Disclaimers

In reading this and other plastic surgery sites, it is possible for you to develop false impressions about the field of plastic surgery and what it can do.  We will attempt to dispel some of those false impressions.

Disclaimers about plastic surgery in general

Plastic surgery is not nearly as effective as you think it is.  The changes we make are with operations, and operations always have drawbacks and compromises.  You may not see those compromises in the particular photos you are viewing, and you may not hear about them in the magazine interview you read, but they are there.  Every patient has dissatisfactions with every operation.  Every single patient is dissatisfied with some aspect of the results of her operation.  A happy patient is one for whom the benefits of the operation outweigh the drawbacks, and who accepts the limitations of the operation.

Not every plastic surgeon knows how to perform plastic surgery.  Many, perhaps most, plastic surgeons are not skilled at these operations.  Just because you see a nice before and after picture in a magazine or on a Web site does not mean that you can go to any plastic surgeon and get those same results.  In fact, if you go to the very plastic surgeon whose nice work you saw, you still may not get the same nice results, because the operations don't work equally well on everyone.

Plastic surgeons do not necessarily get better with experience and age.  Some plastic surgeons turn out the same bad work for their entire careers.

Just because a plastic surgeon can perform one operation competently does not mean he can perform all of them competently.  The various operations require skills that are related, but different.

It is not possible for you to know whether a plastic surgeon is competent to perform an operation without seeing before and after pictures of his patients.  His reputation doesn't count, the prices he charges doesn't count, the diplomas and certificates on his office wall don't count, the hospitals he belongs to don't count, the city and street where he practices don't count, his assurances to you don't count.

Disclaimers about this Web site and Dr. Denenberg

This Web site is not meant to be a complete catalog of Dr. Denenberg's work.  You are obviously looking at some of the nicer results.  If an operation resulted in a disappointing amount of visible improvement despite Dr. Denenberg's best efforts, he is less likely to ask for that patient's permission to use her photographs.

Some readers of this page may be considering asking Dr. Denenberg to perform their surgery.  For those people, the nice photographs on this site might generate unrealistic expectations about what plastic surgery can do for them.  A patient who has unrealistically high expectations will not be satisfied with her results, even if the improvement achieved was dramatic.  The surgeon can never satisfy unrealistic expectations.

So is it bad that a doctor shows you uniformly attractive photos?  No.  The photographs are still your only way of determining whether a plastic surgeon has the skill to perform your operation.  You need to go to a surgeon who has been able to accomplish for someone else what you want for yourself.  Mediocre plastic surgeons won't have any photographic evidence of skill to show you.

The photos on this site are not meant to convince you that you need plastic surgery.  Plastic surgery is not glamorous or easy, even when the results are good.  Every happy patient goes through a process of deciding that she is satisfied overall, despite the fact that the operation fell short of her desires in certain areas.  Don't put yourself through that process unless you feel confident that you can ultimately accept the limitations of plastic surgery and be satisfied with the results that were possible in your case.

Information presented on this Web site must not be interpreted as medical advice.

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