Martin Jugenberg, MD “Dr. Six” - Plastic Surgeon in Toronto

Eva Sheie (00:03):
The purpose of this podcast is simple. We want you to get to know your doctor before meeting them in person because you're making a life-changing decision, and time is scarce. The more you can learn about who your doctor is before you meet them, the better that first meeting will be. I'm your host Eva Sheie, and you're listening to Meet the Doctor. Welcome back to Meet the Doctor. My guest is Martin Jugenberg from Toronto. And you're a plastic surgeon, correct?

Dr. Jugenberg (00:30):
I am. That's right.

Eva Sheie (00:31):
And you're also known as Dr. Six?

Dr. Jugenberg (00:33):
Yes. Dr. Six is so much easier to say than Dr. Jugenberg.

Eva Sheie (00:36):
Yeah, I'm sure it is. How's the meeting been for you so far?

Dr. Jugenberg (00:40):
It's been awesome. Lots of good talks, but to be honest, my favorite part is the exhibits.

Eva Sheie (00:45):
Is it really?

Dr. Jugenberg (00:46):
It's like my little toy store walking around. I want to buy half of this, half the half the things I see here.

Eva Sheie (00:51):
It's like your own mall design just for you?

Dr. Jugenberg (00:54):
Yes, yes. A lot of cool, cool little toys.

Eva Sheie (00:57):
So tell me about your practice.

Dr. Jugenberg (00:59):
So we are located in downtown Toronto. I also have offices in Dubai, Kuwait, and hopefully soon in Miami. We're working on that, so multinational, but my home is Toronto. In Toronto, we do a full scope of plastic surgery, so everything head to toe and nonsurgical treatments like Botox and fillers. My passion is surgery, so that's where I spend most of my time. I tell my patients, my ORs, my playground, so that's where I like to hang out. We do pretty much everything but the nose. I don't do noses, but I do everything else.

Eva Sheie (01:28):
So do you have to send people out for noses or do you have someone else?

Dr. Jugenberg (01:31):
We have someone in the office that is a rhinoplasty specialist.

Eva Sheie (01:34):
Okay. So how big is your team?

Dr. Jugenberg (01:36):
There's four of us plastic surgeons. We have one ENT facial plastic who does the noses. And in terms of staff, I honestly don't know, I think like 20 or 30 people.

Eva Sheie (01:46):
How did you get the name Dr Six? Where did that come from?

Dr. Jugenberg (01:49):
I've been active on, I guess online, on social media for quite a while, but in 2016 I took the plunge and really dove into it and we were thinking of a name. There's a lot of different options. Right at that time, Drake came up with his song, The Six, and so he was like, yeah, The Six, it sounds better than a Dr. Toronto and definitely easier to spell and pronounce than Dr. Jugenberg. So I went with that. I had no idea how good it was going to be. I like, okay, fine. People love it. Patients love it. It's really the simplicity of it and it makes people wonder what is six? What is he talking about? People from Toronto know what the six is. It's like the term for Toronto, but everybody else is like, what's a six? This is is your work six out of 10? I'm like, no, it's a six out of five.

Eva Sheie (02:34):
Good answer. So six is like a nickname for Toronto?

Dr. Jugenberg (02:37):
Correct.

Eva Sheie (02:38):
Wow. I learned something new today. It works.

Dr. Jugenberg (02:41):
It does.

Eva Sheie (02:41):
How did you come to build your practice in Toronto? Did you grow up there or did you move there?

Dr. Jugenberg (02:47):
No, I'm actually an immigrant refugee from the former communist block. So I moved to Canada in 89, went to high school and all my postgraduate studies in Canada and in the States. And then I actually was in the States for my fellowship. I was at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Cancer Micro reconstruction fellowship. And I was looking to maybe move to Miami, but we ended up deciding to go back to Toronto. Started out as a reconstructive neurosurgeon, but fairly quickly transitioned to cosmetic surgery. I worked with some great plastic surgeons in Toronto and it just came natural. It wasn't something I sort of planned on doing, but it just kind of happened and I built the sixth surgery clinic and we've been having fun ever since.

Eva Sheie (03:31):
How did immigrating to Canada impact the way that you looked at your education and that path forward?

Dr. Jugenberg (03:40):
That's a very tough thing to do. When we came to Canada with my parents, we are truly refugees. We had nothing. We didn't come, we didn't move to Canada, we escaped with nothing. So we came here. That was a traumatic thing, especially I was 13 at that time, so I started probably a good age. But like they say, if it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger. I feel like that experience made me a little more resilient to stress through challenges I pushed through. It wasn't easy, but I just kept pushing through and I made the most of it.

Eva Sheie (04:14):
Do you think about it often or is it just sort of in the background now?

Dr. Jugenberg (04:17):
It's in the background. When we talk about it, I remember it and I can look at it, I'm like, yeah, it made me who I am. But I don't think about it on a daily basis.

Eva Sheie (04:27):
It's not a perspective that most people have.

Dr. Jugenberg (04:30):
We're all unique in some way.

Eva Sheie (04:32):
Yes, that's true. Do people come to Toronto to see you from all over the world? Well, you go to them too, but

Dr. Jugenberg (04:38):
We do have people from around the world contacting us. But now that I have a location in Dubai, I typically send people to Dubai. So if people from around the world contacting us, I just say, Hey, I'll be in Dubai. Why don't you see me there? And so I would say Dubai is my international location and Toronto is more the Canadian location.

Eva Sheie (04:57):
Right. It's like the east and the west location. Yeah. Got it. And how long have you been going to Dubai?

Dr. Jugenberg (05:02):
Since 2020 I think. 2020. So it's been always five years now.

Eva Sheie (05:07):
Was there anything particularly challenging about opening up in Dubai?

Dr. Jugenberg (05:11):
It wasn't. It was actually through a friend of mine who is from there and I work at his hospital, so he really brought me on, made it very, very easy. It's been seamless, very nice. Dr. Catina from Kuwait, great guy, and he's made it super easy. I just show up and I don't have to worry about the logistics.

Eva Sheie (05:31):
How often do you go?

Dr. Jugenberg (05:33):
I go every three to four months.

Eva Sheie (05:35):
And then how many people do you see while you're there?

Dr. Jugenberg (05:38):
It varies. Lots of different people. Very different crowd though.

Eva Sheie (05:42):
Yeah.

Dr. Jugenberg (05:42):
So what I like about that its, it's a very, very different world. Patients are different. North American patients are the type, talk about, they do the Google research and they come and tell you what they want and how they want it. In Dubai, they come to and say, doctor, here I am. You take care of me. You fix me. You tell me what I need and how it's done.

Eva Sheie (06:05):
Do you prefer one over the other?

Dr. Jugenberg (06:08):
They both have ups and downs, so pluses and minuses. What I like is the change. Going to Dubai is kind, refreshing. It changes your perspective. It's a slightly different work environment. Then I come back to what I'm used to at home and kind of go with that. So it's the variation. You don't want to be doing the same thing always all the time. It can get boring. So putting a little bit of variability is a nice thing.

Eva Sheie (06:30):
Other than the weather in Dubai, is there anything else that you look forward to? Do you have a routine?

Dr. Jugenberg (06:37):
Everything. Everything. I love Dubai. It is just, we could talk about four hours about it. Everything I love in Dubai. It's such a phenomenal place.

Eva Sheie (06:45):
What's the first thing you do when you get there?

Dr. Jugenberg (06:47):
Check into my favorite hotel and go to the rooftop pool and chill out.

Eva Sheie (06:53):
Paradise?

Dr. Jugenberg (06:53):
Yes.

Eva Sheie (06:54):
Yeah. In terms of what patients seek you for procedure wise, is there something that you're known for? Is there a specialty?

Dr. Jugenberg (07:02):
I am known for my butts, my body work, although majority of what I do is actually breast. In terms of volume the biggest chunk of my practice is breast augmentation, but the one that I'm most famous for is my BBLs and body and mommy makeovers.

Eva Sheie (07:18):
It's an interesting time in both of those categories because there hasn't been a lot of innovation in breast augmentation. I think it was kind of static for a while and now theres a lot, lot of new things happening.

Dr. Jugenberg (07:27):
We do things a little bit differently. I do what I call tiny scar breast augmentation. So my breast augmentation incisions maybe two centimeters,

(07:36):
And I do a couple different techniques. I do what I call a power boost breast augmentation, so it's a little bit different. Internal bra, something that people talk a lot about. The way I do the internal bra, I use the pectoral muscles, gives you the rounder, fuller look. It kind of makes me stand up because a lot of people strive for the more natural look. A lot of surgeons, I mean, and a lot of people think the natural look is the way to go, but you'd be surprised how many women actually don't want the natural look. They already have the saggy breasts. They're like, enough, I want a perky pushup look. And so that's what the power boost press augmentation does is it gives you a longer lasting fuller cleavage. Rounder cleavage. And some people may look and say, well, that's not natural. Yeah, but that's not what they asked for. A lot of women, you would be shocked, don't want to look natural. They want to look like they're wearing a pushup bra without wearing a bra.

Eva Sheie (08:23):
There's someone for everyone.

Dr. Jugenberg (08:25):
Exactly,

Eva Sheie (08:25):
Yes.

Dr. Jugenberg (08:27):
And if you do want the natural look, we do what's what I call the French aug, which is a more a teardrop look. So we do, I don't want to put myself in a pigeon hole and say we only do a fake look. We do both, but I do this power boost look, which I think makes us a little bit unique and there's a lot of people that actually like that.

Eva Sheie (08:45):
What about the trends in terms of body contouring and butts? That's changed recently too.

Dr. Jugenberg (08:49):
It has it. So the demand for the big round, bubbly butt has gone down, but we still do a little BBLs. I like to do what I call the skinny BBLs, which is more body contouring on a skinny patient. They're not looking for a huge butt they're looking for curves from being sort square straight. We create a little bit of a smaller waist little curve on a waist little butt, and it creates a nice little S shaped curves, contours. So it's contouring, not augmentation.

Eva Sheie (09:15):
Have the GLP ones been as big in Canada as they are here in the United States?

Dr. Jugenberg (09:20):
Probably not, but I do have to say I love them and we have started to offer them at our clinic as well as an adjunct. So we see a lot of people, and we have a strict BMI limit, so patients that don't meet our BMI limits, we suggest, Hey, we can offer you help with weight loss. But aside from weight loss, what I like about Ns little tangent is all the health benefits, cardiac mortality goes down, your liver health goes up. Lots of benefits, but that's a whole new topic.

Eva Sheie (09:48):
It's a great topic.

Dr. Jugenberg (09:49):
It's a great thing. Botox, when I first came out was used for blepharospasm and then we've used it for cosmetic things. Now use it for migraines, for depression. There's so many uses, and I think I see GLP ones, same thing people are using for weight loss, but suddenly people realize there's so many other uses. You can use it for

Eva Sheie (10:05):
Addiction.

Dr. Jugenberg (10:06):
Addiction is a great, absolutely.

Eva Sheie (10:08):
Absolutely. I was going to say nothing will make your butt square faster than losing weight.

Dr. Jugenberg (10:15):
Flatter. Yes, and I do have patients that come to me and they're very, very skinny. They've lost some weight. Well, if that's your biggest problem, you're very, very lucky person.

Eva Sheie (10:27):
Let's switch gears a little bit. You make a lot of content, and you told me that in 2016 you jumped right into social media. Do you have a favorite platform that you like to create for?

Dr. Jugenberg (10:37):
I used to love Snapchat because of the flexibility, the ability to show content. Snapchat used to allow us to show surgical content, which is what I do. I use social media for education. I show people actual surgeries. I show everything from their consultation to surgery, to recovery, giving people a behind the scenes view of what takes place. But unfortunately, Snapchat has changed. I kind of left Snapchat, mostly came back, but I left Snapchat. Now. I spend most of my time on Instagram. Unfortunately, all social media platforms look at plastic surgeons as these evil people. We get flagged for content for all kinds of reasons, so it's been a little bit frustrating. I had to change what I put up. I do the talking head things, which is boring and annoying. I'd like to show more of what I do.

Eva Sheie (11:23):
Do you find that people are interested in seeing surgical content?

Dr. Jugenberg (11:26):
Absolutely.

Eva Sheie (11:27):
They like it.

Dr. Jugenberg (11:28):
They do, and our patients like to see things, and I love it as a patient, educational, I really do. People always accuse me, oh, you're just doing this for marketing. You're trying to make money. No, I do it for education because people that walk into my office that have been watching on social media are so much more informed. The consultation is a discussion. When someone walks in my office, I ask them, do you watch our social media? But they say, no. I know this could be a long consultation and they will have no idea what I'm talking about. People that watch me are amazing. I truly believe that this allows us to educate patients amazingly, and I truly believe in my patients among the most informed patients. So when we talk about informed consent, big topic in surgeries, like most people sign a form, I'm sorry, reading a form or talking to a doctor who talks to you and you have no idea what they're talking about. That's not informed consent. My patients have informed consent and I love it.

Eva Sheie (12:16):
They do. Informed consent is a really big deal, and people in plastic surgery who aren't prepared for recovery are the most dissatisfied. It has nothing to do with their results. They just didn't know what was going to happen.

Dr. Jugenberg (12:28):
If you don't set realistic expectations, it doesn't matter what you do. You have unhappy patient.

Eva Sheie (12:32):
Yeah, and we don't want unhappy patients because they don't refer their friends and their family and they don't come back.

Dr. Jugenberg (12:39):
Why would I want to take on a patient I know it's going to be unhappy. Don't want to do that.

Eva Sheie (12:43):
The truth is the only way forward.

Dr. Jugenberg (12:45):
Absolutely.

Eva Sheie (12:46):
Any advice that you have about social media for others who might be listening?

Dr. Jugenberg (12:51):
Very simple. Keep it simple. Don't try to be fake. Be yourself. Whoever you're, whatever you're, put it out there. Don't try to fit 'em all. You see people doing stuff, try to copy them and put on a personality or something. Just be yourself. Do your stuff, and people will click with that.

Eva Sheie (13:08):
Don't copy what other people are doing. I think that's so important.

Dr. Jugenberg (13:11):
Don't be fake. Don't be fake. Because being fake is like lying doesn't work.

Eva Sheie (13:15):
No. When you're authentic, the people who you want to come in, they will find you and they will show up.

Dr. Jugenberg (13:20):
There's what, seven, 8 billion people out there?

Eva Sheie (13:22):
There's a lot of patients.

Dr. Jugenberg (13:24):
I'm sure you can find a group that likes what you have to offer.

Eva Sheie (13:27):
Yeah. Where can we find you online? Is it all Dr. Six? If we just Google DR. Six, will we find all of you?

Dr. Jugenberg (13:34):
Go on Instagram. On Instagram. You're going to find me on realDr.Six real D-R-S-I-X. On YouTube, we have our YouTube channel called Six Surgery, so that's a place to go. We also have TikTok, which I hate. I don't like the platform, but we have YouTube, we have Instagram, we have TikTok, and then our website, torontosurgery.com. But if you really want to see what's going on, follow us on the Real Doctor. Six Real DRSIX Instagram. Yes.

Eva Sheie (14:01):
I'll make sure we put that in the show notes and easy to find. Thank you so much.

Dr. Jugenberg (14:05):
Thank you.

Eva Sheie (14:06):
It was really interesting hearing about you.

Dr. Jugenberg (14:07):
Thank you. Nice chatting with you.

Eva Sheie (14:10):
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