You and Nurse Marjorie were recently invited to attend Allergan’s AMI Masterclass in Sydney with Dr. Charles Cheng. What was the purpose of the Masterclass?

AMI OnDemand is a platform created by Allergan Aesthetics to deliver high-quality education to our industry through virtual learning experiences, designed to deepen your expertise and engage with industry-leading experts. We had the pleasure of attending the Masterclass in person at AMI’s Centre of Excellence in Sydney last month.

Dr Charles Cheng from Vancouver, Canada has been in aesthetic medicine for the past 30 years. He has been involved in regulatory medicine and the Medical Council of Canada Licensing Examinations.

The purpose of the masterclass was to explore diversity in aesthetics and the latest patient trends. Dr. Cheng presented new approaches in consultation and treatment with a case study focused on lower face treatment. Dr. Cheng animatedly shared his knowledge and experience in consulting and treating a diverse range of patients. 

What were some of your biggest learnings or takeaways?

I enjoyed Dr. Cheng’s ‘Going Beyond Beauty’ presentation, where he discussed the four Patient Archetypes (Beautification, Positive Aging, Transformation, and Correction), and based on his experience, shared how to identify them, what the challenges are with each archetype, and the type of treatments or treatment journeys they are interested in. 

In the second part of the masterclass, Dr. Cheng showed us the topographic comparison of Asians vs Caucasians, the difference in the shape of Asian, Caucasian, and African skulls, and he also showed a map showing the ethnic demographics in Sydney. He pointed out the suburbs that have high concentrations of East Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Malay) and Middle East Asians and jovially asked which of the participants have clinics in or near these suburbs, that they should develop the skills for these niche clients. 

How might you apply these approaches to treatment and techniques at the TFP clinic?

Dr. Cheng recommended additional strategies on how to optimise the patient experience for each patient archetype. I am proud to say that we already do most of his recommendations at The Face Place. We pride ourselves on listening deeply and engaging in honest conversations with our clients, empowering them with the education they need to make an informed decision about their treatment. We do things differently from many other clinics, and our highly trained medical team truly invests their time in the crucial initial consultation.  

I gained a better understanding of the Asian aesthetic as I learned more about the structural differences, such as having a wider and slanted forehead, a deeper temporal fossa, a larger zygomatic process and wider face, flatter medial maxilla, perioral protrusion, and a wider but softer mandible. Most of these influence the treatments that Asian clients would seek.

Were there any other points of interest?

Old cultural superstitions influencing treatment requests piqued my interest! How certain projections, when present in the face, would show good fortune, health, wealth, and suitability for marriage! 

On a more serious note, listening to Dr. Cheng share his experiences further reminded me that each client is truly unique, and their motivations for treatments are multifaceted. A beautifying Asian client who was born and raised in a predominantly Caucasian community, or follows Caucasian influencers on social media, would have a concept of beauty different from a positive aging client who follows the traditional beauty of his/her racial origin.

Listen deeply + engage in honest conversation + create a bespoke treatment plan with the client + execute the treatment plan with expertise = a beautiful client experience.  

Nurse Queza is open for bookings at the Britomart clinic – BOOK NOW