Consultation Review: Professional Incompetence and Lack of Empathy

I met with Dr. Youn in the summer of 2016. I originally scheduled the consultation to address my concern over consistently appearing tired despite getting adequate sleep and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. His diagnosis was correct in that my shallow cheeks, also known as maxillary hypoplasia, were extenuating the appearance of my lower eyelid bags even though I didn't have significant orbital fat prolapse. The best treatment for this would be a fat transfer to the tear trough/upper junction to ameliorate the hollowness and is what Dr. Youn recommended. However, after his examination, he concluded I was too lean for a fat transfer (that I didn't have enough donor fat), which is rare but does occasionally happen. Furthermore, I was avised that a lower eyelid fat repositioning surgery would be contraindicated for someone who already has preexisting scleral show. In light of this, his final recommendation was to consider tear trough/cheek implants and referred me to a specialist in California.

In the process of his evaluation, I also learned for the first time that what I thought could potentially be used as donor fat was in fact loose skin from my over 80 lb weight loss journey. I was aware loose skin was a potential side effect of significant weight loss but did everything within my power to avoid it. When I heard him say it out loud I felt sick to my stomach and almost broke down right there. But after asking how/why this could happen despite losing the weight slowly and lifting weights Dr. Youn interjected: "Well what do you expect after having lived such an unhealthy lifestyle?" I was extremely hurt and taken aback by his remarks.

First and foremost, by the time of our consultation I was sober two years (four as of the writing of this review), quit smoking, exercised regularly and worked my tail off to adjust my eating habits. I was doing everything I could to take care of myself both physically and emotionally. To come to the end of that grueling process only to be faced with the life sentence of loose skin was the most demoralizing thing I ever experienced. Had I been aware of the permanent changes that would result to my body from gaining so much weight I would have tried to exercise more caution, but I doubt most people are aware of them beforehand. Dr. Youn has absolutely no idea who I am or what my history is. His remarks were pretentious and judgemental not to mention inaccurate. I didn't even have the opportunity to explain to him (not that I even should to someone with basic ethical standards) that I had recently discontinued a medication that's known to cause diabetes and weight gain. I cried most of the way home after that appointment.

However, aside from being rude and insensitive, Dr. Youn displayed professional incompetency as well. He advised me that I would most likely never have a six pack and that skin removal surgery would leave me with an unsightly scar. He was wrong. I found an excellent surgeon by the name of John D. Renucci in Grand Rapids who performed my lower body lift and left me with a beautiful thin scar and soon to be competitive bodybuilding physique. Furthermore, Dr. Renucci was able to harvest more than enough fat for an upper cheek fat transfer (which Dr. Youn said wouldn't be available). In fact, I purposefully lost even more weight prior to the procedure, because I wanted to be as lean as possible beforehand so that he could remove as much skin as possible. Therefore, it's simply not true that my circumstances changed after I saw Dr. Youn and that more fat became available. If anything I made Dr. Renucci's task of finding adequate fat more difficult. If I had followed Dr. Youn's advice I would have had to fly out to California for what is generally considered an outdated procedure with poor and unnatural results (cheek implants). Finally, I recently found an ocular plastic surgeon to perform a lower eyelid fat repositioning, which Dr. Youn advised against because of the high likelihood it would produce scleral show considering my anatomy. It did no such thing, and I have a beautiful result. Therefore, Dr. Youn was wrong on at least three accounts while being extremely disrespectful in the process.

I really looked forward to meeting him and was very excited when his office was able to get me an early consultation. I'm not sure if this is still the case, but at the time he had a one-year wait list, which is something I NEVER encountered in all my research. It turns out Dr. Youn spends more energy hiring publicists, writing books, and appearing on TV shows than he does to honing his craft or practicing empathy. His credentials are lackluster at best (aside from attending a prestigious residency), and you will get better results/advice and faster appointment times if you go elsewhere. I still occasionally find myself thinking back to our consultation which is what finally compelled me to leave this review and warn others. I wish you all the best and good luck in your search.