Newbee Member - Plastic Surgeon

DrBermant

New member
Sorry, I do not belly dance but have been studying it as part of my analysis on how the body can move for many years. I am a Plastic Surgeon and my passion is sculpting the body not just for still photographs for journals, but in motion, living life to its fullest and enjoying activities such as dancing. I incorporated video documentation of the problem, surgical solution, and healing after surgery to better understand what I was doing and how I could improve my techniques. Whether my patients are stressed by how they look while swimming, playing volleyball, or soccer I have worked for years to restore what nature, weight loss, pregnancy took away.

Besides motion, I have been working on emotion: the emotion of the problem, the emotion of the surgical sculpture, and the emotion of recovery.

I also have been evolving how to perform my surgery with minimal patient discomfort and earliest return to activities. My Tummy Tuck patients often just use plain Tylenol and just a few stronger pain pills for their recovery.

And yes, I do have quite a collection of Belly Dancing music on my iPod that I play while working on the computer and sometimes while performing my sculpture.

Michael Bermant, M.D.
Board Certified
American Board of Plastic Surgery
Plastic Surgery 4U
 
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Mosaic

Super Moderator
To the forum. I am intrigued, what are the names of some of your songs on your ipod. Mind you that is the only music on my ipod. I wouldn't have a clue who is the latest star on the top 20, nor would I know their music.
~Mosaic
 

Farasha Hanem

New member
Hi, Dr. Bermant, and welcome to the forum. :) We not only have a number of male dancers here, we also have dancer enthusiasts who are male. :) It's nice to hear that someone has made a serious study of the body in movement, especially in the context of bellydance, and is dedicated to helping his patients feel better about themselves. I hope you enjoy the forum; happy posting. :)
 

DrBermant

New member
To the forum. I am intrigued, what are the names of some of your songs on your ipod. Mind you that is the only music on my ipod. I wouldn't have a clue who is the latest star on the top 20, nor would I know their music.
~Mosaic

I have no clue what the top 20 are. Here are some of the albums I have on for one of my Tummy Tuck selections:

Music for Bellydancing - Hussam Ramzy & Phil Thornton
DrumSex Brent Lewis
Sha Waza Solace
Immortal Egypt Phil Thornton & Hossam Ramzy
Enchanged Egypt Phil Thornton & Hossam Ramzy
Cafe Arabica Ulaim Az Zama Orchestra
Eastern Wind Elyahu & the Qadim Ensemble
Planet Drum Mickey Hart

there are quite a few others but they wander more off of bellydancing to other eclectic venues Asian / African such as Baka Beyond, Deep Forest, Angelique Kidgo, FJ & Living Souls, Midori, Vieux Farka Touré, and others.

I often let the Genius feature take off after selecting a song.

I started collecting performances online, but that got into a mess as patients were sending me their performances, so that got to be something I could not publish for privacy issues.
 

DrBermant

New member
Hi, Dr. Bermant, and welcome to the forum. :) We not only have a number of male dancers here, we also have dancer enthusiasts who are male. :) It's nice to hear that someone has made a serious study of the body in movement, especially in the context of bellydance, and is dedicated to helping his patients feel better about themselves. I hope you enjoy the forum; happy posting. :)

For movement of my own patient documentation, here is a
Gallery of Videos Before and After Tummy Tuck that have been part of this process.

In a different direction have you checked a prime performance of Groucho Marx doing Lydia the Tattooed Lady in his prime and shortly before his death. That evolution of body movement is a testament to the aging process and how the body is slowed down aging being the injury process. No, I know it is not belly dancing, but the body in motion.

Michael Bermant, MD
 

Shanazel

Moderator
My experience differs from that of the dancer featured in your video. I never recovered the flexibility and smoothness of undulation I had presurgery: I am numb in a band a couple of inches wide above the incision and have a glitch in stomach undulations at that point. My surgery was done in 1999; this is not likely to improve.

I was aware that nerves could be cut in the course of surgery and was mentally prepared to live with any resulting debility in order to improve what was a significant deformity throughout my life. I should add that though my muscles were damaged during two pregnancies with 10.5 pound babies, my undulations were just fine until after the tummy tuck.

Dancers need to be well aware of the possible side effects of surgery and seriously be willing to live with things like numbness and/or loss of movement before they decide to have a tummy tuck to improve a bit of jiggling. In my husband's words: girls are supposed to jiggle. ;)

By the way, if your patients manage to get by on Tylenol post surgery, they are either tougher than me (and I am a tough gal) or you have one hell of a technique. I have had a number of surgeries and this one had by far the most painful recovery period.
 

DrBermant

New member
My experience differs from that of the dancer featured in your video. I never recovered the flexibility and smoothness of undulation I had presurgery: I am numb in a band a couple of inches wide above the incision and have a glitch in stomach undulations at that point. My surgery was done in 1999; this is not likely to improve.

I was aware that nerves could be cut in the course of surgery and was mentally prepared to live with any resulting debility in order to improve what was a significant deformity throughout my life. I should add that though my muscles were damaged during two pregnancies with 10.5 pound babies, my undulations were just fine until after the tummy tuck.

Dancers need to be well aware of the possible side effects of surgery and seriously be willing to live with things like numbness and/or loss of movement before they decide to have a tummy tuck to improve a bit of jiggling. In my husband's words: girls are supposed to jiggle. ;)

By the way, if your patients manage to get by on Tylenol post surgery, they are either tougher than me (and I am a tough gal) or you have one hell of a technique. I have had a number of surgeries and this one had by far the most painful recovery period.

I agree that education is power. Learning what anything offers or a particular surgeon's skills is putting the power of choice into your hands.

Injury to nerves is part of any competent surgeon's discussion about Tummy Tuck surgery. It is part of the anatomy. However, although I caution my patients about such issues, most tell me that they regain sensation "completely" after surgery. This most likely is not correct from the anatomy viewpoint, but I do not know of anyone documenting return of sensation to this region over time. The methodology would involve Semmes Weinstein monofilients, Vibratron, and Heat / Cold numeric measurement. An extraordinarily difficult and time consuming task. This is something I have done for hand injuries and lip reconstructions, but not on the belly. In general however, what has not recovered by 2 years will not.

You are also right about typical Pain Comfort After Tummy Tuck Surgery. That is why I embarked over a decade ago to evolve my Tumescent Tummy Tuck surgery that is done under local anesthesia with heavy sedation. Yes, not general anesthesia. It started this way. Liposuction surgery has always been comfortable for the patients. Tummy Tucks were miserable. The literature is filled with papers about long term local anesthesia injections, implanted pain pumps, and other techniques to deal with this surgery's pain. Yet, why were the liposuction patients so much more comfortable. I started out by changing the anesthesia for the Tummy Tucks to the same Tumescent used during liposuction instead of just a little local alone in the incision line as most surgeon employ. This was done under general anesthesia first. My anesthesia team then told me that they were not doing anything for the patient with the general. We then went to Tumescent with Heavy Sedation with standby general anesthesia. Well, we did not need the standby.

We have been tracking our patients comfort level after surgery. The switch to tumescent anesthesia resulted in a stoppage of heavy pain medication use. We got a different problem, patients were not vomiting from too much pain medication! I then evolved our current framework of working up to what a patient needs instead of starting out too high. The early after surgery video documentation were complimenting the record keeping about the pain medication. I still do not know of other surgeons recording how tummy tuck patients moved so early after surgery. The patients with the older techniques usually would not move, they hurt! Yet, our Tumescent Tummy Tuck patients were up and about living life and returning to activities.

You can find many other patient experiences about their comfort after this technique on my site. Unfortunately, I have not figured a way to link to the specific parts of each video where patients discuss their comfort already on my site. I do not relish going back over all of the videos and extracting a comfort video going between the various patients. But perhaps i will eventually get to that task. The closest I can get you to those experiences is using this Tummy Tuck Video Gallery. The videos with camera and audio icons will have the patient discussing their experiences. Eventually I will get to the older format videos and add the audio components that were removed many years ago as I was evolving what could and could not be put on the web.

Hope this helps,

Michael Bermant, MD
Learn More About Tummy Tuck Abdominoplasty Surgery
 

goddessyasaman

New member
(Shanazel post; In my husband's words: girls are supposed to jiggle. ;)


I agree with your husband Shanazel "girls are supposed to jiggle", I think that some are forgetting what "belly dancing" is about, if you have weight you wish to cut, thats fine but I for one would rather take the non easy road and work out, if you wish to tighten up then keep on belly dancing, do yoga, strength tranning ect... but Tummy tuck? maybe if you are not a belly dancer,(more power to ya if your a tummy tucker) I have always lived by "work for what you have,and if I want a better body then I am willing to work for it but maybe thats just me ;)... But I would like to say that when I first started to belly dance I was 360 pounds...my pant size was a 25 and now I am 200 pounds with a pant size of 15 and I did that with belly dance, it takes work, but You would be the one who did it. :)
 

DrBermant

New member
(Shanazel post; In my husband's words: girls are supposed to jiggle. ;)


I agree with your husband Shanazel "girls are supposed to jiggle", I think that some are forgetting what "belly dancing" is about, if you have weight you wish to cut, thats fine but I for one would rather take the non easy road and work out, if you wish to tighten up then keep on belly dancing, do yoga, strength tranning ect... but Tummy tuck? maybe if you are not a belly dancer,(more power to ya if your a tummy tucker) I have always lived by "work for what you have,and if I want a better body then I am willing to work for it but maybe thats just me ;)... But I would like to say that when I first started to belly dance I was 360 pounds...my pant size was a 25 and now I am 200 pounds with a pant size of 15 and I did that with belly dance, it takes work, but You would be the one who did it. :)

Does not that weight loss feel great off of your body? 160 pounds is quite an achievement.

Better Plastic Surgeons do not recommend Tummy Tuck as an alternative to weight loss. That just does not work well at all for the patient unless it is compromise surgery such as pannus reduction. But that is a major compromise that I rarely offer. As a surgical sculptor I prefer to use a coarse tool first and reserve my Plastic Surgery for refinement if needed. I get many patients from around the world who come to me asking for a quick fix with surgery (which I do not offer.) They tell me that they understood that would be my recommendation after reviewing my website but still needed the personal advice and help understanding why other surgeons they went to all offered their tummy tucks. However, in their review of those surgeon's work they did not like the results and need for revision surgeries. I do take a good deal of time trying to help these patients learn that living with excessive fat such as morbid obesity is just not healthy sharing the experiences of my patients who did lose the weight.

The problem with Weight Loss is how the body adapts. For some, skin and tissues shrink nicely. But for many others it does not. For those who do not mind the loose tissues, it is no bother. But those coming to me for my help complain how they are still not happy with their bodies. You can go to the after weight loss tummy tuck patient experiences to learn their particular reasons for having surgery. (That is the emotional component I have been trying to record as well as motion these past many years.) Months to years later many of these patients come back after their weight loss. A few show me how magnificent they look, their loose skin a trivial issue. (We do not charge for these feel good consultations.) These are perfect surgical sculptures, using words alone, no knives, and no scars. For others, they tell us how they feel great after the weight loss but now want to deal with the remaining contour issues. Then it is my job to help them learn about the risks, benefits, and alternative methods of care. And when appropriate, surgical sculpture.

The method of losing weight has varied from swimming, athletics, the gym, dancing, dieting, and many other options beyond my areas of expertise. What I can attest to is the joy on their faces and stories telling me how they feel after losing the weight.

Hope this helps,

Michael Bermant, M.D.
 

DrBermant

New member
You have great taste in music!!

Thank you, my iPod is filled with eclectic music from around the world which has taken me years to assemble. One of the most powerful tools I have found has been iTunes genius capabilities and the option to preview the items before viewing. Sometimes movies lead me to music and then to movies and dancing. One such example was the Inside Man which brought me to the album Dil Se, which then brought me to the movie which was a bear to track down a DVD, but here is a dancing track from YouTube:

YouTube - Dil Se - Chaiyya Chayyia

No this is not belly dancing, but the beautiful body in motion. No I do not understand the language, but the DVD came with translation subtitles.
 

Shanazel

Moderator
Gotta agree re: how different bodies adapt to weight loss. I did an interview this week with a 36 year old woman who has lost half her body weight in the last year. Her skin didn't shrink along with her body. She chose to have surgery to remove excess skin both for cosmetic reasons and because enough loose skin can get in one's way almost as inconveniently as fat.

I've always been upfront and unapologetic about the two plastic surgeries I've had in the last 15 years. Each was in its own way life changing and dealt with issues that no amount of weight loss was going to solve. Each alleviated physical deformities that were severe enough to cause physical discomfort and draw comment from unkind people most of my life. (Dr. Greer, if you've taken up lurking in belly dance forums, this hoorah is for you. :clap:)

Michael, though I took issue with you over your use of a particular metaphor or two, I am glad you've joined the forum. I hope you will use it as a resource to to inform yourself about the dance we all love and to gain more insight into what makes a wide variety of dancers click. The sub-forum on instructors and students contains a number of threads dealing with physical and emotional challenges, as does the sub-forum on fitness and beauty.

May you come to feel like a true member of the forum and not merely like a doctor here to dispense medical information.
 

DrBermant

New member
Gotta agree re: how different bodies adapt to weight loss. I did an interview this week with a 36 year old woman who has lost half her body weight in the last year. Her skin didn't shrink along with her body. She chose to have surgery to remove excess skin both for cosmetic reasons and because enough loose skin can get in one's way almost as inconveniently as fat.

I've always been upfront and unapologetic about the two plastic surgeries I've had in the last 15 years. Each was in its own way life changing and dealt with issues that no amount of weight loss was going to solve. Each alleviated physical deformities that were severe enough to cause physical discomfort and draw comment from unkind people most of my life. (Dr. Greer, if you've taken up lurking in belly dance forums, this hoorah is for you. :clap:)

Michael, though I took issue with you over your use of a particular metaphor or two, I am glad you've joined the forum. I hope you will use it as a resource to to inform yourself about the dance we all love and to gain more insight into what makes a wide variety of dancers click. The sub-forum on instructors and students contains a number of threads dealing with physical and emotional challenges, as does the sub-forum on fitness and beauty.

May you come to feel like a true member of the forum and not merely like a doctor here to dispense medical information.

Thank you for your comments.

I participate in many such forums to better understand my patients and the beauty of the moving body. But my posting tends to remain in my field of expertise. I can claim none in the dancing itself, just what I like and otherwise lurk to understand other issues. However, I do tend to also answer where my expertise overlaps such as injury, recovery, video documentation, emotion issues, weight loss, and eclectic topics that vary from personal experiences.

I also like to stimulate and extrapolate. Bringing the healing of tummy tuck in a belly dancer documentation video is a testament to evolution of a structure in motion. I am trying to get others to consider issues like using such documentation to demonstrate their own healing process or change in ability to perform a specific task over time. It can be with such analysis that we can improve ourselves. My game coming here is one of cross pollination and idea stimulation both for myself and others. If I was smart enough, I would have caught on about the belly dancing and documented that patient belly roll before surgery. Coming here is and effort to learn what else I might have missed or improve the next time, part of my continuing challenging myself to improve component.

Here is a great fun video of dancing joy and the two become a before / after the aging process of the great Groucho Marx singing Lydia the Tattooed Lady (again not belly dancing but the body in motion):

YouTube - Lydia the Tattooed Lady

YouTube - Groucho Marx - Lydia the Tattooed Lady

Whether it is broadway, Bollywood (my Dil Se post), or belly dancing the way the body moves has fascinated me most of my life.

Thank you
 
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Shanazel

Moderator
But my posting tends to remain in my field of expertise.

Well, loosen up or you aren't going to have nearly as much fun as you could have. ;) Lydia and Groucho posts are good starts.

I teach dance. If anyone opts for a tummy tuck at some point, I'll ask for permission to video their pre and post undulations. My students will most likely regard it as a perfectly normal request coming from me- they regard me as "creative" and it is amazing what one can get away with if one is "creative."
 

DrBermant

New member
Well, loosen up or you aren't going to have nearly as much fun as you could have. ;) Lydia and Groucho posts are good starts.

I teach dance. If anyone opts for a tummy tuck at some point, I'll ask for permission to video their pre and post undulations. My students will most likely regard it as a perfectly normal request coming from me- they regard me as "creative" and it is amazing what one can get away with if one is "creative."

Thank you I will try.
 

DrBermant

New member
You have great taste in music!!

Follow up thought, has anyone tried sharing their music on iTunes new Ping? I enable my selection by each person wanting to look needs to be approved. I am not convinced that this is a viable tool at this point in time or if there are risks to such exposure. But I do like the idea of exploring music ideas and concepts.

Michael Bermant, M.D.
 
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