Did you see the photograph of the presenters of Loose Women in their underwear?

This is what real people look like.

Everybody looks like this.

We all feel comfortable in our clothes and can dress up to make ourselves look more attractive and often quite stunning, but underneath it all we all have dents and wrinkles and moles and folds.

I love being a plastic surgeon and I can produce some amazing results that can transform people’s lives.

But probably the biggest challenge in my job is managing expectations.

I see people who bend forward and don’t like the fold of flesh created in their abdomen.

This is natural and indeed necessary.

If that fold wasn’t there when you bent forward, you wouldn’t be able to stand up straight!

I get patients sending me photographs taken at odd angles and in certain positions to demonstrate a bulge or a dent. Yet when I see the patient in person, there is nothing to be seen and they have to bend over or get the angle just right for it to be visible.

It is all about expectation.

I think that a lot of people don’t realise what a normal body looks like out of clothes because the only pictures they see are of models with extremely toned bodies and even then, they are usually airbrushed.

I read recently about a photograph of Kim Kardashian that had been released that had not been airbrushed and caused her to lose 100,000 followers on Instagram.

Kim Kardashian is in the public eye and obviously takes care of her figure but even she was picked up on some minor dents on her buttocks which are quite normal.

I know that the public perception of a plastic surgeon is someone who operates on vain people who do not need surgery and creates monstrosities that look much worse than the preoperative state (bride of Wildenstein springs to mind).

But if this is what you think, you would be very disappointed if you came to my clinic.

I operate on normal men and women who feel uncomfortable and out of proportion with their figure.

I do not put enormous breast implants in all day long and I will tell you all of the risks and complications associated with your procedure.

If you are put off by this, then it is probably better that you do not have surgery.

As I said, one of my biggest struggles is to convey what is achievable with surgery and as a rule, the media doesn’t help.

It is not normal for skin to be smooth as silk with no blemishes or lines.

It is not normal for breasts to bulge out of your bra or for your nipples to be perfectly level.

It is not normal for thighs to be perfectly curved and free from cellulite or visible veins.

The Loose Women have show us that underneath it all, we are all different shapes and sizes and yet we can still be beautiful.

If the media could portray this image of the body form – the real image, it would make my life much easier.

Contrary to popular opinion, I do not want to propagate the image of the perfect body.

It is not realistic and I do not think it is healthy.

I think that it is fine for people to be more aware of their bodies and we should encourage body awareness.

But we have to realise that we are all different and unique and we all have curves and dimples in different places.

I see my job as restoring the form, particularly following the effects of weight loss or pregnancy, or reconstructing the body contours if there have always been disproportion or imbalance in the breast or body.

Believe it or not, I would not be out of a job if everyone suddenly stopped looking at pictures of beautiful models on Instagram and they realised they were happy with how they looked.

In fact, I would be delighted.

I think we put far too much attention on trying to achieve a shape that is often not even real in the first place.

Don’t forget, I have a 12 year old daughter and I am worried about what she is exposed to.

I don’t want her growing up looking at photos of airbrushed Barbie doll lookalikes thinking this is natural beauty.

Natural beauty is what we have all been given and that is what the Loose Women have shown us.

Celebrate your curves and give yourself a break with that bulge when you bend forward.

Be proud and let’s encourage our children to aspire to be happy and healthy regardless of how they look in their underwear.

Jonathan Staiano

Plastic Surgeon of the Year – UK

2017 Business Excellence Awards

Did you hear about the lady who was selling her 2nd hand breast implants on Ebay?

She said that they didn’t quite fit her, so she got a new pair!

I think the story was a bit of a joke.

I don’t doubt that someone would actually try to sell their old implants,

I mean you can get anything on Ebay these days (how about a hand made suit of armour for a guinea pig?).

But I don’t think that anyone would have actually bought them and seriously thought about implanting them, would they?!

The press love to get hold of a story about dodgy cosmetic surgery and dubious practices, but I think that part of the problem is the lack of regulation in the industry.

The fact of the matter is that there is no law against anyone selling a used pair of implants and perhaps more worrying, there is no law against anyone buying these implants and implanting them in someone.

Of course, if that someone was a surgeon and a member of a professional association (like BAPRAS and BAAPS for plastic surgeons), the association and probably the GMC would take a dim view of this and I am sure there would be disciplinary action.

However, the problem is that that someone does not have to be a member of any professional body and doesn’t even have to be a surgeon.

In fact, that someone doesn’t have to be a doctor at all!

There is more regulation on who can operate on your goldfish than there is on who can operate on your daughter (perhaps goldfish is not a good example and your dog would be better, anyway, the point is that there is no regulation on who can operate on a human).

We are currently relying on patients being able to get enough information about their practitioner to make an informed decision and avoid being treated by non-trained individuals (aka cowboys).

The problem is that it is happening and it is happening to high profile people – Colin Hendry, the premiership footballer and Usher and Kanye West, the music stars have all had family members come to harm having plastic surgery performed by surgeons who were not fully trained and affiliated with the plastic surgery associations.

If it can happen to them, what hope have the rest of us got.

I see that Ebay has withdrawn the listing for the breast implants, but you can still buy dermal fillers from Ebay and you can invite people around to your house and inject them on your kitchen table.
Sounds frightening (and it is), but all perfectly legal.

Totally against good medical practice that all doctors are bound to work within and there is no way the CQC (Care Quality Commission) would approve the facilities in your kitchen table to be suitable to be performing non-surgical procedures.

But the fact is that, because you don’t need to be a doctor to perform these procedures and you do not legally need to work in a facility that has been approved by the Care Quality Commission, these sort of practices go on and we don’t really know the extent of it.

We only hear about it when it goes wrong.

It is good to raise awareness about the perils of this unregulated industry, but it would be nice if there were some positive stories now and again.

Plastic and cosmetic surgery can have a tremendous impact on people’s lives and is a powerful force for good.  It has been given a bad name, but there are still a huge number of appropriately qualified doctors and nurses providing high quality care in an ethical way in safe and clean medical facilities.

Please ask questions and be aware of the level of training and experience your surgeon or practitioner has (check out my book for an in depth guide about surgical training).

Caveat Emptor – Let The Buyer Beware

Oh yes, and don’t buy your breast implants from Ebay!

When you arrive

at the Staiano Clinic we aim to give you a warm and relaxed welcome so that you can feel at ease during a time that we appreciate can be quite daunting as well as exciting.

Our address is

50 Frederick Road, Edgbaston, B15 1HN and we are situated close to the Five Ways roundabout in the heart of the Edgbaston Medical Quarter.  We are 5 minutes walk from Five Ways Train station, which is one stop away from Birmingham New Street.  You can find a map here.

We are located

on a quiet road which always has on street parking for up to an hour.  If you think that you may be more than an hour with us (such as a new consultation or a procedure), then you can park on our driveway.  Don’t worry if you would prefer to park on the road at first, you can always move your car on to the drive if it is coming up to an hour.

For our high profile clients

we have a discreet car park and a private entrance to the rear of the clinic, which you can use by prior arrangement with us.

On arrival you will be

offered a hot or cold drink and given a moment to relax in our comfortable reception.  We will ask you to fill in an admission sheet to confirm your personal details and your GP information, so please bring details of your GP with you.  If you are lucky enough to look under 18, we will ask you for proof of age as we are only able to treat patients who are over 18.

We will give you a short questionnaire

asking some basic questions about your medical history and we will also ask for permission to send correspondence to your GP following your consultation.  There is no obligation for you to agree to allow us to correspond with your GP, although it is good medical practice to do so.  We do ask for your permission to write to your GP in the event that you go ahead with a procedure but please be assured that any communications or correspondence is strictly confidential.

If you are coming for an initial consultation

you can expect the consultation to last for about an hour, although we do not watch the clock and so you can sometimes find that it may be more or less than this.  We never charge for follow up consultations and will always encourage you to go away and consider things before making any decisions about your surgery.  We welcome you to come back for a second, third and fourth consultation if you need because we realise that surgery is a major life decision and not one to be rushed.  We would much prefer that you came back to the clinic to go over things as often as you need rather than having any unanswered questions or doubts when going ahead with your surgery.

If you are having a procedure

under local anaesthetic such as mole removal, cyst removal, tattoo removal, inverted nipple correction or areola reduction, then we do offer treatment on the day of consultation by prior arrangement.  However, even if you have arranged this, there is never any obligation to proceed and you will be free to cancel or postpone your procedure if you feel that you need more time, with a full refund of any deposit paid.  Click here for more information about what to expect for Your Minor Procedure at the Staiano Clinic.

If you are coming to one of our free consultation events

then you will have the opportunity to meet with the clinic staff and have a chat with one of our surgeons about your chosen procedure.  There is never any obligation and it is simply a means for you to be able to visit and meet us to see whether you feel we might be a good fit for you (see blog post free consultations).  You will not be examined during the free consultation event, so you can relax and take time to get your questions answered and find out more about our services. We do not use salespeople or patient coordinators, so you will not be pressured or coerced in any way “ we just want to let you know who we are and what we can offer so that you can make an informed decision about whether it might be right for you or not.

We know that coming to a cosmetic clinic

can be a daunting undertaking and we do not underestimate the faith that you put in us when visiting.  We encourage patients to make a list of questions and bring this to the consultation as it is all too easy to forget that crucial thing when sitting face to face with the surgeon!  We really don’t mind if you bring out your list halfway through the consultation, in fact we positively encourage it.

It is also helpful to bring a friend or relative

with you for moral support and also to act as another pair of ears to help you to take in everything that is said and to ask questions on your behalf that you may have forgotten or not have thought of.

It can be difficult

to retain all of the information that you will receive during your consultation, so we will always provide a comprehensive summary of your consultation, which we send to your GP (with your permission) and also send a copy to you.

We aim to give you all the information

that you need about your chosen procedure, but give all of our patients the contact details of the clinic so that you can get in touch with any questions or concerns following your consultation.  Of course, you can always come back for another consultation to go over things, but if it is a simple query that we can answer by email or over the phone, we will be happy to do this.

Finally, following your consultation

we invite all of our patients to our closed Facebook group which is only open to people who have been to the clinic.  This is a place where you can ask questions and connect with other patients for support and guidance.  We also keep an eye on the group and so that if you have a question directed at one of our surgeons, we will be able to get a response for you.  Our director, Jonathan Staiano is also on Facebook Live every Tuesday at 7pm doing a live Q&A, so if you have any questions, you can always email us in advance or you can join in live and ask any questions that you may have.

We work hard to provide an experience

in which patients can feel listened to and looked after and will ask for feedback following your visit to the clinic.  We are constantly trying to improve our service, so it would be a great help if you could take a moment to let us know how we are doing.  It is only a short survey of 3 questions and will be sent to you by text after you leave the clinic.
Here is a response we have just received:

An excellent customer experience.
My initial email enquiry was answered promptly followed up with an informative telephone conversation.
My consultation was professional without being too formal, unhurried and I left feeling extremely confident with my choice of surgeon.

Click here to arrange a consultation.

We look forward to welcoming you to the Clinic and hope that we can help you.

I have just had my brother around to visit the clinic to look at the set up that we have.

He was blown away by what he saw.

Sometimes when you are close to something every day, you do not see how it develops and grows over time.
He met some of the team (Nicola, Laura and Jonny) and we had a good chat about where we are and where we want to go.

My vision for the clinic is clear.

I would like ‘Staiano Plastic Surgery’ to be a national brand that stands for quality and a high-end, bespoke service delivered by the most highly trained specialists in the country.
There is no national brand that stands for this at the moment, and while there are many independent surgeons that are providing high quality surgery, there is no one surgeon who has scaled their practice and built a brand that can be depended on to reliably and predictably deliver a consistently high quality service.
My brother has a background as director of marketing and business development for some of the UK’s largest law firms.

His job was to promote and develop large multi-million pound corporations.

I am the director of my clinic, and while I have a great team behind me, I have been the driving force of all of the business development and strategic growth of my company.

As a doctor, the focus is always on patient care.

Everything I have done, in fact my whole reason for setting up the clinic, was to be able to give a better experience to my patients.
I have had no training in business development or marketing.
I have realised that what I have been doing over the last 3 years (actually, when I think about it, probably over the last 13 years!) has been focusing on improving my patient’s outcomes. Initially by honing my surgical skills and more recently by building on the other aspects of my practice and service delivery.
When I first set up the clinic in 2013, I didn’t really think about marketing and business development, but now that I am beginning to realise my dream of scaling the business to being something that will be a household name, I need to actively promote my service.
I was really pleased to hear from my brother about how impressed he was with what we have achieved.
I believe that we deliver a world class service and I do not think that there is any plastic surgery clinic in the UK that can rival us for the experience that we offer.

The problem we have is now is to get the message out there.

We have done the hard work and we have built something that can not easily be replicated. On Dragon’s Den, they often talk about a ‘what is to stop someone copying your idea’.
Well, we have that covered.
There are only a limit number of plastic surgeons in the UK and only a proportion of them have subspecialised in breast surgery. Fewer still have gone on to open their own clinic and of these, none have an exclusive practice dedicated to breast and body contouring.

As far as ‘unique selling points’ go,

we are the only plastic surgery clinic in the country that is run by a plastic surgeon specialising in breast and body contouring
Our offering is without equal.

The challenge is to make sure everyone knows about us.

That is what we are working on now.
Now that we have a world class service, we need to get the message out there and raise awareness of plastic surgery training to help to put a stop to the terrible practices you hear about every day and can watch in every other reality TV documentary about surgery going wrong.
Our message is about how life-changing cosmetic surgery can be and how it can bring self-esteem and confidence back to people and dramatically improve quality of life.
Cosmetic surgery, when done ethically and for the right patient, is as necessary and beneficial as almost any other type of surgery that you can mention.
It is all about improving quality of life and removing the stigma that just because you are doing something to give you confidence and make you feel better about yourself, it is no less worthy than if you were having surgery to relieve a physical pain or discomfort.

I am passionate about this and I want the whole world to hear this message.

If you have a network of friends or if you are on social media, then please help to share this message and help me to scale and develop ‘Staiano Plastic Surgery’ because I can only shout so loud, but this is nothing compared to the combined effort of all of my friends on social media and my advocates in the clinic (of which there are many).
If you have any comments or observations, please let me know and don’t forget to share this and ask your friends to share it, so I can make my brother proud and show him how I can develop my business without any fancy job titles or gobbledegook marketing speak!
Thanks in advance and I’ll see you soon.