BeautiPHIcation-Clinical Pearls

B. Kent Remington, MD

Dr Remington, a leading expert in aesthetics, provides us with clinical pearls with regards to the aesthetic consult…

  1. The patient consult is extremely important-spend ample focused time with your patients and find out the “real” reason that the patient wants to look more youthful, not the “stated” reason.
  2. Remember that patients come to physicians for direction.
  3. Pay special attention to details—as dermatologists we are image enhancers and we do all of the creative work—this full face enhancement project is what changes the patients personal self concept and self esteem.
  4. Remember to see in “double vision”—the first vision is to see what the face needs and demonstrate these needs to your patient, so they can visualize it as well ; the second vision is to able to see the end result before you start.
  5. Look for the patient’s best feature and point these out to the patient as they often already know what it is or used, combine this observation with a positive sincere compliment  and enhance that feature by performing subtle changes to the face.
  6. Remember that we never really finish a face, maintenance therapy is required.
  7. Educate your patients about the importance of maintenance therapy, most patients intuitively know that they already maintain their house, car, teeth their hair and the face is no different.
  8. Insist on baseline photos of your patients—this allows you to share before and after photos with your patients; therefore, showing them the positive changes.
  9. Have your patients bring an older good resolution  photos of themselves front relaxed view usually in their early 20’s—be sure that the photo is in high resolution. The patient needs to understand we are not trying to make them look like this 25 year old photo ,but it is to look at past symmetry, harmony and balance of the face and compare where they  are now.
  10. Have a careful planned approach with each patient—each patient has a different recipe for a successful outcome.
  11. When taking baseline photos of your patients, take more than just a frontal view—3/4 and profile views are extremely important.
  12. Patient perception and reality needs to be managed closely.