Roy Kim, MD

Roy Kim, MD Dr. Roy Kim is a board certified Plastic Surgeon in San Francisco and Los Angeles focusing on breast

Can you see the incisions?My beautiful patient looked tired, even though she was actually not tired. Her upper and lower...
02/27/2026

Can you see the incisions?

My beautiful patient looked tired, even though she was actually not tired. Her upper and lower lids looked heavy, and it was changing the way people read her face.

Quadrilateral blepharoplasty addressed all four lids in one procedure. The result? She looks like herself — just awake, more alert and refreshed, with the heaviness gone.

But even if you zoom in, you can not see the incisions in the upper eyelids- in the supratarsal crease- and in the lower eyelid margin. This is an extreme close-up, with no makeup or filters.

When patients ask me “will people be able to tell I had surgery?” - this is my answer. The goal isn’t to look “done.” I want you to look like you got the best sleep of your life, permanently.

If your eyes don’t match your energy, let’s talk! Link in my bio to book a consultation.





Most of what’s in a $100K wellness room is just expensive furniture.I keep seeing this with patients. They’ll describe e...
02/26/2026

Most of what’s in a $100K wellness room is just expensive furniture.

I keep seeing this with patients. They’ll describe elaborate home setups — hyperbaric chambers, $15K massage chairs, infrared saunas — but when I ask about consistent strength training or a real sauna routine, the conversation goes quiet.

So I built out two longevity room layouts based on what the research actually supports. One costs $3-6K. The other runs $60-120K. They cover the same core interventions. The expensive version is more comfortable. It’s not 20x more effective.

What earns its spot:
resistance training cuts all-cause mortality 20-30%. V
O2 max is the best predictor of lifespan you can measure — trainable on a $400 used bike. Finnish sauna data ties 4-7 weekly sessions to 40-50% lower cardiovascular mortality.

What doesn’t:
massage chairs (zero longevity data),
hyperbaric chambers for healthy people (insufficient evidence),
infrared over traditional saunas (the Finnish studies used dry heat at 170-195°F).

The best longevity room is the one you actually show up to. Everything else is furniture.

Full breakdown with both room layouts and the Norwegian 4x4 cardio protocol — link in bio.

What’s in your home setup that you actually use vs. what’s collecting dust?





Microsoft’s AI chief says most white-collar work will be fully automated in 12-18 months.He’s right about the direction,...
02/20/2026

Microsoft’s AI chief says most white-collar work will be fully automated in 12-18 months.

He’s right about the direction, but I think wrong about the timeline.

The biggest obstacle between AI and your job isn’t a technical problem. It’s lawyers, licensing boards, and malpractice carriers — and those don’t move at Silicon Valley speed.

A plastic surgeon’s board certification, DEA number, and malpractice coverage don’t get disrupted by a product launch. AI can assist my workflow, but sadly, can’t reduce or take away my liability. That distinction is everything.

Your licensure is your moat. Not forever- but long enough to matter.

Full breakdown on Substack: https://drroykim.substack.com/p/the-moat-ai-cant-cross-yet





Microsoft’s AI chief says most white-collar work will be fully automated in 12-18 months.He’s right about the direction,...
02/19/2026

Microsoft’s AI chief says most white-collar work will be fully automated in 12-18 months.

He’s right about the direction, but I think wrong about the timeline.

The biggest obstacle between AI and your job isn’t a technical problem. It’s lawyers, licensing boards, and malpractice carriers — and those don’t move at Silicon Valley speed.

A plastic surgeon’s board certification, DEA number, and malpractice coverage don’t get disrupted by a product launch. AI can assist my workflow, but sadly, can’t reduce or take away my liability. That distinction is everything.

Your licensure is your moat. Not forever- but long enough to matter.

Swipe through my carousel for my ADHD carousel. Full breakdown on Substack — link in bio or search “Dr. Roy Kim on Substack”





02/19/2026

Plastic surgery tourism—good or bad?

The answer is nuanced. Smaller procedures are generally safer overseas—dermatology treatments, laser, hair transplants, or minor surgeries with shorter recovery times. You can still save money.

My concern is larger, higher-risk procedures requiring general anesthesia or longer recovery. If complications arise in a foreign country where you're recovering for weeks, patient safety becomes an issue. Also, once you factor in flights and extended stays, the cost savings on larger procedures often disappear.

Smaller procedures overseas? Probably fine. Larger surgeries? I'd be cautious.

So now you know.

02/18/2026

Plastic surgery tourism isn’t automatically unsafe. But it’s not automatically safe either.

Here’s how I think about it: smaller procedures — skin care or injectable treatments, hair transplants, minor surgeries — shorter recovery, less anesthesia risk, and the cost savings often hold up. Going overseas for those? Probably fine in most cases.

Where I’d pump the brakes: larger operations requiring general anesthesia with weeks of recovery. If a complication develops after you’ve flown home — or while you’re still trying to recover in a hotel room abroad — that’s a serious problem. And the cost savings often doesn’t work out the way people expect factor in flights and weeks of post surgery recovery, and the “deal” can disappear fast.

My general rule: the bigger the surgery, the closer to home you should be.

Would you ever get plastic surgery abroad?





Big thanks toKanokwan Wansiri, KF Ng, Nuch Nampanya, Farjana Sunnyfor all your support! Congrats for being top fans on a...
02/17/2026

Big thanks to

Kanokwan Wansiri, KF Ng, Nuch Nampanya, Farjana Sunny

for all your support! Congrats for being top fans on a streak 🔥!

I can’t tell if that before-and-after is real anymore. And neither can you.Research shows humans detect AI images at 53%...
02/12/2026

I can’t tell if that before-and-after is real anymore. And neither can you.

Research shows humans detect AI images at 53% accuracy—coin-flip territory. A plastic surgeon with mediocre results can now populate their gallery with perfect AI-generated befores and afters.

Low-resolution scrolling on your phone? Impossible to tell what’s real.

Video is still harder to fake convincingly. Movement, lighting changes, real-time explanation of anatomy—that’s harder to simulate.

For now.

Which is why I’ve shifted toward more video content. Because you deserve to see evidence that results actually exist.

Before you choose a plastic surgeon: verify they exist through official channels. Prioritize video. Trust your consultation more than any gallery.

The full breakdown is on my Substack- link in bio.




02/10/2026

A patient asked me something today that stopped me mid-consultation.

“Do you repair the ligaments during a deep plane facelift?”

I don’t. I release them- and this is why a deep plane facelift works.

Think of it this way — as your face ages, those ligaments aren’t helping you anymore. They’re anchoring everything in the wrong place. Release them, and I can put your facial structures back where they were 15 years ago. That’s not tightening- it’s a restoration, and why the deep plane facelift technique is so powerful.

Four major ligaments are released, and the entire SMAS is repositioned and supported. That’s the deep plane difference.

What’s something about facelifts you’ve always wondered but never asked? 👇





"Why would I pay more when the surgery is the same?"I hear this twice a week in consultations. And honestly? The patient...
02/04/2026

"Why would I pay more when the surgery is the same?"

I hear this twice a week in consultations. And honestly? The patient isn't wrong.The basic surgery IS the same.

But here's what nobody tells you: There are three versions of breast augmentation. Most surgeons only offer one.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: most surgeons recommend what's easy, not what's optimal.

Fat grafting takes more time. Internal support requires expertise. Scar optimization is obsessive work.

So the consensus stays: "Implants alone work great."They do work. But "works" and "optimal" are different things.

Is the Gold version three times better than Bronze? No. Think of it like wine—a $100 bottle is good, a $1,000 bottle is better, but not ten times better. You're paying for refinement, not exponential improvement.

But if longevity matters—how you look at year 15, not just year 1—that refinement is everything.

Full breakdown on my Substack.
Link in bio. 📍

What would you choose—immediate satisfaction or long-term results?











You don’t have to be “old” to need a Blepharoplasty. 👁️This patient is young, but early upper lid laxity was hiding her ...
02/03/2026

You don’t have to be “old” to need a Blepharoplasty. 👁️

This patient is young, but early upper lid laxity was hiding her natural crease. Her biggest request? “I want to look like myself — just better.”

We conservatively:
↳ removed excess skin
↳ reinforced her natural fold
↳ kept her brow completely untouched

She looks the same… just more open, rested, and defined.

The best blepharoplasty is the one nobody can spot.

Thinking about eyelid surgery but worried about looking overdone? Contact my office and let’s set up a consultation.





Address

450 Sutter Street, Suite 1440
San Francisco, CA
94108

Opening Hours

Monday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Tuesday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Wednesday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Thursday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Friday 8:30am - 4:30pm

Website

https://drkim.com/

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