Live from Austin: Inside the Future of Aesthetic Medicine

Dr. Houssock (00:04):
You are listening to another episode of Perfectly Imperfect. Hi Danielle.

Danielle (00:09):
Hi Dr. Houssock.

Dr. Houssock (00:10):
We are on location.

Danielle (00:13):
It's so cool to be here.

Dr. Houssock (00:15):
This is cool.

Danielle (00:15):
Never been to Texas, so I'm excited to be here too.

Dr. Houssock (00:17):
Welcome to the Perfectly Imperfect podcast on location in Austin, Texas. How cool.

Danielle (00:23):
Yeah, very cool.

Dr. Houssock (00:24):
So Danielle and I are right now at our annual meeting. This is the American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery Meeting, and these happen yearly. We go basically every other or so. They're very valuable to us. And we are here today with our podcast company on location doing our podcast.

Danielle (00:46):
Yeah, it's exciting. They're right behind us.

Dr. Houssock (00:47):
Really Cool. So we thought that we would take this opportunity to do kind of a overview of the really the educational advantage to having these meetings and what Danielle and I get out of it, and it really spans about four or five days. It is everything from surgical talks, professionalism talks, business, non-surgical injections, all of that financial. So a lot of conference talks that we go to. And then one of the, I would say equally valuable things that they also have is something called the Marketplace. And we're sitting in the Marketplace right now.

Danielle (01:23):
Hopefully we can show a picture of it.

Dr. Houssock (01:25):
Yeah, we'll show a little video of it too. And so it is hundreds and hundreds of vendors from all over the world, not just the country that are selling or providing all kinds of things. So it is our implants, it is our injections, it is our skincare. There are companies here for the compression garments we use. There are companies for all the lasers that exist in the world and all of the instruments and tools that we use, which is really important. So they're all here in the Marketplace. And one of the most valuable things Danielle and I do is we walk this Marketplace and we pick up ideas. We are educated on what's out there and what's new. And then based on what we find, we often will bring things back.

Danielle (02:09):
How we found our garments, how we found a couple of our lasers.

Dr. Houssock (02:12):
Yes, yep. So we thought we would talk about that. So let's see. So let's go backwards. Last time we were here, we brought home, I think that was the Ballancer Pro.

Danielle (02:23):
Got the Ballancer Pro and I think the new garments.

Dr. Houssock (02:26):
Yes. So the Ballancer Pro is the lymphatic massage machine that we have in the practice. Anybody can get on it, but it's really great post-surgical after our liposuction cases and even our tummy tuck cases. Aids in improving swelling and aids in recovery. Ultimately, it's just really great post surgery, but it's also really awesome for other things. Right?

Danielle (02:50):
Yeah. A lot of patients come in just before an event just to help with decrease in swelling overall, just after working out things like that.

Dr. Houssock (02:57):
Yeah.

Danielle (02:58):
We got in it on laying here in here.

Dr. Houssock (03:01):
Right in the Marketplace.

Danielle (03:02):
It was great.

Dr. Houssock (03:03):
And that's what happens. We get firsthand, there's nowhere else where we get firsthand experience with products, machines, like you were saying, our garments, skincare, where we have our hands on all of it. It's very cool. And it allows us the opportunity to literally get to try everything. So when we got in that Ballancer Pro machine here on the floor, that was it.

Danielle (03:24):
We're like, yep, we're buying this.

Dr. Houssock (03:25):
We brought it home. We brought it home. So that was one that was last year. Our garments are an unending thing. There are probably what, 10, 15 companies here, maybe more.

Danielle (03:35):
And we're going to look at all of 'em again.

Dr. Houssock (03:36):
Oh my goodness. We're always looking to have the perfect garment post surgery. It has to be comfortable, but it also has to do what it needs to do. And we're constantly, constantly looking. I think our most recent ones are from Marena.

Danielle (03:50):
Marena, yes.

Dr. Houssock (03:50):
And generally speaking, we really have loved those. We're trying to expand from the typical, sometimes just the typical abdominal binder is the answer, but there are many cases where we need more. And so we really love a full garment for if you're getting a breast done at the same time as you're getting your tummy done, or maybe you're getting your arms done, you need a perfect compression. And when we're here, we get to experience a bunch of them. They're even cooler. We just saw one, Veronique is the company. We sat with them just now and said, here's an issue we're having. They're bunching at the elbow. And the company said, no problem. We'll make you whatever you want. How do you want it to be? Do you want it to be longer shorter? Do you want the seam to be different? So not only do we get to experience different companies, they're also like

Danielle (04:38):
They'll work with us.

Dr. Houssock (04:39):
And made to order.

Danielle (04:41):
Yep, exactly.

Dr. Houssock (04:42):
So it's really cool because even when patients will tell us it's digging in here, these companies will oftentimes work with us to just adjust what it does and we can change it. So another opportunity we have just to do that. What other things do we, oh my gosh, our, Silagen.

Danielle (04:56):
Yeah, Silagen. That was a good one.

Dr. Houssock (04:58):
That was crazy. So when we think about post-surgery, one of the biggest things that patients worry about is their scarring. And there are studies and studies and studies out there about what makes the best scars. And actually during my training at Hopkins, I had to do what's called a grand rounds, a big talk about this. I had to do all the research and present it.

Danielle (05:18):
I don't think I ever heard this story.

Dr. Houssock (05:20):
No? So it was the topic and I had to present to the whole department what really works and what really doesn't work when it comes to scars. And data from decades and decades and decades will show that the only true topical that works to minimize scarring is silicone. It's silicone gel. It can be in the form of a strip, it can be in the form of a gel, but silicone does multiple things. It number one, creates a barrier, which is always important when you're healing. Number two, it allows moisture to stay within the actual incision site, and so is very important for the viability of cells. And then silicone also promotes a little bit of compression when it's being placed. And compression is really good for scarring. So silicone gel is the only topical in the world that really works. People will ask all the time, what's in Mederma? Mederma has, their main ingredient is something that comes from, I think the onion cells.

Danielle (06:20):
They just market it well, I think.

Dr. Houssock (06:21):
It's not, yeah. So it doesn't really do anything. So silicone is the answer. And I usually tell patients, I don't care which one you use, but we found here in the Marketplace few years ago now Silagen the company. And we love Silagen mostly because yes, it's silicone, but it's just how it feels. If you're going to put something on your body, you're going to want something that works well and feels well, and it just feels very velvety on your scars. It dries clear.

Danielle (06:49):
It does. Yep.

Dr. Houssock (06:50):
It dries non sticky. They do have some strips and things that they do offer, which we've tried and they're okay, but I would say

Danielle (06:58):
They're good for nighttime.

Dr. Houssock (06:59):
Perfect for nighttime when you're sleeping. But we love their silicone gel. There's nobody that we love more. So we have them in the practice. They're a product that you can only get in a medical facility. So we offer that to our patients and we found them here. And that was just, we fell upon them. Again, we put them on our hands and that was it.

Danielle (07:13):
Yep, that was it.

Dr. Houssock (07:13):
We were like, wow, this is awesome.

Danielle (07:16):
That was a couple of years ago and we've had them since.

Dr. Houssock (07:18):
Yeah. What lasers have we found?

Danielle (07:19):
My favorite? I was going to say InMode.

Dr. Houssock (07:21):
Yeah. Yeah,

Danielle (07:22):
That was a big one.

Dr. Houssock (07:23):
So again, sometimes we come in here knowing things we need, and then sometimes we fall upon products that we are like, wow, we do need this. We didn't know we needed it.

Danielle (07:33):
And I think that's how that one happened.

Dr. Houssock (07:34):
Yeah, totally. Totally. Because for probably the first few years that I was in practice, Danielle and I would see facial patients and body patients that would have a little bit of skin laxity. And it wasn't enough to do something really excisional meaning like a big facelift or a big tummy tuck or a big arm lift. But these patients had just enough laxity that they needed something done.

Danielle (07:55):
And we're going to do a whole podcast on that one coming up. So I'm excited about that.

Dr. Houssock (07:58):
It's really important because it's a huge patient population where you've got some skin laxity, but not enough that you don't want to buy those big scars that come with a big operation. So InMode has something called BodyTite or FaceTite depending on where it's placed. And it is utilized in conjunction with liposuction, and it ultimately heats the skin tissue to a very high temperature using radiofrequency heat. And it in doing so, creates a very controlled traumatic injury, a burn if you will, but it's not a burn. It's very high heat. It actually breaks the collagen bonds and then those collagen bonds realign and they tighten. So doing that, it tightens the skin. And we met them here and they've been around a really long time. We knew that they were around and it was an investment and we invested and my gosh, we've never looked back.

Danielle (08:51):
The company is great. They're great to work with.

Dr. Houssock (08:53):
Yeah, amazing. Really good work they do. Not only are they great with their customer service with us, they're great with our patients. The outcomes have been really positive. We use it in multiple areas. Where do we use it on the body?

Danielle (09:07):
I think the most popular is going to be face and neck, upper back arms, sometimes inner thighs, sometimes tummy, even flanks a little bit. We have spots we love better than others. Definitely the neck, the arms and the upper back has been amazing.

Dr. Houssock (09:24):
And often patients will add it. We just saw someone the other day, they're going to do a breast augmentation and she just happened to mention her jawline while we were doing our consultation. And she's going to add on FaceTite, and that's very common. You can add it on easily to a procedure you're already getting. You can get it as a standalone and in some instances, especially in the jawline, we can do it with you awake. It's a great machine. It works hand in hand with Morpheus8, which is also by InMode, that machine. It also does the same radio frequency heat, but that's a topical and that's what Lindsey is doing, not in the OR, but she can do it in the OR, but she's often doing it in the office. And so InMode has been a huge addition to our practice. The most recent machine that we bought from them, the IPL .

Danielle (10:08):
Oh, our new IP machine. And everyone loves that.

Dr. Houssock (10:10):
Yeah.

Danielle (10:10):
Everyone's been loving that.

Dr. Houssock (10:11):
It's huge. But yeah, so that ultimately found InMode in the Marketplace.

Danielle (10:16):
Everyone knows the Morpheus8

Dr. Houssock (10:18):
Yeah, Morpheus8.

Danielle (10:19):
Did we start with that one?

Dr. Houssock (10:20):
I think we started with Morpheus8. Trying to think. I think when we did the Morpheus8, we started and it also had FaceTite and then we've expanded. We now have the ImPower, which is their machine for vaginal rejuvenation. We have their IPL, we have their laser hair removal. So we really, really love them.

Danielle (10:39):
They've been to me, of everything we've bought at the Marketplace or found here that they've been the biggest addition, I think.

Dr. Houssock (10:45):
Huge. We started way back in 2017 with Cartessa, and we still love Cartessa. Cartessa is another laser company. We have their Virtue, that is a radio frequency micro kneeing machine. We met them here. Gosh, it's amazing.

Danielle (11:00):
We got our Nextech from, that's how we found Nextech.

Dr. Houssock (11:02):
Yeah.

Danielle (11:02):
Our EMR.

Dr. Houssock (11:03):
Our electronic medical record. We met them here. That's been a little while. Our skincare stuff, all of our skincare is always here to chat with.

Danielle (11:09):
Always here. Breast implants are here, different breast implants.

Dr. Houssock (11:13):
Yes. We're very excited to sit down with a company from Motiva. Motiva is the newest breast implants that we're coming that are coming into our practice. And they're here and we're very excited to sit down with them and really get into the nitty gritty of sizing and all that with you guys because they're coming into the practice very soon. And so they're here and we'll get some time to spend with them. This part is kind of something you guys don't think about, but I think about a lot as my instrumentation in the OR. So we have a company, their name is Black and Black. They are a family owned company. I love a small boutique family owned company when it comes to things like this.

Danielle (11:47):
They're great.

Dr. Houssock (11:48):
I buy a lot of my surgical instrumentation from them, things I use in the OR and they're just spectacular. Our power assisted life machine is from them as well. It's so nice to stand in front of them at this Marketplace and go through some new instrumentation. And that matters, obviously your surgeon matters, but me having the toys I like is a big deal. It's like my little playground. So I will often

Danielle (12:13):
Just so you guys all know, she is like a kid when she walks around here looking at all the stuff.

Dr. Houssock (12:17):
It's a lot of fun. Yeah, it's just fun. It is, it's just like my toys. So we get a lot of that stuff from here too. And it's valuable. Again, it sounds like a big old shopping fiasco, but it's really valuable for us because we take it very seriously that we want to be on the forefront of what is working and not working in the world of aesthetics. And you cannot miss out on that because you don't want to miss something that we could be providing that would be super helpful. So we're always ready to grow and bring in something new if we think it's going to be helpful to the practice.

Danielle (12:51):
And then that goes to the other side of this meeting. It's not just the Marketplace. The huge part of it is educational seminars, and I love sitting in on those.

Dr. Houssock (13:00):
It's amazing. We're big nerds when it comes to that. We sit there with our notepads and you have people from all over again the world talking about different things, sub specialized things could be just

Danielle (13:12):
You just left a facelift, a facelift one.

Dr. Houssock (13:13):
Yes. It's like deep plane facelift or how do you manage the crease of the breast? It sounds so silly, but it's like a little thing, but it's a big thing. And what implants are people using and how are they using them? Little techniques and tidbits that we share with each other. And that's really fun. So our evenings are oftentimes at dinners with colleagues. And so tonight we'll be going to dinner. We were invited with our breast implant company, and we'll just sit there and just chat about techniques and what to do and how to do it. And there's nothing like sitting down with your colleagues too. I mean, we all sit in our little bubble.

Danielle (13:47):
People don't get to see often.

Dr. Houssock (13:47):
We're in our bubble, in our ORs doing our thing. And so it's really nice to sit down with other colleagues doing the same stuff and to shoot and how they're doing things. What are they doing things? Are they doing something different and new?

Danielle (13:58):
Yeah, what's new?

Dr. Houssock (14:00):
And I've definitely picked up through the years. I can think of just in my eight, nine years here out in practice, I've picked up techniques on my belly button, how I lipo, the way that I contour, the way that I do my breast lifts. You just things that you pick up, little technique you pick up to make you better. And I think one of the most important things about being a surgeon or a doctor in general or a practitioner, it goes for injectors too, is always being willing and humble to learn more. And just because you've been doing this a long time does not mean that you don't have ways to get better all the time. I mean, it's really, really important to be able to do that because while something may have worked really well for many years, there might be a new and improved way or technique to do things. And so we get excited about that.

Danielle (14:48):
Something pops up on the screen and we both look at each other.

Dr. Houssock (14:50):
It just happened this morning. I was like, wow, I just saw this one stitch that somebody's using in their facelift. And I was like, that is so cool. So it's really fun. And sometimes people come up with things just by accident and it's so fun to see how they came up with it and then we all can use it as a new technique. Things are like that all the time. Things happen in medicine on accident all the time. And I'm thinking of just one simple thing, which is minoxidil for hair.

Danielle (15:16):
Oh yeah.

Dr. Houssock (15:17):
That was an accident.

Danielle (15:18):
Latisse.

Dr. Houssock (15:18):
Yeah, Latisse. Same thing for, these are medicines that were being used for another purpose, and then they just discovered that it also works really great in the aesthetic world. Minoxidil is Rogaine. That was a blood pressure medication and just accidentally found that guys were doing really great with their hair and then now we just use it.

Danielle (15:36):
What was Latisse? An eye drop?

Dr. Houssock (15:37):
Yeah. I'm trying to think if it was for eye glaucoma. I think so. So wild lashes started growing, their lashes were growing. So a lot of stuff is by accident. And so we share our little tidbits with each other at this meeting too. And I mean, we can go on and on. We really love coming. It takes us out of the practice for a few days and that's always, I never like leaving the practice, but at the same time, we really benefit from it and so do our patients.

Danielle (16:03):
It's valuable. It really is. And it's always valuable. Every time we say it, we leave and we have our notes and

Dr. Houssock (16:09):
So pumped.

Danielle (16:10):
We get excited to come back to the office.

Dr. Houssock (16:11):
Can't wait.

Danielle (16:12):
Have the new stuff.

Dr. Houssock (16:14):
So we are always pooling new things and it's a lot of fun. So we're going to get back out there actually.

Danielle (16:19):
Yeah. After lunch. Get back out there.

Dr. Houssock (16:21):
Yeah. Time to travel through.

Danielle (16:21):
We have our schedule set for afternoon.

Dr. Houssock (16:25):
And I am probably going to post on social media actually after this. If there's something that the patients are interested in.

Danielle (16:32):
I'd be interested to know.

Dr. Houssock (16:33):
Just something they want us to, is there something that they would like to know or see? And we could take advantage of being here and look into something for them.

Danielle (16:39):
That's a good idea.

Dr. Houssock (16:40):
Yeah.

Danielle (16:41):
Alright, carry on Danielle.

Dr. Houssock (16:42):
All right. See you soon.

(16:46):
Perfectly Imperfect is the authentically human podcast navigating the realities of aesthetic medicine. JEV Plastic Surgery is located in Owings Mills, Maryland. To learn more about us, go to JEVplasticsurgery.com or follow us on Instagram @DrCareHoussock, spelled D-R-C-A-R-E-H-O-U-S-S-O-C-K, or just look in the show notes for links. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it and subscribe to Perfectly Imperfect on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen to podcasts.