Key Points
Q: When developing a treatment plan for the face, we know that one size does not fit all. How do you approach each individual face to determine your aesthetic approach?
Harris S. Hausen, M.D.
"Although two patients may each present, for example, for a dermal filler and a neurotoxin to reduce the appearance of rhytids, the appropriate course of action for a woman in her 30s, a professional ballroom dancer who tells me she needs "to sparkle like the rhinestones on (her) costumes for a competition this weekend," will differ substantially from that recommended for a woman in her 60s, a conservative attorney who tells me she "would like to look less angry" but does not "want anyone to notice (she's) had 'work' done." Both are actual patients I have seen, and physiology and anatomy notwithstanding, how aggressively I chose to treat each was informed by our conversations and insight toward desired results. "Similarly, as many cosmetic procedures can be feminizing, the approach I will offer a gentleman may be less aggressive than that offered to his female contemporary. Retaining masculinity to preserve a man being perceived as handsome, not pretty, is a necessary and fundamental aspect of selecting his proper plan of management. "Frequently, patients present unsure of which procedures they may require to achieve certain effects and ends. Patients also present with misconceptions regarding the safety or efficacy of various cosmetic procedures, or they present misidentifying those procedures they think will most benefit them. As a physician, it is my responsibility to guide my patients toward the most valuable course of action or, conversely, to decline undertaking any course of action if I believe it to be unsafe or unnecessary for a given patient. "My recommendations in addressing the needs of each patient vary as greatly as individuals vary. One constant, consistent component of my approach is the very recognition that each patient is a unique individual with unique structure and unique mindset and unique circumstance. My treatment must, therefore, be customized to fit that one patient, and only that one patient, seated before me in consultation." |