Gregory Nikolaidis, MD

I'd been concerned about fine lines around my mouth from smiling for months. I finally saw Dr. Nikolaidis at Westlake Dermatology and expressed my concern. He carefully examined my face and came up with an appropriate approach. He used Juvederm around my mouth and a few spots on the side of my face.

I'd seen Dr. Nikolaidis work on my partner before and it was like watching an artist work in a sculpture. Even though this was my first experience with injectables, I felt completely comfortable and confident in Dr. Nikolaidis.

I love my results! They're shuttle but noticeable and perfectly addressed my concern.

I just love my doctor! I have been Dr. Nikolaidis patient for many years ~ I can only say he is the best doctor I ever met and a wonderful, generous, understanding human being! He is absolutely professional and caring. I had several procedures done with him and every time I had the best experience and results completely met my expectations. It is a pleasure to deal with him and all the staff at Westlake Dermatology. I highly recommend!!

I did my third Sculptra session about 5 weeks ago. No negative side effects from any of the treatments. Doctor always gave good care instructions which include massaging the application area thrice daily. If you’re trying Sculptra for the first time, I advise following all the follow-up instructions provided by your doctor. If you usually go to a nurse for your cosmetic injectables, I might recommend going to a doctor for this one and searching for articles about Sculptra on PubMed. The potential side effect sound pretty frightening, but I believe that being in good hands and following your docs direction is your best bet to avoid them.

We used Sculptra in my temples and I feel like a spring chicken. My driver’s license photo looks so haggard to me now that I have this new dough-girl look to my brow area. J/k. It’s not really dough girl, but it’s not Skeletor either so I think it looks marvelous if I do say so myself.

Be forewarned my friends, Sculptra is more expensive than your typical fillers. If you are prone to fainting, consider receiving your bill while seated because it might shock you. My mind refused to accept the number was hearing until I saw it on the credit card slip I was signing. The price estimate info I can provide was for 3 total treatments, NOT a single treatment. Single treatments varied from $300-1,000.
But I’ll tell ya this - I think it might last longer than other fillers. Maybe marketing, maybe true. My first treatment was about 17 months ago. I have received two treatments since. No bumps or mysterious granules under the skin. Just a face with less boney ridges at the brown line. Great job on the part of Dr. Nik as I’ve read that physician skill is directly related to outcomes.

I had had no idea I would ever like lip injections, but Dr. Nik and Vollure have made me a believer. Such a beautiful, subtle result. If you’re wondering what your favorite insta-celeb is using to give her/himself those juicy lips without looking like they stuck their mouth in a vacuum cleaner hose, it might just be Vollure. My doctor used this technique that felt like a row of little pricks, and oh mama mia - this little treatment left me in love with lip fillers. I’ve heard that fillers can sometimes be removed if you’re having problems with the results or with adverse reactions to the product breaking down. I don’t know, but I bet your board certified physician does. In any case, the idea that such an exit strategy might be possible gives me comfort in giving this Vollure stuff another round in the batting cage. These babies ain’t exactly DSLs, but they’re pretty and I know I will miss them when they deflate over time (or whatever it’s called when fillers dissipate). If you’re thinking of lip injections, I highly recommend Vollure and Dr. Nik. I did see some swelling, but it was nothing like the first time I had lip injections. I can’t tell you if it was the type of filler, the injection technique or both that made the difference, but I was very pleased with the result.

I used to get Botox from a nurse and had always been happy with it. I switched to a doctor and was still happy until a minor paralysis incident with the lower third of my face. I highly advise anyone who gets cosmetic Botox avoid the lower third of your face. The good news is my doctor did everything right. He even consulted with another physician to make sure I got the right diagnosis. This I found to be most impressive. I 100% love this and will continue seeing this physician because that kind of good practice deserves my business. Really excellent. He used fillers to close the gap where I was drooling which enabled me to drink from typical vessels. This was a major quality of life improvement after a problematic case - something that is always a possibility when messing with Botox, especially in the lower third of your face.

Having never used fillers in my lips before, I discovered the filler swelled my lip up and I felt like a psychotic clown. That dissipated within a week, thank god. A nurse told me most patients like that and wish they could retain it. 4 out of 5 friends agree, this was not even a marginally good look for this particular face.

The paralysis completely went away after about 4 1/2 months, but in the meantime I think I learned some new, jacked up way of smiling. It took a couple months of not being paralyzed for my face to feel fairly normal again, but fairly normal again I did feel! The exceptions: I had become very critical of the lower third of my face (with all the scrutiny and obsession). I believed the side of my lip where the filler was used was larger, so I went in to get that corrected. He used a different kind of filler that had beautiful results (and made me a believer in lip fillers). But the point here relative to Botox is that the effects can be more than what you might think you’re bargaining for. Read the form you sign when you get this work done, folks, ‘cause your doctor’s job is a “practice”. No matter how great your practitioner is, they are but mere mortals. They don’t have x-ray vision to see how the musculature in your face is laid out. If they did, they’d be the only doctor this side of the Mississippi with that super power. As patients, we also have a responsibility to ourselves to know what results we want and what risks we’re willing to take to achieve those results. Don’t kid yourself on the risks of Botox, as there are many. In my experience, they can waterfall. It didn’t snowball because I followed my doctor’s instructions, and was accepting of my situation. Sometimes the best solution is to wait.

Having decided that Botox on the lower third was not for me, but also wholeheartedly rejecting frown lines, I went in for more Botox. This time the forehead was my target. I asked for a light peppering of Botox, enough to preserve the motion, but rid me of my “resting...face”. The doctor provided an extremely discounted treatment as even more compensation for my previous bad experience. Come to find out, I just don’t like Botox anymore. After the effects set in, I found my face looked backwards in the mirror. We all have facial asymmetry. If you’ve ever looked at a mirror image of your mirror image (or wondered why in God’s name your selfies absolutely disgust you) you might recognize what asymmetries you have in your face. Well, After my last Botox session I noticed a serious dropping of one eyebrow. Maybe an existing asymmetry has been aggravated. Maybe the doctor tried to correct an asymmetry and the effect was an over-correction. Either way, without Botox I have an overly-expressive face. With it, my regularly crooked face becomes overly so, at least in my eyes. I don’t like the way I look. I pretty much always have this stank eye look on my face now One eyebrow is pitched up to the sky, emoting to its heart’s content. The other hugs the neighboring upper eyelid like lovers before the apocalypse. Any spontaneous surprise look I flash to the camera just looks like an extreme stank eye. March was my first regrettable Botox treatment. We’re now in October and I’m waiting out my second, consecutive, regrettable Botox treatment. I think it’s safe to say that the burden of responsibility lies squarely in my court - I don’t like the result I get from Botox anymore, so I’m out on Botox. I would love to love it, but it’s time for me to drop this treatment (not the Doctor - just the Botox) like an abusive boyfriend.

I saw Dr Nikolaidis today for fillers. I had very limited experience with them and just pointed out my marionette lines and how they were the worst. You could tell he really knew what he was doing because he had some really good ideas about what I was looking for (spoiler alert: eternal youth). I came home and can hardly take my eyes off myself. So I highly recommend him. And definitely will be back.

Dr Nikolaidis is by far the best Dermatologic surgeon I have gone too. He isn't only a kind person, he's absolutely Amazing at his job. I've had multiple things done, and im always so happy with my results l. If you're looking for someone who will give you a 100% you found him. Thank you for everything. Proud patient

Well, I'm three days post procedure and the results are better than I anticipated with less pain/bruising/swelling than what I was expecting. I can definitely see some degree of swelling with the tissue being a bit spongy, so as happy as I am at this very early stage, I'm even more excited to see how things continue to heal and tighten up. And with regard to bruising, I've experienced very little, although I'm not sure this is typical results. The doctor was very surprised at how quickly my recovery seems to be going.

The procedure itself wasn't all that bad, though certainly not painless. In fact the most painful part was the nurse injecting the anaesthetic solution. The actual laser/suction part wasn't bad at all.

Day of recovery wasn't bad, although the drainage was a lot to take - if you have a weak stomach, brace yourself. I found myself wanting to massage my abdomen to encourage all the drainage possible. While the doctor suctions the majority of the injected solution, there is a large quantity that remains and drains naturally. The more that drains, the better your recovery and less appearance of swelling.

Day after was definitely the worst. Super sensitive, difficult to sleep, difficult to move, so certainly plan to take at least two full days off of work. I returned to work on the third day, though left early as the waist band of my pants was beginning to cause pain.

Third day out the most annoying thing is this compression garment. Mine is actually just a big approximately 12" wide elastic bandage that is wrapped tightly sound my midsection. It's just annoying and I feel almost claustrophobic in it. My doctor told me to keep it on for 6 full days, so I'm almost done with it.

The side by side picture is a before and three days after photo. You can see the number of little band aids are where the small incision sites are. There are also several on my back where they went after the rear love handle area.

My procedure was technically "upper and lower abdominals plus flanks"..

I'll put up more pictures as I continue to heal.

I highly recommend!

I have always been tall and slim, but after a twin pregnancy late in life, I had stubborn fat pockets in my lower abdomen and flanks. Despite losing all of the baby weight very quickly, I could not get rid of these localized areas of fat. The results after Smart Lipo are outstanding! Dr. Nik is very skilled in the procedure, and the entire team ensures a terrific patient experience. Highly recommended!!

Despite working out and maintaining a healthy diet, there's a couple problem areas that just didn't seem to budge. After reading about cool sculpting, I realized that may be my best bet (Invasive procedures scare me!). So glad I did. Yes Its a bit uncomfortable during the process, by Dr Nicolaidis and Courtney did a wonderful job of explaining the process, making sure I was comfortable, and laying out expectations. I had both my flanks, lower belly and inner thighs done in two sessions- and am so glad I did! Yes, its tingly and numb for a few weeks (belly was the worst one, the other two were a breeze- they explained that was normal)- but after that you are home free! No scarring, just great results. I highly recommend!