The art of aesthetics

Dr Sana Sadiq looks at the importance of an aesthetic practitioner having an artistic eye

Aesthetic Medicine: Tell us about yourcareerroute into aesthetics.

Dr Sana Sadiq (SS): My career route was not the most typical by any means. In school, I battled between my love for fine art and the sciences. I applied for dentistry on a whim, after collaborating on research with dental universities, and started the accelerated graduate entry four-year dentistry programme at King’s College London while I was still finishing my MSc in Quantum Chemistry – this was a taxing time! I graduated on a high, winning the University of London Gold Medal, and started my foundation training in Central London. It was during a study day in my 1st year of training that I was introduced to the concept of facial aesthetics, and I was immediately set on it. It was the absolute perfect blend of my skills and interests. I arranged to do my first foundation training course for the last month of my foundation year in August 2018, and have never looked back. Since then, I have continued to work in both private dentistry and facial aesthetics, so that I may combine my full skillset to provide comprehensive aesthetic treatments. In this way, I can address both the hard and soft tissue causes of their presentations using multimodal treatment approaches e.g., combining orthodontics, oral bone and gum contouring, restorative dentistry, dermal fillers and toxin.

AM: You come from an artistic background - tell us more about your passion for art, and which artists and styles inspire you.

SS: My maternal side is full of creatives – artists, poets, writers, and designers. I have been encouraged to paint, sketch and craft throughout my whole life. Early in life, I was a huge Salvador Dali fan. His work was morbidly interesting and creative, but not without the skill and eye of a classical painter. I would not say Dali inspires my aesthetics work though – my patients may breathe a sigh of relief!

Botticelli’s Birth of Venus floored me when I first saw it as a child. The central figure of Venus still represents so much of what I see as female beauty. The softness of her features is something I value more and more as trends for ‘snatched’ jaw lines and ‘Russian lips’ come and go. I feel Renaissance figures epitomise gentle, natural beauty rather than glaring harsh angles and caricature-like features.

Tamara de Lempicka’s ‘Self-portrait in a green Bugatti’ oozes self-confidence to me, and her gaze is bewitching. Despite the drama of the flowing fabrics and flashy vehicle, the viewer is fixed on her nonchalant expression. I would love my patients to feel like the main character in their life, effortlessly fantastic!

AM: Why do you think it is important for aesthetic practitioners to be artistic?

SS: Safety is a crucial theme which must underpin all treatments as medical practitioners, but in our efforts to avoid complications, we are perhaps approaching aesthetics with a formulaic, ‘painting by numbers’ method. Our concept of proportions, ratios and beautification points may be inadvertently standardising and ‘normalising’ our patients’ unique faces. Some of the most beautiful faces in history and celebrity culture are technically not balanced. Would we try to balance Vermeer’s ‘Girl with a pearl earring’s retrognathic mandible and augment her shadowed temple, or was she perfect as she was? Should Sophia Loren have narrowed the width of her chin and softened her chin cleft to adhere to standardised ratios of female beauty? I don’t think so.

AM: As we move away from obvious results to a preference for a more natural outcome, how do you think being creative can be a benefit to practitioners?

SS: My biggest piece of advice is to find out what your patient likes about their face. This discussion will give you the parameters for your artistry. Remember your patients are coming to you with concerns. These concerns can be reduced to emphasise certain facial areas over others. Artists understand that light and shadow are key aspects of beauty and practitioners can use this concept to improve the way light reflects and shadows fall on a face, thereby enhancing the emphasis on one feature and softening emphasis on another. With this approach, you will be able to create transformative yet soft, natural-looking results.

AM: For practitioners who like to follow the rules, what tips do you have on how they can develop a more creative mindset?

SS: Explore the faces you find attractive – what makes them attractive to you? Rather than seeing the face as thirds and angles, assess the face as areas of shadow and light. Most faces regardless of type, look more beautiful when we create flowing transitions between facial areas, rather than a segmented appearance. Now it comes down to your technique, product selection and anatomical knowledge to enhance these areas safely and beautifully. Continually reassess the light and shadows on their face during treatment. This way you can measure your improvement in real time.

AM: Do you agree that great art can come from ‘unlearning’ the fundamentals, or adapting them to achieve a goal?

SS: Leonardo Da Vinci is a classic example of this. He studied human form and function in such detail that he produced extensive artworks and notes on human anatomy relating to dynamism and function, and not just the static post-mortem appearance. He was able to produce his iconic Vitruvian Man, detailing his ideals of male physical proportions, but also soft and evocative pieces like Mona Lisa and Salvator Mundi, where his archetypal ideals are not responsible for the beauty of his figures.

AM: How do you think creativity, as opposed to scientific developments, will alter the field going forward?

SS: We forget that the field of medical aesthetics is still in its relative infancy. It follows that the early period of any new field requires some level of standardisation and general rules to help the industry maintain consistency and a basic level of care. Our early filler products served the purpose of general augmentation and definition of features but did not necessarily allow for the nuanced enhancements that make a face beautiful in dynamism as well as static form. Now that dynamic fillers and bio-stimulators are becoming commonplace, we are starting to see evermore impressive results by industry leaders with an artistic eye, achieving subtle enhancements that integrate seamlessly into facial expressions, rather than dramatic before and afters of static faces. Patients have become savvier to these treatments and the demand for natural enhancements and bio-stimulating treatments has risen massively. I don’t remember the last time someone asked me for strong facial contouring!

AM: How important do you think creativity is to well-being?

SS: I think this comes down to your personality type. If you are naturally creative and love to try new things, feeling tied to a ‘lather, rinse, repeat’ treatment approach will inevitably numb you. On the other hand, there could be nothing more stressful than forcing yourself to be creative when you find comfort and peace in operating within your known parameters and routine. I don’t think everyone should feel pressure to force creativity, but rather you should equip yourself with the skills to operate safely and creatively. This way you get immense satisfaction out of your work, whilst also knowing you’re doing your best for your patients.