Beauty Series #4: Right-Sized Beauty

Summer Hardy (00:01):
Welcome to Park Avenue Plastic Surgery Class, the podcast where we explore controversies and breaking issues in plastic surgery. I'm your cohost, summer Hardy, a clinical assistant at Bass Plastic Surgery in New York City. I'm excited to be here with Dr. Lawrence Bass, Park Avenue plastic surgeon, educator, and technology innovator. The title of today's episode is Right-Sized Beauty. Okay, Dr. Bass, another episode in our beauty series. What are we talking about today?

Dr. Lawrence Bass (00:30):
I said a lot in this series about making a beauty plan, the advantages to planning rather than just doing something hit and run. That was another episode title, Hit and Run Beauty and why it's a good idea to avoid that. So this is more about, that was what not to do and this is what you should try to do. You should right size your beauty plan.

Summer Hardy (00:57):
Right? I remember that. Can you give a brief recap for our listeners of the advantages of planning?

Dr. Lawrence Bass (01:03):
So planning lets you focus on the things that are priorities rather than just whatever showed itself to you today. It allows you to have a long-term vision of where you're going, and it allows you to budget both from a planning point of view and from a prioritization point of view, putting your money where it counts for you the most. And it gives you an idea of what to expect going forward because it coordinates everything that needs to be done rather than just doing things piecemeal when they come up. It tends to be a more organized, cohesive, efficient plan that avoids duplication, that avoids overlap between different treatments or that intentionally overlaps treatments where each one will give you a little bit of benefit that accumulates into an adequate degree of correction.

Summer Hardy (02:09):
Okay, so now that we've reviewed the advantages, what else do we need to know about planning?

Dr. Lawrence Bass (02:16):
Well, it's not that simple to say we need a plan. It's just not that simple because life is never that simple. There are different types of plans or put more properly. Some plans are more extensive than others.

Summer Hardy (02:32):
That makes sense. So what is right size planning about in more detail?

Dr. Lawrence Bass (02:38):
So this relates to multiple issues, which aesthetic features should be targeted? That's obviously going to vary from person to person and depending what stage of aging you're at. The range of options available in medical science and in that surgeon's individual practice that are going to chase those particular features that gets selected. The recovery time, how much recovery time is acceptable, and then how broad a scope or narrow a scope of features we're going to build into the plan. And how broad a time range or narrow a time range in your future we're going to plan to address issues.

Summer Hardy (03:27):
Let's take these one at a time. Dr. Bass, can you explain the features and scope of plan please?

Dr. Lawrence Bass (03:34):
So this goes to which part of your appearance. You either notice at this time that there's a problem with it or something that you desire to work on either in a preventive or in a reparative fashion. And there can be one thing, and eyelids are a typical example for this. There could be one thing on the eyelids, but there are a number of aging changes that occur in the eyelid area. And so you may say, well, crow's feet really bug me. Or you may say, well, crow's feet bug me. The extra skin that's hanging bugs me. Some of the bulging bugs me. I want to fix all of that if I can. Skin surface things, we call skin quality nowadays, is a composite of many different features, texture, wrinkles, pore size, pigment, redness, the plumpness or turgor of the skin. And you may be concerned about all of that.

(04:35):
You may have an issue with a lot of those features or you may only really have an issue with one of them. So picking that scope of what you're going to chase or you may want to chase some of all of the aging changes in the face, some of the skin quality changes, some of the volume changes, some of the laxity changes, and all of those plans are right if they resonate with you as what's important for your beauty. And if your experienced plastic surgeon who is examining you and bringing their decades of expertise also sees what you are seeing and has meaningful ways to correct.

Summer Hardy (05:18):
Okay, I'm following. So what about recovery?

Dr. Lawrence Bass (05:22):
So recovery planning is about knowing in your mind how much recovery you're targeting, but also you need to be a little flexible and think about the maximum you're willing to accept. We've talked about recovery previously and what the types of recovery are. There's sort of no activity recovery where you just have to lie in bed or on the sofa. There's social recovery where you feel pretty well you can work from home, but you don't really want to see people face to face. And then there's being back a hundred percent for total recovery. It's all in the rear view mirror now. So first, as I said, having that flexibility is important because if there may be a meaningful option that has no recovery but requires a few treatments and another meaningful option that has some recovery, but is the single treatment, and we can pick between those two.

(06:23):
But you may be showing a feature that you say, the most recovery I'm willing to have is two days where I have to stay out of the office, but there may not be a good option that fits that. So you have to think about if you really want to chase that, what's the maximum I could accept? And it's okay to say, well, I can't do more than two days. But then you may not have a good option and you have to leave that alone for the timing. So we said recovery is these various features. It's not a single number of days or weeks. It's not a single issue. So depending how severe your features are, you may have to accept some recovery depending what options are available. You have to pick the whole package of whatever treatment you select, the good and the bad things, the improvement it's going to give you and the recovery it's going to require because the treatment is the whole meal. You have to eat the whole meal. You can't push the peas to the side of the plate because you don't like those. And in the apple pie, it's all baked in and inextricable for each treatment option.

Summer Hardy (07:42):
That makes a lot of sense. So what does that leave to factor into planning?

Dr. Lawrence Bass (07:47):
So the final item is the time scope of the project, what features to work on now because they're visible or because you looked at your mother or your grandmother and you can see what's coming and you don't want to go there or go there any sooner than you have to. But you can also plan over time for what's likely coming and lay out a program, preventative and reparative as well as maintenance activities. And you can do that in the short term or over a longer period of time.

Summer Hardy (08:22):
Okay. And you mentioned this is mostly about patient preferences. Should the plastic surgeon also have input here or is it all about what the patient wants?

Dr. Lawrence Bass (08:31):
So of course it's mostly about your preferences and the plastic surgeon's willingness and ability to be responsive to you, your needs and your desires and right size the plan for you rather than giving you some kind of cookie cutter option that they like to deliver. So partly that's about customization. Partly it's about having a good range of options in his or her practice and not just a single option that allows the surgeon to rightsize the plan for you.

Summer Hardy (09:10):
Okay, so Dr. Bass, can you bottom line right size planning for me?

Dr. Lawrence Bass (09:16):
So there basically ends up being three big classes or categories plans. The way I think about it, there's the specific or focus plan, some single or single feature or small group of features for immediate treatment. That might be like going and getting Botox in your upper face or Botox in your upper face and fillers in your nasolabial folds or having your upper eyelid surgery, you know, want to do it. You're ready to do it. Your aesthetic needs when the surgeon examines you say it's appropriate focused plan. Simple, right? There's also managing your beauty for this year. What am I going to need this year to keep myself up? And it's good to make a plan for that. It lets you budget. It lets you budget not only your money but your time for getting these things done and keeps things from getting out of hand just like you plan maintenance on your home, your car, other things.

(10:23):
It's the same idea. So it's a short-term plan for specific features in the coming months when those things are going to fit into your schedule. And the final category is thinking long-term. We make a comprehensive plan for all features over let's say the next few years based on the expected timeline of what's going to happen. Once you're examined, then the surgeon can advise you what they expect you're likely going to be ready for in the next few years if you want to keep your appearance up. So it's important to remember, there's no clear cut boundaries. It's important to customize and blend some repair steps with some preventive steps. Always a good idea to know your options now and your options for future. But future options are of course going to relate to how you age going forward, which is in broad terms can be predicted, but the exact timeline varies a little bit from person to person. And this points up why a long-term relationship with a plastic surgeon lets you lay out a rough idea of that comprehensive plan. And then as time goes on and aging unfolds, you refine it based on what happens, but at least you have a starting point. Okay? You're not starting from scratch every time you walk into the doctor's office. Overall, no one knows what the future holds, but an experienced plastic surgeon can give you a good idea of what to expect. So make a plan and right size it to suit your needs and preferences.

Summer Hardy (12:14):
Thank you Dr. Bass, for sharing this intriguing explanation of how to right size your beauty plan. Thank you for listening to the Park Avenue Plastic Surgery Class Podcast. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, write a review and share the show with your friends. Be sure to join us next time to avoid missing all the great content that is coming your way. If you want to contact us with comments or questions, we'd love to hear from you, send us an email at podcast@drbass.net or DM us on Instagram at @drbassnyc.