July was a really busy month for me! With fully booked patient days I was still fortunate enough to make some time to attend 3 fantastic learning events in Las Vegas, Toronto and London, England!
It was 47 degrees celsius in Las Vegas! I attended The Aesthetic Show, an annual event that brings aesthetic physicians, dermatologists and plastic surgeons from all over the world to Sin City. Every day was jam packed with lectures, demonstrations and visits to an enormous exhibition hall that housed every new skin care product, laser device, hair restoration device, thread lift prototype and injectable product you could ever imagine. The upside to that intense outside heat was that I spent all day indoors at the Wynn Hotel conference centre darting from lecture to lecture and visiting the exhibition halls in between learning sessions.
What I learnt during my hectic 3 days in Las Vegas was that as far as new and exciting treatments go, we are not doing too badly at Skin Technique! There was a very strong focus on less invasive procedures and technologies that can cause skin tightening. Microneedling, Radio Frequency (RF), and high concentration PRP were mentioned in just about every lecture and workshop I attended. I am happy to say that here at Skin Technique we have the latest offerings of all 3 treatments. Body contouring was also a big topic this year, specifically non-invasive body contouring. The device that garnered the most attention, accolades and professional endorsements was, without a doubt, CoolSculpting. With many other emerging body contouring machines trying to enter the market it was a real pleasure to see that scientific studies, safety analysis and patient result cases still prove that CoolSculpting is the Number One body contouring device worldwide, and, as you might have guessed, available at Skin Technique.
Something fascinating that I learnt was the rapid direction to sexual health that the aesthetic industry is taking. I have never seen so many machines and devices in one place that can improve the sexual health of men and (mostly) women! Vaginal rejuvenation is certainly going to be something we hear more and more of. I was amazed by how many laser and RF devices are now available for vaginal and penile rejuvenation and sexual health enhancement. We have not offered any other technologies for sexual health enhancement at Skin Technique, but watch this space……
The next event I attended was in Toronto, hosted by Prollenium, the Canadian company that produces Revanesse filler. Revanesse is a very popular injectable filler in my practice. This is the second annual event I have been invited to along with a small group of other aesthetic physicians, plastic surgeons and dermatologists from Canada, Europe and the US. It has become one of my favourite events as they have found the perfect formula for combining advanced learning with socializing!
A very hot topic was actually one of my favourite treatments to perform – The Non-Surgical Nose Job. I was very glad that this was a featured topic at one of the many talks I attended as this procedure, though amazing at producing jaw-dropping results, is also very risky to the patient and needs to be performed with caution and sound knowledge of the anatomy of the nose. Other hot topics included the use of PRP for hair restoration (one of my most popular treatments at Skin Technique), and how to rejuvenate and beautify the periocular area (area around the eyes).
The lecture that got me most excited was one on The Thread Lift – a treatment I have been anxiously waiting to get approved in BC by Health Canada. I already underwent Thread Lift training in New York City over 2 YEARS AGO, and we have been (impatiently) awaiting approval here ever since. I am seeing such great results from my colleagues in America, Asia and Europe with this procedure and cannot wait to start offering it here in Vancouver!
It was also a great privilege to attend a talk by Dr. Jason Emer, celebrity dermatologist in Beverly Hills, who shared the strategies he has implemented through social media to leverage his incredibly successful practice. It was wonderful to meet him and when he said he followed my work on Instagram I think I blushed for the first time in 20 years.
The third continent I visited in July was Europe, when I caught the red eye to London for 3 intense days of shadowing at The Consultant Clinic. Those that know me well will attest to the fact that I have been obsessed with The Consultant Clinic ever since coming across their work on Instagram 2 years ago. I have never seen work so beautiful, artistic and dignified. Their attention to detail and their work ethic is something I find incredibly admirable. So can you imagine my absolute delight when I was offered an educational grant by one of my dermal filler reps to go to London and see for myself what techniques they have been using?? I felt so honoured and privileged to have been selected. Once I arrived at 10 Harley street for my first day of shadowing I immediately bonded with Dr. Melissa, The Consultant Clinic’s star doctor. (She is going to punch me for saying that).
What I learnt from Dr. Melissa was how important the consultation with the patient is. If there is existing work that has been done to the patient that isn’t in harmony with their face, it has to be dissolved before any new work can be done. This is non-negotiable. There were patients that flew to London from as far as Dubai to get cosmetic work that Dr. Melissa gently declined to perform. Her stance is that you cannot inject new product on top of poorly injected old product. And I could not agree more.
Once we selected the right patients who were candidates for injectables I was blown away by her injection techniques, especially when it came to lip enhancements. I have been doing lip enhancements for so long now, on so many people every day, that I haven’t been feeling very challenged lately. But watching Dr. Melissa transform the most challenging lips into the most beautiful lips has completely invigorated my interest and passion for lip enhancements! She taught me how to perform lip enhancements using a cannula. This means that the entire procedure is done using only 2 tiny entry pokes on either side of the lips. The benefit of this is less trauma to the lip, as we are not injecting directly into the lip multiple times, less bruising and less swelling. I had done quite a few lip enhancements with cannulas prior to going to London but never really felt confident with that technique. Now I don’t think I will ever look back!
Most importantly I made a true new friend in Dr. Melissa and still send her photos of my lip enhancements. It’s important to have colleagues in this industry to look up to. What I learnt is that this industry can be very isolating. The aesthetic industry is probably the one area of medicine where doctors are the most unsupportive of each other. I have literally had conversations with patients that have told me ‘the other doctor up the street says you’re no good and I should see him instead”. Cardiologists don’t talk about each other like this, why do we? It would be nice if we could all support each other, encourage each other and learn from each other. There are enough patients for everyone and patients should be able to gravitate to certain doctors for their own reasons. Anyway, I guess I’m just happy to have made a new friend that I also look up to, admire and have learned from 🙂
So that’s that! 3 countries over 3 weekends. I feel blessed for the opportunities to learn, and grateful for my health and drive that gives me the strength to pursue knowledge and information. I never want to stop learning and nothing excites me more than rushing back to Skin Technique to apply my new knowledge and techniques. I will take a short vacation at the end of August, but after that the learning continues with South Korean lifting techniques, the national FACE meeting and MD Codes with Dr. Mauricio de Maio……