CHECKING IN WITH ... Dr. H. George Brennan:

It’s a new year so maybe you’re thinking about a new you. Probably one of the most dramatic ways you can become a “new you” is through cosmetic surgery. This week we check in with Newport Beach cosmetic surgeon Dr. H. George Brennan.

OK, you’re a cosmetic surgeon, not a plastic surgeon, per se, right? What’s the difference?

It’s a huge difference. What the reader has to understand is that plastic surgery is a broad field that covers all aspects of reconstructive and cosmetic surgery. If a person has a birth defect like a burn or breast removed because of cancer — you’re taking someone with a defect and trying to reconstruct them back to normal, and you will never get them back to normal. In cosmetic surgery you’re taking a person who is basically saying this is what God gave me and I want you to do better. The good news is we do better. It’s a totally different psychodynamic. The reconstructive patient never gets back to normal, but the cosmetic patient is normal, happy, but just doesn’t like the way they look… What we’re doing in that aspect is we’re creating beauty, changing the basic shape of body to give them a better appearance. But they don’t have a defect like a tumor or disease.

We explain it all in our book, “Creating Beauty: Cosmetic Surgery and the Beauty Industry,” which is available on amazon.com. It’s a manual for the lay person for this entire field.

Tell us the full range of services you provide and how long have you been practicing in Newport Beach.

I’ve been practicing in Newport since 1980. What I do is limited to just cosmetic surgery. I don’t do reconstructive surgery... I literally offer services from head to toe — but I don’t do cosmetic dentistry or cosmetic foot surgery, but our colleagues here in the clinic can take care of that sort of thing… If you take a look at our book you can see examples from head to toe… (and there are before-and-after examples on the clinic’s website, drgeorgebrennan.com)… Whether we’re changing the position of ears, or contouring a neckline or reducing a nose, we’re changing features to create beauty. The other big aspect of what we do is rejuvenation surgery. If you’re showing signs of age we deal with that.

You can reverse signs of aging by doing three things. No. 1 is by doing surgery on certain features that can only be improved by surgery. No. 2 involves frown lines like in the forehead or eyes… All that is treated by botox to relax the muscles… No. 3 is skin rejuvenation where we are reversing the signs of sun damage, so when people have brown spots or growths or fine lines then we’re able to rejuvenate their skin. Some people just need surgery, some people need the “blue plate special” — a combination of all three.

The other important factor is the Newport med spa … we do such things as laser hair removal, laser skin rejuvenation and a full gamut of injectable fillers — there are a variety of things we can inject into the skin to create volume or eliminate lines… There are a whole host of treatments and conditions that are treated at the Newport med spa, which is an extension of our practice.

Some critics might think cosmetic surgery just caters to the superficial, but there must be great psychological benefits for many. Tell us about some of your favorite success stories.

This field of medicine is not like regular medicine. This is an issue of a patient simply doesn’t like what the mirror tells them. All of us since we were little children are conditioned to the mirror like the fable of Snow White. How many times today have you looked into a mirror? It plays with your mind. Beauty is so important in our western culture and in our society, especially in Newport Beach — all things being equal the beautiful person gets the job… But we’re not catering to the superficial. You take somebody who has a large nose and they can either be on the shrink’s couch for 30 years or lay down on an operating table for 30 minutes and get it corrected; one will work and one won’t.

Do you sometimes have to turn people away? We’re thinking occasionally you might get extreme cases like Michael Jackson. What do you tell them?

That is not a criticism of the field. That’s a criticism of the doctors who use poor judgment operating on Michael Jackson. He’s after something surgery is not going to give him. When we operate on patients they have to have realistic goals, they must be psychologically sound and in good physical condition so they are not anesthesia risks. The major factor in the outpatient center is patient safety... The surgery we’re going to use has to be successful. They’re going to look better, but if we feel someone is looking to surgery to solve life’s problems then they’re not a good candidate for surgery. Let’s say someone is overweight and wants their face done. They’re not a good candidate. They need to lose the weight first.

Absolutely, we do turn people away regularly because they’re not in good physical shape or because they have heart disease, diabetes or they’re just not good psychological candidates... I see so many young girls who think if they have their nose done they will be the next Kate Moss... doing the surgery doesn’t guarantee happiness and inner peace.

With some Hollywood celebrities having their images photoshopped on magazine covers, it would suggest perhaps we’ve gotten too body conscious as a society. What are your thoughts on this?

I personally agree with that. Our society is obsessed with physical beauty and, again, you can look at our book and see at very early ages they have beauty pageants featuring 5- or 6-year-olds… It just so happens that Miss Teen USA [Nadia Moeller] in 2007 happens to be a patient of ours… With Miss America and Miss Universe and Mrs. America you have beauty pageants that cover the entire life spectrum from pre-school children to very mature married women. The emphasis on beauty in our society is outrageous and it has to be realistic.

You participate in an interesting program for military families. Tell us more about it.

Let’s say there’s a sergeant whose 16-year-old daughter wants her nose done and the family can’t afford it or a 6-year-old child with protruding ears and the family can’t afford to have them fixed, well, we’re setting up network of doctors across the country who will do free surgery for our armed forces. It’s just a small way to say thank you for preserving our liberties.

The military idea is terrific. My guess is within a year it will be commonplace throughout the country. I should say our efforts are in no way intended as a statement on the propriety of the war such as should we be in Iraq or not — it’s not a political statement, just a thank you to the troops.