New premises for FACEWORKS
Dr Teresa Cattin has just opened the doors to her stunning new Faceworks clinic in Apollo Drive, Albany.
The new site, which is just down the road from her former premises, has been designed with privacy in mind. From the way it is set back from the busy road, to the organic flow: from reception to waiting room to treatment room and back out; you won’t have to see anyone else there. Every detail has been meticulously thought out. There’s the makeup mirror in the bathroom for post-treatment touch ups before you leave, the Nespresso coffee machine in the waiting room, Phillippe Stark chairs to sit on and the latest glossy fashion magazines. Her little sanctuary is so light, clean and modern – so utterly peaceful to sit in that you’ll want to come early just to decompress before seeing her.
Dr Cattin says the time was right for her to move out to her own clinic, “It’s really to thank my clients because basically they deserve to come to somewhere that is special and dedicated just for cosmetic medicine – not included in normal doctors practises,” she explains. “I particularly wanted the privacy and that flow and just the little things like having the makeup mirror in the bathroom and being able to put your makeup on so you look good before you leave.”
The clinic has to balance between being comfortable, stylish and inviting but also looking medical. “I didn’t want it to look like someone’s lounge,” she says laughing and says that some clinics have taken comfort too far. “I’ve been in so many clinics in Australia and Europe and some of them look like someone could be living there, there’s sofas and cushions and all these things which are not medical. It was quite hard to get that clean, clinical feel but also look high end and special.”
She’s managed to balance it perfectly well.
Dr Cattin is the President of the College of Appearance Medicine, she’s also a consultant to Allegan (the makers of Botox and Juvederm) and is on the Advisory Boards for Botox and Juvederm. She trains GPs in the use of both products in New Zealand, Australia, Japan and India.
“My original interest was Plastic Surgery but then I also wanted a family and it’s hard to make those two work together. So I started off in General Practice but this field became more and more interesting,” she explains. “To start with, for purely personal reasons – I didn’t like what was happening in the mirror and I started to look into what real treatments there were out there, what effective scientifically proven things that went beyond over the counter beauty treatments. That’s how I got involved in Appearance Medicine and I’ve been in it since it’s beginning. Now it’s a huge field of medicine and is becoming more popular. It’s just been recognised by the New Zealand Medical Council as a scope of medical practice.”
Like all who choose a career path in medicine, Dr Cattin, was and is motivated by wanting to help people. “This is fun but it also increases people’s self esteem, it makes them feel better about themselves – I know, it sounds twee but it’s true.”
Indeed it is. One only has to feel marginal about their face through tiredness and the admission that yes, being over 30 means it all starts to crease and head downwards to go and see Dr Cattin and get a solution. Fine lines – gone. Lost volume – replaced. Thin lips – enhanced. The beauty of what she does is that no one really knows what you’ve had done. They think you look refreshed and like you’ve come back from holiday. They might ask if you’ve lost weight, had a hair cut or something else. But they might not know that you’ve had Botox and Juvederm and that is the beauty of these treatments.
“There are so many new products in the pipeline,” she reveals. “So many exciting things coming up that we are seeing at conferences – new products being developed in this field. It’s just going to get better and better – safer, longer lasting innovative new treatments. It’s amazing what is coming up.”
So where does this leave surgery? “There’s certainly a trend towards non-invasive treatments. People want easy treatments – we’re all time poor and don’t have six weeks to take off to recover from cosmetic surgery any more. So while cosmetic surgery itself is scaling down to less invasive, this field is getting closer to achieving more.
“When I started out it was about filling in superficial little lines and wrinkles with collagen – that was 20 years ago, that was all we could do. Whereas now it is way beyond that, we are looking at lifting things, replacing volume – all sorts of things. The whole concept has changed. It’s great to be part of that.”
If you would like to know more, don’t hesitate to make a call. Dr Cattin is warm, friendly, professional and very much at the head of the game.
FACEWORKS 6/43 Apollo Drive, Mairangi Bay phone 09 486 5540.
