Beauty Series #4: Right-Sized Beauty

Your beauty plan should be tailored to you—your goals, your timeline, and what you're comfortable with when it comes to recovery and results. 

Dr. Bass explains his idea of “right-sized beauty planning” and why having a personalized approach makes all the difference in plastic surgery.

Whether you’re looking to address one specific feature, maintain your look over the next year, or map out a long-term transformation, having a clear plan helps you prioritize, budget, and coordinate treatments more effectively.

Dr. Bass breaks it down into three types of beauty plans: one that focuses on a single area, one for short-term maintenance, and one that takes a long view over several years. Your plastic surgeon is key in guiding you through the process and making sure your plan fits your life and goals.

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 cohost, 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.
The title of today's episodeis Right-Sized Beauty. Okay,

(00:25):
Dr. Bass, another episode in our beautyseries. What are we talking about today?
I said a lot in this seriesabout making a beauty plan,
the advantages to planning ratherthan just doing something hit and run.
That was another episode title,
Hit and Run Beauty and whyit's a good idea to avoid that.

(00:47):
So this is more about,
that was what not to do and thisis what you should try to do.
You should right size your beauty plan.
Right? I remember that.
Can you give a brief recap for ourlisteners of the advantages of planning?
So planning lets you focuson the things that are

(01:07):
priorities rather thanjust whatever showed
itself to you today.
It allows you to have a long-termvision of where you're going,
and it allows you tobudget both from a planning
point of view and from aprioritization point of view,

(01:28):
putting your money whereit counts for you the most.
And it gives you an idea of whatto expect going forward because it
coordinates everything that needsto be done rather than just doing
things piecemeal when they come up.
It tends to be a more organized, cohesive,

(01:50):
efficient plan that avoids duplication,
that avoids overlap betweendifferent treatments or
that intentionally overlaps treatmentswhere each one will give you a little bit
of benefit that accumulates intoan adequate degree of correction.
Okay, so now that we'vereviewed the advantages,

(02:13):
what else do we needto know about planning?
Well, it's not that simpleto say we need a plan.
It's just not that simple becauselife is never that simple.
There are different types ofplans or put more properly.
Some plans are more extensive than others.
That makes sense. So what is rightsize planning about in more detail?

(02:38):
So this relates to multiple issues,
which aesthetic featuresshould be targeted?
That's obviously going to vary from personto person and depending what stage of
aging you're at.
The range of optionsavailable in medical science
and in that surgeon's individualpractice that are going to chase those

(03:00):
particular features that getsselected. The recovery time,
how much recovery time is acceptable,
and then how broad a scope ornarrow a scope of features we're
going to build into the plan.
And how broad a time rangeor narrow a time range

(03:21):
in your future we'regoing to plan to address
issues.
Let's take these one at a time. Dr. Bass,
can you explain the featuresand scope of plan please?
So this goes to whichpart of your appearance.
You either notice at this time thatthere's a problem with it or something

(03:41):
that you desire to work oneither in a preventive or in a
reparative fashion. Andthere can be one thing,
and eyelids are atypical example for this.
There could be one thing on the eyelids,
but there are a number of agingchanges that occur in the eyelid area.
And so you may say, well, crow'sfeet really bug me. Or you may say,

(04:05):
well, crow's feet bug me. Theextra skin that's hanging bugs me.
Some of the bulging bugs me. Iwant to fix all of that if I can.
Skin surface things, wecall skin quality nowadays,
is a composite of many differentfeatures, texture, wrinkles,
pore size, pigment, redness,

(04:28):
the plumpness or turgor of the skin.
And you may be concerned aboutall of that. You may have an issue
with a lot of those features or you mayonly really have an issue with one of
them.
So picking that scope of what you'regoing to chase or you may want
to chase some of all of theaging changes in the face,

(04:51):
some of the skin quality changes,some of the volume changes,
some of the laxity changes,
and all of those plans are rightif they resonate with you as what's
important for your beauty.
And if your experienced plasticsurgeon who is examining you
and bringing their decadesof expertise also sees what

(05:14):
you are seeing and hasmeaningful ways to correct.
Okay, I'm following.So what about recovery?
So recovery planning isabout knowing in your
mind how much recovery you're targeting,
but also you need to be alittle flexible and think about

(05:36):
the maximum you're willing to accept.
We've talked about recovery previouslyand what the types of recovery are.
There's sort of no activity recovery whereyou just have to lie in bed or on the
sofa. There's social recovery where youfeel pretty well you can work from home,
but you don't really wantto see people face to face.

(05:57):
And then there's being backa hundred percent for total
recovery. It's all in the rearview mirror now. So first,
as I said,
having that flexibility isimportant because if there may
be a meaningful option that has norecovery but requires a few treatments
and another meaningful optionthat has some recovery,

(06:20):
but is the single treatment,
and we can pick between those two.But you may be showing a feature that
you say,
the most recovery I'm willing to haveis two days where I have to stay out of
the office, but there may notbe a good option that fits that.
So you have to think about ifyou really want to chase that,
what's the maximum I could accept?And it's okay to say, well,

(06:43):
I can't do more than two days.
But then you may not have a good optionand you have to leave that alone for the
timing.
So we said recovery isthese various features.
It's not a single number of daysor weeks. It's not a single issue.
So depending how severe your features are,

(07:03):
you may have to accept some recoverydepending what options are available.
You have to pick the wholepackage of whatever treatment
you select, the good and the bad things,
the improvement it's going to give youand the recovery it's going to require
because the treatment is the whole meal.

(07:25):
You have to eat the whole meal.
You can't push the peas to the side ofthe plate because you don't like those.
And in the apple pie,
it's all baked in andinextricable for each
treatment option.
That makes a lot of sense. So what doesthat leave to factor into planning?

(07:47):
So the final item is thetime scope of the project,
what features to work on now becausethey're visible or because you looked at
your mother or your grandmother andyou can see what's coming and you don't
want to go there or go thereany sooner than you have to.
But you can also plan over timefor what's likely coming and lay

(08:10):
out a program,
preventative and reparative aswell as maintenance activities.
And you can do that in the shortterm or over a longer period of time.
Okay. And you mentioned this ismostly about patient preferences.
Should the plastic surgeon also haveinput here or is it all about what the
patient wants?

(08:31):
So of course it's mostlyabout your preferences and the
plastic surgeon's willingnessand ability to be responsive
to you,
your needs and your desiresand right size the plan for you
rather than giving you some kind ofcookie cutter option that they like to

(08:52):
deliver. So partly that'sabout customization.
Partly it's about having a goodrange of options in his or her
practice and not just asingle option that allows
the surgeon to rightsize the plan for you.
Okay, so Dr. Bass, can you bottomline right size planning for me?

(09:16):
So there basically ends up being three big
classes or categories plans.The way I think about it,
there's the specific or focus plan,
some single or single featureor small group of features
for immediate treatment.

(09:37):
That might be like going and gettingBotox in your upper face or Botox in your
upper face and fillers in your nasolabialfolds or having your upper eyelid
surgery, you know, want todo it. You're ready to do it.
Your aesthetic needs when thesurgeon examines you say it's
appropriate focused plan. Simple, right?

(09:59):
There's also managingyour beauty for this year.
What am I going to needthis year to keep myself up?
And it's good to make a planfor that. It lets you budget.
It lets you budget not only yourmoney but your time for getting these
things done and keeps things fromgetting out of hand just like you plan
maintenance on your home, your car,

(10:21):
other things.It's the same idea.
So it's a short-term plan forspecific features in the coming months
when those things are goingto fit into your schedule.
And the final categoryis thinking long-term.
We make a comprehensive plan forall features over let's say the next

(10:42):
few years based on the expectedtimeline of what's going to happen.
Once you're examined,
then the surgeon can advise youwhat they expect you're likely
going to be ready for in thenext few years if you want to
keep your appearance up. Soit's important to remember,
there's no clear cut boundaries.

(11:04):
It's important to customizeand blend some repair steps
with some preventive steps.
Always a good idea to know youroptions now and your options
for future.
But future options are of coursegoing to relate to how you age going
forward, which is in broadterms can be predicted,

(11:26):
but the exact timeline varies alittle bit from person to person.
And this points up why along-term relationship with a
plastic surgeon letsyou lay out a rough idea
of that comprehensive plan.
And then as time goeson and aging unfolds,
you refine it based on what happens,

(11:49):
but at least you havea starting point. Okay?
You're not starting from scratchevery time you walk into the doctor's
office. Overall, no oneknows what the future holds,
but an experienced plastic surgeoncan give you a good idea of what to
expect. So make a plan and right size it

(12:11):
to suit your needs and preferences.
Thank you Dr. Bass,
for sharing this intriguing explanationof how to right size your beauty plan.
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

(12:32):
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 at @drbassnyc.