Aesthetic doctors in class to say “no” to over-treated patients

It is discussed at the congress "Aesthetic Medicine: image, ethics and science", organized by Sime, Italian Society of Aesthetic Medicine, in Rome

RIMINI – Cosmetic surgeons in class to learn how to say ‘no’. At the congress “Aesthetic Medicine: image, ethics and science”, organized by theItalian Society of Aesthetic Medicine (Sime) at the ‘Nuvola‘ of < strong>Massimiliano Fuksasat the Eur in Rome, starting today until Sunday 12 May, among the various training sessions, there will also bea “lesson” on how to convince patients “over-treated” not to undergo further operations. As Emanuele Bartoletti, president of Sime, explains in presenting the 45th congress of the medical association, the relationship with “very demanding” patients is starting to represent an increasingly widespread. “We are living in a rather confusing moment – explains Bartoletti – where we see many patients who claim to be ‘over-treated’. I am convinced that the problem is not that of aesthetic doctors who propose ‘exaggerated’ treatments, rather that of colleagues who do not know as good as saying ‘no’.” Precisely for this reason “we thought of a session with emblematic cases of excessively insistent patients and how to deal with them, how to convince them that it is not worth having that operation”.

THE TOPICS OF THE 45TH SIME CONFERENCE
But during the conference there will be numerous topics addressed: “We will deal with ‘technical comparisons’ between drugs and between medical devices that exist today – he continues Bartoletti – for example, 5 different botulinum toxins and many bio-restructuring agents, not fillers but collagen promoters which can, with the same purpose, have different indications. We will also talk about complications: today another one has been added, the facial over correction syndrome, of patients who continue to overlap fillers which perhaps stratify and react with each other. We will then talk about the standards of beauty in the various ethnic groups, because today racial integrations are increasing in Italy too, and for the first time about acupuncture. because there is a growing number of colleagues who, with the support of Chinese doctors, have developed protocols to obtain aesthetic results even with acupuncture alone: if performed correctly it reduces side effects to a minimum. Another very important session is that of colleagues who, during the aesthetic medical check-up, discovered pathologies of which the patients themselves were not aware. Another important topic of the congress is cosmetics. We are talking about cosmetic ingredients, between science and false information: unfortunately we are witnessing the ‘demonisation’ of many active ingredients, and we must verify whether these alarms are justified from a scientific point of view. An example for everyone: there are sun filters whose presence can be found at the blood level even after only two or three applications”.

COSMETIC SURGERY EXPLAINED THROUGH PODCAST
Communication with patients is also in the foreground: “For some years now the Italian Society of Aesthetic Medicine has begun a more direct communication path in particular addressed to patients – also underlines Loredana Cavalieri, medical director of the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Unit of the San Camillo-Forlanini Hospital of Rome, Councilor of the Italian Society of Aesthetic Medicine – As part of this path, Sime publishes and prints a magazine dedicated to aesthetic medicine: Aesthetic Magazine which communicates to patients real and honest information regarding this medical specialty. Then, talk shows and video interviews were recorded and broadcast on the major social channels”.
But above all , Cavalieri finally adds: “The purpose of more direct communication is to ‘educate’ patients on the correct use of aesthetic medicine with a mainly preventive and corrective purpose only in the case of clinical indication”. But to achieve this level of objectivity “it is necessary – continues President Sime – to be able to transfer all the information in a simple and transparent way, without filters”. Sime’s choice to launch a series of video podcasts dedicated to the Congress goes in this direction, with interventions by some of the members of the board of directors who introduce the main sessions. “We had a more than positive return and so we thought of continuing the series with video podcasts dedicated exclusively to the public, centered on individual topics and which will touch on the most important points of aesthetic medicine. The platforms used are Spotify and Amazon music – concludes Cavalieri – which have been identified precisely because they appear to be the most followed and the most intuitive”.