First let me say this thread is not to put these two well respected Doctors against one another, just asking for opinions from those of you who have dealt with either or and maybe even both. I'm leaning towards having my surgery with Dr. Jacobs since he is only a 3 hour drive from me and after meeting with him and seeing others comment on his outstanding work I feel that I will be in good hands. However, I see Dr. Bermant gets rave reviews on here as well....and I decided to check his site out over the weekend and his sight is interactive and very informative (I'm not saying Dr. Jacobs isn't informative or knowledgeable so Plz don't think that) just saying the website is usually the first contact with the Doctor and Dr. Bermant's site just is full of information and covers almost all aspects of the surgery and what can go wrong and the necessary procedures to fix any issues caused by other doctors, so I'd be interested in meeting with him and making my choice btwn the two from that point on.
I don't have much money and have been saving up for this surgery for 4 yrs and every time I thought I had enough the cost went up.....after getting a steady job I finally have enough saved up to get the surgery at the current rates, and can really only afford to go to one doctor and get it as perfect as possible. So if anyone has any suggestion on any of these doctors and why you liked them, your advice is much welcomed. Again this is not a thread to say which doctor is better as I am sure some will swear by Dr. Bermant and some by Dr. Jacobs and battle lines can be drawn, just want to get opinions on each of their technique and how you guys felt as being their patient. Thank you.
If you are looking for comments from my patients, they tend to move on with their lives. Some may stay a while and comment, but use this site's search engine you can find many examples:
https://www.gynecomastia.org/smf/index.php?action=searchthen look for last time that member was on site. The hallmark of great surgery is not just to sculpt the tissues that look great while living life, playing sports, swimming, and no longer being self conscious about the chest, but also to heal the major emotional trauma that gynecomastia causes. That my patients move on with their lives is a testament to the effort we make not only with the sculpture, but also the emotional component.
I have also collected such patient experiences on my website. The added benefit of the experiences on my website is the video. With the movies, I am able to also document the emotion and expression as well as how the tissues move after surgery. There are many such examples with the video on my site.
The main difference in what I see is that I work on getting a stable problem to work on and then concentrate on the gland first. Over the years, I learned a long time ago that fairly nasty deformities can be easily hidden with a limited number of still pictures such as a frontal and side or oblique. To really learn about the deformity and what my surgery was achieving, I needed much more detail. This effort evolved into my Standard Pictures which for gynecomastia now is up to 4 different sets:
Standard Pictures for Gynecomastia
Standard Pictures for Revision Gynecomastia
Standard Pictures for Loose Skin of the Male Chest
Standard Videos for GynecomastiaBy better documenting the before problem and surgical solution I could improve my methods of surgery. I then critically analyzed the path my patients were taking to get to the result. Trying to achieve minimal bruising, discomfort, and faster recovery are important goals. What you see on my site for that documentation, is typical for my patients. For each patient who was different, we would analyze why, try to figure out what happened, and how to prevent it from happening again. I also wanted to minimize the risks of recurrence. I was seeing many patients after surgery done elsewhere have regrowth. Some of these patients were from doctors who claim that they do not have regrowth after surgery. That led me to also analyze how
With that methodology, I then realized early on in my efforts that targeting gland first was critical. A tiny incision at the edge of each areola was much better than 4 or more incisions for each case. I have revised quite a few patients done by doctors claiming to have "small" incisions at the edge of the areola, I have put some of these examples up on my site. To revise these extremely long scars, is a much longer closure than what I need to do when I am able to be the first one in there. Targeting gland first became critical when trying to make a result that looked good while flexing and raising arms up overhead. Try playing basketball or swimming with arms down at your side. Firm gland or scar tissue does not compress like fat. I was seeing so many unhappy patients done elsewhere that I build resources explaining what I found and named the problem
Puffy Nipple Complication. I also was seeing many patients from other surgeons with holes under the areola after gland removal without rebuilding that I also coined the phrase
Crater Complication. These observations over the years helped my evolve my
Dynamic Technique targeting the gland first.
The new format of this site prohibits links so that I can no longer point you to the elements of this discussion effectively. But in any analysis of a technique, you need to check out the documentation, just what is the doctor using to show how "good" the results are? Then critically look at those results. Saying results are good is just not the same as having good documentation of what they look like flexing, close up, and emotions. Then look at the path that the patients needed to take to get to those results. Better documentation permitted me to see how traumatic variations in technique had. Less bruising and discomfort meant a faster return to activities. Track those factors and although nobody can guarantee results, you can get to what my patients typically see. If you cannot find such documentation, then you are left gambling just what is going on. You can read the comments anyone posts, but is it not better to see the path traveled to get there?
I have also built resources on how to analyze gynecomastia pictures / video, how to choose a gynecomastia surgeon, elements of gynecomastia surgery that I hope will stimulate the advancement of the field of this sculpture well after my retirement.
Hope this helps,
Michael Bermant, M.D.