Eva Sheie (00:03):
The purpose of this podcast is simple. We want you to get to know your doctor before meeting them in person because you're making a life-changing decision, and time is scarce. The more you can learn about who your doctor is before you meet them, the better that first meeting will be. There's no substitute for an in-person appointment, but we hope this comes close. I'm your host, Eva Sheie, and you're listening to Meet the Doctor. Today on Meet the Doctor. My guest is Urman Desai. He is a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills and I am so happy to have him here. Welcome Dr. Desai. Will you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Dr. Desai (00:45):
Thank you so much Eva. So honored to be here. My name is Dr. Desai, as you know. I'm a Harvard educated double board certified double fellowship trained plastic surgeon here in beautiful Beverly Hills, California.

Eva Sheie (00:59):
It means you went to school a lot, right?

Dr. Desai (01:02):
Yes. I used to owe a lot of money to some of these schools, so it took me, uh, a little while to pay it off, but thankfully it's all paid off.

Eva Sheie (01:10):
I'm still not done.

Dr. Desai (01:11):
<laugh>. Oh my god.

Eva Sheie (01:13):
I'm proud of you for being finished with that. That's great. Maybe go in reverse order, like what does it mean to be fellowship trained?

Dr. Desai (01:20):
That's a great question. So after residency, some graduates choose to go on to some more academic advanced training in either a specialty they really like or a specialty within plastic surgery that they didn't get enough training in or something that they wanna be a master at. So for me, I always like aesthetic plastic surgery as opposed to reconstructive plastic surgery or um, hand surgery or c craniofacial surgery or other aspects of plastic surgery. So I always, always knew I was gonna head into the world of aesthetics. So I spent a year with uh, Richard Ellenbogen, a pretty famous guy here in Beverly Hills who was on this show, Dr. 90210, the original Dr. 90210 back in 2005, 06, 07 and 08. And so every year he has a fellow. So I spent a year out here in Beverly Hills, got a taste of LA living and uh, I was sold.

Eva Sheie (02:13):
Do you remember anything from that sort of like landing on the ground in Los Angeles and what that felt like?

Dr. Desai (02:20):
Oh my God. I left Boston and it was cold and winter and I applied for the fellowship but didn't, I didn't think I was gonna get it. And the funny story is, is as a resident in, we used to take call, I would go back between Tufts and Brown and be stuck in a dumpy old apartment in Providence, Rhode Island taking call for the weekend and you'd just be waiting for the pager to go off. And I'd be watching these Dr. 90210 marathons on TV on E Channel and there were a, was all these like Beverly Hills plastic surgeons doing these great surgeries. Meanwhile, I'm like a low-life resident and sleeping in this dumpy little apartment and I would see this show and I'm like, wow, I would love to, like that's my dream. Fast forward a year, I applied for the fellowship. Fast forward a few months, I get a call from him, one of the guys on the show, and then he flies me out, which was a cool thought back then. Wow. He's flying me out, he buys my ticket, flies me to LA and I land and I'm like, wow, this is like, I see palm trees, I see beautiful weather, I see beautiful people, I see nice cars. I'm like, man, this is like paradise. And so he offered me the position. I spent a year with him and it was just, i, I just kind of, you know when something feels right in your gut, like you just, you just know it just feels right. And so that's how I felt that first day.

Eva Sheie (03:31):
Such a contrast between <laugh> where you were, I just am imagining you like getting woken up in the middle of the night to go do stitches and then.

Dr. Desai (03:40):
Yeah, exactly.

Eva Sheie (03:42):
It's almost a movie.

Dr. Desai (03:43):
Exactly. Exactly. You go from one extreme to another and and when you, you watched it on, you saw it on TV and then you kind of made it happen somehow. I pinch myself sometimes as well.

Eva Sheie (03:53):
I bet. Uh, and it probably gives you a healthy level of perspective for where you are today, you know, just because it felt like such a stretch. And sometimes I think when you work so hard to go through school to get somewhere, it can be a little bit defeating when you get to the end and it's not what you thought it was gonna be, but in your case it was what you thought it was gonna be.

Dr. Desai (04:17):
Yeah. But the funny thing is I put my head down and worked so hard for so many years that like when I arrived I still can't believe I'm I've arrived, you know?

Eva Sheie (04:27):
Yeah. Yeah. It's remarkable. So you said earlier you knew you were gonna go to aesthetics the whole time. When did you start to understand that and and actually recognize that's where you were trying to go?

Dr. Desai (04:41):
Well, I think in residency I, early on in residency, my first few years of surgical residency, I just got a little bit jaded by patients and the patient load and you tell a patient to do X, Y, Z and they just wouldn't do it. They, I felt like I was, patients were trying to help themselves as much as I was trying to help the patients. You know, you'd say, oh yeah, take this medication follow up in three weeks. And they would just go missing in action. Or they would say, oh what? Oh, I never got it filled, the medication filled. Or they continue their risky behavior. So I just got a little bit jaded and tired and you know, with the changing healthcare system, I, I just felt like based on my personality and wanting something more positive, I felt aesthetics was more ideal for me.

Eva Sheie (05:25):
In residency, what kinds of patients were you seeing? Was this more general or was this actually plastic?

Dr. Desai (05:31):
Initially it was just general cuz I did five plus three. But yeah, so those were the early years. So then I knew I wanted to go into plastic surgery and then after, once I got to plastic surgery residency, then I knew I wanted to go into aesthetics.

Eva Sheie (05:43):
It's a long journey as we're talking about how many years here from beginning to end? Like eight?

Dr. Desai (05:48):
Yeah, well it depends what you say. The beginning is what you say the end is. You know?

Eva Sheie (05:53):
You got out of college and you went to medical school. So from medical school to the end.

Dr. Desai (05:59):
Yeah, medical school would be four years. But I did a year of research, so that's five. And then first residency was another five years, so that's 10 years. And then I did three years of plastic surgery, so that's 13. And then plus one more year fellowship here in Beverly Hills. So that's 14 years since the start of medical school, you know. But you know, I took two years off after, after college. So it's another two years and then college was four years. So I think it's about 20 years since graduation, graduating high school, it's about 20 years.

Eva Sheie (06:28):
Yeah.

Dr. Desai (06:29):
So that's why when I say I put your head down and you just go when it's time to like come out of the water and put your head up, you're like, oh wow, I, I can't believe I'm here. But it's funny cause I still have some tendency, you know, you have to, you know, they say like live like a student, live like a resident and, and I feel like cer I have certain behavior patterns that are still like that. You know, I feel guilty going to a, a fancy restaurant. I feel guilty staying in a nice place cuz for two decades essentially you have to live like a student and you know, you can't plan to go on trips or splurge at a restaurant or do certain things, you know?

Eva Sheie (07:00):
I get it. I live like a freelancer still because

Dr. Desai (07:02):
Yes.

Eva Sheie (07:03):
I was a freelancer for so long that I could never say no to anything. And now I like I still don't <laugh>, but I sometimes it's not a good idea to say yes to everything.

Dr. Desai (07:14):
Yes, correct, correct, correct. Yeah. Some of it's in our DNA, it's so ingrained, been doing for so many years, it's ingrained in your DNA now.

Eva Sheie (07:20):
Hmm. It is not a bad thing but yeah. So within aesthetics now you actually subspecialize again and you focus on a very specific kind of patient. Right Now you might not do that forever, but tell us what that is.

Dr. Desai (07:34):
Yeah, so I think when you choose to go to a, a highly competitive, and some may argue the highest or the most competitive market in the United States or even the world, when you make a dumb dumb decision to wanna go and practice set up, hang your shingle in Beverly Hills, California, you can't be a jack of all trades, master of none. You have to have a niche in or survive because there are 25 plastic surgeons in my building and there's probably about a hundred plastic surgeons within three streets. So where all the plastic surgeons go. And so you have to kind of set yourself apart to some degree. So you know, you gotta figure out what, what procedures do you like to do and what procedures are you good at or what kind of procedures are you excited to wake up in the morning and go do.

(08:25)
And for me it was mostly breast surgery. Uh, for somebody else it might be rhinoplasty, it might be something different. But for me it was always breast surgery for some reason. For me it's quick and easy and I understand the physics and the concepts behind it. So I like doing breast implant surgery. The other notion is that patients like to go to doctors that are like themselves, you know, they see themselves in in their doctor whether they're young or of color or down to earth or like similar music or something that they can kind of find some type of bond with. Find that trust that, that level of trust. So for me, my patients are pretty young. Not that I'm young anymore, but I'm on the younger side compared to most plastic surgeons here in Beverly Hills, younger side. You know, my background's Indian, so I have a lot of Indian, Persian, Asian Latina, African American patients because they feel like I better understand their skin and their background and their culture.

(09:27)
And so I find that that's my niche and it's not like I necessarily chose some of those things. I think your niche sometimes finds you, you don't necessarily find your niche. So I just enjoy doing a few breast implant surgeries my first or second day as an attending and I, I said, oh I, it's Monday, I gotta post something on Instagram. So you post a breast case and then somebody likes it and then they call your office and you do another one and just, it kind of grows in that sense. If you do a procedure you don't like, you're not gonna promote or advertise or talk about it so much.

Eva Sheie (10:00):
Yeah, I, I I think it's, I think it's kind of awesome that you just said, I need to put this on Instagram because most of your colleagues were told by some consultant or some class somewhere you gotta, you gotta do Instagram now. And so then they set out to figure out how do you do Instagram. But you already knew how to do Instagram, you just did it.

Dr. Desai (10:23):
Yeah, because I thought that was a way where patients could, I couldn't make patients feel more comfortable cuz they could see more about my personality. Now, back in the day when Instagram first came out, it wasn't about, oh, post a, a cool video with music with a before and after that fades in and fades out that that wasn't there yet. It was like post, you know, it was like a still photo of me with my like board certification certificate and that would get like a few hundred likes. I mean that was like kind of things you would post or me, me posting to the, I went to the Super Bowl and I would post that and patients would see that and so, so patients were able to resonate with that. I'd be like, oh Mike, this guy's a normal guy. He goes to the Super Bowl or this guy goes out to, you know, um, whatever, he goes to the park or whatever. He does normal things and he's a normal person. I thought back in the day we're talking 2014, 15 patients could resonate with that. It would send a message that I was a normal person just like them because they go to football games, they go to the park, they have an animal, they, you know, they do the same things I do.

Eva Sheie (11:26):
People magazine feature, they're just like us.

Dr. Desai (11:29):
Yeah. Exactly. Celebrities, they're just like us. So, uh, that was back in the day and so I always got into it because I enjoyed it for my own personal aspect but also for, for the business aspect. So it came easy, it came natural and then with stories, I did a lot of stories and people could see me talking and they could kind of kind of get a window into my daily life such that when came to the office, they already knew what my office looked like. They already knew my staff, they felt comfortable immediately they would come into the office and like ask to gimme a hug and they've never met me before, but they already felt like they knew me.

Eva Sheie (12:06):
So it looks like you also love to take photos of yourself with famous people.

Dr. Desai (12:11):
Well I come from a small town in Boston where some of these famous people don't, like you only see them on tv, like they don't exist. There's like a certain world where you don't really think they actually exist. And so, I don't know, I'm starstruck very easily, so when I see somebody who's been in a movie or a TV show, I'm starstruck. So if I get a photo with them, it's like almost confirms like they're like a real person and I'm like in their realm.

Eva Sheie (12:36):
It's really fun to look at too.

Dr. Desai (12:38):
Yeah.

Eva Sheie (12:39):
Yeah. Your account is, it's really beautiful. The photos are beautiful and the women are beautiful.

Dr. Desai (12:44):
And oh you are so kind. Thank you for your kind words.

Eva Sheie (12:48):
It also has a, a level of simplicity to it that I think is just really authentic. And so one thing we think about a lot as plastic surgery marketing people is, does the aesthetic you see online match what happens when you come into the office? So if I get this feeling from your Instagram account, is that sort of aligned with what I would find if I come in to see you in person?

Dr. Desai (13:17):
Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Yeah, no, it's a great cause that's a great point and I try to keep it very authentic and raw. Some of my colleagues are paying some outside companies to do their social media for them, but it, you know, stock images and they're not really getting like office footage and things like that. So that doesn't lead to a lot of traction. My patients, I think I, I stay busy because patients see kind of the vibe that I have in my office and the relationship I have with my staff and you know, makes them feel so comfortable that they wanna, they want to come in and hang out so to speak. You know what I'm saying?

Eva Sheie (13:50):
And so, are you taking most of these photos yourself?

Dr. Desai (13:53):
All of them myself. All of them.

Eva Sheie (13:55):
With your phone.

Dr. Desai (13:56):
With my phone.

Eva Sheie (13:58):
Well, well done.

Dr. Desai (13:59):
Wow, that's so nice of you to say. So yeah, we, I do a lot of raw a lot. I do it myself. I do it myself because it's more authentic and raw and it may not be like, it may not have millions and millions of likes and follows and stuff like that, but it's all real and raw and it's like all from the office between me and my front desk staff helps me out with that a little bit.

Eva Sheie (14:20):
Excellent. So along with that simplicity and happiness.

Dr. Desai (14:26):
Oh, oh, can I say just one more thing before we, we we transition from social media? Sure. That's the other thing. People think, oh you know, I, uh, Dr X has uh, 250,000 followers and 17,000 likes. Um, I think it's more about being more of like having a lot of, a lot of engagement in your community. I have a good friend, one of my best friends in Long Island, he, he's in Long Island, so he is not like in a huge, huge big city, but he has a lot, he's got more followers than me, but they're all very engaged in his community and he stays very, very busy. He doesn't have that many followers compared to other plastic surgeons, but they're all number one, they're all real. And number two, they're all engaged and they're all more likely to go to him then another doctor that may have hundreds and hundreds of thousands of bot followers, blah, blah blah. So I think it's more about the engagement and keeping them raw and people in your community, people who are likely to go go to you. Much like the theory of not having influencers promote your practice, but having micro influencers promote your practice. Micro influencers being like your friend Sally, not Kim Kardashian.

Eva Sheie (15:34):
Exactly.

Dr. Desai (15:36):
Because just cuz Kim does it, who cares. But if your best friend from high school did it, you're probably more likely to do it as well.

Eva Sheie (15:44):
Much more impact for sure. Now I will transition to the next question, <laugh>. Uh, okay. So we have a, a pretty good feel for the happiness, the joy, the authenticity and your personality. If I'm coming to see you for the first time, what should I also expect from that appointment?

Dr. Desai (16:10):
I think if you were to come see me for the first time, you know, I always like to ask my patients what are their main concerns versus, you know, giving them my thoughts of what I think needs to be done. You know, I always like to give them options because, just because what I think option number one should be may not be their option number one. And there's just so many, at least in Beverly Hills, believe it or not, there's a lot of patients out there in the world. And so if I don't think I can make a patient happy, I let them know that. And there's no worse feeling in the world than a patient who's upset at you or mad at you or feels like you did something against their wishes or, uh, is not happy with the results. Whether it's from the scar or the size of their implants or the, you know, minimal results. You know, I'm very transparent here. I don't, I just don't like unhappy patients. It's not worth my time to deal with them afterwards.

Eva Sheie (17:05):
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you've probably done, um, thousands of breast augmentations at this point.

Dr. Desai (17:10):
Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

Eva Sheie (17:13):
So you're very good at sizing and helping people with sizing.

Dr. Desai (17:17):
Yeah, it's almost like a, a next level thing for me now, you know, a lot of people like do like base with measurements and spend hours, you know, but for me it's like I have this like next level sense of like what size is ideal for them just within like talking to them and looking at them and examining them.

Eva Sheie (17:34):
Yep. It's like a beautiful mind, right?

Dr. Desai (17:36):
Yeah, yeah. The calculation goes into my brain and then it spits out a, a certain number.

Eva Sheie (17:40):
<laugh>, there's a lot of controversy around implants just in the last year or two maybe in that I've seen this happen a lot where someone posts that they've got breast implants and they're happy and then a bunch of other people will get upset with them and say, breast implants poisoned me and I had to have mine out. But I do wanna ask you <laugh>, if you don't mind, what your perspective is on the breast implant illness situation.

Dr. Desai (18:08):
You know, that's a fantastic question. I'm happy to chat about it. I see some of those patients as well and I, uh, let them know that nobody is discrediting their, the fact that they have these symptoms that of course they are foggy brain, they are fatigued, they do have muscle and joint pain, they are tired all the time, but there's no scientific, I tell patients there's no scientific proof. It's, uh, related to the breast implants. However, I'm happy to assist with the removal of the implants if that's what they wish. So I'm not discrediting their symptoms, but I do let them know that there's no, that I'm happy to help them and get them implants removed, but there's no guarantee that that will assist with the alleviation of their symptoms. The next follow up with that is what have I found? I found that in maybe half of the patients by like maybe one or two or three months, half of the patients, most of their symptoms are resolved. The other, it didn't really change too much.

Eva Sheie (19:08):
Yeah. I think some of the theories are that, uh, is something else going on and that it's a combination of things and not just any when cause. So I know it's still a really complex issue that we're sorting out and I think being transparent with the answers is really significant for people who have questions about it. And you, you can't just pretend it's not happening cuz it's all over the internet. Right?

Dr. Desai (19:32):
I agree with you a hundred percent. That's very well said.

Eva Sheie (19:36):
Okay, so what would you like listeners to take away from listening to this podcast today?

Dr. Desai (19:43):
I think if your listener is a provider, cuz I know that some providers listening, I would say you gotta find what makes you happy in life. Whether it's a good city to work in, a good type of medicine you practice, uh, or good procedures that you, that make you happy. You know, I'm the type that wants, I wanna do, I wanna be a doctor and practice medicine until I'm dead and met with somebody recently and said, oh, so what time, what age would you wanna retire? I don't wanna retire cause I love what I do so I want to, I'm trying to spread kind of the Tom Brady that I'm on the Tom Brady track. I wanna do what I love and love what I do for decades as long as I can. And so that's why I've kind of tailored my life into doing the procedures I like to do.

(20:28)
I, you know, I stop working, you know, Saturdays and Sundays a little bit more cuz now I'm thinking is a marathon not a race. So for the patients out there listening, I think that it's important to, if you're looking for a doctor, find a doctor that's really passionate about what they're doing, find a doctor, that things come very natural to them. For me, social media comes natural, doing breast surgery comes natural. Having conversations like this podcast right here comes supernatural. I feel like I'm talking to you at a coffee shop or we're talking at the W hotel like we did two weeks ago. So, you know, you just gotta find somebody that's really excited about, you know, the things they do and I think you'll, you'll find, uh, find that you'll get really nice results.

Eva Sheie (21:07):
I think true for anything, not just medicine, but yeah. I agree. Okay, last question. The toughest one probably. What do you like to do outside the office these days?

Dr. Desai (21:20):
Hmm. That's a really fantastic question cuz you know, it's hard for me to answer that because I just love what I do. I don't feel like I have a job. I don't feel like I punch in, punch out. But outside of the office, I uh, actually started playing tennis this year because I don't really like to work out like at the gym so much. I find it a little bit boring actually. I, I was talking to a patient maybe two years ago, older patient fell, I repaired a laceration in the er and then I saw him a follow up and, and he said he was going on a trip and he packed his, uh, tennis rackets and he's like, yeah, I play tennis and I bring my tennis rackets everywhere I go. I said, wow, that's so cool that you can you go on vacation with your wife and you both pack, pack your tennis rackets so you can work out while you're on vacation.

(21:58)
And he said, yeah, I've been playing. And he was an older gentleman. He's like, I've been playing for decades. I said, wow, what a great sport to pick up and do it for the rest of your life and have it as a workout but not really feel like you're working out. Yeah. So that made me think about, hey, I should pick up tennis. So I started playing and now I play every single Saturday instead of operating or seeing patients. I feel guilty about that, but I'm actually on the tennis court every literally every Saturday and I can do that here in sunny California. So that's like my, my new thing and I'm getting pretty good at it. I'm trying to learn how to be a better surfer here now that I live in Southern California. I like reading magazines. I like more like gossip magazines, you know, celebrity magazines, <laugh>, hence on Myel, hence on my celebrity selfies. And then I like to go to a lot of plastic surgery meetings. There's a few in Vegas every year. I'm going to Miami next month, so that's my thing.

Eva Sheie (22:45):
Yeah, I'll see you there.

Dr. Desai (22:46):
Can't wait.

Eva Sheie (22:48):
Where can we find more information about you? You said Instagram, but what's your handle?

Dr. Desai (22:52):
It's @Desai Plastic Surgery. That's d e s a i plastic surgery. That's the best place to DM me, watch my stories. I'm happy to answer any questions or providing advice to anybody looking.

Eva Sheie (23:07):
Sounds great. Thank you. Thank you for sharing all your stories with us and I feel like we really do know you better now and that's the point of this podcast.

Dr. Desai (23:15):
Well, I wanna say you are a fantastic interviewer. Thanks for setting up this podcast and teaching me more about podcasting. I agree with you. The future is, uh, is bright with podcasting and uh, is something we should all get into.

Eva Sheie (23:30):
I cannot agree more.

(23:34)
If you are considering making an appointment or are on your way to meet this doctor, be sure to let them know you heard them on the Meet the Doctor podcast. Check the show notes for links including the doctor's website and Instagram to learn more. Are you a doctor or do you know a doctor who'd like to be on the Meet the Doctor podcast? Book your free recording session at Meet the Doctor podcast.com. Meet the Doctor is Made with Love in Austin, Texas and is a production of The Axis the axis.io.