Dr. Ramon Robles

I think what got me into plastic surgery was, as a fourth-year medical student, I rotated with a plastic surgeon when I was doing my fourth-year internship year. And he was a plastic surgeon that did a lot of Down's syndrome kids. And he used to do some facial plastic surgery, if you will, to try to change the look of a Down's syndrome baby so they wouldn't be stereotyped. And, you know, I just thought, wow, this is, you know, really something pretty cool that he's doing. And so that started, you know, piquing my interest. Then, when I started in my general surgery residency, you know, you rotate through all the specialties, and I started kind of seeing how plastic surgeons did burn reconstruction patients. And then that really kind of solidified that I want to be a plastic surgeon. I actually really wanted to kind of do secondary burn reconstruction patients. And so that's, you know, what started me on the path of plastic surgery. Well, the biggest satisfaction I get is how a patient transforms, and I'm not talking the physical transformation. I'm talking the mental transformation of a patient. They come in my office, they're not as sure as, you know, maybe they could be. And then I do something to them, you know, and they just transform. They come in, you know, beaming with confidence. And so that's a big satisfaction to me. And so when they say, well, this is just some . . . it's vanity, I disagree. It's not. It really does transform patients into a different state of mind.