NEWS

I have just returned from attending the first International Allergan Medical Institute meeting in London. This was a meeting held by Allergan, the manufacturer of the most popular anti wrinkle injections and dermal fillers. It was an invitation only event for their top international trainers.

The concept of beauty was discussed in considerable detail during the first Allergan Medical Institute meeting that I attended in London recently. Extensive surveys have been carried out in different countries with both women and men, from different age groups and ethnicities, regarding what motivates them to have aesthetic treatment and what they expect the outcome to be.

In our previous article, we congratulated Cate on her courageous transition to the female gender. In this weeks article, I am going to provide some insight into the process behind non-surgical facial feminisation.

The use of dermal fillers and anti-wrinkles injections (collectively known as cosmetic injectables) have become the most popular and effective treatment by far in facial rejuvenation. With advances in techniques and injectable products over the past few years, attractive, durable and natural looking results can be reliably achieved.

Many of you may have read our blogs on Cate McGregor earlier this year (28/2/14 and 21/3/14). We continue to follow her story with great interest. I saw her on the ABC program Q&A last night and I was completely captivated by her eloquence and elegance. She was insightful, articulate, and was obviously well respected.

have been writing about the importance of a thorough understanding of facial anatomy with respect to facial injectable treatments for some time. I described in my recent article of The 3 A s of Facial Injectables how the era of ‘anatomical injecting’ has dawned. It was therefore with great honour that I was invited to attend The Allergan Academy Applied Anatomy Workshop in Singapore.

In my previous blog, I spoke about some of the exciting things I learnt at cosmetex 2014. In this article I am going to talk about ageing of the nose and rejuvenation of the nose.

One of the sessions that I enjoyed immensely from the Second Australasian Medical Aesthetic Congress held last weekend in Sydney was the demonstration on lip treatment. Dr Raj Acqulla from the UK and Dr Sarah Hart generously shared their techniques by injecting live on stage.

We raised the question in part 1 of our post of whether there are universal standards of beauty and whether these standards can span ethnic and cultural divides? We believe so.

The signature treatment at Aesthetic Harmony Canberra is Total Face™ dermal filler treatment. It forms the foundation on which other treatments can be built.

It is estimated that some 10% of the Australian population have at least one tattoo, and that 25-50% of these have ‘tattoo regret’.

The practice of cosmetic medicine is all about making use of light. Without light, our discipline would not exist.

Dermal filler injections are becoming one of the most popular cosmetic treatments in Australia and indeed worldwide.

The cosmetic medical industry, like many other industries, is becoming more corporatised, with big businesses now owning the majority of shopping centre clinics, as well as locally well-known brand name clinics.

Facial redness due to rosacea and sun damage is something that we come across in our practice multiple times each day. Many of our patients are distressed by their condition, feeling that they have to wear makeup in order to hide the facial redness or broken capillaries (telangiectasia). A safe and effective treatment of facial redness is therefore vital to enable us to help our patients.

It had been approximately twelve months since my last dermal filler treatment and I felt that I was looking more tired and more sad. Professionally of course, I recognise this to be a manifestation of facial ageing. I was projecting negative emotions that did not truly reflect how I felt.

Aesthetics 2019, the most eagerly anticipated conference of the year convened by Dr Steven Liew, turned out to be the best conference we have attended all year. We thank all the experts for their generosity and time. As said by Dr Steven Liew, ‘to share, to learn, to advance together’.

It takes skill, a deep knowledge of anatomy and an artistic eye to achieve sophisticated results with dermal filler treatments. However, the principle behind this sophistication is simple. Simple in that it is found everywhere in nature. Simple in that the concept has been well understood for centuries. Simple in that it will withstand the test of time. No one understands this olden ratio better than Dr Arthur Swift, plastic surgeon from Montreal. We were privileged to hear him speak and see him inject recently in Sydney.

Cosmetic medicine is changing fast. If you don’t make an effort to stay at the forefront then you will be left behind. Education is just as important a part of our daily work as treating patients. That’s why we made our first educational event of 2020 a big one!

Almost all of us will experience skin hyperpigmentation at some stage in our lives. Whether it be as a result of genetics, sun damage, trauma, poor would healing, inappropriate dermal or laser treatment, it is never desirable. Fortunately there are numerous treatments available to reduce pigmentation and limit its return. Those patients with a darker skin colour are particularly susceptible to hyperpigmentation and treatment is more complex and requires a deep understanding of skin of colour. Bernard and I were recently fortunate enough to meet with Dr Vanita Rattan, an expert in treating pigmentation in skin of colour. We are looking forward to bringing some of her treatments to Australia in the near future.