Dr. David Berman: The Well-Balanced Life
Dr. David Berman, MD, FRCSC of Berman Cosmetic Surgery & Skincare is a well-renowned cosmetic surgeon in Sterling, VA who is most commonly known for successfully completing the reattachment of John Wayne Bobbitt’s famous missing genital in the 1990s.
Dr. Berman grew up terrified of going to the doctor and never even dreamed of going to medical school until his best friend growing up sparked his interest in medicine and inspired him to volunteer at a free clinic. This experience finalized his decision to go to medical school. Dr. Berman discovered his interest in plastic surgery through a fellow resident after recognizing the creative aspect and diversity of the field, for example if “somebody [has] a defect on their face from an injury or skin cancer…you could talk to three different plastic surgeons that may address the problem very differently.”
Dr. Berman enjoys working for himself and learning from his own mistakes, which made him decide to develop his own practice in plastic surgery. His specialty is in body contouring, particularly utilizing smart liposuction under local anesthetic to focus on minimally invasive fat reductions.
Dr. Berman’s Tips for Success
Dr. Berman attributes his success to his ability to consistently live a healthy, well-rounded, and realistic lifestyle. He has always valued physical fitness and went through a long phase of running, martial arts, and triathlons. “I think our society is pretty high stress,” says Dr. Berman. “Just getting away from work and having some physical outlet is really important. I think it helps to have a close family, because again…work’s fulfilling, but I think what a lot of people find, maybe even more in the business world, is at the end of the day it’s fun what you do, but at some point you want something more to your life.”
Berman Cosmetic Surgery & Skincare is set apart from other practices due to their ability to maintain a cohesive team, realistic vision, and live open and well-balanced lives. Dr. Berman prefers to be upfront and open about what he can and cannot achieve with body contouring. His patients appreciate his honesty because instead of taking their money no matter what, he will say to them, “I can get you closer to what you want but there’s no magic. I’ll never make you what you want. It’s a partnership. If you want to look your best and want to get those kind of results, you have to work on dieting, better eating habits, [and] better exercise.”
Like most medical professionals, Dr. Berman began his success by working extremely hard for it. Before the government decided to limit how much residents could do on call in the interest of their health, David worked every third night shift for five years. According to Dr. Berman, if you’re going to chase your dream, then you have to say to yourself, “Look, for the next period of time, that’s gonna be almost my sole focus, and then…there has to be an end in sight, and you just do what you have to do.”
Plastic Surgery and Psychiatry
“Plastic surgery is really the closest to psychiatry,” states Dr. Berman. “Cosmetic surgery and plastic surgery are about how you feel about yourself and your self image.” While most plastic surgeons will simply fulfill requests, Dr. Berman prefers to understand why patients desire the changes they come in for. Half the time people are simply looking for a quick solution to an insecurity, and Dr. Berman does not like to fulfill orders that people only think they want because he knows they won’t be truly satisfied with his work at the end of it. For example, when a beautiful, intelligent woman asked him for fatter eyelids, he expressed his concern that her request was misguided and that altering her natural beauty in that way would be a huge disservice to her. Dr. Berman feels strongly that it is not fair to him nor the patient to perform a surgery that he feels is only going to cause a further reduction of their self-esteem.
The Future of Cosmetic Surgery
Dr. Berman plans to continue narrowing his expertise in minimally invasive and noninvasive work, as well as utilizing ketone supplements to encourage his patients to pair their surgeries with nutritional and fitness lifestyle improvements. He would also like to expand his aesthetician services.
Stem cells are predicted to be a large component of what’s on the horizon for cosmetic surgery. However, Dr. Berman suggests they may be overdone because “people are kind of using it almost like snake oil.” He has seen that “it’s used for absolutely everything everywhere… we’re going to see over time some trials finally done because everything works somewhere for somebody. It doesn’t matter what it is, and it doesn’t make sense to me that it’s going to work for everybody everywhere all the time.” Dr. Berman hesitates to buy into stem cell research due to the lack of quality studies done that show improvement of cost or efficiency.
No matter where the future of plastic surgery takes us, Dr. David Berman strongly encourages anyone interested in getting work done to stay open-minded and receive a free consultation before making any final decisions. To book a free consultation with Berman Cosmetic Surgery & Skincare, call (703) 406-2444 or visit their website at www.bermancosmeticsurgery.com.
