Your "beauty lens" is the way you focus on the features that truly matter to you—not your surgeon, not your friends, not Instagram.
Dr. Bass explains why zeroing in on the concerns that consistently bother you (the ones you notice in the mirror every day, not just in a random selfie) leads to better results and greater satisfaction.
He shares how to use your surgeon as a reality check, when to tackle one area versus a full makeover, and why outside opinions should be weighed, but never control your decisions. It's all about channeling your attention toward meaningful changes that make you feel confident, with treatments that deliver real, lasting impact.
About Dr. Lawrence Bass
Innovator. Industry veteran. In-demand Park Avenue board certified plastic surgeon, Dr. Lawrence Bass is a true master of his craft, not only in the OR but as an industry pioneer in the development and evaluation of new aesthetic technologies. With locations in both Manhattan (on Park Avenue between 62nd and 63rd Streets) and in Great Neck, Long Island, Dr. Bass has earned his reputation as the plastic surgeon for the most discerning patients in NYC and beyond.
To learn more, visit the Bass Plastic Surgery website or follow the team on Instagram @drbassnyc
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Transcript
Summer Hardy (00:01):
Welcome to Park Avenue Plastic Surgery Class, the podcast where we explore controversies and breaking issues in plastic surgery. I'm your co-host, Summer Hardy, a clinical assistant at Bass Plastic Surgery in New York City. I'm excited to be here with Dr. Lawrence Bass, Park Avenue plastic surgeon, educator and technology innovator. This is another episode in our beauty series, the series where we present and discuss Dr. Bass's advice and philosophy about your beauty and how to put together your beauty program. The title of today's episode is Beauty Lens. Okay. Dr. Bass, I understand the idea of focusing on beauty, the lens, right? So what specifically are we focusing on?
Dr. Lawrence Bass (00:41):
Well, when we think about how different patients think about their appearance and how they decide about which treatments to do, we can develop a couple of principles and more than just a principle, we can actually use those concepts as analytical tools to understand and channel our thoughts, making it easier to choose what to do and feel confident in that decision, and also to avoid pitfalls and understand our motivations to some extent in deciding about treatments. So beauty lens is a concept that I think about that's mated with beauty thermostat, which we'll discuss in a sister podcast that's coming soon. The two principles together embody a critical paradigm in understanding how people identify features in their appearance that they're dissatisfied with and choose to pursue them with plastic surgery treatments. Patients focus on what features bother them. I can always see a dozen different things in any patient that are medically reasonable to chase. And that's true in young patients and in patients who are aging. It's true in faces and it's true in bodies, but what bothers the patient is what matters, the aesthetic issues that the patient is aware of and is concerned about. That's what defines where the beauty lens is focused.
Summer Hardy (02:29):
Got it. So what advice do you have for patients about how they should go about focusing their lens?
Dr. Lawrence Bass (02:36):
Well, there are all kinds of things that bother us. There are all kinds of pictures and images and selfies nowadays where you see something that you may not like, but all of those one-offs are not really important. What's important are features you dislike all the time repetitively. So every time you're going out of the house and you glance in the mirror, you see it and it bothers you. Or every time you see yourself in a picture, it bothers you. Things that bother you in a clear, definable way, you look at them, you know exactly what you're seeing that you don't like. If you chase a feature like that, you're much more likely to end up satisfied than if you have a vague notion that you just don't think you look your best. Things that you know you're going to deal with sooner or later, you know you don't like them and you know you want to do something about it, those are definitely things to chase, and if you do that sooner rather than later, you'll have more time to benefit from the improvement. Things that continue to bother you over time are always better things to chase. And I advise patients to avoid the impulse buy. Again, there's always something, oh, if I treated that, that might be better. But it's always better to reflect a little bit and try to decide if that's really a significant beauty concern.
Summer Hardy (04:13):
Okay. All that makes a lot of sense. How does this factor into the consultation with the plastic surgeon?
Dr. Lawrence Bass (04:20):
Well, it's going to end up being about patient issues, not what the surgeon sees. That's the final bottom line. So the surgeon is there to provide an objective degree of the severity of the findings and express professional opinion about the options that would be useful in correcting those features. But we can't substitute the surgeon's subjective opinion for patient feelings about the appearance and what features are undesirable. Just because it bothers me doesn't mean you should treat it. You should only chase it if it bothers you.
Summer Hardy (05:08):
I think I'm getting the idea, but can you give an example? So I'm certain I understand how this works?
Dr. Lawrence Bass (05:14):
Sure. So sometimes a patient will walk in and they'll be really bothered by one feature and they have another feature that I can see that's just as bad. The typical example on the face is loose skin and wrinkles. So they've got some hanging skin and they have some wrinkles in maybe one or maybe more areas of the face. Some patients will walk in and say, I don't mind a few crow's feet. I've earned those wrinkles. I've got some experience, but I hate the loose skin. And other patients will walk in and say, I hate the loose skin and I hate the wrinkles. And other patients will say, I hate the wrinkles, but you can leave the loose skin. And there are some patients that walk in basically and say, fix everything. I see all kinds of things and I want you to fix them. And then there's some people that walk in and say, I'm kind of having a good time in life. Everything's going well. I'm not really worried about my appearance that much. Now when that's how you're going through life, that's fine. When that's what I'm being told in a consultation, it's a little different because then it makes me wonder why someone came into the plastic surgeon's office if they're not really worried about their appearance. But I sometimes hear that from patients when they walk in for a consultation.
Summer Hardy (06:49):
Okay, thanks for explaining. Then that brings up an interesting question. Should people focus on a single feature or multiple features at once?
Dr. Lawrence Bass (06:58):
Well, of course the answer to that depends. Sometimes you repaint the house and sometimes everything has lapsed for a while and it's time to consider a big makeover, redecorating the whole house, new carpet, new paint, new furniture, new fixtures. So sometimes you just work on a room or two and sometimes you need a bigger project. So it really depends on your stage of aging and what you've been doing up until now in terms of prevention and maintenance and any previous restoration treatments or surgery you might've done.
Summer Hardy (07:41):
That makes a lot of sense. I like that analogy. And what about friends and family? Should people listen to or ignore what they're telling them about their appearance?
Dr. Lawrence Bass (07:52):
That's really a loaded question, Summer, and just as a philosophical issue, we're probably never following a wise course if we're totally swayed by what others tell us or if we totally ignore what others tell us. So it's always good to factor it in, but it probably should not be controlling. Your surgeon, on the other hand, is probably a great gatekeeper and will tell you if a feature is insignificant and you shouldn't be worried about it or if it's too minor to chase yet. And if you think about it, when the surgeon is telling you, don't do surgery. Well, we like surgery, we like doing surgery. So if they're telling you no, that's probably very good advice. So this serves as a real reality check for folks to make sure you're not making yourself crazy over something that's really minor. In addition, it can give you a heads up about something that you may not have looked at very much or worried about, but it is a big significant part of how you project to the outside world.
(09:14):
So you can at least look at that and decide if it bothers you or not. Friends and family have all kinds of motivations, jealousy, competition, dislike of plastic surgery, desire of a fellow family member to avoid spending money on plastic surgery. All of this can lead to gaslighting or negativity about proceeding with something either surgical or non-surgical. Even with good intentions by friends and family, they're not experts and they're basing their advice on their experiences, their image of who you are and what they think you should look like, and that does not necessarily agree with your self image or the image you're trying to project to the outside world.
Summer Hardy (10:09):
That all makes a lot of sense. Time for your takeaways. Dr. Bass. Will you share them with our listeners please?
Dr. Lawrence Bass (10:16):
At the end of the day, the only beauty lens that matters is your personal individual beauty lens, the beauty features that you're focused on, not the ones you don't care about. Use your plastic surgeon as a reality check to make sure you're not overreacting or alternatively overlooking something. Focus on features that have been significant to you over time that consistently bother you and focus on features where the surgeon advises you that there is a reliable treatment that can give you significant improvement. In other words, don't do a big treatment just to get a tiny bit of benefit. So this is an issue in how patients choose what plastic surgery to move forward with. But a bigger problem is what I call the beauty thermostat, which we'll discuss in a separate episode. It's these two episodes of self-assessment when it comes to our appearance that are key to decision-making. So stay tuned for the beauty thermostat in the follow-up episode.
Summer Hardy (11:31):
Thank you Dr. Bass for sharing your fascinating analysis about how we benchmark our appearance. Thank you for listening to the Park Avenue Plastic Surgery Class podcast. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, write a review and share the show with your friends. Be sure to join us next time to avoid missing all the great content that is coming your way. If you want to contact us with comments or questions, we'd love to hear from you. Send us an email at [email protected] or DM us on Instagram @drbassnyc.
