Are we responsible for unrealistic expectations?

This is a question that I’ve often asked myself!

Social media is known for portraying the best of the best. Whether that be our personal lives, our business and our patients results. The same way that we don’t post the days we are crying in a corner after a bad argument with our other half, we also don’t post the patients results that are subtle or underwhelming.

If we are being totally honest with ourselves, we have all had the patients whose results have been minimal at best! That course of polynucleotides that has you scratching your head wondering if you imagined injecting those products, or the 1ml lip filler that looks like you added some lip balm?! I know you’re reading this with a patient in mind who you have had a similar situation with! The photos that look utterly rubbish and won’t ever see your perfect Instagram grid. 

So really; if we are only posting the best results that we’ve achieved are we to blame when someone expects a miracle? All patients have seen are our number 1 treatment responders! The 5* positive feedback and picture perfect results! What about the chunky hematoma that happened during yesterday’s marionette treatment? Or the profhilo points that took longer than usual to settle? The patient that contacted you to say they don’t see a difference? Or the toxin that needed a second and third review?

Patients don’t see the behind the scenes, the multiple treatments or tweaks that are needed to get the final results. They don’t see the downtime or the side effects that can happen as a result of having a procedure.  So can we blame them for expecting things to be perfect every single time? For expecting a treatment to perform a miracle; as that is all they have seen on our social media’s! 

So I’ve started to keep it real. To under promise and over deliver. To give a best case and a worse case! Our consultation time has been made longer, and we even cover the awkward ‘results cannot be guaranteed’. Imagine telling a patient they could spend their hard earn money and have a minimal result or need a second treatment?! You would think every patient would be put off right? Wrong! They appreciate your honesty and realness! We’ve decided to start showing the lips with the bruises and talking about the PN course that didn’t get great results! Because the bad is as useful as the good in the long run! None of us are perfect practitioners, we aren’t magicians and sometimes we don’t get it right. That’s ok, as we care.  We will always try our very best to give our patients the best result’s, with the best products and techniques available to us.  So let’s start being more real and I think our patients expectations will also align with that!