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OPINION www.aestheticmed.co.uk

Aesthetic Medicine • May 2014

N E W S A N D A N A LY S I S

Ihave just returned from Anti-Ageing Medicine World Congress (AMWC) in Monaco where the attendee ratio has now reached 10,000. While there I was asked to do an interview for a serious medical publication about where the whole cosmetic enhancement industry is presently

taking us all. The interviewer also wanted me to mention the quality of the conference and the speakers. While reflecting what I wanted to say, I stood by the entrance of the Grimaldi Forum and watched as the never ending hordes of new delegates crammed along the tight sidewalks of the Mediterranean Principality. We both made our way along the footpath, continually jostled by frantic delegates, each eager to go back to their respective homelands and start injecting their patients with a newly learned three-chord trick of botulinum toxin, hyaluronic acid and whatever topical potion they had just purchased. I needed to gather my thoughts. I looked out across the great expanse of water. To the left of me lay Greece and the many summer memories of my youth. Life was different then and my memories took me to Glyfada, the fashion-conscious suburb of Athens, which stretched from the foot of the Hymettus Mountain to the Saronic Gulf. Some years before, Pamela Cohen and I had formulated new dermatology products there. To the right of me, lay Gibraltar where I had worked as an accident and emergency registrar and even travelled across from there

to the bottom tip of Africa. The experience was worthwhile and beneficial when I later started treating HIV lipoatrophy patients with malar implants. I noticed that the patients in Uganda did not develop the condition and hypothesised that western medication was probably causing the condition. This was later proven to be correct.

The cosmetic industry was indeed changing, year-by-year, step-by-step and, in my eyes, not for the better. My memories indeed took me back to another time, before reality TV or the X Factor where there were no shortcuts to the development of proper expertise. Then, it took a person at least a decade to achieve status and it required struggle, sacrifice, and honest self-assessment. This was a different world where genuine expertise really meant something,

It was a time when an “expert” was someone recognised as a reliable source of technique or skill and who was accorded authority and status by their peers. The medical profession recognised this and individuals received some form of accreditation or title as a certification of their skills. Sadly, in this new age, everyone suddenly seems to be a “cosmetic expert”, yet many are lacking either the talent or the innovativeness, have never written a publication and only started injecting patients within the past few years.

This lack of expertise was painfully obvious when attending the lectures. One so called expert could not

Dr Patrick Treacy gives his views on why he thinks the industry is in danger of developing an “X Factor” culture when it comes to conference speakers

The X Factor

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OPINION

Aesthetic Medicine • May 2014

N E W S A N D A N A LY S I S

“The problem with this “X Factor” approach to inviting

lecturers who look and speak well is that they mostly lack

the experience of how to correct problems”

recognise a case of Type 4 hypersensitivity, another did not know how to correct brow elevation and while another requested patients to return on many occasions to correct a wrinkled lower frontalis solely with Botox® rather than use a one-off dermal filler treatment.

The problem with this “X Factor” approach to inviting lecturers who look and speak well is that they mostly lack the experience of how to correct problems and they tend to spit out a well-rehearsed mantra on behalf of whatever company is paying their fare. Dress some of these doctors up in a nice suit, fly them overseas, tell them they’re wonderful and they’ll say anything. This would not happen in any other branch of medicine and it shouldn’t happen in ours.

Another trick by the pharmaceutical companies is to produce lectures comparing their competitors’ products to their own at dilutions that are not comparable. It would benefit the whole industry to be less influenced by commercial interests and allow proper medicine to flourish or else clients will end up all being injected the same way and less desirable practitioners will enter the marketplace driving procedure prices down to the lowest level. At the end of the day, the product makers couldn’t care less as they will get the same unit price at greater volume sale.

Maybe I’m just getting older and idly watch as everything I once held dear becomes diluted in a new dumber age. I

previously used the X Factor by analogy. To those who may not know the reality type show, it has been criticised by Sting for taking music and turning it into edited “televised

karaoke”, with the contestants being encouraged to “conform to stereotypes”. Damon

Albarn went further and said it created a mindset that suggests you can get

something for nothing and that it’s easy to acquire status and fame. Well, the analogies are there and quite easy to see within our own industry. American musician Moby claimed that it “cheapens” music by

telling the singers how to “sound” and “look”. Charlotte Church claimed

that it “doesn’t have an interest in true craftsmanship or skill”. In some ways,

these artists are reflecting the opinions of many within the cosmetic industry where

a new generation of doctors learns a three-chord cosmetic trick over a weekend taught by someone who only recently learned the tune themselves.

The worst thing about these analogous shows is the way in which they are slowly but surely defining our culture. They send out a message to huge numbers of people that the final product conforms to a very narrow and rigid type. We all know the companies are only employing a quick fix to sell as many units as possible in as short a space of time as possible. This is almost certainly a symptom of wider societal changes – but for those of us who have music in our veins, it still hurts.” AM

>> Dr Patrick Treacy is chairman of the Irish Association of Cosmetic Doctors and Irish regional representative of the British College of Aesthetic Medicine (BCAM). He is European medical advisor to Network Lipolysis and Consulting Rooms and holds higher qualifications in dermatology, laser technology and skin resurfacing. In 2012 and 2013 he won awards for ‘Best Innovative Techniques’ for his contributions to facial aesthetics and hair transplants. Dr Treacy also sits on the editorial boards of three international journals and features regularly on international television and radio programmes. He was a faculty member at IMCAS Paris 2013, AMWC Monaco 2013, EAMWC Moscow 2013 and a keynote speaker for the American Academy of Anti-Ageing Medicine in Mexico City this year.

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