Do You Like Your Cosmetic Doctor?

Dr Terry Loong
By Dr Terry Loong

With her gentle touch and artistic eye, Dr Terry strives to provide the best advise, treatment and care for her clients.

How many of you have a good relationship with your medical doctor?
How many of you wish you had a better relationship with your medical doctor?
How many of you ARE medical doctors?

I pose this question after attending an intense course training trainers to teach from the stage. It was great to see a few doctors in the room among 400+ participants, all wanting to learn better ways to impart our knowledge to our clients or patients.

According to Wikipedia, a physician or medical doctor is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments.

Wow, a mouthful!

No wonder it took me 10 years to train for my profession.

In the olden days, most illnesses were treated by medicine men who used "magic" to drive the illness away which they believed was caused by dark spirits. They were revered by the people as "Godly" figures sometimes holding a higher status than the kings. The Egyptians took power and that's when the study of anatomy was documented, mastering the art of mummification. The discovery of Penicillin by Alexander Fleming. The Nobel Prize work of Marie Curie on Radioactivity. The advancement of x-rays and "germs" caused infections and diseases during WWI and WWII. The increasing promotion of public health - was started by the Ancient Romans who did not trust Greek doctors at that time and believed if you spent money on keeping fit, you will be healthy and save money on seeing a doctor.

How many of you would agree that medicine has come a long way?

Now, we have many branches of "medicine" - integrative, functional, alternative, meta-medicine, holistic, complementary and many more. Some are founded by doctors and some are founded by people who have healed from their own illnesses away from the traditional route.

There is no shortage of information out there on how you can prevent or treat an illness.

There is no shortage of money being pumped into research looking for a new "drug" to fix things.

medicine has come a long way

But to what focus? To treat an illness or to promote health?

I sometimes question my role as a doctor as we are trained to look for diseases. We are trained to look for something that is not working or something that is lacking. And we have every test and treatment in the market to fix it!

I saw a new patient last week who came to me requesting something to be done about the deep frown line she had. She works in the military and she confessed to losing her femininity being in the military and wanted to look fresh when her boyfriend returns from his duty trip. It was the first time she had anything "cosmetic" done.

How many of you would like to look your best when you have not seen a loved one for 6 months?

However, she told me the last place she had gone to make her feel so "inferior" that she was worried that she was a lost cause. She explained they were basically telling her all they could do for her since she had not cared for her skin previously and she was closing in on 40. She felt so out of place and was thinking if she was being "selfish" or "foolish" for wanting to make changes so "late" in life.

Hmm.... reminds me a little bit about features and benefits!

Doctors are not Gods. Nor are they the gatekeepers to our health. The saying often goes - "Doctors are the worst patients!".

Each of us has the capacity to heal and to be in tune with ourselves to know what is good for us.

Doctors, I feel are in changing roles in this new era that they not only be doctors but also teachers.

Doctors should ignite the enthusiasm within all of us to learn about health. To inspire us to work with our bodies and mind towards a healthy and vital life. To instil questions within all of us to be curious and aware on how our environment and past conditioning affect our current and future health. To teach us to be our own detectives. To be our partners in health.

Me, I believe everyone can be their own doctor.

It's all down to the questions we ask ourselves.

  • How healthy do I want to feel?
  • How healthy am I feeling right now?
  • What am I doing to achieve the level of health I want?
  • What does my body need right now?
  • What 3 things can I improve on to move me closer to my optimum health?
  • How young do I want to look?
  • How young am I looking right now?
  • What am I doing to achieve the level of youth I want?
  • What does my skin need right now?
  • What 3 things can I improve on to move me closer to looking at my optimum youth?

So a final question to all of you - how many of you are willing to be doctors to the ones you love!

Many thanks to the author Dr Terry Loong who graduated from Guy’s, King’s and St. Thomas’ Hospital, London in 2002 and completed her postgraduate qualifications with the Royal College of Surgeons.

With her gentle touch and artistic eye, Dr Terry strives to provide the best advice, treatment and care for her clients.

She is best known for understanding her clients, being fully supported throughout and giving them educated choices.

Working with her team at Harley Street, she leaves her clients feeling amazing, confident and feeling completely taken care of. 

Thanks to the author

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