After consulting cosmetic patients for nearly 20 years now, we regularly hear the same fears and misconceptions from patient around the cosmetic industry, and whether they want to, or should, have any treatment. These fears/misconceptions can often be a significant barrier – enough for them to delay treatment over a period of years or not seek treatment at all. Below, I have broken down some of these barriers in the same way that we would with patients in our consulting rooms.
1. We are not going to make you look strange
This is the number one fear and barrier, I believe, that patients face when thinking about seeking cosmetic injectable treatment – and let’s be in honest, in some cases that fear is a reality. There are a lot of poorly executed and overdone injectable results out there, however rest assured our assessment part of the consultation is equal parts science and art. We aim to enhance what you already have, we will decline to treat you if we believe it will make you look strange and we aim for natural, undetectable and balanced results every time.
2. This will not be the most painful experience of your life
Injectable treatments involve injections – this part we cannot change, however often the thought of the pain is worse than the experience itself. Most people find BotoxⓇ a little stingy and dermal fillers more ‘weird’ than sore. Dermal fillers have a local anaesthetic built into them which is great for reducing any pain! Additionally, there are tools we use to make the situation more comfortable such as distraction techniques e.g. a stress ball, ice and topical anaesthetic cream for certain areas. Rest assured, we can pick up on your pain tolerance level very quickly and will adjust our treatment to best suit your needs.
During a treatment, we have time for breaks – and gummies! – if you have needle fatigue.
3. Often the treatment you think you want may not be what you actually need
Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms are great outlets to have an inside look into clinics and view photos of treatment outcomes that may lead you to believe that a specific treatment may be the right one for you. Nevertheless, often these photos are a one-dimensional view or cropped and taken in a specific way to highlight a specific result. When assessing your face, we will assess your entire face with movement, or ‘on animation’ and from all angles. If we suggest treating your cheeks to assist with your nasolabial folds it’s because we understand the science of ageing and the art of how to make you look beautiful.
4. You don’t need to take out a bank loan to have treatments
Think of a treatment plan as a marathon, rather than a 100m sprint. Sure, occasionally the upfront costs discussed during a consultation can seem a lot. However, when you split up treatments and spread them out over a period of time that suits you, they do become more manageable and the end outcome is often better. Think of it as an investment towards yourself!
5. Coming to see us for a consultation does not mean you are obliged to have any treatment
An Initial Injectable Consultation is your opportunity to find out what options are available, what our experts recommend and price points. You are not obliged at all to have any treatment. In fact, with dermal filler, we will require you to go away and think about the education before proceeding with treatment as we want you to be fully informed, and confident that you have made the right choice, before we will go ahead and treat you.