How we say no

Some of the most important work in this clinic is the work we decline. A treatment that is fashionable but wrong for your skin, a timeline that cannot be done safely, a result that would not look like you.

Saying no is a clinical skill, and we practise it the way we practise everything else: with a reason you can understand. We will always tell you what we would do instead, and when — or whether — the answer might change.

Patients sometimes leave that conversation without an appointment. Most come back, precisely because the door they walked out of was honest with them.