Dr. Man and the Art of Plastic Surgery

The skin is our largest organ. It’s also the only one we wear. That means it’s exposed to the same elements that can etch rocks and scorch the earth. Fortunately, the skin has remarkable regenerative qualities that allow it to survive pretty much anything Mother Nature can throw at it, except time.

Dermatologists and other experts widely agree that people can help preserve their skins’ youthful pliability by treating it right. And it’s not only the moisturizers and rejuvenating creams you put on your body but also the nutrients you put into it. For a large part, healthy skin comes from antioxidants, vitamins and minerals, and avoidance of UV exposure, cigarette smoke, and excessive alcohol ingestion. Other beneficial supplements include hyaluronic acid, collagen, and even probiotics.

“What’s good for your body is good for your skin,” declares Dr. Daniel Man, a leading plastic surgeon based in Boca Raton, Florida. “A healthy diet, exercise, sleep, sun protection, and making sure you have all of the right nutrients are important for keeping the skin healthy.

“But even when we do all of this, or maybe we get a late start in taking good care of ourselves, we start showing the classic signs of aging—wrinkles, sagging skin, hair loss—and these things can make you want to see me.”

Plastic surgery is sometimes seen as vanity run amok, self-absorbed people desperately trying to cling onto their youth by shelling out big bucks for quick fixes. But it can also be an anti-aging treatment that Man says runs more than skin deep.

“When you feel better about the way you look, you feel better about yourself,” explains the Israeli-born surgeon. “It is good for self-esteem, makes you more confident, possibly with better success socially and in business. Plastic surgery not only changes appearance, it changes lives.”

Dr. Man talks about a teenage boy and his mom who recently came to see him because the youth suffered from gynecomastia, commonly called “man boobs.”

“Think how he must feel, not being able to take off his shirt without being embarrassed or teased, not swimming in a pool with friends, not playing sports, not going to the beach,” says Man. “Is plastic surgery a luxury for him?”

There has been an uptick in the condition, as Dr. Man says his male breast reduction clientele has jumped 40% in the past couple of years. Coincidentally, a new technology called J-Plasma makes the procedure relatively quick and painless. By combining the heat of radiofrequency (RF) and the coolness of helium gas, surgeons can tighten the skin during the fat removal process.

“It’s an amazing technology,” praises Man, who earned his medical degree in Israel and served his plastic surgery residency at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. “Under local anesthesia, you remove the fat through liposuction, then use radiofrequency heat to tighten up the skin and helium gas, which quickly cools down the radiofrequency.”

The end result is less collateral damage to tissue and a faster healing process.

“They can come here in the morning for the procedure, go home in the afternoon, and be at work the next day,” boasts Man. “I also use J-Plasma for the loose neck, love handles, belly fat, upper arm looseness, and other things. Patients spend a few days using a constriction wrap, but there is very little downtime.”

Dr. Man is thrilled to have so many new weapons at his disposal in his war against aging. One is a hair replacement procedure called SmartGraft. Done in one day, it uses a circular saw to harvest “micro hair grafts” from the back of the head to be implanted in areas where hair has thinned. There is no scarring, and the implants eventually grow into thick, natural-looking locks.

For the ladies, breast enhancements have come a long way.

“A lot of women are concerned about their aging breasts, so we do a combination of augmentation and uplift,” says Man. “The newer implants are pear shaped rather than round and put under the muscle to make the breasts look more natural. The implants are silicone but highly cohesive so there is no worry about leakage.”

Fallen buttocks are another common problem, but this condition can often be treated with a patient’s own fat. Man removes belly blubber and injects it into the rear end to make it fuller and more rounded.

“We move the fat from where we don’t want it to where we’d rather have it,” he says.

Some of the procedures Man performs have nothing to do with aesthetics. For women who have had multiple children or difficult deliveries, he uses RF to tighten the walls of the vagina. The painless procedure can help with incontinence as well as improve sexual satisfaction.

Of course, much of Dr. Man’s work is focused higher up, on the face. It includes the nonsurgical procedures, Skin Rejuvenation Peel and TriLift, which he claims can instantly make a person look 20 years younger. He’s also developed a facelift procedure in which the scars from the surgery are “hidden.”

Meanwhile, fillers are still popular for erasing crow’s feet and laugh lines, and they’re also better than ever.

“When we started with fillers many years ago, some would only last a few weeks or months,” recalls Man. “Now, they can last for years.”

He is also contributing to the advancements in the field with his inventiveness. He invented a special operating table he calls the ART Bed (articulating, reclining, tilting). It raises the patient on a 30-degree angle so the surgeon can see the effects of gravity while operating.

“Gravity is always working against us,” says Man. “With the ART Bed, we can mimic the changes of gravity without having to stand the patient up. There is less need for re-correction later on, and less swelling and bruising.”

Dr. Man also keeps the operating room at a sweltering 90-plus degrees, which he says reduces risk of infection and clotting problems, and leads to faster healing. He dons a cooling suit to deal with the extreme heat.

“Another thing we do for the patients’ safety is to avoid using opiates for pain,” says Man. “Instead we use local anesthesia. We inject it under the skin and the patients have relief for three days. That’s another new technology that helps them heal faster because they are not constricted by a lot of pain, and there is no fear of becoming addicted to opiates.”

Dr. Man’s is a fully accredited overnight facility with nursing care “so the patients don’t have to rush off in an Uber to an environment that is not conducive to healing,” he says. “Here, they can get all the care they need.”

One drawback to plastic surgery is that the procedures aren’t typically covered by health insurance, and they can cost thousands of out-of-pocket dollars.

“No insurance covers vacations, and people still spend a lot of money on them,” says Man. “People have to think, ‘What is good for me? Is feeling good by looking good worth the cost?’ For my patients, the answer is yes.”

Dr. Man is very popular in Boca Raton, treating some 30,000 patients since setting up operations there in 1980. Along with his medical skills, he’s a philanthropist and author of three books about plastic surgery. If he looks familiar, it may be because he’s appeared on several TV shows, including Good Morning America and Fox News, and has been featured in national and regional magazines.

Dr. Man is also an accomplished artist, whose paintings and sculptures grace the walls, and pretty much every nook and cranny, of his office. He started teaching himself how to paint about 15 years ago, figuring that developing artistic talent would enhance his surgical skills.

“In art, you look at how best to please the eye, which is what you want when you operate on the patients,” says Man. “As a surgeon, you apply the tenets of art to achieve that. And you use the good hand-eye coordination that you learn from painting and sculpting.”

It works both ways, as practicing surgery also improves his art.

“As a surgeon, knowing the anatomy and the way you study a face gives you a better eye as an artist,” he explains. “One feeds off the other.”

It shows in his paintings, including several that depict shapely female forms before time and gravity have wrought their havoc.

“When we are young, everything works well and looks good,” he notes. “As people age, they say, ‘I want to feel and look like I did when I was young.’ I can help them with their belly fat and sagging breasts and such, but I also need their help. I need them to live a proper lifestyle and be truthful to themselves. We can’t be at 62 the same we were at 26.”

Just remember that if you ever go to see Dr. Man, or any other plastic surgeon, chances are it won’t be your last visit.

“I can turn back the clock, but I can’t stop it from ticking,” says Man, smiling. “Down the road, you will need more help. Life is ever changing.”

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Daniel Man, M.D., is a board-certified plastic surgeon with a high-end private practice in Boca Raton, Florida. He is well known as one of the premier plastic surgeons in South Florida for his breakthrough procedures and treatment methods, as well as having patients from across the country who travel miles to undergo his treatments. To contact Dr. Man for a consultation, please visit www.drman.com

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