Paul F. Fortes, M.D., double Board-Certified Plastic Surgeon, is an artist and a leading aesthetic plastic surgeon. Haute Beauty sits down with Dr. Paul Fortes, to get to know the body expert from Houston, Texas. 

Photo Credit: Photo by Dr. Paul Fortes

My greatest achievement:

My greatest achievement in professional life has been reaching the highest level in aesthetic plastic surgery through years or education, training, and personal experience and now transferring that rich knowledge and experience as a mentor back to the next generation of aesthetic plastic surgeons.  I was on the receiving end of that knowledge and experience early in my career.  Formal mentoring has now allowed me close the circle and give back to much younger and energetic plastic surgeons that are in the spring of their own careers.   That achievement is not a singular or static event but an ongoing dynamic process that will continue for years through to the end of my career.

The future of my field is:

The future of aesthetic plastic surgery will lay in its constant innovation to find better solutions in the future to challenges that currently have imperfect solutions.  The ability to better understand, control, and regulate the processes of healing, scarring, and aging will not only be revolutionary to aesthetic plastic surgery but will fundamentally change the entirety of medicine.  It’s not a matter of if but of when this revolution will occur.  These changes will begin with scientific research on cells and cellular products in a laboratory and end with the application of new technologies in an operating room or another clinical setting.

The biggest misconception about my field is:

The biggest misconception about aesthetic plastic surgery is that it is available and affordable only to wealthy people.  It has been my experience that consumers of aesthetic plastic surgery come from all walks of life and all income groups.  It is by no means exclusive to wealthy people.  Affordability can mean taking the time to plan and save for an aesthetic surgical procedure and budgeting for it according to the means of the individual patient.

My most requested procedures are:

My most requested procedures are breast augmentation, liposuction/liposculpture, fat grafting of the buttocks (BBL), and abdominoplasty.

What surgical advancements are you most excited about?

I am most excited about new currently available techniques and technologies that improve not just surgical results but also improve patient safety and ease of recovery.  Among the new surgical advancements to achieve better, safer, and easier recoveries are Exparel three-day-long local anesthesia to allow patients literally to get back on their feet faster,  Eliquis to minimize post-operative deep vein thrombosis risk, radio frequency (RF) technologies to achieve faster tissue and scar recovery after surgery,  and internal tissue support (“internal bra”) for more successful and long-lasting outcomes in aesthetic breast surgeries.

What are you best known for?

I’m best known for planning and performing surgeries with great attention to detail and achieving beautiful and natural results through that attention to detail.

What is your most memorable patient reaction?

My most memorable patient reaction was from a 36-year-old woman who, on her first post-op visit, had an emotional breakdown after seeing for the first time the results of her body contouring surgery.   Although she was happily married and had three beautiful children and a successful career, deep down she had never been able to shake free of the stinging insecurities she felt of being the “chubby girl”  throughout her school years, of being the girl who always felt she needed to cover-up at the beach or pool, and of being the young woman who often found herself hiding her body flaws even from her adoring husband.   Now and for the first time all the years of pent up shame about her body, and their insidious effects on how she viewed herself and lived her life,  were a distant memory!   For the first time she was happy and proud of her “new body”, and her emotions and gratitude could not be contained!

What sets my practice apart?

The things that set my practice apart are a strong and fundamental knowledge of all areas of aesthetic plastic surgery, my career longevity helping thousands of patients set individual aesthetic goals, and performing many different surgeries with very reliable outcomes, with attention to fine detail, and under the safest conditions.  This comes from my own 20+ year career-long assessment and reassessment of my own surgical results and of a strong background in not only aesthetic plastic surgery, but also in general plastic surgery and general surgery.   I have always made a  commitment to staying current, in the broadest sense, through board certification and re-certifications (3 times in 20 years) in plastic surgery and in general surgery.

What I love the most about my profession is:

What I love most about my profession is the ability to change people ‘s lives for the better, physically as well as emotionally, through the transformative operations that I perform.

Career defining procedure?

My career defining procedure is total body contouring

What new services are you excited to offer?

I’m excited to offer patients access to a full range of surgical, non-surgical,  and minimally invasive procedures all performed “under one roof”.  I work with a team of professionals that help me bring the latest and best surgical and non surgical technologies to offer the greatest variety of options to the broadest range of patients.  The surgical services that I provide complement the non-surgical and minimally invasive services that my professional nursing staff provide.  We have state of the art facilities to provide our patients with those services to achieve the best and most reliable results performed with the greatest degree of safety.