Plastic surgeon followed his father into the field

James Shaw followed his father into plastic surgery.

But that’s not the only reason he chose that specialty.

“The more I went through my surgical training, the more I realized there’s tremendous opportunity for variety,” he said.

“Certain specialties will only do three or four types of surgery. For us, we have quite a wide variety of procedures and areas we work on.”

Shaw said it’s also a specialty not overrun with competition in Kansas. Residents from across much of the state come to Wichita for plastic surgery, but the city has only about a dozen practitioners, he said.

That’s one reason Shaw recently opened Shaw Plastic Surgery on North Webb Road, just off K-96.

“It’s a location that makes it really easy for people coming from out of town to get in and out of this area quickly,” he said. “It seems like more and more of my patients do come from out of town.”

Shaw graduated from the University of Kansas School of Medicine and did his plastic surgery training at the University of Texas in Galveston. He has practiced here since 1995, including four years with his father, Richard Shaw, before his father’s retirement.

Shaw said breast augmentation and tummy tucks are a big part of his work.

“Sometimes we do both together,” he said. “They call it a ‘mommy makeover.’ A lot of women come to see me when they’re done having children.”

He also performs liposuction, Botox, skin tightening, removal of sun-damaged skin and other forms of plastic surgery. A big trend in his specialty is the move toward noninvasive surgery – for instance, cool sculpting, which is a nonsurgical way of removing fat.

Thanks to improved imaging technology, he said, “You can kind of morph the (photographs of patients) and show people how they might expect the result to be.”

Shaw’s new 4,000-square-foot location includes several examination and procedure rooms, although he performs most surgeries at the Cypress Surgery Center, about a mile away. Government regulations have made it more difficult to maintain accredited surgery facilities, he said.

“A place like Cypress is very simple and cost-effective for the patients,” he said. “They do very accommodating pricing for surgeries like this.”

Shaw employs two nurses, a receptionist and an office manager. The property includes 3,000 additional square feet that he is looking to lease to a tenant.

Shaw said there’s one more reason why he’s happy to have chosen plastic surgery as his field.

“Most patients I see are coming to me by choice to do something they want to do,” he said. “It’s not like if your appendix is about to burst and you have to go do something.”

This story was originally published June 1, 2016 at 4:25 PM with the headline "Plastic surgeon followed his father into the field."