In here at the Gherkin is Dr. Julian De Silva
a Cosmetic Surgeon with 2 practices in London.
It's great to have you with us tonight Dr. De Silva.
- Thank you. - First of all give us an idea
about the size of your business and the kind of procedures which are very popular.
So I specialize very much in the face.
So the 3 principle areas that I help patients
with are eyelids and blepharoplasty,
nose reshaping rhinoplasty and the face and neck lifting, those techniques.
I can tell you just specializing in that one area in the body
it requires a great deal of skill and technique
in order to keep up to date with all the advances.
There's continual evolution in medicine.
Where we were 5, 10 years ago is not where we are today.
As your graphics illustrated the cosmetic industry
has changed dramatically in the last 10 years.
Non-surgical treatments, Botox and fillers, were not nearly as accessible,
and many didn't even exist 10 years ago.
This is a continual evolution.
Do you think that regulation therefore is the answer here?
Well, I think the unfortunate woman that you've shown in your story,
and that's definitely a tragic story.
The reality is that she's really a minority, and there's a great deal of many
many happy patients who've had non-surgical treatments
that are both safe, have given a good result.
Patients actually come back for even more treatments.
Because Botox and fillers although they are treatments
that are very effective, they often have a relatively short duration.
So after 6 to 12 months many of those treatments need repeating.
The proof is there.
If patients were not genuinely happy with their treatments,
they wouldn't keep coming back for further treatments.
But it's more than being happy, isn't it?
I mean we saw there the extreme damage and distress
that have been inflicted upon that patient.
And you know we all hear about Botox parties,
and less than qualified practitioners, that we'd say,
who set up on their own and offer fillers.
A lot of these fillers we're not entirely sure about their safety.
I mean you only have to look at breast implants scandal to see that.
So surely there must be a need for more here.
I think you're absolutely right.
I think when we look at things what this is really about,
it's about individual people.
It's about patients and safety should always come first
before anything else.
It's easy to get distracted about that looking at market figures,
looking at glamorised TV shows.
But actually it's a very individual decision to have any kind of treatment.
I know that with every patient I treat I spend more than 2 hours
with every patient before I contemplate doing surgery on them.
That's so I really know exactly what they want,
what that patient's expectations are,
and also give them an idea of what those risks are.
If I was to give you one example, eyelid surgery,
or also known as blepharoplasty
is the most common cosmetic surgery in the world.
- Yes. - It's regarded as a
relatively safe procedure. However, there is a tiny chance,
a less than 1% chance of blindness after blepharoplasty.
I tell every individual patient that there is a tiny risk of this happening.
Of course there are steps you can take to reduce this, to minimize it.
However, at the end of the day surgery is surgery,
and occasionally unexpected things occur.
I think that's when we're talking about regulation,
we're talking about training staff whether they're doctors,
whether they're nurses or other individuals,
so that they are aware of the potential risk of doing some of these procedures.
The chance of having complications
from a Botox or a filler is relatively very small.
However, if you don't understand or appreciate the anatomy of the face,
or the potential risks then there's definitely a call
for further regulation to help with that.
Okay, Dr. Julian De Silva great to have you with us tonight.
- Thanks for joining us. - Thank you.
Coming up next on Jeff Randall Live.