Cosmetic surgery: avoid bad results with good advice at the Private Clinic, Harley Street.

 

Dr Gupta, a specialist in Asian skins, at the Private Clinic, Harley Street has a personality and manner which make you keen to become friends to ensure you continue to receive his insights and confidences.

He shares information on the estimated two billion dollar cosmetic industry in Europe that are not only eye opening but rarefied and will help us all steer away from a Mickey Rourke or Jackie Stallone look, that is unless you demand “Cherly Cole” lips, which might have you turned away at your first appointment.

A recent Private Clinic survey which revealed that lawyers are most likely to have cosmetic procedures, tells its own story. Even if some of your colleagues or friends are disapproving of botox and anti ageing procedures , you will find others are quietly spending significant sums of money behind closed doors. It is difficult to tell these days in our age of self improvement.

As it is often undertaken with an air of secrecy, if you are considering an anti ageing cosmetic procedure, Dr Gupta of the Private clinic says one size does not fit all and all skins will react differently to advertised or popular treatments. He doesn’t emphasise his point, but when he meets your eyes, you understand implicitly that going to a high street cosmetic skin store without proper advice follows this simple rule “I can’t afford to buy cheaply because I cannot afford to keep replacing or repairing what I have bought”.

After a talk with Dr Gupta and other cosmetic specialists I cannot impress on my readers enough, it is much better to buy with good advice at a higher price and from a proper expert from the start than spending a year or several regretting or living with mistakes on your face or body. Repairing chemical peels or scarring with inappropriate anti ageing treatments, is often a long, drawn out and tricky process.

An hour with him will hear some stomach churning revelations, but he also makes you want to stick to him like glue as you hear stories of what can really happen in the slightly secretive and mainly unregulated world of cosmetic surgery.

Gupta says for him cosmetic surgery is an artistic pursuit which is about sculpting and refining people rather than just a commercial conveyor belt or “sucking fat out of people” and as he mildly puts it, looking into my eyes and holding the thought “as with all art there are good and bad artisans.”Having experienced botox by the gentle and I was later to discover, experienced hand of Gupta, it is clear he is in a royal category.

Not one person has guessed I have had botox and many have said to me “I’m glad you’ve never done botox Karen. People look awful with frozen faces.” My secret is now out.Gupta who has a special interest in dermatology, worked in A&E and psychiatry before starting at the Private clinic, which is in Harley Street. His modus operandi is to ask patients “what bothers you” rather than recommending procedures or highlighting areas that they might never have thought of changing.

Advertising and a wall of shhhh surround cosmetic surgery which means that lots of people hear only certain messages and so request specific treatments like dermobrasion or chemical peels when they visit says Gupta, but he says he isn’t a fan of these treatments. “My problem with them is that they remove the facial barrier of the entire skin on the face rather than leaving some surface to protect the under layers.

Acid costs just £100,” Gupta explains, “which when compared to the cost of a fraxcil laser machine at £100,000 underlines how highly unsophisticated a chemical peel method is.” Gupta also believes there are inherent problems with these procedures. “I have seen people after several months to a year develop a shadow or mask on their face where the peel was applied which is due to hyper pigmentation. I don’t use these treatments, simply because I have seen the problems, and don’t want to deal with the fall out which I believe will inevitably happen. I just don’t have time to deal with unhappy patients I am far too busy and my appointment book is full. I would rather stick to what works like botox and lasers”. Gupta says.

Botox, Gupta confirms, is, in his opinion, one of the best anti ageing treatments available and he uses it on himself and reveals a secret to increasing the comfort of the injections. “I use super fine needles which are hardly noticeable when you inject, whereas many in the industry use thicker needles which although they help save money by retaining small amounts of the botox serum, they are more painful for clients.” Gupta tested these fine needles on me and the experience was a revelation – completely painless and as he said “it makes clients happy to come back for more rather than fearful of the process.”

Gupta says he also recommends using lasers because they remove only minute areas of skin, which are the size of a pin head, leaving similar sizes of skin alone to help with overall appearance and healing.

Gupta says he takes pride in laser resurfacing because there aren’t complications and he confirms again that he is a specialist in Asian and black skins which can suffer far more than white skins if aggressive cosmetic surgery is applied with other treatments like dermabrasion or chemical peels, which can leave long lasting and very visible pigment scarring.

“I often have to correct accidents elsewhere he says and know that Caucasian skin can often be cleaned up or returned to normal in one treatment which is from £250-£500 per session” says Gupta. “Whereas Asian or black skin can take three months of careful work which has to be undertaken slowly.” A stark warning for Asian or black skins thinking of jumping in to cosmetic surgery without careful due diligence.

Roisin McGovern, Medical director at the Private Clinic says, “The media or advertising can lead people to think that one treatment like a peel is “the cure” for their ageing but we disagree and say, not all skin is equal nor is it suitable for all treatment which is why you can get varying or bad results.” McGovern adds, “It’s really important that anyone considering cosmetic surgery gets advice on what products or treatments are right for their skin type.

We turn people away if we don’t think we can get a result for them. “Every client needs a proper assessment before treatment which includes consideration of their lifestyle and how that will affect their healing.” Alarmingly for most Londoners McGovern says, “Drinking too much alcohol will mean a dehydrated body and skin which affects the outcome of treatments. As on the reverse, will someone who gets early nights and has the right diet. ”McGovern says, “We believe growing old is a beautiful thing but also know that every year of age requires different sets of treatments which have to be evaluated according to age and lifestyle for each patient to get optimum results.

She also says the desire to disappear for two weeks and have drastic changes made is usually when individuals will end up looking strange and says working gradually and bit by bit is a much better approach. McGovern says that people need to look at their skin from the age of twenty onwards then when they come to change their face later on it won’t be such a dramatic shock, more a subtle improvement.

McGovern who runs the practice says they often get clients in saying, “Give me Cheryl Cole’s lips”. But she always advises people to go away and think about it if fashion is their reason and adds, “Not all treatments are suitable for everyone anyway.”I ask Dr Gupta and McGovern, having visited Asia recently, about the rise of thermage which is a treatment that applies deep heat to the skin to effectively iron out the wrinkles.

Gupta doesn’t give a gushing response. “It’s very painful and takes a certain amount of treatments to work, plus it makes your face blister and is expensive.” Gupta adds a warning, “Be wary of clinics showing pictures of people with the treatments which are maybe just a week or two afterwards because patients will often have swelling which will look different. All cosmetic work, like operations, take time to settle down. You may see very different results after a year which may not be as impressive.” he explains.

Gupta does have another treatment beside botox which he happily recommends. He likes fraxel lasers and the reason is, his clients like the results. The Pearl laser is the superior laser according to Gupta and he shows me some pictures with great enthusiasm and although they leave me feeling a bit queezy. He is ultimately being very truthful about the results – a lot of redness follows the operation but softening of once ingrained facial lines is the end result which is very natural and would be hard to identify with friends and family which must surely be one of the greatest compliments a cosmetic surgeon can have.

I mention having seen a friend undergo treatments such as liposuction and nose jobs and say that the “downtime” seems to be played down. Gupta agrees the industry can be over zealous in highlighting the good points and not so quick to explain the aftercare which is as complex as having a normal operation but also says. “People rarely want to hear about the after care treatment, they are in such a rush to have an anti ageing treatment or slimming bullet. “There is a lot of information about pain and oozing wounds which isn’t taken in on initial consultations and has caused some patient anxiety.”

Gupta says that providing comprehensive follow up appointments has been a breakthrough for the Private Clinic in ensuring clients follow after care instructions properly and completely and that they understand what is happening to them and that the healing process is normal.And a last word on the subject of cosmetic procedures, “Face lifts are a thing of the past. Cosmetic surgery is getting more sophisticated with better instruments and machinery all the time. For me, I am travelling the world and learning and improving constantly and the future of this work means it will be minimally invasive and hard to detect.”

Source: City Wealth Magazine

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