The Art of Transformation

Dr. Marc Malek is introducing a revolutionary implant design set to change the industry of plastic surgery

By Kaylor Jones / Photos by Claudia Johnstone

Though he’s known today as an award-winning plastic surgeon who’s achieved local and national renown, Dr. Marc Malek originally had his sights on a much different career path. As a gifted young student with dreams of flight, Malek planned on becoming a pilot.

“I had to get contact lenses when I was 14, so I couldn’t do that anymore – you had to have perfect vision back then to fly for NASA,” Malek says. “But I remember in first grade, I had drawn a picture of an airliner for career day, and the teacher said, ‘This kid wants to be a pilot, but look at how good of an artist he is.’ So I realized when I couldn’t be a pilot, I would use art instead.”

And what’s the perfect intersection between art and Malek’s twin passion for science? Plastic surgery.

“I thought that was a great way to use medicine and science while expressing your art on the human body. Tissue is the best medium to work with – it’s the art of keeping someone healthy and letting things heal and come together. I guess if Michelangelo was alive today, he’d be a plastic surgeon.”

After moving from his native Michigan to attend the University of Arizona, Malek completed a five-year general surgery residency at the University of Missouri, followed by a prestigious fellowship program in plastic and reconstructive surgery at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, one of the oldest integrated residency training programs in the U.S. The extensive program had him training in microsurgery, facial trauma, burn surgery, reconstructions, hand surgery, and countless developmental issues.

Throughout his education, he encountered misunderstandings about plastic surgery, even from within the medical field. “My general surgery chairman said he never liked plastic surgeons. They’re training you to be this wholesome country doctor, to treat or cure cancer, and then they think you’re going to work on breasts the rest of your life,” Malek says. “But plastic surgery impacts lives, it restores people’s confidence. Looking good makes us feel good. There’s a misconception that vanity drives people toward plastic surgery, but I don’t think that’s true. I think it’s a wholesome profession that can really make a difference.”

Do No Harm

A point of pride for Malek is his fastidious, borderline obsessive approach to health and safety. In this field, he says, there can be too much focus on the business side, which leads to transactional medicine that may push procedures that aren’t best for the patient.

“I model my practice as if I were a patient, as if my patients were my family members – like I’m going to see them every holiday and I need to guide them appropriately and make sure that what I perform is a conscientious recommendation in the best interest of the patients. I owe them that integrity and honesty. If you’re going to put a scalpel to someone’s skin, you really have to own it and know that you’re the most qualified to do it.”

This is especially essential in a field where many surgeons haven’t received specialty training. As Malek puts it regarding places like Arizona that lack credentialing requirements, “Anyone can do anything if they’ve got a willing patient.”

The gold standard, in contrast, is board certification awarded by the American Board of Plastic Surgery, which requires intensive training – an average of 16 years – and around 3,000 hours of hands-on practice. Plus, a comprehensive two-day oral and written exam – which Malek aced, of course.

Today, one of his specialties – making up over half of the procedures he does at his practice, Preferred Plastic Surgery – is revisions, especially for breast implants.

“I see a lot of difficult work, from poor planning to oversizing, damaged tissue and structural problems,” he says. “I take on a lot of problem cases, difficult cases other surgeons don’t want to take on.”

And one of the perks of having his own practice, located near the HonorHealth Scottsdale Shea Medical Center, is maintaining meticulous control of every element of every procedure. This breaks down into two distinct categories – patient experience and quality of medicine.

The former starts with creating a sense of calm and privacy the moment a patient steps through the doors, from the luxurious office and state-of-the-art treatment rooms to a dash of Midwestern hospitality during his consultations and aftercare visits.

But when it comes to surgery, Malek means business.

“With our own facility and crew, our own anesthesia, everything is ultra-controlled and obsessive. It has to be – if you’re not paranoid, you’re missing things, and you’re going to have problems. If you’re preemptively looking for things, you can avoid them. We obsess about the details, which means we don’t send people out of our practice with problems.”

Advancements in Aesthetics

Since establishing his practice almost 25 years ago, Malek has closely studied patients’ concerns, including the limitations of what plastic surgeons have been able to offer in the world of breast implants.

“After using implants for 50-plus years, there haven’t been any major design changes outside of filling them more, making them rounder and using firmer gel, which makes implants become less and less natural.”

Meanwhile, fields like dentistry are taking full advantage of technological advancements, using imaging technology to make custom templates that are unique to every patient. With this in mind, Malek created a new patented design, which he’s currently in the process of bringing to market.

“It’s custom-designed and made with a 3D printer, using the all the same materials – FDA-approved human-implantable silicone – but in a way that limits the problems of pleating, folding and rippling.”

These problems, he says, can be especially prevalent in patients undergoing breast reconstruction surgery. These, along with mommy makeover patients – those looking to counteract the effects of pregnancy and breastfeeding, whether that means repairing split abdominal muscles, lifting or augmenting breasts, or removing unwanted fat deposits – are some of the most rewarding procedures for Malek.

“Motherhood can take a toll on anatomy and confidence, with lovely women who have sacrificed their body for their children suffering the consequences. I hear women say all the time that they’re afraid to be nude in front of their spouse because they’ve had three or four kids. It just doesn’t seem fair.”

After working with over 10,000 patients, Malek has fully adopted the sense of humility that comes with knowing his work should never be detected, that the patient should take credit for their own beauty, never himself.

Like a true sculptor, he says, “I have to leave no fingerprint that I’ve been there. I think failed surgery is one that people can tell has been done. Successful surgery is one that walks past you and you never know, because nothing looks distorted or unnatural.”

The most fulfilling part of the job? “Seeing a patient blossom like a flower being watered. My motto is that in every body there is a work of art, and it’s my job to rediscover it, to bring it back to light. We’re in the business of beauty, but we think beauty starts from the inside.”

Visit www.marcmalekmd.com to learn more information.