Dr. Seiler's Notes:

Why are patients ever unhappy with the results of cosmetic procedures at other practices?

 

What’s one of the most common problems with cosmetic procedures??  THE UNHAPPY PATIENT.  If you, as a patient, come to see me and the first thing you tell me is that you are unhappy with a procedure you have had before finding me and are hesitant to do anything again, then I will simply reply (to be politically correct) that I am sorry that you are unhappy, I see it all the time from other places in town, but I can assure you that you are in the right hands.  Then we will undergo a thorough, and usually lengthy, consult to determine what you hope to achieve and how we can help you.  Quoting a well-known and respected physician in Nashville, TN (and someone I know and have given a webinar with) from his interview in this month’s Cosmetic Surgery Times: Oct 2011 (which I also have an article in!), “we see a distressing number of patients who have undergone laser or technology-based device treatment and are unhappy with their results because the treatment administered failed to provide the desired outcome.  In some situations, this is a reflection of poor patient counseling, while in others the device used simply was not capable of producing the desired outcomes [haven’t you ever heard me say that not all IPLs are the same. . . some of them are tricycles and one of them is a Rolls Royce?!]. 

These are avoidable problems that can be addressed via full understanding of the device and its capabilities by the user, appropriate education of the patients and staff, a philosophy of ‘underpromising and over-delivering,’ and finally a willingness to refuse a requested service if the likelihood of success is not deemed to be sufficiently high.” 

Read that last part again!  You need to trust that your doctor or practitioner will turn you down for a procedure you want if you are not a good candidate for it.  I really like and respect Dr. Biesman, and he is a really nice guy, but he states something here in this quote that is so important:  you don’t let your plumber fix your computer!!  (my quote, not his, but I guarantee you he agrees with me!  PS, Dr. Pozner, in the next article in this journal, says in his first line, “It’s crucial that physicians have intimate knowledge of the laser devices they use—including a complete understanding of the appropriate settings needed—in order to avoid complications.”  He goes on to say something that you will hear me say all the time when someone comes in to see me and swears they will never do IPL again because they had it done 5 times somewhere else and it didn’t work.  “Intense pulsed light devices are probably one of the most popular devices currently on the market; however, they are also associated with the most frequent complications.  In my opinion, complications likely arise when the physician [if you’re lucky enough to actually have the physician do the procedure, or even see you for that matter] simply uses the wrong device in the wrong skin type.” 

Ask your doctor what type of laser it is, what is the wavelength, why this is the laser for you as opposed to all the others, describe the theory and physics of how it works, what it does, and how it gives a result.  Ask them how often they perform the procedure, how many they have performed, how many complications they have had, and what they can say to instill confidence in you.  You would be surprised how many “laser-users” can’t even tell you what the wavelength is nonetheless why it’s important. 

Do you want your mechanic to know whether you have a stick shift or an automatic?  It’s that basic!