Contour Facial Plastic Surgery Episode 12 The Confident Choice Season Finale Podcast 5-15-26 Dr. Roberto Garcia

Transcript

You’re listening to The Confident Choice podcast with me, Dr. Roberto Garcia, a double board-certified facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon. Honest conversations and expert advice about the decisions that make you feel your best.

Welcome, everybody. We are now in our 12th and final episode of The Confident Choice. I’m your host, Dr. Roberto Garcia, and I’ve got to tell you, it has been a heck of a ride. I think you guys can all agree, right, Amy? Alyssa? It’s been fun.

The reason we’ve had such a good time this season—and what has it been, four months that we’ve been doing this? Since the end of January—we’ve gotten tremendous feedback about how much people appreciate the transparency of the information we’re providing for individuals considering having something done in this field.

It is a huge undertaking for a patient to even know where to start. They don’t know what questions to ask. They don’t know who is actually an authoritative figure in this field. And I feel that with this podcast, what we’ve been able to tie together has really empowered patients. I want you guys to feel super comfortable with this decision because, let’s be honest, it’s a big decision.

If I were to bring this season together, and we ask, “What’s my final set of considerations that I need to have checked off in my head before I say yes? Before I pull the trigger?”—I think about what patients should really be focusing on.

When a person comes for a consultation, I feel that we as surgeons are pretty much vetted at this point. The only time I find an individual comes in and says, “Well, I think I have another consultation,” is because I was within a small list of consultations, they wanted to see prior to coming in. They’re just being thorough and want to see their three consultations.

I had a patient last week who came in for upper and lower eyelid surgery. Really sweet girl. She told our patient coordinator afterward, “I really enjoyed Dr. Garcia. He’s very knowledgeable. He’s the second of my three consultations.” And that happens. I get that, and I applaud it. You’re being thorough.

Finding the right surgeon really comes down to this: Do you feel comfortable with the information they’re giving you? Do you feel comfortable with the cost, because it can be a considerable chunk of change? And are you aware that there could potentially be complications? There might be the need for revision surgery, as we talked about in last week’s episode. Do you feel confident that this particular surgeon is going to help you navigate those treacherous waters should you come across them?

I always put the financial part third because you can find the money somewhere. A patient can find the money for surgery somehow. They can borrow money, get a loan, do whatever. But what they can’t do is borrow sincerity on the part of the surgeon, and they can’t borrow aftercare. You can’t get a loan for that. It’s either there or it’s not.

Having some of those boxes checked is going to provide you with the best possible outcome.

Another major hurdle is how realistic the expectations are. I saw a consultation today who had been told that some of the folds in her face and the hollowing in her cheeks would be addressed with a facelift. I’m not a huge fan of overpromising things to patients when deep down in my heart I know that maybe, if we get lucky, it could happen.

I’m not hedging a patient’s success on luck. I need to know there’s scientific, empirical data behind any procedure I’m offering. I need to know what the results are going to be.

I always tend to underpromise, and thankfully I usually overdeliver on the results. Setting realistic expectations with our patients is critically important.

Because of social media, misinformation on the internet, and so much garbage that’s out there, patients are really confused. They’re told that some laser procedure or non-surgical modality can solve all their problems, and it’s just physically and anatomically impossible.

Telling a patient, they’re going to get amazing results with a minimally invasive procedure and saying, “Just sign on the dotted line and pay me $8,000,” is a disservice.

I hope that with the spirit of this podcast and what we’ve talked about in season one, you guys understand the importance of doing your homework and not allowing yourself to be bamboozled by slick sales tactics.

Another important element is this: Are you okay with a less-than-acceptable result?

The definition of a less-than-acceptable result is completely dependent upon the terms that you and your surgeon set at the outset. If your surgeon tells you the results are going to be way up here, and in reality, that expectation is unrealistic, you’re going to be upset. If your surgeon tells you your results are going to be here and you end up here, you’re going to be ecstatic.

Somewhere in the middle is where you both have to meet.

You also have to understand that your results may not be the same as your friend’s results because everybody heals differently. Genetics are different. You can’t control that.

Finding that happy communication where both you and your surgeon are seeing eye to eye on the potential results will more than likely put you in a good mental headspace when the time comes.

That also speaks to the possibility of revision surgery. Anybody who tells you they’ve never had a revision is either lying to you or they just don’t do surgery. No good chef is going to tell you they have a 100% success rate every time they make a soufflé. They’ve all messed one up. That’s how you get better.

The question becomes: Did I screw it up to the point where it’s irreparable?

As a surgeon, I try to teach others never to let themselves fall into a surgical outcome they can’t correct. It’s always better to err on the conservative side and say, “Maybe we can do a little more later. Let’s tweak it. Let’s tighten the jawline a little more.”

That’s a much better place to be than saying, “Now the person can’t close their eyes because we took too much skin,” or “Now the person’s jawline is so tight that every time they turn their neck, they’re in pain.”

These are all things you want to look for in the surgeon you’re interviewing. You want to see their results online, talk to other patients if you can, and get a general sense that they understand conservative, natural results.

I’m not saying you should go into surgery expecting a revision. The vast majority of my patients—95% or more—don’t need additional work. But there are different types of revision work. Sometimes it’s correcting something, and sometimes it’s simply adding to your own work later.

A classic example is fat grafting. I always tell patients, “I’m going to take a little extra fat, and if I feel we need to add more later, I’ll have it frozen, and we can do that.”

Over the years, I’ve found that patients have the best outcomes when they feel confident that their surgeon will be there for them throughout the whole process, good or bad. Not just seeking a good surgical result but genuinely wanting to help them become a better version of themselves.

If improving your aesthetics leads you to become more positive, more confident, and more inspirational to others, then that’s a victory. That’s the whole goal.

Conversely, if surgery makes you a hateful or miserable person, then that’s an absolute failure for everyone.

I’ve seen situations where people were promised results that never came to be, and then they spend every waking moment frustrated and angry, missing out on life. If that’s what this brings you, then you’re better off not doing anything, in my opinion.

Now, as you guys know, I’m going to talk about my dad. We do it every week.

Dad taught me something simple: Always be the hardest-working person in the room.

The first time I heard him say that, we were at Gator Growl at the University of Florida back in 1984. We were walking toward the stadium, and my dad looked up at the dorms and said to my brother, “You see those lights that are still on in the dorms? Those are the guys who are going to make a difference in the world.”

That always stuck with me.

When I got to college, I said to myself, “I may not be the smartest guy, but I will be the hardest-working guy in the room. No one is going to outwork me.”

I was that guy in the library until it closed. I can’t tell you how many times the librarian blinked the lights to tell me it was time to leave.

My son Rocco, who’s in pre-med now, has the same philosophy. He says, “Dad, I don’t care what everyone else is doing. I know what I have to do. If I work harder than everybody else, I know I’ll be standing at the end.

There’s no God-given secret to success. God doesn’t randomly pick people and say, “This person is going to be successful.” The people who are successful later in life are often the people everyone thought were nerds because they were buried in books and libraries during their teens and twenties. They had a commitment nobody else could see.

That goes for everything—sports, nutrition, health, any skill or talent. The decision becomes: What do you want to be the hardest-working person at?

Michael Jordan wasn’t the greatest basketball player because God picked him out and said, “You’re going to be the best.” He worked harder than everybody else. He shot more free throws and expected more of himself than anyone in the game.

I played baseball with Chipper Jones. He absolutely had talent, but his greatest talent was his work ethic. He worked harder than everyone else. He hit more balls in the cage, showed up earlier, stayed later, and that’s why he’s in the Hall of Fame.

So, young people, get really good at working hard at something. Choose something you want to be great at and understand that you have to be the hardest-working person in the room.

As we move into our second season, we’re going to bring up some topics I think are going to be really good.

We’re going to talk about the emotional transformation of surgery and some of the major misconceptions in our specialty. We’ll discuss what procedures can realistically do for your confidence.

We’re also going to go over examples of bad plastic surgery—people in Hollywood or public figures where things clearly went wrong—and break down what happened and why. I think that’s going to be a good opportunity to delve into the psychology behind it all.

We’ll talk about instant results and whether they’re really possible. We’ll do more Q&A sessions with real patients like we did with Jackie. She was awesome.

We’re also going to discuss the importance of health, nutrition, and healing—how we get patients primed and ready for the best possible outcome before surgery ever happens.

We’ll have our anesthesia team on the podcast, including David Armstrong, to talk about different forms of anesthesia and what patients should know.

We’re also going to bring on Marie Merritt, the owner of Momentum Fitness, who’s unbelievable and has been training people for years.

And finally, we’re going to tackle the question: Should just anybody be doing these surgeries?

There are so many people out there doing cosmetic procedures, and that ties directly into choosing the right surgeon. I’ve seen patients who go overseas because they think they can get a facelift for $2,000, and then when complications happen—and they often do—they’re left paying even more to fix it. The surgeon overseas isn’t going to be helping you once you’re back home.

So, in conclusion, on behalf of Amelia, Alyssa, Aimee, and Lori, thank you all. It was a great season. We had a great time. We had some hiccups along the way with the AV stuff, but I think we worked it all out.

Our team is amazing, and I’m thankful for all of you being here. Next season is going to be great. We’re going to the Golden Globes, Amelia. I can feel it.

I hope you all have a wonderful summer. Love you all.

And remember, the final words I can tell you: Good decisions come from good information.

I’m Dr. Roberto Garcia, signing out for now.