Trust Me, I'm a Doctor

By: Dr Georges Roman
Created on 11th October 2010

Dr Georges Roman is a cosmetic doctor and an expert in morphopsychology. Here he explains how he combines these two specialties to ensure he offers each patient the perfect treatment for their personality

As a cosmetic doctor, it is all too easy to give the patient what they ask for – if, for example, a 50-year-old woman comes into the clinic and asks for lips like Angelina Jolie, it is possible to do that. But a 50 year old will not look right with lips like that. She will look fake, even ridiculous.

And it’s not all down to age – a person’s profession, lifestyle and personality type all come into play when determining what is the right treatment for them. I have always been interested in psychology and I try to apply this to my cosmetic work, so I am thinking about the end result, not just aesthetically but also psychologically.

Morphopsychology allows me to analyse and understand the workings of my patients’ minds in order to identify how best to treat them. To do this, I insist on having an in-depth consultation – this is important for me to be able to identify what the patient wants and what I think will work for them.

I treat a lot of celebrities and I think they are a special case. They tend to age much faster than the rest of us – not physically, but emotionally – as they are so much in the spotlight. This means they can usually handle a stronger look, so I can use a little more filler.

There has been a lot of condemnation recently of celebrities who have treatments when they are very young – see my comment on this in the Hot Topic feature – and again I think you need to bear in mind that they are constantly being photographed and so need to look their best at all times. Also, they’re young, and when you’re young you want to rebel a bit, enjoy life; everyone has the right to go a bit crazy in their youth.

My philosophy is always to get a natural look and not go overboard, but within that, if they want to have a bit of an edge or look very sexy, that’s up to them. If they want to have a bit of red in their hair, why not – two months later they’ll have it a different colour. My role as a cosmetic doctor is to guide them, to let them have what they want but make sure they don’t do something they will regret later.

The problem is that normal girls see these celebrities and think ‘I want to look like that’, but if you’re a quiet, shy girl and I give you big, juicy, sexy lips, you will be giving off the wrong impression and your life will be plagued by unwanted attention from the wrong sort of men.

So that’s why I insist on a proper, in-depth consultation; this gives me the opportunity to probe, to find out what someone’s really like as a person, so I can assess what treatments will work for them. I’ve got some patients who come to me because they’ve made mistakes before and they know by my reputation that I will be able to help them.

Another thing that is very important in getting the right result is using the right products. I only ever use pure hyaluronic acid products, such as Juvéderm. When you feel the texture of hyaluronic acid, it’s very smooth, very elastic. That means I can manipulate it to get the precise result I am looking for.

The first injectable I ever used was Juvéderm. I’ve tried other types of filler but I only ever use hyaluronic acid – people ask me why I don’t use other fillers and I say, “look, we have a natural product here, which works with the body and gives a soft, natural-looking effect. Why go elsewhere?”

The definition of a ‘natural’ look varies depending on the person you are treating. I like to think you can define ‘youthfulness’ as a sort of roundness, a softness, which you don’t have at the age of 40 or 50.

But it’s not just about looking natural, it’s about feeling natural too – when I do lip fillers I always massage the lips at the end, to make sure I can feel the elasticity.

I decided to study morphopsychology because I’m interested in people, their relationships with each other and how to enhance those relationships. And aesthetics is about that too; it’s about improving relationships by giving people confidence, by giving them a boost.

It’s extremely interesting, so long as you have the confidence of the patient – if we don’t understand what it is they want, we can’t help them, so it’s about building trust. I am very happy to say that my patients think of me as a friend and in the event that they are passing the clinic, they always pop in to say hello.

This relationship with my patients makes me very pleased – I feel that I am a friend, a confidant, but still a doctor for whom they have respect. I am the whole package for my patients and that’s exactly what I set out to be.

CS&AG