Northbrook nurse takes away wrinkles, but leaves patients with smiles

“People feel young inside, they’re more active, they’re doing more, and they want their face to look as young as they feel,” said Beth Harris, who has been worked for MAE for seven years. | Jackie Pilossoph~for Sun-Times Media

Updated: February 19, 2013 9:20AM

NORTHBROOK — Ask Beth Harris what she does for a living and she’ll tell you she’s in the business of making people happy, and helping them feel better about themselves.

Harris is an Aesthetic Nurse Specialist and cosmetic injector for MAE Plastic Surgery and Transcent Medspa, and believes that when her patients look in the mirror and like what they see, they feel great.

“People feel young inside, they’re more active, they’re doing more, and they want their face to look as young as they feel,” said Harris, who has been worked for MAE for seven years, and who has been a registered nurse for over 25 years, “The key is to make patients look refreshed and natural, not like they just had something done.”

Harris provides Botox treatments for the full face, upper face, lower face, neck and armpits. She also injects Juvederm, and prescribes and instructs patients on Latisse.

She said she looks at her profession as an art form, and that when it comes to Botox and Juvederm, the person doing the injections and their technique makes a huge difference in the outcome.

“It’s one thing to learn how to do it,” said Harris, who was initially trained on injectables by a plastic surgeon she worked for in Los Angeles. “It’s another thing to literally embrace the field and constantly be on the cutting edge of state-of-the-art techniques, products and procedures like I am.”

Harris takes several continuing education classes and attends several seminars in her field per year. She is also constantly networking with top injectors to share best practices.

Her passion for learning, as well as skills that have landed her in the country’s top 1.5 percent for patient retention recently earned her a prestigious role as an ACE certified speaker and trainer for Allergan, the manufacturer of Botox, Juvederm and Latisse. The position will entail teaching doctors and nurses how to inject the products. Harris is the third of only three ACE certified trainers in Illinois.

“It’s long overdue,” said Dr. Michael Epstein, MD, FACS, the Founder of MAE Plastic Surgery who hired Harris. “Beth is phenomenal. She’s very careful about first analyzing patients’ problems and putting together a plan that makes sense, and the outcomes stand for themselves. They’re beautiful.”

Dr. Karol Gutowski, MD,FACS is Epstein’s partner at the practice, and a patient of Harris’s.

“She’s very passionate and committed to what she does,” he said, “She has a solid technique that causes minimal or no discomfort and great, lasting results.”

“I look at the face and I don’t just fill a wrinkle or a fold,” said Harris. “I look at how it came to be, where it originated from, where the volume was lost and then I correct that area that will directly fix the other area.”

Susan from Highland Park is a patient of Harris’s, and said she was “terrified” to get injections, because she didn’t want it to look artificial.

“I wanted to look natural and more rested, and Beth was professional and methodical, and she achieved that,” she said.

Susan said she is thrilled with the result, and that she looks fresher, brighter and a little younger.

Appointments with Harris typically last about 30 minutes, and treatment is recommended every three to four months. Treatments start at $300, and patients are charged $15 per unit, so the cost depends on how many units the patient requires.

MAE Plastic Surgery specializes in surgical procedures on the face, nose and breast. Epstein said the number of patients in the country who are receiving injectables has surpassed the number of surgeries.

“I feel great,” said Susan, “People compliment me on my skin all the time.”

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