Botox in New Hampshire: You don't "deserve" a complication

“I got what I deserved.”

She came back for follow up after botox injections at my office in southern New Hampshire, and she wasn’t totally happy with the result. We took photos and compared her before and afters, we discussed some principles of anatomy and how the result probably came to be, and I made a recommendation on how we could improve it. She smiled and agreed to go ahead with the follow-up treatment.

And then she said, “I guess I got what I deserved. Serves me right for wanting botox in the first place." This statement broke my heart.

Botox ≠ Vanity

It implies that there is something inherently wrong in wanting to get rid of your frown lines, for example. That if you get by without complications you’re just flying under the radar, and when you do get one you deserve it.

By contrast, let’s compare this to the thought process that would naturally occur should you have a complication after a minor surgery on your finger. If something went wrong, you got an infection, for example, would you say, “it serves me right for wanting my finger to be fixed!” Of course not. You’d say, “that stinks. Did everyone do everything they could to prevent this? What should we do moving forward?”

So let’s rearrange our thinking about a medical procedure like botox to align with other medical procedures. Botox being “wrong” is based on the idea that wanting to reduce your facial lines is only “vanity.” I’ve written specifically on the topic of vanity here. Suffice to say that while some women (and men) may take facial cosmetic treatments too far and have underlying mental illness like body dysmorphia, that certainly doesn't describe everyone. It especially doesn’t describe my specific patient population.

There is another way

Patients seek me out because they want to look like themselves; not different, just refreshed. They seek me out because I am highly trained and receive ongoing advanced training in technique and safety. They seek me out because they don’t want to be just a number to a big spa, they want continuity and comfort in their care. Complications in the field of medical aesthetics are actually pretty rare, treatable, and temporary; they are never karma.

You don’t deserve shame for wanting to feel good in your skin. You deserve safe, thoughtful care. If you are curious about treatments but you’ve been hesitant out of fear or shame, book a consultation. There’s no pressure to move forward with treatments, and we can talk through what’s holding you back from feeling your best.

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