Amit Patel MD discusses how "Beauty Is A Beast" and our evolving social relationship with beauty from the viewpoint of a facial plastic surgeon

Dr. Amit Patel discusses how he found a career that allows him to combine two of his passions – sculpture and medicine. View Dr. Patel's profile here: http://ukhealthcare.uky.edu/physicians/amit-bipin-patel-md/ For more information visit http://ukhealthcare.uky.edu/doctors. Transcription: 00:00:06 My name is Amit Patel; I'm an Assistant Professor of Surgery. I'm a facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon at the University of Kentucky in the Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. 00:00:17 My interest in medicine has been somewhat of an interesting and unique path. 00:00:22 I actually wanted to be an artist sculptor when I was growing up. And then the summer between my high school and college I happened to work at a doctor's office and really fell in love with it. 00:00:33 And then two worlds pretty much collided and the rest has been history. 00:00:37 Unique experiences that have shaped my career, yeah, there's actually been a couple, and one in particular, was I'd become a patient myself. 00:00:44 I had a skiing accident and spent a fair amount of time, kind of, on my, not doing what I normally do, which, I do a lot of reconstructive surgery. 00:00:55 And so I frequently have to tell my patients to be patient with the process and to let a tincture of time take effect. 00:01:03 And so having to swallow that pill myself as a patient really kind of changed the way I approach things and the way I approach my patient care. 00:01:12 I treat both reconstructive and cosmetic surgery of the head and neck. 00:01:17 Generally my reconstructive patients are patients that have had cancers removed, they've had traumatic injuries to the face and the cosmetic part of my practice involves everything from enhancement to rejuvenation to the nose, face, neck, both minimally invasive and surgical techniques. 00:01:36 Probably the most rewarding thing is the trust that kind of develops between me and my patients. 00:01:43 When they come to me they're often in a place, especially my reconstructive patients, where they've kind of lost their sense of identity, and that trust that they kind of hand to me, I take, I take to heart. I take a lot of pride in that and so that's something I really really enjoy. 00:02:04, Essentially, my patients become kind of my artistic medium, if you will, they generally have deformities of the face, often the nose, and I had a love of art, I had a love of sculpture so as I approach my patients, I kind of approach it from the same standpoint. 00:02:25 How can I best and most creatively solve the problem at hand, which is, how can I put them back together and get them into the real world and have them not feel insecure, have them not feel like they're different? 00:02:43 And so that's a very very big part of my philosophy. 00:02:47 The other component of my philosophy is pretty simple I treat my patients like I'd hope a doctor would treat my own parents, my own sister.