Contact & consultation

Arranging an assessment

Outpatient appointments are booked through the hospital on (+86) 023-8191 3691; administration, including questions about records and billing, is on (+86) 023-8191 3592; international patients can ask for Michael Yu. Bring photographs of yourself from five and ten years ago if you have them, because they show where your tissue used to sit and how much fullness was there. Bring a list of your medicines, including anything that affects bleeding, and note any treatment you have already had on the face.

What a good assessment includes

An examination of the face at rest, in movement and in profile; an assessment of skin thickness, elasticity and pigment; and a judgement about how much of the change is descent, how much is volume loss and how much is skin quality. If tightening is being considered, the assessment should say which areas would be treated and what the skin is expected to do. You should leave able to describe which change dominates and what each option would leave exactly as it is.

Asking about the plan

If an operation is proposed, ask where the incisions would sit, what the scars are expected to look like, how long the visible healing is expected to last, and what would be done if a collection of blood formed. If tightening is proposed, ask how many sessions, over what interval, what happens if the skin burns or changes colour, and what the plan is when the effect fades. Ask what would make either option the wrong one for you; a specific answer is the sign of an assessment rather than a presentation.

Before you commit

No decision needs to be made at the first appointment, and neither option needs to be chosen before the examination has named which change dominates. Take the plan away, read it against the guides on this site, and come back with questions. A discount that expires, a package sold before an assessment is complete, or a promise about how long a result lasts is information about the clinic rather than about your face.