Editorial
Front Page - Friday, April 23, 2010
Natural look, personal touch shape Shire plastic surgery
Erica Tuggle
Dr. Jim Shire is a board certified plastic surgeon, and the only specialized facial plastic surgeon in Chattanooga. He is a patron of many arts with dabbling in photography, the culinary arts, painting and music.
- Erica Tuggle
When you face the facts, it’s no secret that everyone wants to look their best. Billions are spent each year on cosmetics to give a face that extra edge. Yet, when cosmetics can’t give the satisfaction of the enhancement that technology can afford the plastic surgery business takes charge.
Board certified plastic surgeon, James Shire, says that although the goal in plastic surgery is to fix problems patients identify on their faces and bodies, his office’s personal goal, above all else, is to make sure the patients retain a natural look, like no work was ever done.
Shire says this strong emphasis in his approach to patient care may be among the reasons that he was named the “Best of Best” plastic surgeon in Chattanooga for 2009. Another unique Shire practice is that he does every procedure, treatment and injection for patients.
“I do not delegate for other people to do the job the patient is coming for me to do,” Shire says. “Because of personalized attention, I think our patients are not only happier but get better results.”
The third aspect that Shire says sets his practice apart is that he is the only specialized plastic surgeon in town. He is strictly a facial plastic surgeon.
“What we are going to do is your face,” Shire says. “This means I’m not going from juggling a breast lift procedure, someone’s tummy tuck and then fixing someone’s nose. It’s all face.”
When a patient comes into the Shire practice, he says the initial consultation is based on educating a patient about their options.
“We are educating them not only on their own problem, but all the different options to correct the problem, the pros and cons, risks and benefits of each option and if the patient understands all of those then I don’t have to tell them what to do,” Shire says. “I’m here to educate them on their options so they have enough information to choose what is best for them.”
Part of this process is educating patients on the reality of plastic surgery, not Hollywood-hype that may have them in fear of the whole business. Shire says some patients have a fear of their procedure being extremely painful, but he says 90 percent of his patients never take any pain medication because it simply doesn’t hurt.
“Once they realize it’s not going to be that painful, they fear looking unlike themselves or looking strange and once we explain that our goal is not to change them but to improve their appearance, then the fear goes away.”
Increasingly, Shire says he works at another, less pleasant, task dispelling gimmicks and marketing ploys that try to draw patients into a practice without having the proper licensure or training to do the work required for the best result.
He says there is a rise in non-surgical procedures like Botox, fillers and light machines because they are cheaper and many out there are taking weekend courses in these procedures, which results in unqualified people trying to do aesthetic procedures.
“You are seeing these types of things being done by non-medical people at spas and places where they probably shouldn’t be,” Shire says.
He says patients need to ask themselves what is the motivation behind the person doing the procedure and what training they have had.
“Everything is always great when everything works out, but when it isn’t great, how are you going to deal with that?” Shire asks. “I am increasingly seeing patients go to an unqualified person, have a problem and then they end up sitting in my office later on. It’s become a big problem that too many unqualified people are doing procedures they have no business doing, and it is not only a local issue but a national issue as well.”
Shire says the future of plastic surgery may hold mixed results. On the one hand, he says there is the large population of “baby boomers” aging that will come in to improve their edge on the younger generations that they are competing with for jobs and resources. On the other hand, he says, is the economy that has led many who would be coming in for procedures to wait and see what the future of the market may hold.
“There are a lot of different forces coming in here,” Shire says. “Just because it is an economic downturn doesn’t mean business will go away, but it may mean that it has changed direction.”
No matter what may come, Shire says he enjoys his work and its ability to speak for itself. The artistic aspect of surgery drew him to the plastic surgeon specialty in the first place, because of the opportunity to do something different everyday with patients that have unique situations he says.
Shire also majored in art in undergraduate school, and is still an avid painter. He also played in a band in high school and college, has toured with groups of professional musicians and wrote music as well as commercial jingles in college before he began medical school. He says he’s done a little bit of everything in the past from racing cars to getting his pilot’s license. He says the main thing the public needs to be aware of in the plastic surgery field is the old mantra; you usually get what you pay for.
“My old instructor told me there are certain things you can get a deal on and it’s okay, and you should get best price and best bargain you can find, but there are certain things you should never buy the cheapest. You never want the cheapest parachute, fire extinguisher, or surgeon,” he says with a laugh.
Those are certainly words to live by.
For more information on Shire Facial Plastic Surgery visit www. plasticsurgeryartist.com.
|
|