Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Steven Cohen.
Hi Dr. Steven, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was six years old my uncle Bert who was an orthopedic surgeon, the only doctor in my family, drowned skin diving. Sadly he was 38 years old. He left behind a beautiful wife and three daughters and my mother and my grandmother and of course all of us were upset, but as a six-year-old kid I didn’t know how to make things better, so I told my grandmother and mom I would be the next doctor in the family.
Nobody pressured me and in fact there were many times I didn’t think I could be a doctor because I couldn’t get good grades in school because I have dyslexia. And as it turns out that’s been a real advantage because my dyslexia is in the form of visual, meaning I am a visual learner, I have to see it to understand it. I can’t learn by memorization or auditory learning. I learn by visualization. So as a result it’s made me more inclined toward the arts.
It’s helped me see things that maybe other people don’t even see and that’s not to brag because none of you want to be dyslexic because there are a lot of bad things that come along with this, but the good things eventually won out. As a dyslexic, one develops other ways of doing things because you have to. You have no choice.
But in all candor having this visual dyslexia has been an amazing thing for me as a plastic surgeon. And that was the next question. Why plastic surgery? It seems that cosmetic surgery is unnecessary for the most part. But there are many sides to plastic surgery. For me, while finishing a fellowship in cardiac surgery at the National Institutes of Health, I saw a program on PBS featuring a French plastic surgeon, Paul Tessier. Tessier was taking young adults and children that were born with monstrous appearances from birth defects and turning them into normal looking people. The surgery was complex, involved intracranial approaches working with neurosurgeons and the results were just incredible. To the consternation of my mentors in cardiac, I decided this would be my career and that to do this I would have to be a plastic surgeon. That is how I ended up in plastic surgery.
Since the early 2000’s, I have been focusing most of my clinical research in the field of regenerative medicine and longevity. Regenerative medicine and longevity promise to change how we practice medicine. For instance, if we look at facial aging through the lens of longevity, our objectives are to recognize that growth and development take place over the first 22 years and then we begin to decay. If we develop treatments and concepts that not only address the aesthetic changes we see in our faces, but also the aging of our cells, then outcomes will not only make us look younger, but indeed, our cells will be younger with these treatments. The key is defining facial aging by analyzing anatomic changes, which tissues are affected and how laxity develops as well as the events that occur with aging of our cells. By understanding the process, it becomes more likely that regenerative treatments can be devised to reverse cellular aging, replace lost tissues and prolong aging structures of the face. These are the concepts I am interested in and these are the treatments that we bring to you at FACES+.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
As a kid growing up with learning disabilities, I was mainly called dumb, dumber and sometimes worse things.
I was lucky that report cards in 10th grade were handwritten so an “F”could be changed to a “B”. I had all F’s, but was able to change them to all ”B’s”. My dad was surprised when I said it might be a good time for Military school. He thought with a little effort I would be able to get a few “A’s”. Little did he know.
My first accolade was when my dad took my poetry and short stories (mainly written to my first girlfriend) to the Poet Laureate of the United States, William Stafford. He liked them enough to invite me to the Library of Congress and this first encouragement meant the world to a kid who never heard a good word about anything academic until that moment.
It is these little gestures that might change our lives and we will remember them forever!
As you know, we’re big fans of Faces+ Plastic Surgery, Skin and Laser Center. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
I’m a plastic surgeon in La Jolla, California, and a clinical professor of plastic surgery at the University of California, San Diego. My entire career has been devoted to facial plastic surgery. Newsweek just awarded me in all categories of the America’s Best Plastic Surgeons list which is always a huge honor as they go through a meticulous selection process that is peer-reviewed. I was #8 in the country for Best Facelift and received #1 Best Facelift for Southern California. Therse were amazing honors as they are votes from my peers and cannot be bought. That said, many outstanding surgeons were not on the list and the only thing I am concerned with is that my own patients have safe and extraordinary outcomes.
For many years, I directed craniofacial centers at major universities such the University of Michigan, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, and Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego. As a result, my background in facial surgery is one of the most in depth in the world and gives me the ability to address all aspects of the face from the bones to the skin surface. Because of my thirst for learning, I travel all over the world meeting and learning new techniques that I am able to bring to my patients in San Diego. For instance, deep neck surgery with contouring of muscle, fat and salivary glands is something only a few of us do, but when needed is an essential component of facelift surgery. Or another example is fat grafting to the face. Along with a handful of other pioneering surgeons, we have established facial fat grafting as a key component of the contemporary facelift. 15 years ago, when I started doing this, no one was fat grafting and now, 90 percent of patients around the world have fat grafting during their facelift. Lastly, the hemostatic net, which is a suturing technique developed in Brazil to prevent bleeding and to assist in redraping the skin during facelifts, is a procedure I imported to San Diego and use on 20-30% of patients. This drive toward always trying to improve patient care in order to serve our patients better is what keeps me going, not playing golf.
I really think that the key thing with facial surgery is to be able to apply the proper technique for the conditions that the patient presents with, not just to, you know, magnify a brand. We do this kind of lift with a unique name, but to understand the anatomy of aging for each individual and to apply this really in a bespoke fashion.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I don’t take physical risks, but I take calculated risks in learning new procedures and applying them to benefit our patients. I am fortunate to have a very strong technical background in surgery and critical care. When you learn to take care of a patient who is bleeding to death or who will die without your surgery, you learn responsibility and you learn composure under highly stressful situations. Fortunately, these thing are rarely encountered in cosmetic surgery, but the background enables poise and confidence even with the most difficult problems.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.facesplus.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doctorstevencohen/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Facesplus/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjXT_VMYel-JvCvgGnbBfEw
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/facesplus-san-diego?start=40
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@facesplusplasticsurgery
Image Credits
The photo of the office should give credit to ZackBenson.com ©. All other photos we own.
