Olding school

Vicky Eldridge chats to oral and maxillofacial surgery registrar and founder of Interface Aesthetics, Mr James Olding

They say there are only so many hours in a day, but when you meet Mr James Olding, you start to believe he has found some extra time somewhere.

The surgeon, director and lead trainer of Interface Aesthetics still works full-time in the NHS alongside running his aesthetics training academy and private nonsurgical practice, as well as acting as a key opinion leader (KOL) for Allergan. On top of this, he’s launched his own events – FACExpo and FACExpert – which supports junior and experienced clinicians in establishing a side career in aesthetics and was just awarded the Rising Star award at the Aesthetics Awards.

A VARIED CAREER

Dually qualified, Mr Olding graduated with Honours in Medicine and Surgery at the University of Bristol in 2012 and Dentistry from King’s College London in 2021. He became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 2015 and is now a specialist registrar in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in London, working at Kings College Hospital.

Following on from a longstanding interest in the treatment of diseases and trauma in the face, and in parallel with training in facial surgery, he became fascinated with facial aesthetics, seeing non-surgical treatments as an essential component of managing patients’ cosmetic concerns. He rapidly moved to combine and integrate the different aspects of professional practice in facial aesthetics, drawing on surgical and nonsurgical experience, as well as continued NHS practice and care of acutely ill patients with facial injuries.

“My day-to-day is dealing with patients with facial trauma, head and neck cancer, aesthetic issues (within the remit of the NHS) and more complex elective surgeries such as repositioning of the jaws and craniofacial surgeries”, he says. “It’s a little bit hectic. I work full time there, which effectively is like a 50-hour week. On top of that, in the last six months, we’ve been quite short-staffed, meaning as a team we have had to cover lots of extra shifts to ensure the emergency service is covered. It takes a lot of planning but it’s working well.

“The good thing is that everything I do is transferable, so I do facial surgery in the NHS, and non-surgical aesthetics in my practice. One makes me better at the other, and vice versa.”

BECOMING A KOL

Mr Olding joined the UK faculty for leading aesthetics manufacturer Allergan in 2021. In early 2022, he was invited to be one of a handful of practitioners appointed to the faculty for the company’s new hybrid dermal filler – HArmonyCa with Lidocaine.

The role has seen him travel to places like Brazil, Monaco and Berlin to speak in front of his peers. He has recently been appointed as the principal investigator on a Phase III clinical trial for the use of toxin in the lower face and masseter.

“This role has been one of the nicest surprises career-wise in the last year. I really enjoy presenting and doing that side of things”, he says.

RISING STAR

Although Mr Olding’s career spans two decades, his prominence in aesthetics has been growing and saw him awarded the title of Rising Star at the recent Aesthetics Awards, which is intended to recognise a future leader in the field.

“It was a nice pat on the back and really great to be recognised in that way”, he says. “It was definitely a surprise. Interface also came highly commended in the Best Independent Training Provider category and, on some level, that meant more because it’s such an undertaking having a training academy. I was so happy about that.”

INTERFACE AESTHETICS

Concerns over the lack of regulation led Mr Olding to start Interface Aesthetics and so he decided to combine a campaign for higher standards with his passion for teaching.

As well as beginners and advanced courses in injectables, the company offers masterclasses in peri-oral rejuvenation and advanced lip augmentation, peri-orbital rejuvenation and tear trough treatment, the jaw, chin and lower face, non-surgical facelift and facial harmonisation and non-surgical rhinoplasty.

But the jewel in the crown is the accredited Level 7 Diploma in Injectables, which includes a Fast Track Recognition of Prior Education Learning (RPEL) course, a process for those with existing industry experience to be eligible to fast track and complete just the assessment.

Mr Olding says, “Becoming an accredited Level 7 training provider was one of the most important things for me when we started Interface because it was the only equivalent of the gold standard. In the future, I believe it will be incorporated as a minimum educational requirement.”

Interface is also due to launch a new biostimulators course, a topic Mr Olding is particularly interested in. “I believe biostimulators are going to become more and more prevalent in the future of aesthetic medicine”, he says. “What I like about them, and what makes them popular with patients, is the way they can rejuvenate in such a natural way.”

SUPPORTING THE AESTHETICS DOCTORS OF THE FUTURE

In November 2022, Mr Olding launched Facial Aesthetics Careers and Education Expo or FACExpo, a one-day educational programme aimed at entry-level health professionals interested in aesthetics.

“Two years ago, under Interface, I launched an undergraduate mentorship scheme”, he explains. “There are a lot of young medical and dental students who are interested in aesthetics but who have no information about it. So we thought, let’s create something which is quite robust and it’s grown and grown. I’m lucky enough to work with 22-year-olds who have a really different perspective on lots of different things. So it makes it really authentic. And that’s really where the concept for FACExpo came from.”

Off the back of the event’s success, Mr Olding realised there was a demand for a similar event for more experienced and established practitioners and, as such, this year will also see the launch of FACExpert an event that blends expert teaching from facial surgeons and dermatologists to further non-surgical aesthetics education, build a stronger surgical/non-surgical interface, and promote the learning of advanced anatomy in the aesthetic mainstream.

“Quite simply, surgeons and non-surgeons have a huge amount to learn from each other”, Mr Olding says. “Facilitating this transfer of knowledge and expertise is what underpins much of the work I undertake, and it is the very essence of FACExpert.”

One of the key things about the training Mr Olding does is showing paractitioners how they can incorporate aesthetics alongside their NHS work.

“A lot of students want to incorporate aesthetics somewhere into their careers. I believe it is incumbent on us within the NHS to navigate that in a way that doesn’t say you have to choose them or us. By making that happen, you will actually future-proof the NHS by giving people more flexible careers where if they want to do some aesthetics, they can, but they can still continue with their specialist training or become a consultant or GP.

“I hope that I’m the living, breathing proof of that. We are not saying, ‘Forget the NHS, have a nice new career’, but actually that doing both of them gives you a lot of fulfilment.

“From my perspective, the NHS certainly keeps my feet firmly on the ground. There’s nothing like doing an international KOL event on a Sunday and then being up at six in the morning on a Monday to frantically prep a case so that a patient can get their life-changing operation done. It completely keeps you on the ground and I’d say that’s one of my most valuable things.”