THE ARTIST’S EYE
Richard M. Foxx, MD
Placing your face in a stranger’s hands requires a high degree of trust. You want to know that person is a careful, conscientious professional with a highly-developed sense of proportion. So how do you do that?
First, ask who exactly will be doing your procedure.
In most cases your choice would be a physician. In fact the Medical Board of California views many of these procedures as “the practice of medicine” and is quite specific as to who exactly may perform these non-invasive procedures. If performed by a nurse or physician assistant, California requires supervision by a physician capable of performing the procedure.
Of course not all practitioners are alike. Most physicians approach the attainment of cosmetic dermatologic goals from a doctor’s point of view. But just like music, writing, or painting, cosmetic dermatology requires a combination of training and inborn skills and talent. In the final analysis, a great result takes more than just an injection of BOTOX® or RADIESSE®, it takes knowing where and how to use these and other elements such as lasers and light therapy in a synergistic blend. In short, it requires an artist’s eye.
Second, ask how many procedures your professional has done. Numbers alone are no guarantee of a good result. As in sports, it’s not only practice that makes the champion; it’s practicing the right moves. But numbers are a good indication of previous success.
Third, ask to see before and after pictures. This is where you get a chance to judge for yourself if your doc’s sense of beauty and proportion match yours. Ask also to see pictures of patients who match your age and concerns and, if possible, ask for testimonials.
Getting the right answers to those three questions doesn’t guarantee that you will come out the other end looking perfect, but it’s a good place to start and if you get the right answers, it’s an unbeatable way to put your mind at ease.
It would be wonderful if all we had to do when we didn’t like something about our appearance was to fix that one issue. We could get out the magic eraser and remove the line or the fold or plump here or there and everything would be perfect. But we can’t, and that’s where the artist’s eye comes into play.
The face is a canvas of infinite variability where absolutely everything is interconnected. Our appearance is the sum total of a bunch of little things. It’s like one of those spreadsheet programs where if you change one thing here you get a cascade of unintended consequences there and over there. Seldom does just doing one thing work. In most cases, in fact, achieving a beautiful result that does not look overdone requires many small incremental steps.
As someone who has been involved in the creative process his entire life both with writing and with photography, Doc Foxx is able to approach each patient’s concerns with an artist’s eye. From there he is able to select the correct modalities necessary to get as close to the desired result as possible.