What to expect during a breast reduction consultation [Kyle Baltrusch, MD, Portland]

Dr. Baltrusch (00:00):
My name is Kyle Baltrusch. I'm a plastic surgeon in Portland, Oregon.

Eva Sheie (00:04):
So if I'm a breast reduction patient and I'm interested in coming to see you for a consultation, what should I do?

Dr. Baltrusch (00:10):
I would reach out to our office or find us online and request a consultation with any of our providers. You can call us directly or you can just follow a lead online or through our website about making a consultation, and we'll certainly get patients on the books as soon as we can to meet one of us. Or you can leave us a voicemail or just a note on our website and we can get back to you on those leads.

Eva Sheie (00:33):
When I come for a consultation, what does that process look like?

Dr. Baltrusch (00:37):
Yeah, so when you meet us, a consultations are an hour long with us. So how it works, you come in by maybe 15 minutes before there's likely some paperwork involved, and then you get roomed by one of our MAs and you sit down with us as the surgeon for an hour to discuss the operation. We certainly do an examination. We will want to take measurements, talk to patients about their options and their goals. And I think that is the big thing. So symptoms aside, goals is always what we're striving for. And so we want to make sure that the patient's expectations are something that are realistic and that we can obtain those through our techniques. And so beyond the examination and that discussion, we do get photos, preoperative photos for the medical chart, and then it takes us about 10 to 14 days to hear back from insurance companies about authorization. And once we do, and if we get to move forward, then our schedulers reach out to the patients to schedule.

Eva Sheie (01:36):
In that consultation that's an hour long for how much of that am I not wearing any clothes?

Dr. Baltrusch (01:41):
Just the examination. So the whole discussion leading up to that, certainly clothed. And then we hop out. We have patients dressed down just waist and above. And then we take measurements, talk to patients about the surgery, pull up some images, and then get photos while they're still in gown. And then once they come back to the consultation room, we have patients get back into their clothing so that we can have further discussion or answer questions.

Eva Sheie (02:08):
Thank you.

Dr. Baltrusch (02:09):
Yeah.

Eva Sheie (02:09):
It's a little bit anxiety inducing to think that you're going to go show somebody your breasts and for how long of this appointment?

Dr. Baltrusch (02:18):
Certainly, yes.

Eva Sheie (02:19):
Since they are the topic of the day. If I want to see photos of your breast reduction cases, where should I look for those?

Dr. Baltrusch (02:26):
Pictures are obviously released at the consent of the patients, and so that can be anything from social media to the website to just in our office on TouchMD. Certainly you can find those images on our website and more are added as patients consent to releasing them. And then they are often different from even the patients here in our office as well. During that consultation, all of our rooms have touched screens and we can pull up images, pre-ops and post-ops of our patient photos. And then also on our website on a, we do release pre and post-op of all of our patients or all different operations so people can kind of see what we're doing at our office.

Eva Sheie (03:06):
On this podcast, we bring you directly to the doctors who are, where before meets after. Links to our guest's website and contact info are in your show notes. Follow us on Instagram @wherebeforemeetsafter. Where Before Meets After is a production of The Axis, the podcast agency for aesthetics, theaxis.io.