A warning to those considering getting a transplant with YouTube "Celebrity" Surgeon Dr. Gary Linkov

[Berik]

I recently stumbled upon a few reddit threads where I was astonished by what was being said about him and some of his results. I am pretty sure I cannot post the link to the thread, but I will post the text body here: 
 

Quote

"There is a disturbing trend with medical doctors who are fast becoming influencers. Do not be fooled by the aggressive propaganda on social media from plastic surgeons giving information on popular procedures in 15 minute soundbites. There is a fine line between a “TV doctor” and an actual doctor, and you have to be suspicious of anyone who has taken the Hippocratic oath and is at same time, hungry for fame. Not to say that Dr. Linkov isn’t a skilled and knowledgeable surgeon. He certainly is. I am questioning what his motivation is for entertaining us with these cosmetic surgery breakdown videos, if he really is as altruistic as he is portrayed on Instagram/Youtube/Tiktok, or if his greater purpose is to set his prices based on number of views. I am not saying there is anything wrong with wanting to be famous. I’m saying that the process of becoming a highly exposed doctor to attract clients and jacking up your prices in response to achieving your desired level of fame, does not accord with what I personally would look for in a surgeon. I would rather pay the premium for experience, education and safety instead of having to finance the whole Kardashian production operation on the side. And I say that as one of the fans who watched all of his videos and thought his published results were amazing. It's what led me to his office in the first place and why I waited 5 months and paid 400$ for a consultation.

I had a sub-30 minute consultation with him where I was warned amply beforehand that if I was 15 minutes late the meeting would be cancelled. So I showed up 10 minutes early, which turned out to be unnecessary because he was 15 minutes late. I guess rules for me are not rules for MDs? But I digress. What sticks most in my memory is the difference between his on-camera and real life persona. Like everyone watching these videos on his channel, my parasocial perception was that he was an extremely kind, patient, humble, unassuming man with fantastic bedside manner and the brilliant ability to explain complicated technical procedures to laypersons like me. So many reviews have said the same thing, and after meeting many hyper arrogant and rude surgeons in NYC, I figured Dr. Linkov was the angelic diamond in the rough. If he is generous enough to share his time with the public to correct our misconceptions about popular surgeries and educate us on the risks, surely he has the same attitude with his patients, right? Wrong. For under 30 minutes I found him rude, dismissive, arrogant, extremely impatient and even contemptuous. I was acutely conscious that he seemed to be in a bad mood or otherwise inconvenienced by our meeting so I kept my questions as short, polite and to the point as possible or avoided asking them altogether. He seemed irritated by having to answer me at all and annoyed by my lack of knowledge of the procedure I was interested in. I tried to end the meeting as soon as possible because I was mortified by how exasperated he seemed to be from having to talk to me. I left with the distinct impression that I had unforgivably wasted his time. It was then I decided that no matter how talented he was, I could not become his patient.

It’s possible I caught him on a bad day, but if you are having a bad day, cancel your appointments and don’t take it out on the people paying you $13.34 per minute of your time. Was he always this way? Possibly, possibly not. Probably he really was a nice guy, but like so many others seduced by fame it caught up to his head and corrupted his soul. If that’s not the case and he really is just an unsympathetic man then I have to commend him for the professionalism of his TV persona. He was born for it.

Why am I posting this? It’s not to criticize anyone — like I said, he is most certainly a skilled and talented surgeon, and if your experience with him was great, I am really happy for you. I don’t think he will fail to deliver on your surgical expectations. I am just here to warn anyone who is susceptible to choosing their doctor based on their social media presence. There is a lot behind the camera you don’t see. Somebody who seeks publicity and presents as a nice guy on YouTube and is so loyal to the people that he does a reddit AMA isn’t necessarily going to be kind. The brand and the person are two separate entities. Yes, even the most brilliant surgeons have a God complex in the OR but I don’t need mine to have an O-ring light with him in there as well. If you are going to go the Influencers In The Wild route, at the very least be kind to the people you claim to be servicing when your film crew isn’t there.

Oh, and just in case there was doubt about his influencer motivations? Dr Linkov 2.5x’ed his prices around the same time he hit 500k followers. In a rapidly untenable cost of living crisis, rising homelessness and the middle of a world war—why not take advantage of surge pricing!? Because once the unenlightened public has hit like and subscribe the transaction is over, he has nothing left for us but contempt."

In one of the comments in the thread, another user posted about a number of botched patients from plastic surgery, including a 18-year old woman who is now unable to close her mouth without her teeth and gums being exposed to air. There are several reviews of these on RealSelf, but some of them miraculously were removed/deleted.

Another user: "Thank you for this review. I had a consult with him about a year ago ($300 back then) and was also really put off by his dismissive and disinterested attitude. I truly believe there are better LL surgeons out there that are not social media hungry and charge much fairer prices, plus do a better job."

Remember - his main specialty is plastic surgery before becoming famous on youtube, and now transitioning to doing primarily hair transplants. His photo gallery of his best work on his website is very below average, I can't imagine what some of the poor results look like. 

 

There are several more threads/reviews online that are concerning this, but I thought that the community here should be aware of this, given how he is the most subscribed to Hair Transplant surgeon. 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 29, 2023 by Berik

[Melvin- Admin]

Our community looks at independent reviews. I haven’t seen one review of his work. I don’t believe anyone here would fall for YouTube hype. He gained popularity by making interesting videos mainly about celebrities. He didn’t become popular by posting his results, unlike Dr. Couto from Spain who gained popularity based on results.

[Rafael Manelli]

He was trained by Jeffrey Epstein. Aside from that he does general plastic surgery. That doesn’t mean he’s not good. Konior also does general plastic surgery and nobody will question his hair credentials. Linkov seems like a nice and knowledgeable doctor. But you’re right. I haven’t seen any results from him.

[A_4_Archan]

Good that you thought to let know the community about him...he is just famous for his lectures ....he never shown very good consistent results by him...actually this community will always stay away from hype(without results) ...and even if someone is considering someone like him than there are so many educated members here who will warn the person not to go on with the surgery ...

You are right that this days this you tube is creating lots of fake hype and people are falling for the trap...so thnks for showing concern towards the community and keep doing it for the wellness of others...

@Melvin- Moderator i have seen so many people bein prey to such hype(including me at one point in past) so we should just request all the members to atleast post a topic about the chosen doctor's suggestion when they are considering surgery so that people can guide him/her...though i believe it should be a guidance and not intimidation ...and we as community members are mostly open minded and even if someone choose a doctor who is not in recommended list but doing good work we appreciate it and advice to carry on with that doctor (dr mittal is a recent example) ...but suppose a patient choose a bad surgeon than we can advice him/her to reconsider the decision and provide him/her with a better alternative ...

[stephcurry30]

When I had my surgery with Nadimi for otoplasty she mentioned how she doesn't have enough time or barely enough time to update results on her IG page. 

World class surgeons who are busy don't have time or availability to start making YouTube videos daily because they are obsessed with their work. 

Whenever I see surgeons making tiktoks or youtube videos it makes me question their buisness and how great they are. 

[consequence]

Man can you imagine being a Norwood 0 and then getting alopecia universalis from COVID right as you're starting your career as a hair transplant surgeon?

His story is insane.

But yes, there's no way to judge without patient postings, we are a generally patient posted result based bunch. But he is young so probably needs a little time to develop that McDonald's level efficiency that you see with world class superstars. I'm sure they'll start popping up sooner or later if he's got high enough volume.

Edited November 15, 2023 by consequence