West Coast vs. East Coast body contouring trends [Matthew Nykiel, MD & Mark Epstein, MD]

Eva Sheie (00:00):
You're listening to Where Before Meets After. Today on Where Before Meets After, I've got two powerhouses of body contouring on the couch at the Aesthetic MEET, live in Austin. Dr. Matt Nyk, Dr. Franco's. In my head,

Dr. Nykiel (00:14):
"Nykeel". Nykiel, Nykiel.

Eva Sheie (00:16):
Because he says it wrong.

Dr. Nykiel (00:18):
He does, but he does that on purpose.

Eva Sheie (00:19):
But he does it on purpose because he loves you.

Dr. Nykiel (00:20):
He does it on purpose because he and I trained together, as you know, we both trained underneath a pretty intense residency chair.

Eva Sheie (00:29):
Was that New Mexico?

Dr. Nykiel (00:29):
St. Louis,

Eva Sheie (00:30):
St. Louis.

Dr. Nykiel (00:31):
That's how that program director would always say my name. "Nykeel".

Eva Sheie (00:33):
Do you know who he's talking about? I also have Dr. Mark Epstein from Long Island, another giant of body contouring.

Dr. Epstein (00:39):
Oh, you're too kind.

Eva Sheie (00:41):
Is it true though? I kind of just said it.

Dr. Epstein (00:44):
That's a very big part of my practice.

Dr. Nykiel (00:48):
So Dr. Epstein actually, we've done a couple talks together on body contouring and utilizing RenuVion energy devices. He actually gives a really great talk about combining energy devices and tummy tucks.

Eva Sheie (01:00):
Do you both do that kind of work every day in your practice? Both on different coasts? So maybe let's go there. Body contouring in California and body contouring in Long Island. Same or different right now?

Dr. Epstein (01:11):
I haven't done any contouring in California, so I don't know. I would imagine it's probably pretty similar.

Dr. Nykiel (01:16):
See, I was going to say it was, and this is the fun part about having people in here. I was going to say it's different because we're Southern California, right? So we're so close to Mexico in plastic surgery. Even in our meetings now, there's symposiums of what's going on in South American body contouring Plastic surgery.

Dr. Epstein (01:32):
Yes. I was just at that.

Dr. Nykiel (01:33):
Right. And so due to our proximity, 90 miles from the Mexican border, I just think we have a huge influx of that sort of central, Southern American body contouring. And I think we therefore are earlier adopters. Not because the East coast doesn't want to adopt it, but just because, just due to geographic spatial relationship I think we do.

Eva Sheie (01:53):
Are you saying that there's a different look that is in demand in southern California than maybe on the East coast?

Dr. Nykiel (01:58):
I would say so. Certainly I have breast implant patients that come from the East coast, and I know when I tell 'em the sizes that we typically do on the west coast, they're like, Nope, that's too big. What would you say?

Dr. Epstein (02:09):
Oh yeah, definitely on the East Coast it's a bit more conservative that way. And if you go south, it's going to get bigger.

Dr. Nykiel (02:15):
Yeah,

Dr. Epstein (02:15):
No question.

Dr. Nykiel (02:16):
And we're in the heart of big, we're in Texas right now, right?

Dr. Epstein (02:19):
Oh yeah.

Dr. Nykiel (02:20):
Where does that change, would you say, from East coast to south, as far as plastic surgery trends? Where do you think that that change happens?

Dr. Epstein (02:27):
I'm not exactly sure. I think it's when you go south and people are out in bathing suits more, the more exposed they're going to want to have larger breasts. I think that's a big part of it.

Dr. Nykiel (02:36):
And what about from a body contouring standpoint? From liposuction? What do you think?

Dr. Epstein (02:40):
Well, it's very interesting in my practice, because I have a lot of Caucasian patients, I have a lot of Latina patients, some African-American patients, and I see definitely different preferences. And I'm also going to say even a subset of my Caucasian patients are the Jewish patients. So here's my take on that. If I'm talking about liposuction and I bring up fat transfer, if I bring it to a Caucasian patient, it's maybe 50 50 they're going to take it. If I bring it up to an African-American patient, I got a better chance. If I bring it up to my Latina patients, there's not enough fat in the county to put in. So they embrace that. Now, if I bring it up to my Jewish patients, keep that fat away from me, that's supposed to come out. Don't put it in. There are exceptions all over. But this is the trend that I see. The African-American patients love their wide hips. The Caucasian patients don't. The Latina patients also don't want to have as much width as the African-American patients have. And you have to respect and be aware of these differences when you are creating a plan.

Dr. Nykiel (03:49):
And so that's interesting because I'd say on the West coast we don't have as much, and I totally get what you're saying, and it's true for a lot. We've sort of, cuz we're so close, I think to just Central America, Mexico, we have more of what I would say a blended sort of look. I'd say it really doesn't matter. Everybody's got some type of, they want that type of central, southern American shape and sculpt. And that may be falling out for other parts of the country because I think there's a big pendulum. BBLs got real popular, making people curvy got real popular and anything, sometimes a craze gets going. And I think it was really, really big hips, a really big butt, a tiny waist to the point that it could sometimes look cartoonish. But that was so in, and now that it's swinging back to the country, it still holds a lot in California, I think, just because it's just those geographical influence.

Dr. Epstein (04:40):
Yeah, absolutely. And I think with social media, patients tend to gravitate to surgeons who produce the kind of look that they're interested in. Patients want that huge big butt look, they're not coming to me. They're going to the guys who are showing that. But the complication rate with that also goes up considerably. So I like something that's a little bit more natural, but curvaceous.

Dr. Nykiel (05:02):
Times change. We all change. So we've adopted a term we call just a balanced body approach. For us, a balanced body approach still focuses on some form of curves because we can go back, I mean, as far as written record, and I feel like curves are there. Back to where even corsets,

Eva Sheie (05:19):
The Venus de Milo.

Dr. Nykiel (05:20):
Yeah, that's right. Venus de Milo. It's just there. So I think, and that's what we decided to do. We recognize change. We say, okay, there's always going to be some form of the feminine shape. And to us, we kind of think, okay, if we have that as the ideal, how do we balance the body to get more in line with that ideal sort of feminine shape? And it's been very beneficial. I think it's really helped us deliver a better body contouring result and experience for people.

Eva Sheie (05:48):
Alright, give me your Instagram, your website, and where to find you.

Dr. Epstein (05:52):
Epsteinplasticsurgery.com. And our Instagram is Dr.mark. MARK Epstein. You can find me on Long Island in Hauppauge. It's in Suffolk County.

Dr. Nykiel (06:02):
And I am a SoCal plastic surgeon, Matt Nykiel in Newport Beach.

Eva Sheie (06:06):
Thanks for listening. I'm your host, Eva Sheie. Follow the show and submit questions for our experts at wherebeforemeetsafter.com. Where Before Meets After is a production of The Axis.