Aesthetic medicine as a bridge between body and mind

As Miguel de Cervantes said: "the beauty that is accompanied by honesty is beauty and the one that is not, is nothing more than a good appearance."

This is Dr. Rocío Olivenza, honest and beautiful, an excellent professional. In her university years at the Faculty of Medicine, she was already clear about her specialty, rather, specialties, forensic medicine and, in the other corner of the ring, another heavyweight, aesthetic medicine. Two quite opposite and complicated aspects to exercise. After interviewing her, I dare to say that for her legal and forensic medicine represents the body, and aesthetic medicine, the mind. Yes, Rocío for more than a decade has ruled for the Ministry of Justice as a forensic specialist, exhaustive and very harsh examinations that have required her to be very meticulous with the matter, with the body, being an adviser to the judges of everything she has medical character in court to give an assessment and that the judge can give a legal qualification. The matter is quite serious, quite measurable, but perhaps that made him deeply desire, and after a few years of work, to dedicate himself to his other specialty, aesthetic medicine, something that seems not to be measurable or, rather, not to be necessary at all. .

Through their answers we will be able to see how something that at first glance may seem frivolous like aesthetics, ceases to be corporeal to open the door to the mind, to make the dreams of their patients come true, dreams or desires that are normally not fulfilled. they generate frustration or insecurities, and voila! she makes that little quest for happiness a reality.

The frivolity of aesthetics clearly does not seem questionable, the reification of women as an object of beauty and loveliness drinks from antiquity, qualifying retinol or hyaluronic acid as a health issue seems nonsense, but there it is. We are immersed in the world of health, aesthetics, the gym, the perfect hair mask, polar white teeth, Kardashian-style filters on Instagram photos... however, the evidence that all this is frivolous itself is questionable. I think it may seem frivolous if you ask me about the tragedy in Afghanistan, but today we are surrounded by body advertising, in magazines, on television and on social media. Body dissatisfaction is linked to various mental disorders, some such as eating, and this is due to the image industry and social networks. They massively promote a lean and muscular beauty standard that is elusive and leads many people to feel bad about themselves.

Here is the idea of ​​the mind, Rocío when she works with her patients, in the aesthetic part, she is entering into a face, into a life and possibly into about 300 looks in the mirror by her patient of what she does not like or has stopped liking it because of age. The best thing, that she stands up when someone asks her for a reification of the human being, she does not want a patient to lose their facial identity, she considers her work a harmony of beauty and proportions, she hates the broad brush that networks represent social. Michelangelo himself, when she painted the Sistine Chapel, had to fulfill certain orders in his commission, but Rocío does not work to fulfill the orders of any instagrammer, even if that means explaining her ideas to a patient. This makes you really honest.

Dr. Olivenza was born in Madrid, she is the youngest of two sisters. She defines the Medicine career as a very hard academic path, she still has dreams where she takes the exams at the university. In her 4th she decides her specialty in legal and forensic medicine, to which she will later dedicate 12 years, during this time she works as an expert for the Ministry of Justice. Four days after giving birth to her second child, she reads her doctoral thesis in legal and forensic medicine. This super mom, she earned a Ph.D. Cum Laude in Forensics while also passing her Master's in Aesthetic Medicine.

When Rocío talks to me about this first part of her life, she makes a point; that stop is called Paloma, her mother, she lacks words to express her enormous gratitude, «thanks to the persistence of my mother and the work of my father, my sister and I were able to study, they have always been with me».

After 15 years with her husband, she has two children: Alejandro and Adriana. Rocío is a very familiar woman, everyone still goes on vacation to jump the waves doing, for example, kite surfing. She emphasizes that her husband, a commercial flight pilot, surpasses her in childcare, he has sacrificed his professional development for the family so that she could give life to one of her dreams: setting up her own aesthetic medicine clinic in the municipality of Pozuelo de Alarcon, Madrid.

On a professional level, she is passionate about everything she does, but she is particularly satisfied with hair treatment, something highly demanded by men in recent years. She wanted to open the door to a male generation that for some years had been showing concern about hair loss. She currently has patients of any age, and this fact has marked a change in the motives that men originally had who wanted to reduce the signs of aging; now they also seek embellishment and gain self-esteem to offer the best version of themselves. Aesthetic medicine has been democratized, the idea of ​​taking care of yourself or improving your body is no longer just a female stigma. Society has changed its perception and it is no longer considered taboo for men to use aesthetic medicine, which is why Rocío, with more than fifteen years of experience, considered that hair growth was a part of aesthetics with greater projection within treatments. doctors.

What makes you especially happy?

I love going out, being with my friends, having a beer... but I really like my job, I have a great time in my day to day. In addition to my clinic in Somosaguas, I collaborate with the Man Medical Institute Clinic in Madrid as a hair transplant specialist; We are all girls and I have a great time, they are very young and I laugh a lot, I enjoy them and the patients a lot.

Why did you decide to dedicate yourself to the aesthetic part?

Because I have always liked beauty and balance, it has always caught my attention. When I started, a few months later, my clinic became a reality, it made my two branches of medicine compatible, but there was a moment when I decided to leave the forensic part and dedicate myself 100% to the aesthetic part. Practicing as a forensic is very hard, after many years in court you don't see anything good, everything is gray, and without going into autopsy issues, it also coincides with the growth of my children. It was the moment when I decided to dedicate myself fully to aesthetic medicine.

Do you love your job?

It gives me a lot of satisfaction, the patient looks better and that gives me the satisfaction of knowing that you do your job well, bringing them that degree of happiness. I like to be useful, I am helpful and I like to give myself to others. I think we generated a great illusion and that is very important.

Typology of interventions?

Mainly facial and capillary. All facial medical-aesthetic treatments, Botox, hyaluronic, tensor threads, collagen stimulators, vitamins, and hair transplant.

What do women usually demand?

When patients come to my office they already know what kind of treatments I perform, in reality I do not have demanding patients, but patients who come to me for advice. I'm lucky, you can go to a clinic and ask for your lip to be done, but they come to my clinic and ask me for an opinion before doing anything else. I feel lucky for it.

Do they come with preset ideas?

Now more, lately I am noticing that some patient comes with a pre-established idea, with a specific request, it had not happened to me in many years. I think this has to do with social networks that are generating needs that are unnecessary.

Aesthetics in itself is not something that is considered life or death, but it is true that I do not consider it ideal for patients to ask for medical treatments such as getting a chin done, getting a jaw done, without any kind of need that is not going to favor, in many cases it can even worsen.

Lately, fashions have been generated in aesthetic medicine, and I disagree with this type of need. It should be the doctor who advises and recommends the patient. For example, I do nose remodeling, but, if this is the case, I can consider that the patient who asks me does not need it, giving her an idea that she does not know. I don't like that sale of aesthetic medicine on social networks, if there are already people who consider aesthetic medicine banal, social networks give it a much greater banality. The fact that you buy a product because they sell it to you on social networks without personal advice. I've been noticing all of this lately.

What do men usually ask you for?

They ask me more and more and they ask me about treatments, and they no longer feel so uncomfortable when you propose them, because I deal with many men for hair transplants and you offer them some little thing or retouch, and what a few years ago was unthinkable, now when they try they love it, always being a refreshment.

I always say it like this, what I try, both in women and in men, is refreshment, trying to refresh the face, the gesture, the look, I do not seek to change any faction unless it is necessary to achieve that freshness, but always within that nature. I treat patients of all kinds and with all kinds of personalities and what I can boast about is that they remain very natural after dealing with them. It is to improve beauty with treatments that make you look younger, happier, and remain normal.

How has COVID affected your work?

It is true that I always say a post-Covid phrase: “what damage have videoconferences done…” (laughs), the demand has been very important as soon as we returned to normality. I thought that people would be more afraid to go to aesthetic medicine consultations, and both I and my colleagues have noticed that not only has it not gone down, but it has gone up, like a kind of lifeline. Some patients have even come to see me, if only to talk to me. By the way, I have to tell a secret, videoconferences are made to go wrong, nobody goes right.

Do you consider that your job is to apply aesthetic techniques or does it carry a certain emotional charge?

Beyond the needle, aesthetic medicine is not only the work itself and the hours, you can do a great job on a patient, but you also have to treat her personality and get what she or he wants. You have to find that balance a lot, and know what type of patient you have in front of you, to know what you can do and to what extent, that coincides with what you are looking for. The satisfaction is on both sides, and I can say that I am very lucky, because my patients generally understand me and I understand them so that they are satisfied.

I believe that the aesthetic doctor must be humble and sincere, say how much he can help or care for a patient, and know if the next step is surgery, but not be fattened by giving inaccurate solutions, unless the patient does not want to have surgery under any circumstances . In these cases there are intermediate solutions.

With social networks and the cult of image, do you think that your passion for aesthetic medicine is still pure?

I think so, and I think that it is also a matter of necessity, I consider that my profession generates enough benefits to live according to my conscience. If I don't see it, when faced with a request from a patient, I will try to redirect that idea for the good of the patient, but I don't consider economic benefit a priority.

As Naomi Wolf indicates in The Myth of Beauty, the demand for beauty ideals for women is becoming more and more impossible. It is undeniable that the sector has gained a lot of space, the myth of beauty works today, so much so that it borders on the danger of the most sensitive part of people: self-esteem. I have conducted this interview with Dr. Olivenza because she does not live under constant pressure to conform to an idealized concept of beauty created by modern society. She conforms to a vital principle, health, aesthetics is health, like going to the dentist when you have a cavity. The skin is another organ of the body, just as the hands or feet are taken care of, and one goes to the podiatrist or the beauty center, the face and hair can be taken care of and treated, without frivolizing, without transforming people.