How to Talk to Patients About Post-Treatment Care

As a medical aesthetics provider, you’re well aware that patient results could easily be compromised by bad health or skin care habits or simply neglect. But do you know how to talk to patients about post-treatment care?

You’ve finessed your consultation process, brought on new patients, and begun customized long-term medical aesthetics treatment plans to suit your patients’ needs. By now, you’re confident that with the proper care and attention, each patient will get the results they desire. Still, broaching the topic of at-home post-treatment care is proving a challenge. To ensure the best experience for your patient and the best outcomes for your treatments, consider these four tips on how to talk to patients to better convey the importance of post-treatment care.

Emphasize Compliance without Causing Worry

The importance of complying to standard post-treatment protocols to ensure top results may be obvious to you as a medical aesthetics provider, but communicating how important this step is to patients without causing worry or stress can be difficult. If too much emphasis is given, patients may panic if they miss a step just once, but offering too little emphasis may lead to patients shrugging off post-treatment care altogether. The best approach here is to utilize your Before-and-After galleries to show patients examples of the results they may achieve with proper post-treatment care. You may note that not complying to your prescribed list of post-treatment to-dos could jeopardize the results that have been achieved thus far as well as future improvements, but it’s best to stay more positive than negative and reassure patients that little mistakes may not lead to big disasters.

Better yet, set your patients up for success by providing a simple post-treatment care brochure they can reference. Include daily and weekly to-do lists in this brochure that detail the steps they should take to improve or maintain their results, such as using a particular cream or serum or applying sunscreen. Also include a short list of anything they should avoid doing and, if applicable, divide these not-to-dos by how long they should avoid each post-treatment. If you find your patient is still worrying too much about messing something up, you may reassure them that while following your guidelines is ideal, you can certainly also consider treatment options to remediate or mitigate less than desirable results. This will improve patient trust while also ensuring a positive overall outcome.

Set Realistic Expectations

Keeping patients’ expectations in check from consultation to the post-treatment follow-up appointment is imperative. You may have faith in your treatments offering top-notch results, but what may be considered a successful treatment plan to you may fall short of a patient’s loftier expectations.

The best way to counteract post-treatment disappointment is to institute small reality checks throughout the treatment process. Continue to show patients galleries of similar treatments at various points in their treatment plan, such as during the consultation, after the first treatment, midway through a treatment plan, following the conclusion of the treatment plan, and, if applicable, after some time has lapsed following treatment.

Be sure to note what post-treatment care previous patients used to maintain their results and emphasize terminology that is more aligned with “improvement” over “perfection.” With these regular check-ins, you can see your patient’s current expectations and better address their concerns along the way, either by prescribing further post-treatment care tips to improve results or by integrating the appropriate medical aesthetics treatments to complement their current treatment plan for ideal results.

Empower Patients to Contribute to Their Own Results

Patients seek out medical aesthetics treatments to take back control of their appearance. Medical aesthetics treatments are an empowering option for anyone and they can make a world of difference in your patient’s life. Patients who have signed on to a customized long-term treatment strategy—if you’ve managed to keep their expectations in check—are likely feeling energized by the positive results they’re seeing and are looking forward to maintaining those results. The best way to propel this energy into positive action is to encourage patients to take control of their own outcome via effective post-treatment care.

When conveying the importance of post-treatment care, go back to the reasons that patient sought out a medical aesthetics treatment in the first place. Remind them of how these treatments can or have changed their lives in a very positive way, and how they can continue to do so with proper care. Returning to the feel, felt, found technique employed during the initial consultation can provide a feeling of empowerment to patients, getting them on board to follow post-treatment guidelines for the outcome they desire. 

Keep Post-Treatment Care Simple

To ensure your patients experience the top results from your treatments, it’s tempting to list off all the details of what they should or shouldn’t do. But overwhelming patients with post-treatment care details can risk causing stress or confusion, leaving patients less than willing to follow your prescribed post-treatment care tips or simply just give up. For this reason, it’s imperative to strike a balance between emphasizing the importance of good post-treatment care and making these steps easy for your patient.

Keep things simple by avoiding technical jargon and stressing only the most important elements of post-treatment care for that patient in-person. Keep all the other details outlined in a brochure. Give patients the opportunity to look over the brochure during the appointment, encouraging them to ask any questions they may have as they review it. Point out that you’ve included a direct phone number or email address which patients can use to reach your patient care coordinator if any further questions arise once your patient has left the clinic.

Finally, consider stocking your clinic shelves with the ideal products your patients may purchase to maintain results, such as serums, creams, exfoliators, cleansers, or sunscreens. Offering this additional level of service ensures patients are properly stocked with the products they need when leaving your clinic, while also offering your clinic another income stream. For skincare products that perfectly complement Venus Concept treatments, consider offering the Venus Skin line in-office. Contact an expert today to learn more about this skincare line and how your patients can incorporate stem cell therapy skin care into their post-treatment care regimen.