Dr Oz: Controversial Plastic Surgeon
What if you found out your doctor was sending out pictures of himself performing surgery on you? Dr Miami is doing just that: sending out pictures and videos lives from the operating room. He live streams surgeries as their happening, but these surgeries aren’t just ordinary procedures. Some of the surgeries he’s broadcast include labiaplasties, breast augmentations, and Brazilian butt lifts.
Dr Michael Salzhauer, most notably known as Dr Miami, is a board-certified plastic surgeon of 20 years. He has recently become a social media start, with more than 320,000 followers on Instagram and 1.7 million on Snapchat. Along with the surgeries, he also shows footage of his own behind-the-scenes antics in his office and operating room. His Snapchat is so popular, he’s been nominated for Snapchatter of the Year, competing against celebrities like Kylie Jenner. Now, many are wondering if Dr Miami could be putting patients at risk.
Dr Oz sat down with Dr Miami, a plastic surgeon who has risen to social media fame thanks to his live broadcasts of real surgeries. (crucially / Flickr)
Dr Oz: Broadcasting Surgeries Live On Snapchat
Dr Miami joined Dr Oz, who first asked him if he ever thought his actions would exploit the privacy of his patients. He responded by saying that all the patients he shows on Snapchat have signed extensive permission forms, giving their consent to be on Snapchat. He claimed that 2/3 of his patients actually want to be on Snapchat, and for the other 1/3, he simply doesn’t show them. He claimed that some patients will even come to him asking to be on Snapchat, and recommend songs to play in the O.R. during surgery. He allegedly charges his patients the same price no matter what.
Because of the average age of Snapchat users, Dr Oz was curious if Dr Miami was ever concerned about influencing young people in a negative way. He first explained that most of his patients on Snapchat are over 18, and if he shows a 16-year-old patient undergoing a rhinoplasty, it’s because their parents gave their permission. He claimed he was destigmatizing surgery by showing footage you don’t see on TV. He claims that he’s becoming more human to his patients.
Dr Oz: Glamorizing Plastic Surgery
Dr Oz was worried that by seemingly glamorizing surgery, Dr Miami was affecting the way a teenager or young adult may see their own body, making it seem “cool” to change their body. Dr Miami clams that he’s helping improve his patients’ lives by boosting their self esteem through surgery.
He stressed the idea that he’s not glamorizing plastic surgery, but just making it less taboo, showing people that they can fix something that bothers them.
Dr Oz has worked to teach his viewers to love their bodies and be the best version of themselves, which is why he was concerned people would begin to aspire to have a “perfect body” with plastic surgery. Dr Miami countered by saying that some of what he shows may help people feel more confident because they can see someone’s “before” and realize what they don’t like about themselves isn’t as bad as that. It can also make people realize that something about themselves that is a little off, is entirely normal and easily fixable.
Dr Oz: Super BBL Sunday
To go along with Super Bowl Sunday of 2016, Dr Miami held his Super BBL Sunday, in which he performed three back-to-back surgeries. The surgeries were combinations of Brazilian butt lifts, breast augmentations, liposuctions, and labiaplasties. MTV reality stars promoted the event for weeks and nurses took a “plastic surgery pledge.” Thousands tuned in to watch the event live.
Dr Oz wanted to discuss the line between professionalism and being unprofessional, which Dr Miami is often accused of. Dr Oz expressed concern that Dr Miami was “blurring the line between entertainment and surgery.” He claimed that filming the surgeries don’t add to the time it takes to get them done.
Dr Miami is booked through 2017, and Dr Oz wondered if he was addicted to fame. Dr Miami explained that he likes having fun at work and he wanted to show that, saying if his patients didn’t like it, he would get rid of Snapchat. It also matters to him that more people are now talking about plastic surgery and so many people are watching his videos. As for what’s next, Dr Miami said he’s happy with how everything is going now, and doesn’t feel the need to go any bigger.
Dr Oz: Dr Miami Music Video Controversy
There was an investigation launched by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons about a music video that Dr Miami made. He explained that a friend of his, a singer of a parody Orthodox Jewish punk rock group, wanted a rhinoplasty and they decided to make a song about it. The message in the video was that he liked a girl and the girl didn’t like his nose, but when he got the nose job, the girl went with another guy anyway. Dr Miami said the message of the video is that you should never have surgery to please someone else.
Dr Miami is Orthodox Jewish himself, and said a lot of the Jewish community laughed, but others thought it may have be too insensitive. The issue came from the fact that there wasn’t a disclaimer in front of the video that said “all surgery has risks and should not be taken lightly.”
They added the disclaimer and everything was fine.
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