Hollywood H20

How many times have you watched an interview or read an article where an A list celeb is asked their secret to staying so youthful looking and fit and you hear the same response over and over; something to the effect of “Oh, I just drink a lot of water, get a good night’s sleep” or it’s “Oh, I don’t even really like to exercise”…. Hmmmm …really? Because if that is the secret I think I could look like Jennifer Aniston no problem. Most of us could. Not liking exercise is a common trait of the masses and I think we could all manage an extra glass of H20 and a few extra zzz’s if we are going to wake up looking like J Lo. I mean what kind of water do these people expect us to believe they’re drinking? It can’t be the same stuff I am sipping on out of the bottle or tap because I have to put a heck of a lot more time, effort and money into looking nowhere close to these people.

Give us break celebs. I mean yes…many of you are born with great genes. This is absolutely possible and probable. Good genes can carry some people for quite awhile. But at some point things start happening. You wake up one day out of the blue it seems and you start to notice maybe some little things are changing. It’s subtle. A broken blood vessel here, some sagging there and it continues and sadly continues some more. I’ll never forget looking down at my hands one afternoon a few years ago and was shocked. They were dry and had fine lines and were oh my god! Old looking! They no longer looked like my young, smooth hands but resembled my mothers. EEK! It is aging people. None of us can escape it. We can mask it and defy it for a little bit but it takes time, effort, money and usually a good doctor or aesthetics clinician to keep it at bay. Adding insult to injury some more by Hollywood we notice some of these famous faces are nearly unrecognizable anymore. They do not even look like the same person as they have obviously had either too much plastic surgery or treated without restraint aesthetically and they deny and deny they have had a thing done. I mean if they’re happy fine. It’s no skin of our noses but I am starting to notice that many of these guys and gals are starting to morph into looking like each other. A big giant unrecognizable once or currently famous group of duck lipped swollen puffer fish. To me it is kind of tragic but becoming very common. Just like you can over indulge in alcohol, food, drugs and just about anything; you can also become addicted or let’s say over indulgent in changing your appearance. This is why it is of vital importance you see and stay with a reputable and well regarded doctor and or clinician. This is key to looking good but still maintaining looking like you! You do not want to join the pod of the duck lipped swollen puffer fish…Or maybe you do; but you really should have a thorough and continuous consultation with your Doc and/or clinician and then expect to keep having conversations and really listening at each visit. To obtain the best results it is important to have the person treating you be honest. Honest and trustworthy. Even if that means they lose money by telling you that you may not need a certain procedure yet or that something may be too much and not natural looking etc. Dr. Joseph Russo at Aesthetics Institute of Massachusetts, where I and many other clinicians have trained, explains this thoroughly and teaches his students to recognize clients who are getting a bit over zealous in treatment and then how to manage this quite common issue. Dr. Russo explains in his Introduction to Fillers class this very concern. He instructs the class as he is drawing a staircase on the dry erase board how a client initially comes in and sees themselves in the mirror during the consultation and when asked what they do not like about themselves, we as clinicians then discuss a treatment plan to correct the issues. If the client agrees to recommended treatment, he continues, we move forward with the plan i.e. Juvaderm to under eye sunken areas, cheeks and lips and next maybe a little Botox for example. This is the first step on the metaphorical stair case. He goes on with the example story that this patient is hopefully happy and satisfied and you plan to follow up and make another appointment in the appropriate time frame (3-4 months Botox treatment usually and about 6 months fillers). Next the client may call a bit earlier than scheduled and feels she still has some lines that bother her and then feels she needs more filler in her cheek and maybe a little bit more in her lips. You as the clinician oblige this and the client leaves happy again. Then again she calls and wants more in her cheeks and wants to discuss Kybella and other treatments. This can go on and on up the staircase of becoming unrecognizable and it is up to the clinician whether it be doctor or nurse to recognize this and discuss this with the client. Dr. Russo stresses to the class the importance of taking pictures on initial visit and every visit and encourage the client too as well because people start forgetting what they originally looked like. They only are seeing the newer version after treatment and each visit they get a little more and a little more they recognize their original self less and less. All too often some doctors and clinicians only see dollar signs and do whatever the client wishes. In every profession we know that sometimes money may trump responsibility. These are the irresponsible “professionals” creating the duck lipped swollen puffer people pods that are popping up all over. While I realize that if my client wants more treatment and I deter or decline them they can probably just go down the street and get what they seek somewhere else. It is more important to me to sleep at night knowing I am not adding to the puffer pod. I think at some point many of the clients who have been “over” treated recognize it and regret it. I do not want to be the cause of someone’s regret.

At Dr. Russo’s school, Aesthetics Institute of Massachusetts, we are encouraged strongly not to cause a client’s regret. In AM’s Aesthetics Business Building Class the instructor said something that to me was very profound. She said “Do you want to be the Tiffany’s of aesthetics or the Wal-Mart?” “It’s up to you.” Well, I for one do not want to be the Wal-Mart clinician and I absolutely wouldn’t want to go to a Wal-Mart clinician for treatment on my skin or face! Wal-Mart has a place in the world (debatable) but not in the area of medical aesthetics. You are worth more. Find your Tiffany’s clinician and stick with them or find out what kind of water Hollywood is drinking and then let me know.