We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Dr. Kimberly Lee a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Dr. Kimberly, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Our industry has evolved over the last several years into doing more minimally invasive things to achieve an aging-graceful appearance. However, with the rise of social media, there is a slight change in that we are reverting to some of our classic tried-and-true ways, but with a twist. For many years, facelifts were popular amongst people in their 50s and 60s, but over the years, we’ve leaned towards minimal or less invasive techniques such as thread lifting or radio frequency. We’re seeing that many trends are going back to our tried-and-true ways. However, the twist is that it is much more popular amongst the younger population as our thinking has changed. We’ve gone from correction to prevention, and that has to do with the rise of social media. When selfies became popular, it spawned hundreds of thousands of facial plastic surgeries because people saw their faces slightly differently. Social media and posting have generated the idea of aging gracefully but with the maximal results that are usually achieved through surgical methods instead of minimally invasive procedures.

Dr. Kimberly, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

From a very young age, I was interested in helping people. That sounds like a generic response, but I was always a part of arts and crafts, making and doing things with my hands. As I progressed in my career in school and training, I was always encouraged to do something with my hands. In the technical aspect, many of my professors felt that was one of my talents. Also, I’m very detail-oriented, and I think the combination of the two was the perfect match for going into my field, which is facial plastic and reconstructive surgery.

I see patients whose main interest is in addressing the head and neck area, so everything above the clavicle or collarbone is what I specialize in. That might mean aesthetic services like Botox, fillers, and facial plastic surgery but also involving reconstructive work. Often, we have patients who have problems that aren’t exactly mainstream and require thinking outside the box to help those patients. It’s typically an unusual situation where they had surgery that went wrong from somewhere else or an injection that provided an unattended result. At any rate, I always think of every patient’s face as different; no two noses are the same, and no two faces are the same. Ultimately, it requires a sharp evaluation of the faces and facial features of the patient along with a proposed solution.

My philosophy is I always like to have a natural and balanced result for every patient so it doesn’t look like you went and had something done. To do so, it involves a combined effort with the patient. I usually give the patient a couple of options and then make a recommendation because sometimes a patient is ready for surgery, and sometimes they aren’t. It involves developing options that fit the patient’s desires and wants but also incorporate with their lifestyle and comfort.

Some of my patients may have come to me not only because I’ve been a national trainer for Botox and fillers but because they’ve seen my work in the media. More specifically, I had a patient whose face became mauled by a bear who came as an emergency patient, and I reconstructed her face. Now, it doesn’t look like a bear has mauled her, but that requires meticulous work and attention to detail to try to replicate and recreate the face as it was before that trauma. This quality of care also extends throughout my entire office because my staff is an extension of me. I rely on them to also provide top-notch quality care for my patients and to be able to relay to me the information and concerts that patients may have.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

A story where I had to pivot in business and life occurred in my personal life when I had twins. Until that point in my life, I was only focused on my career, but when I had my twins, I had to reevaluate my priorities. I didn’t want to give up the career I had worked so hard to achieve because becoming a physician requires hard work, effort, and sacrifice from yourself and your family. At the same time, I wanted to be as great a mother as I could for my children. It involved being extremely organized and finding a schedule where a happy medium could be achieved for everybody. The biggest challenge was not compromising the quality of care we provided our patients in any way, shape, or form. I also didn’t want to compromise my children’s upbringing —it involved shifting our schedules. My practice is a boutique practice. It’s not one where we have a high volume; it’s more about the quality of care given to each patient. And while that might mean that patients have to wait to see us sometimes, it does not compromise the level of care I provide. My philosophy has always been to provide the highest quality of care for all my patients.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Nearly every physician has demonstrated resilience by the sure fact of becoming a physician. I don’t think that most people realize how difficult and emotionally challenging it is to become a physician, especially if you want to be the best. It’s not only the years of schoolwork and medical school, but once you’re finished with that, and everybody else is in the real world working, there is an additional residency requirement, which an average is 5 to 7 years for a sub-surgical specialty plus other years of fellowship training where there’s a subspecialization. During this time of residency, it’s incredibly challenging because physically, you’re exhausted, but simultaneously, your patients depend on you. You have to be at your 100% for every patient because there’s no room for error. This can be challenging when you’re physically and mentally overworked.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kimberlyleemd.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drkimberlylee/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BeverlyHillsFacialPlasticSurgeryCenter/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/drkimberlylee
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/DrKimberlyLee
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/kimberly-j-lee-md-beverly-hills
• Other: https://www.realself.com/dr/kimberly-lee-beverly-hills-ca

Image Credits
Dr. Kimberly Lee