I enjoy the reviews saying she is "nice". No, she isn't even a nice yet incompetent or unskilled…read moresurgeon of the sort that makes an entire living off the authoritativeness of being a WASPy UES blond w/an office across from the Met in a neighborhood rancid w/sneering cosmetic surgeons like her.
I've never experienced such a rude, hostile consult w/a medical professional as I did with Michelle Yagoda.
From the beginning of the consult, the look on her face as I tried to summarize everything succinctly since I wanted to ask her questions was unwelcoming, but I persisted.
I described what I had experienced based on my previous surgery/diagnosis and perhaps clumsy way and referred to other patients on her own site I thought were similar; soon enough she indicated I was ordering her around and "telling her what to do" - like a five year old, or a crazy person. That is a direct quote. I'd be paying someone tens of thousands of dollars and putting my life in their hands; isn't it my right to express preferences based on her apparent surgical techniques w/out a physician becoming belligerent?
The entire time I was not only calm, but apologetic; she only got angrier w/attempts to describe them based on what other doctors had told me. Her final recommendations were simple crackpottery, IMO, spoken by someone who has not competent in cosmetic surgery and who is an ENT only (if that).
I expected disappointment; I definitely didn't expect to sit for 30 minutes w/a fuming middle-aged toddler trying to summarize 5 years of a health problem post-surgery in all of 15-20 minutes. Her demeanor was uncalled for, to say the least. Perhaps I should have come w/my husband, if only as a witness. I'm sorry to say it makes a difference having a man in the room.
I called & asked about her background first, sent info. Despite multiple reassurances from her staff she had prepared for my revision consult, she had NO idea why I was there. None.
At the end of the appt, I attempted to ask questions re: testing I could get to at least get a doctor's diagnosis of what I was feeling as best I could after reiterating I was not challenging her,simply expressing what I understood based on what other surgeons and other physicians had said, and at this moment, she launched herself from the chair as if stuck by a pin, telling me she was no longer willing to talk to me,took my belongings off the hanger on the door - holding them out to me like something I had covered in feces - and kicked me out of her office. I'm not embellishing this.
Other patients may have a different relationship (try to find a real review that isn't six years old...I now assume Dr. Yagoda has her medical licensure active primarily to serve on health insurance boards and do press interviews) but her behavior, the language she used, her tone, her reactions to simple questions, & her astoundingly rude dismissal are my personal experience. I even pushed away the fact she has no reviews here or anywhere else for the procedure I wanted more recent than 2013-16 at the time I booked the consult.
Your mileage may vary but suffice it to say I personally would not recommend consulting Dr. Michelle Yagoda for ANY PROCEDURE, cosmetic or medical, permanent or temporary.
I will refer you to her sniping at "Kathy F" below. Good Lord. A fittingly hideous, insidious response from someone I suspect is a hideous person/horrible physician. Wish I'd seen that before the consult. Also wish I had seen the "unrecommended reviews", which I trust a lot more than the mysteriously generic & similar happy reviews here. I went b/c at this stage, I'm pretty desperate and hopeless even for actionable information or someone I can ask questions.
This behavior is all very rich from someone who has no authentic or substantive current word of mouth, reputation, or credible reviews in the NYC plastic surgery community.
I've consulted multiple surgeons in New York who were dismissive, contemptuous, and whose websites misrepresented their expertise and capacity to inform patients, but I can definitively say this is probably one of my worst, most ridiculous experiences as a patient, short of the botching by the absolute cretin that left my nose in its current state. I paid someone a ridiculous fee for the experience I am describing above. Avoid.