Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Armando Soto.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I grew up in El Paso, Texas, the second of five children (and only son) born to a general surgeon who married an OR nurse- so perhaps I was always going to end up in an OR somehow. Notwithstanding this parentage, my path to becoming a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon was long and financially challenging. My father died of cancer while I was still in college, and I worked as a bartender to save money while helping my mom care for him in his last year or two of life. Even with the significant amount of money I was able to save, student loans were still required for me to get my degree from Texas A&M (Microbiology, 1991- Gig ‘Em Aggies!)). I remember feeling like failure was not an option, as I didn’t really want to work as a Microbiologist. The day I received the voicemail from the Office of Admissions at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine letting me know I had been invited to join the Class of 1995 remains one of the most joyous of my life- I wish I had saved that micro-cassette!
Upon graduating from Johns Hopkins, I married an OR nurse myself and moved to St. Louis, Missouri to begin training in first general and then Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. The Barnes and Jewish Hospitals of Washington University are among the most revered and well-respected in all of American surgery and were the birthplace of plastic surgery in this country, so it was quite an honor to receive my training there, rigorous as it was. While in medical school, I had been mentored by a plastic surgeon who specialized in breast surgery. He had since left Johns Hopkins and started his own fellowship training program (sub-specialty training that occurs after residency), and he invited me to return to Baltimore as his fellow. At the time, I would be learning procedures in advanced breast surgery that were only being performed by ~5 surgeons nationwide, and as my wife’s family was from Maryland, this was an easy decision for me. We had our daughter during the second to last year of residency and our son during my fellowship.
Those years between medical school graduation and completion of my fellowship were quite a blur, but by the end of those seven years, I was a married father of two and a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon with very marketable skills in advanced breast surgery techniques. Upon completion of my fellowship, I was asked to stay as an associate and assisted in the training of the next 6 fellows in the program. But I was beginning to feel restricted in my professional growth, and a severe car crash (thankfully without injuries) in the Maryland winter snow and ice convinced us we wanted to move somewhere warmer. We settled in Central Florida, choosing Orlando because of the professional opportunity available to me, its proximity to my wife’s family (her parents had moved to Sarasota by then), and because we believed in the principles on which the hospitality industry is based (with nods to Disney and Universal of course). We are now in our 15th year in Central Florida and have been very happy to call Orlando home as we have built a very successful practice and raised two children. And while those children- now young adults- have both chosen to pursue their higher educations in New York City, they both love returning to Central Florida and the City Beautiful.
We’ve been impressed with Aesthetic Enhancements Plastic Surgery & Laser Center, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We provide comprehensive health and beauty services for residents of Central Florida and beyond. We have had patients from five of the seven continents and are proud to offer everything from skincare to complicated and transformative surgical procedures, non- and minimally invasive treatments, and all types of laser procedures. I am trained in all aspects of Plastic Surgery but have chosen to dedicate my practice to the advancement of aesthetic surgery, patient education, and restoring the value of the doctor-patient relationship. I am known for excellence in Breast and Body Contouring and believe that what sets my practice apart from others is that we pursue the practice of plastic surgery as a humanistic endeavor. By this, I mean that I believe all of us have beauty within us, and all of us are traveling the same (often painful) journey to the same inevitable end. If I can help some of my fellow human beings be happier and feel more fulfilled on their journey, then I believe I have done some good.
I am most proud that I have built a brand based on integrity and the strength of the doctor-patient relationship. This means always prioritizing my patient’s safety and a natural-looking and lovely result. This has several important implications. First, it means that I am unlikely to be the least expensive option patients will find. The facts are that there are surgeons willing to cut corners to increase profits or make themselves more attractive cost-wise to potential patients, and high quality, safe care costs a bit more. It also means that I occasionally must turn someone away because they are insisting on something I believe is unsafe for them or will result in an unnatural or unattractive outcome. And while I never enjoy doing so, for many reasons, including the sometimes unpleasant reactions of the patient’s I refuse, I am comfortable that by educating them about my strong opinions against their planned choices, I am hopefully saving a few from the bad decisions which are all too easy to make in the pursuit of plastic surgery. We follow the golden rule in everything we do.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I grew up playing a lot of sports- soccer was my favorite, but I also played football, baseball, basketball, and swam. I started playing the piano as a young boy and played trumpet too. I have a piano and am learning guitar, but no longer play trumpet. I was always a good student, had a healthy respect for authority, and was always very competitive in all of my endeavors.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@drarmandosoto.com
- Website: www.drarmandosoto.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drarmandosoto/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aestheticenhancements
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrArmandoSoto
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9MVev6T5uQC_n2itd-R75Q
