make ourselves available to the patient and make sure that their postoperative course is as smooth and seamless as possible. It’s important that patients be educated about their procedures, that they have a knowledge of what’s going to be taking place, that the procedures are going to be done for the right reasons, that the instructions are followed carefully, and that they contact me if they have any questions or concerns whatsoever.

SW: People with droopy eyelids and puffy eye bags often want to have eyelid surgery. How is an eyelid surgery carried out and how long does it take to heal?

Dr. Serota: As I mentioned earlier, this is one of my favorite operations. The operation is performed by removing the excess skin and fatty tissue from the upper and lower eyelids. Recovery is rapid; by the 6th day after the operation, sutures can be removed. Patients can be up with sunglasses two days after surgery.

SW: Nose surgery is done not only for cosmetic reasons. What kind of problems can rhinoplasty alleviate?

Dr. Serota: Rhinoplasty is really a surgery designed to improve the appearance of the nose. Most often, breathing problems are not associated with the external appearance of the nose – they are from internal complications. An example where cosmetic surgery would actually help in a non-cosmetic way would be if a patient has a severe fracture where restoring the structure of the nose would be beneficial.

SW: What kind of nose do people want when they choose to have nose surgery?

Dr. Serota: It’s important that patients be clear on their desires regarding nose surgery. Some patients are under the impression that a surgeon can make any nose the patient desires, but in reality nasal surgery has more to do with correcting those problems that are troublesome to the patient. For example, a hump on the nose, a nose that’s too wide, enlarged nostrils, or other problems.

SW: Please tell us more about chin and cheek implants and how facial implants are used to make people look better.

Dr. Serota: When evaluating a patient’s nose it’s often clear that there are other areas of the face that could benefit from improvement. About 50% of rhinoplasty patients benefit from chin augmentation as well. The chin can be over projecting or receding. Some procedures can use an implant to correct the receding chin without the necessity of any major reconstructive surgery. Cheek implants similarly can give more projection for patients who have flatness in that area.

SW: Otoplasty is often done on younger patients – 4 to 14 years of age. Does this involve any special kind of care and treatment? How do you make children feel more relaxed about surgery?

Dr. Serota: An interesting fact about ears is by the time children reach 5 years of age, the ears are 95% of their adult size. This allows us to correct ear deformities at that age. The pediatric age group does require certain different levels of care, peculiarly in the area of anesthesia. Our office is capable of working on patients from children to the elderly.

SW: These days cosmetic surgery has become very popular with men as well. Which cosmetic procedures are most popular with men and what are the reasons behind their popularity?

Dr. Serota: More and more men are becoming interested in cosmetic surgery. For a long time, cosmetic surgery was kind of exclusive to women, but we find that many men nowadays can benefit as well. Often times this has to do with a situation in business where men have a desire to look more young and fit. Some of the most popular procedures for men include eyelid surgery, nasal surgery, and liposuction for reduction of excess body fat.

SW: Many men suffer from Gynecomastia, a condition where they have developed breasts because of extra granular tissue or fat. There is a Gynecomastia scale to measure each condition. Please tell us more about how Gynecomastia is evaluated and measured.

Dr. Serota: Most of the problems that we see in the male breast are actually not due as much to the growth of true breast tissue is they are to excess fat in the area. These excess cases are usually treated with liposuction, which avoid the large scars resulting from the removal of breast tissue.

SW: How do you carry out a male breast reduction procedure?

Dr. Serota: There’s some cases in which the male breast has developed beyond the point where liposuction can be an effective treatment. In these cases, there is a large amount of excess skin with sagging and drooping. In this instance, the skin has to be removed and the nipple undergoes a complex repositioning.

SW: Non-invasive skin care procedures are becoming very popular. According to you, among all these procedures, which one is the most effective?

Dr. Serota: The use of fillers has been very effective in treating areas of wrinkling and other contour irregularities. The use of Botox, which is not a filler but acts on the underlying muscle, has been a tremendous boon in wrinkle reduction.

SW: Have you ever performed cosmetic surgery on any of your family members?

Dr. Serota: No.

SW: How do you like to unwind and spend time with your family?

Dr. Serota: I have two sons and a grandson and I enjoy spending time with my family. I also enjoy skiing and I’m a very avid scuba diver. I have been interested in philately for many years.

SW: Thank you very much for taking the time to speak to us!

Dr. Serota: You’re welcome.

You can learn more about Dr. Serota and his Denver Colorado cosmetic surgery practice at http://www.serotamd.com/.