sheila nazarian, md - beverly hills plastic surgery, labeverly hills and began building out nazarian...
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Plus:❖ Noninvasive
Skin Tightening
❖ Laser PlumeSafety Protocols
Sheila Nazarian, MDOn the Power of Social Media in Plastics
Putting Back the Good: Probiotics and the Skin Microbiome
April 2018 $5.00Volume 14, Number 3
medestheticsmagazine.com
Set New Hires Up For Success
MedEsthetics (ISSN 1937-2140 & USPS 024-336), Volume 14, No.3, April 2018 is published monthly except in February, June, August and December by Creative Age Communications, Inc., 7628 Densmore Ave., Van Nuys, CA 91406-2042, USA, Phone 818.782.7328, Fax 818.782.7450. Basic annual subscription rates are: $48.00 in the U.S., $65.00 in Canada, and $70.00 in other international countries. Periodicals Postage Paid at Van Nuys, CA and additional mailing offi ces. POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS; NON-POSTAL AND MILITARY FACILITIES: send address corrections to MedEsthetics, P.O. Box 460159, Escondido, CA 92046-0159.
CONTENTSApril 2018, Volume 14, Number 3
TOOLS & TECHNIQUES28 Blemish ControlProducts addressing acne and pigmentation concerns
30 A Healthy Balanceby Inga Hansen
How skin microbiome research is changing skin care
36 The Heat Is Onby Linda W. Lewis
What’s working in noninvasive skin tightening
48 Collagen BuildersAntiaging skin care for patients
60 Aesthetic TechnologiesAesthetic devices for your practice
64 Newsmakersby Inga Hansen
A new treatment for SKs
PRACTICE MANAGEMENT20 Business Consult by Cheryl Whitman
Onboarding for new hires
24 Legal Issuesby Alex R. Thiersch, JD
Trademarking your brand
42 Up In Smokeby Karen Appold
How to protect against laser plume
50 The Social Practiceby Keith Loria
Sheila Nazarian, MD, on growing a new practice
IN EVERY ISSUE
12 Best Practices
18 Introductions
58 Advertiser Index
62 News & Events
COVER: Sheila Nazarian, MD PHOTOGRAPHY: Armando Sanchez
50
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36
30
Born in New York City while her
mother was on vacation, unrest in her home
country of Iran brought board certifi ed plastic
surgeon Sheila Nazarian, MD, back to the
States earlier than expected. “My mother
wanted me to be the fi rst U.S. citizen in the
family,” says Dr. Nazarian, who spent her
early years in Iran where her father worked
as a pathologist at the Shah’s Heart Hospital.
When the revolution began, the family
prepared to fl ee the country.
By Keith Loria
Photography by Armando Sanchez
50 APRIL 2018 | MedEsthetics
Sheila Nazarian, MD, harnessed the power of the internet to grow her plastic surgery practice.Sh il N i MD h d h f h i h l i i
Th e Social Practice
THE SOCIAL PRACTICE
52 APRIL 2018 | MedEsthetics
“We were Jewish so it was not good for us there,” Dr.
Nazarian recounts. “In 1985, my father left my sister’s,
mother’s and my passport with the government and
said he was going to Vienna to do some research. My
mother, sister and I escaped to Pakistan on the back of
a pickup truck, following the same route portrayed in
the movie Not Without My Daughter.”
The family reunited in Vienna and made their way
to the United States, setting up a home in Los Angeles.
Dr. Nazarian, who was 6½ at the time, quickly learned
English and excelled in school, earning a Bronfman
Youth Fellowship in her teens that allowed her to
travel to Israel for six weeks of leadership training.
Early on, she knew that she wanted to be involved in
the medical profession in some way. “My father was
a big part of that,” she says. “But also, when I was
16, my mother was diagnosed and passed away from
breast cancer.”
Initially, she wanted to become an orthopedic
surgeon because she liked constructing things with her
hands. Wood shop was her favorite class in school and,
while traveling from Pakistan to Vienna, she became
adept at making things out of whatever objects were on
hand, including a suitcase made of discarded paper bags
and duct tape.
“When I was in college, I started following an orthopedic
surgeon, but it became boring and cookie-cutter to me.
Someone suggested I look into plastics because it’s more
artistic, so I did and I never looked back,” she says. “It was
perfect for me, and all of that building and making stuff was
really good training.”
Dr. Nazarian attended Columbia University in New
York and graduated with a BA in economics, then matricu-
lated into Yeshiva University’s Albert Einstein College of
Medicine. She completed a plastic surgery residency at the
University of Southern California. “I had three kids during
residency, but I wasn’t the type who was trying to leave
and go home to my kids; I was always the fi rst there and
last to leave,” she says.
With an eye on one day opening her own practice, Dr.
Nazarian earned a master’s in medical management at
USC’s Marshall School of Business between her general
surgery and plastic surgery training. “I didn’t think it was fair
to my family to do another year of fellowship or be em-
ployed where I would miss more recitals. I wanted to be on
my own schedule so I could be a better mom,” she says.
Preparing for Practice OwnershipShe took a few months off after completing residency
training to spend time with her family, but was eager to
get back to her career. In July 2013, she found a location in
Beverly Hills and began building out Nazarian Plastic Sur-
gery. The practice opened in October of the same year.
During her fi rst year in practice, she perfected her pro-
tocols and established a presence both on social media and
in the community. “I couldn’t just sit and wait,” she says. “I
wrote the content for my website. I started social media
accounts. I made sure my before-and-after images were
really good. I made sure my offi ce was presentable and the
“Little by little, we have upped our game
and the patient experience.”
Dr. Nazarian spent her fi rst year in practice perfecting protocols and the interior of the offi ce.
THE SOCIAL PRACTICE
54 APRIL 2018 | MedEsthetics
consents were on point—everything that needs to happen
to make yourself successful,” she says.
Her biggest challenge: “Being patient,” says Dr. Nazar-
ian. “I remember noticing that the phones were ringing in
December 2014. It took that long for people to start call-
ing regularly.”
Then the fl oodgates opened. “It all happened at the right
time. Once everything was in place, the people started to
come,” she says. “Now, I just want an afternoon off!”
Keys to SuccessNazarian Plastic Surgery offers a range of aesthetic surgical
and nonsurgical procedures, including breast augmenta-
tion, liposuction, tummy tucks, vaginal rejuvenation, buccal
fat pad removal, lasers, noninvasive body contouring proce-
dures, Cellfi na cellulite treatments, toxins and fi llers.
In addition to doing good work and taking outstanding
care of patients, Dr. Nazarian fi nds that the secret to main-
taining success in the industry is to have a strong team and
utilize social media, videos and your
website to educate patients. “I have
seen over and over again that thanks
to social media and the videos on our
website, the patients who come in
to the offi ce have already decided I
am their surgeon. There’s not a lot of
selling that has to happen during the
consultation,” she says.
To keep her online reviews popu-
lated and timely, staff members are
trained to recommend that happy
patients share their stories online.
“It used to be that the person who
picked up the phone was a patient’s
fi rst point of contact, but today that is
the third or fourth point of contact,”
she says. “The fi rst point might be
Google, then social media or Yelp,
and then the receptionist. The fourth
point of contact is the experience of
walking into the offi ce.”
In order to meet patient expec-
tations, Dr. Nazarian put a lot of
thought into that fi rst experience with
the physical offi ce. When patients ar-
rive, they are greeted by staff, offered
a Fiji water or Pellegrino, and given a
tour of the practice. “They are taken
into a relaxation room to wait so they
are not waiting in front of anyone else
who may have just walked in,” she
says. “We don’t have anyone answering phones up front.
They are all in the back of the offi ce so waiting patients
don’t have to listen to people talking. It’s very quiet and
tranquil. Little by little, we have upped our game and the
patient experience.”
The practice has nine full-time employees and two part-
timers, and Dr. Nazarian’s management philosophy is to
exemplify and encourage a strong work ethic. “Our persona
on social media is laid back and fun; our offi ce is quite seri-
ous,” she says. “We have a game plan every day. There are
goals to meet and protocols to follow. We may be playful
with the patients but we are quite serious about our work.”
The Power of Social MediaSocial media remains an important part of Dr. Nazarian’s
business plan. She has four accounts on Instagram, including
@drsheilanazarian, @hautedoctor, @themodelsurgeon
and @theskinspotbeverlyhills totaling 160,000 followers
with more than one million impressions per week.
At Nazarian Plastic Surgery, the patient experience is just as important as patient outcomes.
THE SOCIAL PRACTICE
56 APRIL 2018 | MedEsthetics
“I think plastic surgeons are fi nally catching on
that if they’re not engaged in social media, it’s kind
of like not having a website,” she says.
Last year, she spoke at 17 medical conferences.
In 2018, she will host her own event called the
Nazarian Institute. “I will give a talk on how to
get a return on investment with social media, and
we’ll have great speakers throughout the event,”
she says. They include social media successes
from the worlds of dentistry, medspas, dermatol-
ogy and plastic surgery; a practice consultant who
will talk about offi ce fl ow and how to train your
staff; and a luxury brand CEO who will speak on
the importance of the customer experience.
Expanding Her Infl uenceWith a busy practice and more and more offers
for speaking engagements, Dr. Nazarian is fi nding
new ways to balance career and family time. She
is taking her husband (a neurosurgeon) and three
children to Paris for an upcoming event. Travel-
ing, she says, is one of their favorite things to do.
“I also like going to temple. It’s great family time,
where we can pray together and remember
what’s important in life,” she says. “It’s really the
only place I can calm my brain so I try to go as
often as possible.”
She is also focused on new projects. A few
months ago, Dr. Nazarian started an online ecom-
merce site for skincare called theskinspot.com,
and it already has more than 100 members. “It’s
a curated website, so instead of having 200 dif-
ferent types of sunscreens, for example, I pick my
favorites and make a video about them,” she says.
“If you have oily skin, this is the sunscreen for you.
If you have super-dry skin, this is the one for you.
It looks at skin types and the aesthetic goals of the
end user.”
Because she specializes in—and would like to be
known for—providing natural results, Dr. Nazarian
created a hashtag, #NaturalByNazarian, that she
includes on all social media posts. “We offer every-
thing here from the completely noninvasive, includ-
ing skin care and lasers, all the way up to surgical
procedures. It’s a one-stop shop,” she says. “The
goal for 2018 is to grow The Skin Spot, have two
Nazarian Institute conferences and gain a whole lot
more infl uence on social media.”
Keith Loria is a freelance writer based in
Oaktown, VA.
“Plastic surgeons are
fi nally catching on that
if they’re not engaged in
social media, it’s kind of
like not having a website.”
Dr. Nazarian uses social media and online videos to educate prospective patients on her practice and procedures.