The Future Of Beauty: “Vampire Facelifts” With Dr. Neil Nichols

Neil Nichols

I think a holistic approach for beauty is key. Look at the process in total to make it optimal. People focus on beauty and getting these treatments. However, today they can look at these efforts as preventative measures. We are seeing a shift towards younger demographics getting these treatments to be preventive. Whether it’s Botox at a younger age to prevent progression or deep-seated lines, or using augmentation, injectables to enhance patients at an earlier age. There is also a shift in taking a holistic approach to beauty and health.

This starts with good health, a healthy diet, exercise regimen. This is being healthy from within. If you have an individual, especially a young patient, that’s where the focus should be. This is done in combination with aesthetic treatments that will enhance the longevity to their beauty. Focusing on overall health, diet, nutrition, health and wellness, exercise and ultimately using the right treatment modalities. I don’t think you can have optimal beauty with missing out on any of the above.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Neil Nichols, MD, FAAO., AACS.

Dr. Nichols is a Board-Certified oculoplastic surgeon; specializing in Oculofacial plastic surgery and Reconstructive surgery, in addition Dr. Nichols has completed fellowship training in Cornea and Refractive Surgery. He is co-owner of Sight of Beauty medi spa located in Plainview, New York (https://sightofbeauty.com/). Sight of Beauty is a state-of-the-art medi spa provides clients with advanced aesthetic, non-invasive services.

Dr. Nichols earned both his undergraduate and medical degree from Tufts University. He obtained a B.A. in biology from Tufts University with honors, and subsequently earned his medical degree from the Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. Dr. Nichols´ post-doctoral training included a one-year internship in internal medicine; Mount Sinai School of Medicine of New York University in affiliation with Elmhurst Hospital Center, followed by an ophthalmology residency at New York Medical College and affiliated hospitals. Dr. Nichols was then selected to serve as Chief resident in the department of ophthalmology at Westchester Medical Center.

Upon completion of his formal training in comprehensive ophthalmology Dr. Nichols completed a one-year fellowship in Cornea and external disease in affiliation with St. Barnabas medical center in New Jersey. Dr. Nichols then completed two years of fellowship training in Oculofacial Plastic Surgery under the tutelage of an American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive surgery (ASOPRS) trained surgeon and fellow in affiliation with New York Medical College and Westchester Medical Center.

Dr. Nichols engages in continuous education and professional development to stay up to date in the latest technological advances in all aspects of ophthalmic plastics, Oculofacial and reconstructive surgery. In addition, Dr. Nichols continues to have clinical and research interests in Cornea and refractive surgery. Dr. Nichols is a Diplomat of the American Board of Ophthalmology; and has helped publish numerous professional research articles in the field of ophthalmology.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Mysubspecialty, oculoplastics surgery, is very unique. This is the main component of my practice, which consists of doing oculofacial aesthetic surgery, the mid-face up and around the eyes and facial rejuvenation.

My interest in how I got into the field was my desire to improve people’s lives; to help them with their vision and functioning. This led to the development and the growth of aesthetic practice, which focuses on facial rejuvenation. This consists of fillers, Botox, neuromodulators and all the different aesthetic treatment modalities to aesthetically improve our patients and clients.

My desire to become a physician was to help patients improve their lives and their beauty. What is great about my subspecialty is that patients can get immediate gratification and see instantaneously — after a surgery, injectable treatment or other procedure — that we are improving their lives.

What got me into this field is that I knew that having a surgical subspecialty would be very rewarding. I saw that I would be able to improve all my patients in that modality, if that makes sense.

I have always enjoyed science and learning. Even to this day, I think that to become a physician and to be a great surgeon you have to be self-motivated and have a desire to learn daily, improve yourself, improve your knowledge base. I think that is what keeps me interested in medicine in general. Every day is a new challenge and that interest was fostered within me at a young age. I always enjoyed biology, chemistry. I actually enjoy learning even if it didn’t have to do with medicine. I am a committed lifelong learner and with a tremendous about of internal motivation and desire to learn.

Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Are there takeaways or lessons that others can learn from that?

I think that there was definitely a transition from a point when I was in practice and getting great results for patients. The satisfaction level was growing among patients that I operated on and treated. The feedback I was getting allowed me to know I was successful and moving into the top tier or at a top state in terms of my skills. This was about 2012 after being in practice for about four or five years. The key indicator was the fact that I was getting many more referrals, mostly from patients that I had operated on and treated. The snowball started to grow and grow from there.

Patients and staff members trusted me. It is very rewarding when my staff members send their family members to me for surgeries. This is a great compliment. People I see every day trust me. I have a nurse that says “I’d like you to do a procedure on me”; this tells me that I am doing something right.

Are there any lessons you learned early on, from a business perspective, about working with your patients, communicating with them? What more did you do to build trust?

My philosophy is all about teamwork and working together to let the patient know that our objective is to give them the best results and that they feel it, they sense it and they know that you have the ability to do. We work as a team and communicate with clients to make sure that they are 100 percent satisfied that we will complete the procedure to their complete satisfaction.

We commit to spending enough time with patients to really know what their expectations are. We use this to identify treatment modalities we will offer to get that result. Working as a team we are almost guaranteeing that we will be successful.

For example, on a consultation, I always ask “what brings you here to see me today?” I don’t ever point out imperfections. I ask them to open up with me first. They tell me the areas that they are concerned about. I have them look in the mirror. We look and review and then I tell them what I think and what we can offer them to improve them aesthetically.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person to whom you are grateful who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

When I was in medical school at Tuffs, I worked with an oculoplastic surgeon.

I saw a very interesting case; a nasolacrimal lid obstruction, a lid laceration that involved the lacrimal system. We had to spend time repairing the tear duct system and the eyelids; he was my mentor.

What influenced me to go into medicine? It was my father. He was not in medicine, he’s an attorney and a CPA. In the Navy he was a pharmacist’s mate and he always wanted to be a general surgeon. Growing up he always encouraged me to become a doctor because he regretted not becoming a doctor. He was the one who influenced me the most to choose medicine. I learned business lessons from him too; this is why I am getting an MBA now.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. The beauty industry today has access to technology that was inconceivable only a short time ago. Can you tell us about the “cutting edge” (pardon the pun) technologies that you are working with or introducing? How do you think that will help people?

Just for example, the injectables and the options that we have now did not exist 10 years ago. Today we use different types of injectables for each part of the face so if you want a filler that’s a little thicker, we know exactly where to target. If you want it in the mid-cheek and the laugh lines versus finer material that you need to use in the lips and then vermilion border. We have injectables that are very effective in the temple region and we have a whole line of biostimulatory injectables that you can do body contouring.

We offer injectables that go anywhere from the buttocks to your dorsum, back of your hands, your upper arms, temple regions. These injectables are excellent because you inject a small amount and then you have your own body get induced or stimulated to add volume. This has an aesthetically pleasing result in areas where you have volume depletion. All these new modalities have improved our treatment options.

We have many different lasers and surface treatments that we didn’t have years ago.

For example, CoolSculpting for body contouring, to dissolve fat, Ulthera for skin collagen production and tightening. These are noninvasive modalities that can really rejuvenate our patients and make them look great.

What are three of the technologies or areas of beauty technology that excite you the most?

The new treatment modalities using autologous material. Vampire Facelifts, PRP, plasma rich protein, stem cell treatments or fat transfer are all extremely exciting and commonplace today.

All the biostimulatories to induce production of collagen by the patient is exciting. All the new laser treatments to target and increase collagen production and also tightening that is available now are excellent. Ultherapy is an extremely exciting treatment modality that offers patients a noninvasive facelift. The biostimulatories, the new lasers and all the different autologous treatment are top of the list.

Are there any things that concern you about the industry?

What is very important is making sure that patients are seen by somebody who’s board-certified, trained, and has experience with the treatment they are offering.

We all have to look out for nonpractitioners or individuals jumping in to take advantage of the wave of aesthetics. Many of these individuals do not have the proper training.

It is important for clients to make sure that they see a board-certified medical doctor or somebody who’s working in conjunction with a medical doctor. They have to have the proper training. No matter what, patients have to be sure they see somebody who knows what they are doing not someone who does a little of this a little of that. Having a devoted practitioner with a track record and training is critical.

There are individuals who are out there, trying to get involved in this area but do not necessarily have the training, expertise, and background.

As for locations, don’t be fooled. A practitioner can have the most beautiful built-out spa. However, if they don’t have that background and experience and expertise, there could be trouble. Patients should always ask the questions and feel comfortable with their practitioners and their teams.

Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to reform or improve the industry, what would you suggest?

I think the industry has improved tremendously. Injectables are very safe. There have been many improvements in the area of injectables. If there is an adverse event, now we have different modalities to break down a lot of these materials. There is a lot of experience now, for decades, and we know which areas are safe to treat. Many of these treatments we are offering are safe and proven at this point, this is also part of the reason why it is so exciting.

There are always areas of improvement. There are complete safety profiles and they are going to get better and better. Our new techniques improve patients’ experiences, reduce discomfort, shorten downtime and post-treatment recovery in some cases can be immediate. However, post-treatment recovery is one area that can be improved.

For example, CoolSculpting treatments with the latest machine have a recovery time of less than half of what we had before; treatments that used to take 45 minutes, now take 20 minutes.

You are an expert about beauty. Can you share 5 ideas that anyone can use “to feel beautiful”?

I think a holistic approach for beauty is key. Look at the process in total to make it optimal. People focus on beauty and getting these treatments. However, today they can look at these efforts as preventative measures. We are seeing a shift towards younger demographics getting these treatments to be preventive. Whether it’s Botox at a younger age to prevent progression or deep-seated lines, or using augmentation, injectables to enhance patients at an earlier age. There is also a shift in taking a holistic approach to beauty and health.

This starts with good health, a healthy diet, exercise regimen. This is being healthy from within. If you have an individual, especially a young patient, that’s where the focus should be. This is done in combination with aesthetic treatments that will enhance the longevity to their beauty. Focusing on overall health, diet, nutrition, health and wellness, exercise and ultimately using the right treatment modalities. I don’t think you can have optimal beauty with missing out on any of the above.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂

What would bring the most good to the most people? I think we were talking about a holistic approach that embraces beauty in that way. Definitely promoting and explaining to patients what they can do is the most important approach. For example, there is new treatment modality for skin called AQUAGOLD. This is where I do a superficial treatment with hyaluronic acid derivative and Botox to treat the skin. It gives patients a great natural glow. However, we have to explain that to get an optimal result from this or any treatment, that the patient can’t smoke, they must have a low salt diet, embrace healthy lifestyle and exercise. People talk about toxins in the system, overall health and wellness helps to reduce this. This recommended approach helps all patients live longer and healthier lives. We then augment this with our treatments and all that we offer.

Can you give us your favorite life lesson quote? Can you share how that is relevant in your life?

One quote my mother gave me when I was in medical school — “it is said every obstacle is a stepping stone to your success.” For this shows that life is a series of little speed bumps, obstacles, not everything is easy and you have to be persistent; with persistence, hard work, no matter what you do in life, this is how a person is going to fulfill their potential. This is what I instill with my children and those I work with. I let them know what life can be. Remember that in daily life, no day goes completely smoothly and nothing is ever perfect. Everyone must embrace this concept.

A series of stepping stones requires taking them one at a time in a series. Nothing ever got accomplished in one day. It is a series and you move forward. As you get better and better, this builds that trust and confidence. When your results are better, people recognize it and recommend you more. Continuing forward you feel more confident in your skills and ability. Repetition is critical, doing same techniques and procedures over and over again allows me to get better. I don’t necessarily get faster, but better and more proficient.

Candice Georgiadis

WRITTEN BY
Candice Georgiadis

Candice Georgiadis is an active mother of three as well as a designer, founder, social media expert, and philanthropist.

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