The terms getting older and aging may sound similar, but they are hardly synonymous. Whereas the first is inevitable, the second is purely optional.
When it comes to aging gracefully, Anshul Gambhir, M.D., of Gambhir Cosmetic Medicine, has perfected a formula, of sorts, to help patients—women and men alike—look and feel younger than their years. He says the proper balance of nonsurgical cosmetic treatments may be the answer to restoring youthfulness to the face and body, though the balance may differ from one person to the next.
“There is no one set solution; it’s completely multifactorial,” says Dr. Gambhir. “I like to use an analogy from cooking in the kitchen. Think of it as a broth. If we put only one main ingredient into a broth—all carrots, all onions, all celery—it’s going to ruin that broth. To put it another way, if you have too much of a good thing, no matter what it is, it can spoil the end result.”
The ingredients that go into this “perfect recipe,” as he puts it, will depend largely on two factors: the tastes of the individual; and the capabilities of the physician treating the patient. At Gambhir Cosmetic Medicine, the ingredients may include any number of noninvasive treatment modalities, ranging from Botox injections and dermal fillers such as Juvéderm, Sculptra, Volbella, Vollure and Voluma, to the noninvasive radiofrequency therapy Thermage for improving the appearance of loose or sagging skin, to the fat-reduction technology CoolSculpting, to skin-rejuvenation treatments such as microneedling and platelet rich plasma (PRP).
Continuing his analogy, Dr. Gambhir says each individual’s “broth” will be unique.
“There needs to be a delicate balance,” he adds. “There may be similarities, but the recipe is going to change from one person to the next, not based just on their physical characteristics but also on their emotional characteristics.”
That’s why it’s critical for a patient to choose a physician who is sensitive to these subtleties. Likewise, it’s essential for this physician to not only offer a multitude of nonsurgical cosmetic treatments, but also to possess the expertise to know which treatment will be the most effective in helping each patient achieve the desired result.
Gambhir Cosmetic Medicine, for its part, has been one of the country’s top 25 providers of nonsurgical cosmetic procedures by volume for the past four years. Dr. Gambhir begins every consultation with a simple question: “Where would you like to see improvement?”
“Every person is unique,” says Dr. Gambhir. “Some patients will give a specific example of something they want to keep, like lines around the eyes. Some people feel like they’ve earned those lines and don’t want them to go away completely; maybe they just want to soften them. Whereas some people might be sensitive about lines around the eyes, other people will say, ‘You know what? Let’s work on other things.’”
A Good Time to Start
Counteracting the effects of Father Time should be a lifelong pursuit, according to Dr. Gambhir. In fact, he says it’s common for an individual to start an anti-aging regimen in his or her 20s, starting with medical-grade skincare treatments and targeted dermal fillers to enhance one’s natural beauty.
The game changes once an individual reaches the age of 30, however, as the skin of the face begins to droop. Dr. Gambhir’s prescription to address this issue might include Botox injections and additional dermal fillers to diminish the appearance of wrinkles. As individuals progress to their late 30s and early 40s, the facial skin undergoes a noticeable decline in collagen and elastin—two of the primary structural components of the dermis—causing the skin to lose its firmness and elasticity. For these patients, Dr. Gambhir often prescribes treatments such as Thermage, which uses focused radio-frequency energy to strengthen collagen and, as he calls it, rejuvenate the “facial backbone.”
“I like to think of collagen as the walls of the face, and things like Botox and dermal fillers are like paintings that hang on the walls,” he adds. “In order for those paintings to hang straight, the walls need to have a good, strong foundation. That’s what makes something like Thermage such an important tool, because it gives you that strong foundation. Younger patients already have the foundation, but with older patients, the foundation is slowly eroding. Using tools like Thermage to repair the studs behind the walls, so to speak, is essential to repairing the framework so everything else can work the way it’s supposed to.”
Individuals into their 50s and 60s will benefit from many of the same therapies, only treated more aggressively. Regardless of the patient, virtually every treatment offered by Gambhir Cosmetic Medicine is noninvasive or minimally invasive, with no significant aftereffects other than minimal swelling and bruising. In other words, patients need little to no downtime before they can return to everyday life.
Dr. Gambhir says some patients may want and, in fact, require more invasive means—including plastic surgery—to acquire the results they seek. At the same time, he suggests that any surgical procedure should be combined with other, less invasive therapies to achieve a balanced, more natural-looking result.
Gambhir Cosmetic Medicine has two locations in the Greater Philadelphia Area, one in Exton and another in King of Prussia. There, he and Vibha Gambhir, M.D.—his partner in the practice, and also his wife— offer the full gamut of effective anti-aging procedures ideal for the face, neck and other parts of the body most likely to show the signs of aging.
“She and I have slightly different approaches,” Dr. Gambhir says of his wife. “She’s based in the King of Prussia office, and I’m based in Exton. Her patient population is skewed more toward younger patients, while my patient population is slanted a little more toward patients who are in their 40s and older, so it’s focused more on rebuilding the foundation. We believe in the same overall ingredients, but how we use them is a little different.”
Lastly, Dr. Gambhir offers a few final words of caution: Don’t wait too long to begin an effective anti-aging protocol. “Prevention is key,” he says. “The later we start, the more difficult it’s going to be to maintain as we age.”
GAMBHIR COSMETIC MEDICINE
(610) 518-SKIN (7546)
DrGambhir.com
TWO LOCATIONS:
668 W. Lincoln Highway
Exton, Pa.
491 Allendale Road, Suite 208
King of Prussia, Pa.
Published (and copyrighted) in Suburban Life Magazine, March 2018. .
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