Armed with a license and extensive training, an esthetician often has his or her pick of facilities at which to work. Some may prefer a spa, salon or dermatologist’s office. Others, however, join a team that provides cosmetic and corrective surgery, which brings its own set of rewards and challenges for an esthetician.
An accredited school such as the New York Institute of Beauty will help aspiring professionals determine which type of specialty feels right. For those interested in working with a surgeon, they’ll learn just how key estheticians are to surgical preparation and recovery treatments.
Enhancing Surgery Prep
Just as with other types of surgery, the best chance at a successful cosmetic or related surgery starts well before the day of the procedure. In fact, at-home prep may begin as much as a month prior to the surgery.
Before facial surgery, having a plan to keep the skin exfoliated and clean, sets the patient up for the fastest, most worry-free recovery period. But in order to prep at home, patients need guidance on products and methods for pre-surgery skin care. That’s where an esthetician’s role comes in.
An esthetician helps patients understand which products will be most helpful, from vitamin-rich creams to specific peels. Often, an esthetician can provide the patients with those products after their consultation, and help patients understand how to use them.
Targeted at-home treatments are needed for specific procedures and different skin types. That makes the knowledge estheticians bring to these consultations so crucial.
Providing Post-Surgery Support
As important as presurgical treatment is to a cosmetic or corrective procedure, the recovery plan is even more important. Patients are anxious about preventing as much pain, swelling and bruising as possible. They also need to decrease the likelihood of scarring or wound infection.
In addition to giving patients information about enhancing post-surgery healing, estheticians may perform or assist in follow-up treatments, including:
- LED therapy. This treatment uses light-emitting diodes to treat skin with wavelengths of light for better skin recovery.
- Peels and Microdermabrasion treatments. These methods can reduce scarring after the procedure.
- VelaShape. If patients undergo liposuction, an esthetician can follow up with a VelaShape device, which uses infrared light, suction and other functions in order to refine the work from the liposuction.
- Rhytidectomy recovery. After a “facelift,” post-procedure treatments such as microcurrent and microneedling may be needed. Estheticians may also help with thurmage, which uses radio frequencies to produce more collagen, in order to further tighten and contour the skin after a rhytidectomy.
- Treatment demonstration. Estheticians show patients how to use the recommended post-surgical products. They also explain techniques such as gentle massage on the area.
- Makeup Consultations. The kind of makeup a patient uses after a procedure is important. Certain cosmetic ingredients can actually encourage the growth of harmful bacteria on the affected area. Estheticians can recommend the best makeup to avoid this complication, as well as to demonstrate how to hide any post-surgical swelling and bruising.
Perhaps most importantly, estheticians are there to provide reassurance that the procedures and recovery time are proceeding normally, and to help assess what to do should any abnormalities arise.
Undertaking Additional Duties
In many surgeons’ offices, estheticians often provide a range of services beyond pre- and post-surgery support. Some assist the doctor during surgeries, or during specialized laser treatments.
Providing the option of more in-depth or additional services is often one of an esthetician’s roles in a surgeon’s office. Since this kind of “upselling” should not be done irresponsibly, or cause the patient to feel uncomfortable, this kind of sensitivity to both the patient’s and the office’s needs are just one way in which estheticians provide a key liaison role.
