Beauty Series #2: Hit and Run Beauty

A cosmetic “hit and run" is when you get a treatment with barely any consultation, minimal assessment, and little to no aftercare—a quick in-and-out procedure with no real thought behind it.

Aesthetics isn’t like grabbing a Big Mac at the drive-thru, though. It’s personal, customized, and requires a deeper understanding of how your body responds to treatments over time. What you've done before, what you might need now, and how things evolve all play a role in making sure your results are precise and natural.

Dr. Bass explains what to look for in a plastic surgeon to get the best results and why building a long-term relationship with the right expert can make all the difference in achieving beautifully nuanced outcomes.

About Dr. Lawrence Bass

Innovator. Industry veteran. In-demand Park Avenue board certified plastic surgeon, Dr. Lawrence Bass is a true master of his craft, not only in the OR but as an industry pioneer in the development and evaluation of new aesthetic technologies. With locations in both Manhattan (on Park Avenue between 62nd and 63rd Streets) and in Great Neck, Long Island, Dr. Bass has earned his reputation as the plastic surgeon for the most discerning patients in NYC and beyond.

To learn more, visit the Bass Plastic Surgery website or follow the team on Instagram @drbassnyc

Subscribe to the Park Avenue Plastic Surgery Class newsletter to be notified of new episodes & receive exclusive invitations, offers, and information from Dr. Bass. 

 

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Welcome to Park AvenuePlastic Surgery Class,
the podcast where we explore controversiesand breaking issues in plastic
surgery. I'm your co-host, Summer Hardy,
a clinical assistant at BassPlastic Surgery in New York City.
I'm excited to be here with Dr. LawrenceBass, Park Avenue plastic surgeon,
educator and technology innovator.
This is another episodein our beauty series,

(00:22):
the series where we present and discussDr. Bass's advice and philosophy about
your beauty and how to puttogether your beauty program.
The title of today's episode isHit and Run Beauty. Okay, Dr. Bass,
you've piqued my curiosity again.What is this episode about?
What is hit and run beauty?
We've touched on this issue beforein the Power of One episode,

(00:45):
the idea of what kind of relationshipyou want with your aesthetic
provider. Obviously I'm biased.
Being a fully trained surgeon,
certified by the American Boardof Plastic Surgery with 30
years of experience practicing,most of it on Park Avenue,
I've got a certainoutlook on how things work

(01:10):
ideally, and the way my practice works,
I have a certain kind ofrelationship with my patients.
There's a certain way those of usworking on Park Avenue in New York City
tend to do things.
That makes sense. So how doesthat contrast with hit and run?
Basically, it's the opposite.

(01:30):
What I mean by hit and run beautyis that treatment you get with
very little consultation, verylittle physical examination
and assessment before the treatmentand very little aftercare.
Got it. So can you give me an example?
Well, let me give you ametaphor and an example.

(01:53):
So the metaphor is when you'rewalking through the ground
floor of a department store andyou walk past the people who are
spraying with perfume, I mean,
they're going to give you a little shotof perfume on your way by if you want
it, and you may like theperfume or not like it,

(02:15):
but it's not going to bevery carefully applied.
The quantitation of theapplication is going to be very
inexact or imprecise.
They're just going to blast you with alittle bit of perfume as you sweep on by.
That's not really the way I thinkwe want our medical aesthetic

(02:35):
treatments to be given to us.
And so the example that youasked for is a Botox or a
filler injection and more of astorefront care kind of place.
Sometimes that can be adifferent provider each time.
It may not be a very experiencedprovider. It might be.

(02:59):
It is probably a very quickand focused very basic
treatment.
So part of the problem with thatis that there's possibly less
precision and nuance and no one'slooking at the big picture how
that treatment or the featurebeing addressed fits with your other features and
what's changing in your face overtime. So it's just hit and run.

(03:23):
You get the treatment and you keep moving.
I'm starting to understand that idea,
but is hit and runtreatment always a mistake?
Not at all.
I just personally think you geta lot less than you get in a full
service setting with an ongoingrelationship with a plastic surgeon
who can offer you all of the options,

(03:45):
surgical and nonsurgicalas they become necessary.
Sometimes all it's needed isjust a quick fix for the time
being until a more extensiveassessment can be made,
or because your primary long-term plasticsurgeon is not immediately available.
So in those settings, sometimesa quick fix is just fine.

(04:08):
It's not that it's necessarily bad,
but if that's your onlymeans of getting beauty
treatments, aesthetic care, I thinkyou're really limiting yourself.
That makes a lot of sense.
Can you tell me a bit more about whatthat provider relationship means?
The relationship means there's amore in-depth understanding of your

(04:32):
aesthetic preferences,
an in-depth understandingof how you respond
to treatments based onwhat you've done before,
what you might need now watchingthings change over years of
time,
and that gives you more precisionin how those treatments are applied,

(04:52):
whether they're surgical or non-surgical.
The bottom line is your aesthetic careis not a commodity like a Big Mac,
which is more or lessthe same anywhere you go.
Your face and youraesthetic needs are unique,
much more individual, and thecare needs to be customized,

(05:16):
not commoditized anddispensed over a drive thru.
It's about a long-term dialoguewith your plastic surgeon,
how you age and your appearanceand your preferences,
and how those evolve overtime. To use another word,
this is about communication.

(05:37):
Think of how you communicate when youget a Big Mac through the drive thru.
The communication is clipped and limited.
It's hard to get a few words out and tohave them heard on the other side and
to understand the few wordsthat come back at you.
It's a very focused,limited communication.

(05:58):
There's not much explaining,taking place, going either way.
You explaining what you're lookingfor or the provider explaining what's
involved in the treatment. The soundquality and the interface are poor,
and therefore the messagesoften garbled and confused.
The chances that you and the providerhave the same mental picture of the

(06:21):
aesthetic goal is much lesslikely than with a good sit
down discussion face-to-face.
That's really interesting.
Something that I hadn't reallyconsidered before when seeking Care.
So time for your takeaways, Dr. Bass.
Will you share them withour listeners please?
To obtain the best resultswith your aesthetic care,

(06:43):
I believe it's critical to have anongoing relationship with an experienced
plastic surgeon who can offerthe following. Number one,
a full range of options,surgical and non-surgical.
Someone who knows your wantsand aesthetic preferences,
knows what your style is, so to speak.

(07:04):
Someone who's watched you age andseen how things are changing over
time.
Your long-term plastic surgeon cantell you if your aging is stable,
if it's speeding up,
if there are obvious features thatjump out and really need treatment.
So this is kind of a realitycheck on how you look,
and some patients are veryconnected to how they look.

(07:27):
They understand every littlechange as it trickles in and other
patients, they're missinghow much has changed,
and they're walking around with an imageof themselves as a much younger adult.
They kind of know intellectuallythat things are not exactly the same,
but emotionally they haven't connectedwith how much things have changed. So

(07:51):
a reality check going eitherway with your surgeon,
it's really time to jump on somethingbecause it's a very obvious feature
or that really there's a little changethere, but it's not very important,
not worth it's chasing. That's very,
very useful to have thatsecond look or reality check.

(08:11):
And what do you get in return forhaving this long-term relationship?
I believe you get more precisionin how the selected treatments and
procedures are performed anda lot more nuance in detail.
You get a more unified planfor what's needed and a more
unified plan by definition isgoing to be more time efficient,

(08:35):
more cost effective.
The level of detail and precisionwith this quality, long-term,
in-depth experience will be muchmore satisfying and much more
likely to succeed in meetingall of your aesthetic
goals, in my opinion,
compared with having a hitand run beauty experience.

(08:59):
Thank you, Dr. Bass,
for sharing your perspective onhow to avoid hit and run beauty.
I'm sure all our listeners want to getthe most results with the least input of
time and money.
Thank you for listening to the ParkAvenue Plastic Surgery Class podcast.
Follow us on Apple Podcasts,
write a review and sharethe show with your friends.
Be sure to join us next time to avoidmissing all the great content that is

(09:21):
coming your way. If you want tocontact us with comments or questions,
we'd love to hear from you.
Send us an email [e-mail] or DM us on
Instagram @drbassnyc.