June 9, 2016
From the Voice Tribune – Wes Kerrick
You’ll never meet a condescending glance. The moment never comes when you need to worry about the doctor’s decisions.
It’s a straightforward place.
On the third floor of The Springs Medical Center on Dutchmans Parkway, Samuels treats her patients with “a skillful, caring approach, with a woman’s touch.”
The aesthetic plastic surgeon has a gift for putting people at ease. She attributes that gift to the fact that she is a woman practicing in a field where most patients are also women. She gets them.
It’s the demeanor as well,” she says, “not wanting to appear like I’m superior to them in any way.”
Samuels typically spends an hour to an hour and a half with patients on their first visit. Men, who still account for a small minority of her patients, are turning out in ever-increasing numbers.
“If you sit down on your stool and you just have a friendly conversation with somebody and, in the appropriate places, let them get to know you – whether it’s through humor or just honesty – people really appreciate that.”
Having practiced cosmetic surgery since 1994, Samuels has seen aesthetic treatments by other practitioners come and go. Some of them have left patients disappointed.
A part-time clinical faculty member at UofL, Samuels stresses the importance of knowing your doctor’s credentials. Looking at the wall in her office, it’s clear she isn’t lacking.
Certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery. Certified by the American Board of Surgery. Awarded Fellowship in the American College of Surgeons. Member of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Member of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.
The list goes on.
Samuels begins by asking patients what aspect of their body they see as a flaw. She asks them to describe the look they’d like instead.
And she listens.
Then she explains all the options. Instead of just telling them what she thinks they should do, she gives them enough information to make their own decisions.
“They have to know the ins and outs or they’re not a partner in the proposition,” she says. “And I am responsible for the result, but if a patient has weighed in on the decision about what the aesthetic goal is, then we’re partners in that decision.”
Samuels says the objective of any good aesthetic surgeon is to improve people’s looks while maintaining all the natural characteristics that make them uniquely beautiful. She always goes for timeless beauty, not just what happens to be trendy.
“Helping somebody look – in their eyes – better, but not too different, is a goal.”
Over the years, as her practice has grown, Samuels has been careful to continue giving every patient her full attention.
“They want my time, and I respect that because their time is as valuable as mine,” she says. “Our goal is to have people think they’re the only one we’re taking care of right now.”
With expertise and attentiveness, Samuels always aims to create a “boutique” experience that she hopes will exceed her patients’ expectations.
“It becomes, then, more like a calling than just a job,” she says. “And that’s the difference – because people can go anywhere and get a filler. They can go anywhere and get a breast implant. They can go to a multitude of offices and get Botox. But at the end of every knife and at the end of every needle is the artist.”
Indeed, Samuels likens her work to painting a canvas. It was the synthesis of art and science that attracted her to cosmetic surgery in the first place.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s just a filler or Botox. The artistic sense of the person doing that procedure is paramount in terms of the result.”
VT
