Considered by many of his colleagues a top laser expert in Westchester County, Josh Fink is double board certified in internal medicine and pulmonary diseases, and is also a Fellow of the American Society of Lasers in Medicine and Surgery. In addition to his laser and cosmetic practice based in Mount Kisco, Dr. Fink is the Director of the Clinical Trials Program at Northern Westchester Hospital, where he and his team of Clinical Research Coordinators oversee all new and investigational therapies. Previously, he dedicated years of his professional life caring for the sickest of all patients in the Northern Westchester Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, where he performed most of the ICU procedures.
“Community is everything,” says Dr. Fink who makes sure that he donates to such causes as Force Blue and Operation Enduring Warrior, which are two Veteran causes he deeply cares about.
What draws clients into see you?
One of the most beautiful things about medical aesthetics is that it combines both Science and Art. As we age the brow sort of flattens a little bit, the cheeks splay outwards and we develop a jowl line. Face shape changes from heart shape to trapezoid. Part of that is due to collagen loss, loss of the elasticity of the skin and fat pads start to shrink as we age, asymmetry becomes more exaggerated.
I like to tell people to think of their facial structure as a table and tablecloth. The table is bone structure, fat, and volume while the tablecloth is the way it looks–wrinkles, pores, redness, and brown spots. We treat both the table and the tablecloth.
We’re known best for fillers and “neuro-modulators.” Things like Juvederm, Voluma, Restylane, Dysport and Botox. I have a background in art and think most fillers require the most artistic expression of any non-surgical based procedure. Lasers are fairly straightforward, fillers and the way you use them and the combination of fillers is very much artistry.
How do you customize your approach to each client’s needs?
I’m not likely to use long-lasting fillers on someone who has never had one before, as they may not like the look. So I may want to give them something that’s on the shorter lifespan of fillers and recommend coming back again in six months and we can do something that lasts a little bit longer. I suggest they grow into it and see if they like it. It’s a smart way of doing it.
There is no one size fits all. So if somebody comes in and says I want to have a pair of Angelina Jolie lips, but the problem is they don’t have the natural spacing for that to be done. We’re all cut slightly different. So when we do filler work, which is really the artistic part of esthetics, one size does not fit all.
Our eye gravitates towards symmetry, it’s really important. So we’ll measure angles and ratios because in beauty there’s science and in science there’s also math. So there is math to what we do, and we’ll actually measure out angles to see where we think what needs to be done and sometimes not often, but 20% of the time, someone will come in and I will say, I don’t think we should do anything with you. I think you look great.
What tends to be your clients’ biggest fears and concerns about any particular procedure?
Bruising. But people do bruise and bruises do go away. I think the biggest concern aside from the practical is they don’t want to look fake. We take care of hundreds of people in this community and I’ll ask [prospective clients], tell me the last time you saw somebody walking around here that looked that way. The nice thing about my practice is, people we’ve treated in the past, we’re still treating. I think to the credit of the practice, when we’ve had people who’ve gone to other locations I’d say half of them end up coming back here because the artistry is different. You can take the same doctors, the same fillers, and get completely different looks.
What are your best tips for optimal skin care?
Moisturizer and a sunblock are the most crucial. Everybody wants to look good when they need to look good but that requires you to do some maintenance along the way. You’re not going to take someone who is 55 and make them look 30, nor should you try. We want them to look really good for their age and that is something that I think can be done.
So stay out of the sun, don’t smoke, hydrate, wear your sunblock; avoid highly restrictive diets if not medically necessary (they can cause hair loss and acne), eat a rainbow of foods of all colors; good skin care products aren’t cheap, cheap products aren’t good and expensive products aren’t necessarily any better. So know your skin care products that you’re using.
There is a commitment that you make to your skin care because what you do when you come here is important but what you do every day that you’re not here is just as important if not more.
