Snake Oil in Plastic Surgery: The 4 Biggest Plastic Surgery Myths Exposed

❓ Can non-surgical skin tightening really replace a facelift? Can lasers erase scars or stretch marks? What about cellulite treatments—do they actually work?

In this episode of Plastic Surgery Uncensored, Beverly Hills board-certified plastic surgeon Dr. Rady Rahban exposes the four biggest myths in plastic surgery—the trillion-dollar “snake oil” promises that have fooled millions of patients.

Here’s what you’ll learn:
✨ Non-surgical skin tightening – Why no machine can replicate surgery.
✨ Scar removal lasers & creams – The truth about scar quality and what really makes scars nearly invisible.
✨ Cellulite treatments – The disappointing reality behind devices and injections.
✨ Stretch mark removal – Why nothing erases them—and what camouflage techniques actually help.

Dr. Rahban explains why these myths persist, how aggressive marketing tricks patients, and why—if these treatments actually worked—they’d be as undeniable as Botox or Ozempic.

🎧 This episode is your consumer protection guide in a world full of overpromises and underdeliveries.

✨ If you enjoyed this episode of Plastic Surgery Uncensored:
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✔️ Rate & Review—your feedback helps more people find us.
✔️ Follow Dr. Rady Rahban across all platforms for daily insights, behind-the-scenes, and patient education:

• Instagram: @drradyrahban
• TikTok: @radyrahbanMD
• YouTube: @Rady Rahban
• Facebook: @Rady Rahban

✔️ Share this episode with someone considering plastic surgery—the right knowledge can save a life. 🎙️ Plastic Surgery Uncensored: Real talk. Real patients. Real results. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to another episode of Plastic Surgery Uncensored. I'm your host,
doctor Roddy Rabond, and we have a fantastic episode for you.
Why because we're gonna be talking about plastic surgery, myths,
snake oil. As everyone knows who follows me, who listens
to our podcast. I'm all about transparency. I hate all
the nonsense, bullshit marketing of plastic surgery. We're an amazing

(00:30):
profession do amazing things, but there's a ton of garbage
out there, and as a consumer slash patient, you never
really know what is or isn't real, And now in
the world of AI and photoshop and photomorph it's just
even more confusing. So there are four things that are
would be arguably trillion dollar businesses. That's right, not billion,

(00:53):
but trillion dollar businesses if they actually worked, But in
reality they don't. But they are marketing, they are pushed,
they are sold, and we're going to discuss all four
of them today. Trust me, if these four things actually
occurred or worked, it wouldn't be a hemmer ha. There

(01:13):
is no discussion that botox works. There is zero discussion
that viagra works. There's no discussion that ozempic works. There
is no discussion about hair transplant. These are solid items
that we've advanced in esthetics or in the world of
medicine that there's no discussion about. No one's gonna be like, well,

(01:36):
I'm not sure it works. But these four subjects that
I'm about to cover with you are hm huh, I
don't know, sort of kind of And anything that's like
that just isn't right. It should be very very absolute
and there should be no discussion around it, and every
plastic surgeon should be able to offer this to you.
So let's start from the top. Number one biggest myth

(02:00):
is that you can go into a doctor's office and
non surgically tighten your skin. Did you hear me? I
can walk into doctor Joan Schmoe's office and or spa
and I have a little loose skin in my neck,
a little loose skin in my arms. I'm not crazy
about the little bit of loose skin in my belly.
I'm and I don't want surgery. I sure as hell

(02:22):
don't want a bunch of scars. I don't want any downtime.
I just want a little something. And I'm going to
go and do a device, use a machine, and that
machine is magically going to tighten my skin. Such that
and here's the kicker, I look better. It's reproducible, meaning
I did it, my mom did it, my sister did it,
my brother did it. They all got benefit and it's

(02:44):
worth it. Oh and by the way, there's no downside.
So of course that's not true. If there was a device.
Just think about it for a second. Let's just if
there was a device that tightened your skin. Let's say
it tighten your skin. And then the argument that all
these people make is, well, of course it's not as
good as surgery, but it's not surgery, so you get less,

(03:08):
but it's still good enough. That's not true. If there
was a device to tighten your skin, twenty five percent
of what surgery does. Sign me up, Sign me up,
like I get it. It's not surgery, but it's good enough.
It doesn't. None of these things do shit. And there
have been hundreds of them, and there will be hundreds more.
I'm not saying they'll never be a device. I am

(03:32):
sure with the advances we make, God, for the love
of God, there's cars driving by themselves. I'm sure eventually
there will be devices that can shrink skin. Consistently, reproducibly
and effectively, at which point I will have fifteen of
them might be out of a job because with the
exception of like a nose job and a few other

(03:53):
things boob job, we're trying to remove skin with facelifts
and tummy tucks and arms and what have you. But
there will be no discussion. So you go into an
office and they do this machine, and then you get swollen,
and then you go home. And of course, naturally, for
the first day or two or weeks you're swollen, you
think it's kind of tighter, you think the skin feels

(04:14):
a little better, and what do you know, within couple
of weeks to months, you're like, wow, that was underwhelming.
So I just blew whatever amount of money. Mind you,
They're always like, you need to do three to five
rounds of whatever it is that you're doing. Of course,
because why would they take your money once? They need
to take your money three to five times. And at
the end, I guarantee you, guarantee you you will be underwhelmed,

(04:36):
because there is no such device that exists. Again, when
and if that occurs, it will be literally headline news
everywhere in the world. The next thing is that there
is some way, some device, some machine, some laser that
removes scars. Again, I'm going to do a surgery on you, facelift, gallbladder, hysterectomy,

(04:59):
hip replacement, whatever cut is made, that cut turns into
a scar. Now we have horrible, ugly, hideous fixed scar.
We have thin, barely visible, Oh my god, I can
barely see it scar. But it's still a scar. So again,
this notion that I can walk into somewhere, usually it's

(05:19):
some spa and they're gonna use a device or a
laser or an injection or something and that scar is
gonna go away is nonsense. As a plastic surgeon, the
number one thing that is inhibiting my patients from booking
surgery and spending a bowload of money with me is scars.

(05:39):
So what do you think don't I have an incentive
to utilize these methodologies or devices. If I could tell
a patient, hey, listen, you want to get a breast lift,
don't worry about the scars. There'll be no scar. I'm
gonna use blah blah blah blah, and your scar will disappear.
Sign me up, doctor Rabond. I'll have a thousand more
patients a year up for surgery if I could get

(06:01):
rid of their scars. Obviously, you can't get rid of
the scars. What you can do, which we've spoken about
many times, is you can make scars really, really minor
by doing an amazing job closing. That's right, the surgeon.
It's to sit there and spend time and sew everything
together layer by layer, tension free, no crushing, no ischemia,

(06:24):
et cetera, et cetera. Nobody wants to do that, time consuming, etcetera.
So that's all bullshit. Next, oh my god, the dreaded sellulite.
Cellulite Chasing cellulite. Now, maybe we made a little bit
of progress in here, because over the years there have
been devices. So what is cellulite? Cellulite is a dimpling

(06:47):
of your skin with a little bit of a septae
or some connective tissue that kind of puckers your skin
down and creates that pitting effect. Well, obviously it's something
that is very unsightly. It bothers a lot of people,
mostly women, because of the genetics. And the idea is
that there's some cream or lotion or something or another

(07:08):
that can remove that cellulite. Again, if there was a
device that got rid of cellulite. How many women in
the world have cellulite. Let's just take a random get
ten percent of women have cellulite. There's eight billion people.
Fifty one percent of them are women. That's four billion people.
Ten percent of four billion people is a lot of people.

(07:33):
Do you know how much money I would make if
I could get rid of your cellulite? So, the only
thing that's come close, and I still think it does
a shitty job, is there is a procedure in which
you can go underneath the skin and try to sort
of cut and disconnect those scar tissue that septe and
let that pitting relax and maybe it'll improve. I would

(07:56):
argue that currently it's not very effective, it's not very good,
and you'll probably get very little exchange. Whether or not
you want to try it or not, it's up to you,
but it's certainly not going to remove it, and it
absolutely is not currently considered a treatment or cure, so
buyer beware. The last and final myth or misinformation is

(08:19):
the ability to remove stretch stretch marks. Stretch marks are forever.
They are forever. They are a type of scar. So
I cut you with a blade, you generate a scar.
You stretch too fast, your skin doesn't have time to
react the dermis you have, the epidermis and the dermis

(08:43):
that's your entire skin doesn't react fast enough, and the
collagen and elastin breaks, and then you, through the skin
can see that sort of weird look that we call
a stretch mark. That is a type of trauma and
or scar that your body has generated. So again, no lasers,

(09:06):
no machines, no micro needling, nothing will get rid of
your stretch marks. Nothing. Now what you can do which
won't get rid of your stretch marks is actually you
can tattoo them to camouflage them and or hide them,
which would be the equivalent of putting makeup on them. Obviously,

(09:29):
tattoo can be semi permanent lasts a long time. But
for sure, do not be under any illusion that you're
gonna walk into spat x on los anaga and that
person's going to pull out device. Why do a couple
of treatments and boila, there goes all the stretch marks
from your delivery, or the stretch marks on your chest

(09:50):
from working out. It's not going anywhere. So if any
one of these four things. I will repeat them for you.
Skin tightening, scar removal, sell you light removal and removal
of stretch marks was a real entity. I mean it
was literally worked like you came in, I put an

(10:11):
implant in, you left. Your breasts are larger, There's no
question about that. It's actually larger. If it worked in
that way, you don't think the entire world would know
about it? How many people have not heard of ozempic
zero the world. There are Africans in a tribe in
the middle of the Amazon that have heard of ozempic

(10:33):
because it works, and the second it worked, it became
ubiquitous like tissue paper. So there is no device, there
is no procedure. There is no cure or treatment for
excuse me, for these four things as of yet. Do
I think they might happen? Sure? Am I hopeful? Sure?

(10:57):
Will you know about it? Absolutely? It will not be
just my doctor, Oh my doctor, you guys, you have
to go to my doctor, because my doctor he has
this thing. What your doctor's the only one that they
sold the device to, like, they didn't sell it to
anybody else, So it's bullshit. I really want you to
listen carefully because I have so many patients who have

(11:19):
wasted money and time and energy on these types of
things with zero return on their investment. At any rate,
that's a sort of a cautionary, quick and dirty podcast
on four of the most common plastic surgery myths beware.
So at any rate, that was one of my fastest

(11:40):
podcasts we were going to do. We wanted to just
get it out there in its own entirety. We try
to get it out on social media, but it's I
can't talk for fifteen minutes on social media, and so
I always have to speak very I can't give it
as much detail as I need. So at any rate,
that's going to be a wrap for this particular episode.
As always, whenever we have an episode, we tell you
too on please go write a review. We love reviews.

(12:02):
Go write something positive. The world needs more positivity. If
you have nothing nice to say, please don't write it.
And secondly, share this podcast with every person you know. Why,
because you have no idea who's going to do what, when, where,
and the next thing. You know, by the time they
tell you it's too late, they already made a mistake.
So share our podcast with everyone you know. All right, guys,

(12:24):
that's a wrap. Valve. This week's Plastic Surgery Uncensored Show.
We'll see you next week. I'm your host, Doctor Roddy Rabot,