By Andrea Goto
As a perpetual people-pleaser, I’ve never been afraid of needles simply because I always wanted to show my parents how brave I was. Show the nurse how well-adjusted I was. Show the mom with her screaming kid how much she wished her child was more like me. And when you pretend long enough, you start to believe the lies you tell yourself. Consequently, with my mind-over-matter technique, I emerged from my childhood without a needle phobia.
Decades later, I don’t give a flu shot or an IV a second thought. So, I’m often caught off-guard when a friend says, “Sure, I’d love to try Botox or fillers, but nobody’s going to put a needle in my face!”
Also, I never paid much attention to the needle because I’ve always been so happily overwhelmed with the result. Contrary to the wisdom of Ralph Waldo Emmerson, when it comes to cosmetic procedures, it’s not the journey, it’s the destination that matters.
But with advances in technologies and techniques, if you are wary of the journey, be assured that it’s getting easier and easier. See, cosmetic surgeons want you to be comfortable. It’s cosmetic, after all; an elective procedure. Not life or death, but a choice you can make.
Interested in making his patient’s uber-comfortable, Dr. Minton has added a secret weapon to his practice. It’s called Pro-Nox, a blend of 50 percent nitrous oxide and 50 percent oxygen that can put an anxious patient safely at ease for most minimally invasive procedures.
Under Pro-Nox, you’re not knocked out, but you simply feel a little c’est la vie about whatever is going on around you. The patient puts the breathing tube between his or her lips and breathes normally. After about a minute, everything feels pretty chill and that’s when you give Dr. Minton the signal to begin.
When I tried Pro-Nox for the first time, I’m getting Botox and Restylane under my eyes to fill in the hollowed tear-trough area. Like I said, I’m not afraid of needles, but I wouldn’t turn down novocaine at the dentist, nor an epidural during delivery—because while I like to appear tough, I’m not crazy. At most, I feel a little drunk under the Pro-Nox and the needles are almost imperceptible—besides, I’m more entertained by the pleasant sensation of floating to really notice what’s happening.
In just a few minutes, Dr. Minton has applied the filler and I’ve managed to remain somewhat composed under the Pro-Nox influence, though I do get a bit giggly, but that’s also my nature.
Dr. Minton does have to coerce the Pro-Nox tube out of my hand and mouth because I was having a pretty good time with it, but within a few minutes, I’m back to me. Me with some good-looking under-eye filler — sans PTSD.
