I recently visited Canada and one of the highlights was visiting Canadian Plastic Surgeon Dr Wayne Perron. If the name sounds familiar you’ll be right, he’s the father of Brisbane Plastic Surgeon Dr Justin Perron. It was an absolute delight to chat with Dr Perron (senior) about the world of plastic surgery in Canada. The landscape is so different there as there is no private health. I also got to chat about what might have motivated Dr Justin Perron to become a Plastic Surgeon. Was it visiting patients with his dad on weekends? Check out our podcast.
Trish: Hello listeners, well I’m here today, I’m actually in Calgary, and I’m here with Dr Wayne Perron. And, if you recognise the name, it’s because it’s actually Dr Justin Perron’s dad. So I’m absolutely stoked and over the moon to be here today. I’m just going to have a bit of a chat with him about, well his career as a plastic surgeon and also just recently he presented at ISAPS in Miami. So we’re going to have a bit of a chat about that as well. So welcome Dr Perron.
Dr Perron: Thank you, nice to be here.
Trish: Yeah, lovely to meet you. So tell me, you’ve been a plastic surgeon for how long?
Dr Perron: Since 1978.
Trish: So I would’ve been about 14. So, wow, nearly 40 years.
Dr Perron: Yes.
Trish: Wow, amazing. Well your premises here are great. I’m totally blown away, and you do, do lots of surgeries here. Is that right?
Dr Perron: That’s correct.
Trish: Can you tell us a bit about that? Cause like … I … I mean, of course I want to have a facelift at some point, and I noticed that you do it in-house, and in Australia we have all these regulations and then we have no regulations. So, how does it work here that you can actually have a little surgery here?
Dr Perron: Well you can create … depending upon what you want to do determines the complexity of your surgical setup in a non-hospital surgical facility. So we are classified as a non-hospital surgical facility. We have to be approved by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the province. They have to approve of what procedures you do in a facility like this, and what your setup to do. So basically, we do all aspects of aesthetic surgery with patients asleep, Some patients are under spinal anaesthesia, or some people will be more familiar with that as an epidural; During childbirth, the spinal anaesthesia are very similar, and general anaesthesia. So, local anaesthesia with sedation. Spinal anaesthesia, general anaesthesia, that’s the mode of anaesthesia that we use, and that determines what we can do here.
Trish: Okay, and from what I’ve gathered, because I’ve done a little bit of research. So you do quite a bit of facial surgery, is that right? Is that your main component or not really?
Dr Perron: No, it’s one of our main components. It depends what age group you’re with. Every age group has their pet procedure that we do for that age group, and face lifts are certainly one of our main stays here. We do a lot of face lifts. Weekly, daily, we did three actually this week, and that’s not uncommon for us. So that’s in for people in their late 40s, 50s and 60s, we’ll do a face lift surgery. Tummy tucks for women who finished having children in their 30s or 40s, and breast augmentation for people in their early 20s, up to say, 50. So it all depends upon the age of the person, really is determined, by … determines what procedure category they usually go into. And like I said anybody over the age of 45 or 50 will probably have facial surgery.
Trish: And, is all of your surgeries done here? Or what about if someone has to spend overnight is hospital or everything is done here?
Dr Perron: Everything is done here, its all done as day surgery. We keep nobody overnight. For a good reason, we want them up and about that will eliminate a lot of complications with blood clots in your legs say for instance. It has to be done safely, but we don’t want people overnight here just for that specific reason, we want them mobile.
Trish: And tell me so, how does it work here with health system, like do you have to have private health or is it like in Australia there are certain Medicare rebates for certain procedures of course not something like a face lift but is it the same here in Calgary, Canada?
Dr Perron: Yes, similar very similar. Yes, you can get …. if you’re having private surgery or aesthetics surgery you have it here, but we also take off skin cancers off of people here, small little procedures of that nature, we can do those under health insurance coverage.
Trish: Right, and you just recently spoke at ISAPS, can you tell us what you’re … what you spoke about?
Dr Perron: Yes, I’d love to. I was invited by ISAPS to speak on my technic of face lift that I have developed over the past number of years and I was on what they call a masters panel, with 10 other plastic surgeons from all over the world and we discussed our different technics, of how we do things.
Trish: So what makes your face lift so great? Like why do I want to come to you for a face lift?
Dr Perron: Well there are a couple of things, face lift … the face lift procedure itself the basics is well established. What the operation intels is doing surgery on the skin and doing surgery on the under skin procedures … under skin structures. And we all have as plastic surgeons, we all have our head ways of doing things and some of or more innovative then others and we try different things because we are frustrated at our results with the way a certain procedure is done. And for me it was longevity, I was not all that happy with the longevity of the results and I thought that I can do better if I altered the procedure and over the past few years I have done that and it has giving me longer results, more natural looking results, you don’t have that bold look but you have an improvement in your face that more reflects your age, you’re not trying take an 8 year old face and make them look 50 because chances are there going to look as if they in a wind tunnel.
Trish: Yeah, right …
Dr Perron: Yeah.
Trish: Yeah, cuz I’ve noticed that over this time that still look is something that actually change the fact that …. what I realised is that its staying there as like a consumer and going to conferences is the fact that … I love it when … you learn something one way but then as you go and keep doing what you’re doing you discover a better way to get a better outcome for what you’re doing and I love that about plastic surgeries, that it kinda evolving all the time and I guess that’s what those conferences are all about. Learning new techniques from other plastic surgeons, that’s right … isn’t it?
Dr Perron: That’s right, and you adapt your technique, and your abilities to whatever you think will make that procedure better for that person.
Trish: And, do you find … Back to ISAPS … do you find that you can back form that thinking, “oh I might even …“, you know. Did you learn anything yourself as well, like you have been doing plastic surgery 40 years how much more can you learn?
Dr Perron: That’s right, that’s right … well your constantly evolving. When I go to … a conference like ISAPS, often times I come back with a good feeling because I know what I am doing is … the best I think and a lot the aspects on what can be done to a face lift.
Trish: Yeah.
Dr Perron: There’s lots of techniques that people have tried and they haven’t worked as well as other procedures but I am pretty happy with the state of procedure I that I do now in lots of ways … I don’t know how it could be improved. Its just evolves that is very acceptable result.
Trish: Now that’s great. So now I am going to ask you about your son, so I was … like I noticed one of the other plastic surgeons in Australia put a photo up a few weeks ago in Instagram and it was a weekend and he was going through the rounds in the hospital and had his little boy holding his hand he was taking him to the hospital rounds. So of course … as a father … as a parent you’d be proud of you know, your children especially when they wanna do what you do, especially if its something so honourable as what you’re doing as well. So, tells us about when … Justin was growing up, Like did he used to come out with you on the rounds like how did he get his desire to wanna be a plastic surgeon … it must’ve been he wanted to be like his dad.
Dr Perron: Well, I mean I did bring him, I did bring him to the hospital and he did sit down with the nurse and he would do colouring and games while I am seeing patients. He was exposed to that type of work that I was doing at that time, but I don’t think his exposure alone, influenced him to do that there were many other things as well. He is a very creative and artistic person. I think you have to have creativity and artistic ability when you’re doing aesthetic surgery. He has that inherently he is a wonderful artist, he does beautiful ink and paper drawings, he’s very good at what he does, and I think that’s reflective of where he wanted … what he wanted to use when he decided on what he wanted to do. He wanted to use his artistic abilities to the best of his abilities and he certainly got that.
Trish: That’s so funny, he is humble to this I never actually knew that, but I know that doing plastic surgery it is like being an artist there is not doubt about it. And a lot of plastic surgeons are really good at art so it kinda is a natural progression, I guess.
Dr Perron: I think so, I think so. You always look for the artistic way of improving something not just doing something to be done. You wanna make sure you use it the best artistic procedure that you can to get a good result.
Trish: Yeah, were you proud when you found out he wanted to be a plastic surgeon?
Dr Perron: Yeah, I was very proud.
Trish: I bet you were.
Dr Perron: The … my only disappointment is that he decided to stay in Australia.
Trish: Good for us.
Dr Perron: Good for you. I was hoping he’d come back to Canada, but he loves it down there so I hope he does … continues to do well.
Trish: Yeah, he is doing a great job down there. He’s got a lot, a lot of fans, people that really love what he does, so yeah. Awesome, well I gotta say thank you so much for taking the time to have this chat with me, so I really, really enjoyed it. Its been absolutely …actually just walking through your place it just been mind boggling. I love that fact that you do the surgery here just make … you know I really like that. And that fact that its all steril and you got the best view, that you can have doing surgery.
Dr Perron: Well you know we live here, I live here, in my office if I live here 8 hrs a day for 5 days a week that’s 40 hours a week that’s a lot in a lifetime. So for myself, and for everybody that works here I think is very important that you live and work in an area that you like to be at. All my staff love coming to work, because they got a beautiful area to work in. We have a type of patient that is very appreciative of the procedures we do here. So I thinks it’s very important for patients, and for staff, and myself to feel comfortable when they come to work. It since to come to a place you wanna be in.
Trish: So true, and just … I should mention … you do the whole gamet of non surgical stuff, I know you mentioned before about the lasers, and non surgical injectables, so can you give a quick little run down of the other, success that [inaudible 00:11:26] and non plastic surgery.
Dr Perron: Yeah sure, there is the plastic surgery side of things which is surgery. And there’s the non surgical aesthetic stuff, and those Botox, the neural modulators, and the fillers, and the peels, and the lasers, and all those external procedures that we do in association with surgery that some people need to give them the best look that they can. Some people don’t need surgery, some people just need non surgical procedures done. The injections and that’s good, and there’s some people that are not candidates for injections, and lasers, and other things. So, those are the type of people we do surgery first and if they want to continue with other things, and need other things that are non surgical, then their linked to that.
Trish: So like … I like that idea that I can come here and have my chemical peels, have my Botox, have my fillers or whatever I wanna have done. Have a little laser and if I decide in 5 years time … I have built a relationship with the clinic for start, and then If I decided I want to have surgery of course I’m going to come somewhere I feel comfortable and I’m going to be here and have it done here as well which I think is a great bonus, I love that.
Dr Perron: Yeah, there’s lots of patients that come here and once they come here and realise they are sitting in a quite comfortable atmosphere, their are not afraid to come here. When they come here their content, their happy that their here. That’s the way we wanna keep it, and if you can keep a person happy by having one stop where that person goes for their non surgery, and their surgery, and their post surgery treatments; makes it so much easier for patients as much easier for staff … bouncing around from facility to facility.
Trish: Of course, and it looks like the parking is easy, does kinda tucked away and because you’re up high and you can see out the windows and nobody can see in.
Dr Perron: That’s right.
Trish: I like it, I like it a lot. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today, I really, really appreciate it.
Dr Perron: Pleasure, my pleasure.
Trish: So this is if you are in Calgary or if your travelling to Calgary if you want to go on a bit of a … vacay I definitely recommend coming in and checking out Dr Wayne Perron’s clinic here in Calgary on 24th Ave.
Trish: So thank you so much for joining us.
Dr Perron: Thank you, my pleasure.