Hey guys, Mark Gruszynski here, Board Certified Plastic Surgeon in Scottsdale, AZ, and Beverly Hill, CA. I wanted to share my perspective on achieving beautiful results with facial injectables, including Botox and fillers, and why you might want to pick a plastic surgeon as your provider.
The first and most important rule of administering injectables is understanding anatomy. The Hippocratic Oath, sworn by all medical students in beginning their training, states “First, do no harm”. The reality is that dermal fillers, often used for lips, under-eyes, cheeks, and liquid rhinoplasty, can cause tremendous harm if administered improperly (including full-thickness skin loss and blindness). As a plastic surgeon with over 10 years of education and experience in surgery, I know the anatomy from visualizing it directly almost daily in surgery; this includes the location of the blood vessels and nerves that can cause dire complications if injured. This is hard to replace with a weekend course with a PowerPoint presentation! A keen understanding of the anatomy also facilitates excellent aesthetic results, particularly in administering Botox and other neurotoxins that require placement in the correct, often very small muscles to achieve the desired result.
The second element in achieving beautiful results with injectables is understanding the ideals of beauty and unifying them with a patient’s goals and expectations. Every patient deserves an individualized treatment plan, and that starts with a comprehensive facial aesthetic analysis. Too many injectors follow “Inject Here” templates without consideration for a patient’s unique anatomy. Every patient receiving injectables in my office undergoes the same pre-procedure detailed analysis that I would do in a facelift or rhinoplasty patient.
Lastly, I spend a lot of time with patients discussing expectations. Fillers and neurotoxins can deliver powerful results in the right patient. Some patients are better candidates to achieve their results with surgery. I never pressure a patient into one or the other; however, I think it’s critically important to avoid biased decision-making by ensuring a patient understands their options prior to undertaking any aesthetic intervention.
At the end of the day, there is no shortage of great injectors, including RN’s, PA’s, and MD’s. I just want patients to make informed, safe decisions before they undergo a procedure that changes their appearance and carries inherent risk!
