Plastic Perceptions

An eating disorder survivor, a hotshot surgeon and a young mother rethink their positions on cosmetic surgery.

Photos by Courtney Dudley

It all began with hands. Mutilated hands with complicated anatomy and so many moving parts. Hands that needed surgery, required tendons and nerves from other parts of the body.

It was during his third year of medical school at the University of Western Ontario that Dr. Ryan Neinstein had his first glimpse into the potent power of plastics. “The more time I spent, I realized that plastic surgery can reconstruct any part of the body,” he says. “That was what drew me towards the specialty.”

I met Dr. Neinstein at an Upper East Side Le Pain Quotidien on a Wednesday, surgery day. Mondays he does education training at Lenox Hill Hospital, Tuesdays he sees patients for pre- and post-operation meetings, and he spends Wednesdays through Fridays either assisting in or overseeing surgeries. He seems tethered to his patients and colleagues via phone, text or email, and devotedly responsive.

Neinstein, thirty-one, is a board certified plastic surgeon in Canada, currently doin…