Dr. Fix It
As long as he can remember, Melek Kayser, MD, FACS, wanted to be a surgeon. In the third grade, he read a book on the heart. After that, he was hooked.
“That was it for me,” he says. “I thought, ‘This is cool,’ and I’ve never had a desire to do anything else.”
Of course, as a third grader Dr. M Kayser did not know the difference between surgery and other specialties, he was merely interested in fixing things.
“I wanted to pursue something that would allow me to work with my hands, because I was always building things. That was my desire. If I could fix it, let me do it, “ he says.
The desire to “fix it” lead Dr. M Kayser to the University of Texas at Dallas, where he completed his undergraduate work, and then to St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit, where he completed five years of general surgery. During this time he became particularly intrigued with pediatric surgical patients. He finished up at Wayne State University/Detroit Medical Center in a two year plastic surgery residency.
“Plastic surgery became an opportunity to have the best of both worlds,” he says. “I got to work with kids and yet specialize in plastic surgery at the same time.”
His interest in that area lead Dr. M Kayser to do an extra year in fellowship training in craniofacial and pediatric surgery at UT Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. He has received awards from the Michigan Cleft Palate Association Research Competition and the St. John Hospital Annual Residents’ Practice Day Research Competition.
Dr. M Kayser now practices in Roseville, Michigan. Pediatric groups in the area know of his extra training and interest in that area, and generate a number of referrals.
“The wonderful thing about seeing children who are born with a congenital deformity is that I can participate in enhancing their quality of life,” he adds. “Children whose parents are devastated when they’re born have new hope when I am able to restore their deformities. The patients are pleased, and I have heard that many pediatricians have been, too.”
Those positive patient and physician recommendations have really helped Dr. M Kayser’s business get off the ground. When he first began practicing plastic surgery in the Michigan community almost four years ago, Kayser did so in a time-shared office space because that was all he could afford.
“They supplied a telephone, an exam room and a staff person to put the patient in the room with a chart,” he says. “That was about it. They were very humble beginnings.”
From those humble beginnings has risen Image By Design, Dr. M Kayser’s private practice, which is located directly across the street from what he refers to as “a very good, very competent plastic surgery group.”
“I have the utmost respect for them, and it does create a competitive atmosphere. I don’t think that it is to my detriment, however,” Dr. M Kayser says. “I have a good working relationship with other surgeons in the area, and since I know they are good surgeons, I would have no problem referring patients to them. I think there is enough cosmetic and plastic surgery available to all of us in the area.
“We all want to grow our practices, and we all area aware of other plastic surgeons in the area. That creates certain challenges sometimes,” he continues.
Dr. M Kayser meets those challenges by working hard to earn the respect of referring physicians who are allowing he to see their patients, as well as achieving the best surgical results he can and establishing an excellent rapport with his patients, who range from children to adults, and from cosmetic to reconstructive patients.
Among the services offered at Image By Design are face lifts, endoscopic forehead and brow lifts, eyelid surgery, nose reshaping, chin and cheek enhancement, body contouring, microdermabrasion, facial peels, Botox injections, and laser hair removal. He also performs breast enlargements, reductions, reconstruction and lifts.
“Dealing with a varying clientele gives me a broad perspective,” he says. “I wouldn’t want to do just one thing all the time. I like the diversity, and every day is a challenge. It keeps it interesting.”
One of the most interesting areas of his practice, in addition to the cleft work he performs, is breast surgery, which he says is definitely one of his favorite areas of plastic surgery.
“I like trying to restore a part of a woman’s body that has been taken from her,” he says. “That type of procedure carries not just the physical aspect, but sexual, social and emotional aspects as well. It is very gratifying to both the patient and myself.”
A new breast lift/breast reduction technique called the SPAIR (short scar periareolar inferior pedicle reduction mammoplasty) technique, which reduces scarring by up to 50 percent, has made his breast surgery even more gratifying. Dr. M Kayser became enamored of the technique two years ago when he saw it presented at a national meeting.
