Friday, October 31, 2008 . 9:44 AM

No wonder all General Practitioners are re-inventing themselves as Aestheticians, they earn bloody much!

Aaron and I went down to Neuglow at Square 2 last evening after work to see Dr Gerard Tan for our respective problems. Just to see and to talk to him (15 mins in my case and 5 mins in Aaron's) cost $50 each. And considering how long he looked at my skin (10 seconds), I think that has got to be the single most costly expense I ever made. The remaining time, we sat through a sales pitch.

What made it worst was that, out of nowhere, an audience appeared. I was asking the good doctor some question when suddenly I heard sounds behind me and I turned around. To my shock, there was a nurse (wearing totally inappropriate dangly earrings) and another female (who Dr. Tan said was a doctor too) in the room with us, listening to our consultation. They stayed with us the entire.

That has got to be one of my stranger experiences.

Anyway, the doctor suggested some procedure called Plamas (any relation to Plasma TV) which cost $2,000 for 3 express sessions. Express means no downtime. Other than that, I can consider a combination of IPL plus a session of Plasma for a lower package fee.

I don't mind spending the money if it actually improves my skin, but a word of advice for the good doctor: I think it's best to be more professional. At least introduce the people who suddenly appear in your office to your patient so they don't feel like 'what the heck' or like an lab test subject.

And of course, there was the thing I read about non-invasive treatments: it doesn't actually make the scars shallower PERMANENTLY. In the layman's term, the treatments kind of agitate your skin so that it produces more collagen (or some thingie that makes your skin plumper) so it looks as though your scar has lighten. But if you stop the treatments, the skin will 'sink' and it'll be back to square one, ergo, thousands of dollars washed down the drain.

And when I asked Dr. Tan whether the Plasma is the best choice for me, he laughed and said that there will always be new treatments for me to try. Which kind of tells me that I'm going to be addicted to these treatments.

Do I really want to go that rabbit hole? Suckered into paying for one after another long series of treatment to meet society's standard of beauty? Heck, I've signed up for gym, I've got a (cheap) massage package and now, I'm subscribing to this too? What's next?

Sometimes, I just want to just throw my hands up and let it be whatever it is.