Big Dreams...
…Move to a new country. …Become a doctor. …Race a Porsche. …Publish a book. …Change people’s lives. …Disrupt an entire industry.
Our Philosophy
The Centre for Medical Aesthetics operates on one paramount tenet: your aesthetic journey is as important as any other medical venture you embark on. Your concerns aren’t “just cosmetic.” Aesthetic care is still care, and we promise to treat them with equal gravitas.
Dr Amy Chahal was never one to settle. Raised by immigrant parents and armed with a refusal to accept prescriptions of her future, she knew from an early age her path would be one that made a difference in the lives of the people who relied on her. To date, she has never let go of that dream.
Determined to find her way, she decided to take a double major at the University of Toronto in Canada, where she studied both biology and psychology to get a foundational understanding of how people work. From there, Dr Amy believed that neurosurgery would be where she could have the most significant impact on patients’ lives. So, she set her sights on a medical school much farther away than her first university had taken her.
Moving to a New Country
Without any support system to greet her, Dr Amy packed her bags and moved to a new country to chase her dream of becoming a doctor, leaving behind everything and everyone she knew in Canada for a medical school in Australia. It wasn’t an easy decision — her family is one of the most important parts of her life — but, nevertheless, for a young and adventurous woman looking to make her impact on the world, Australia seemed to call to her.
When Dr Amy arrived, there were, as you would expect, some challenges that she had to overcome. Aside from missing her family, she had traded the cold winter of Canada for humid summers in Queensland. Not to mention, there was the typical culture shock that most people experience when leaving their country for the first time, and it took her a bit to adjust to the Queenslander accent.
Luckily, Dr Amy was able to bond with a few other international students from Canada, and as she immersed herself in her work and studies, Australia and its people slowly became her home away from home.
Becoming a Doctor
After finishing medical school, Dr Amy trained for seven years in medicine and surgery, working her fair share of 17-hour days and taking on plenty of unique cases. She traveled all around Australia, learning and working in the surgery specialties as much as possible. Despite her success in those placements,, she realised these specialisations wouldn’t bring her the fulfilment she sought.
Dr Amy was still missing an element of human connection; she wanted patients to look back at her with excitement as they left her office after their treatments, more confident than they were before they came. Seeing patients happy is one of the big reasons she ever pursued medicine, and unfortunately, those moments were few and far between where she was currently. Luckily, the trajectory of her own career (and the trajectory of medical aesthetics) would change when a friend introduced her to this exciting new industry.
Changing People’s Lives
Dr Amy has always had a keen eye for aesthetics, fashion, and beauty. Like everything she does, she takes time to curate her appearance intentionally and tastefully and has always cared about finer details. But, the allure of the cosmetic medicine field didn’t come from her appreciation of details; it came from the ability to help people deal with issues about their appearance that were causing real unhappiness in their lives.
Whenever she is asked about the experience of switching to aesthetic medicine, she always gives the same answer:
“Some people out there believe that the transition I made somehow affords me less opportunity to help people, but I couldn’t feel more differently. Aesthetic care is still care, and in the same way that a medical condition can harm someone’s quality of life, an aesthetic concern can often have a deep impact on someone’s happiness. I believe I am still saving lives, just in a different way, and it is so rewarding when people thank you for taking their concerns as seriously as any other doctor would.”
Her extensive surgical training has put Dr Amy into a select group of medical aesthetic professionals who can tackle the more technical, nonsurgical cosmetic treatments that many providers in the space do not venture to undertake.
“These treatments are often executed improperly because, in order to really grasp how to make them work for patients, you need experience in the manipulation of all the different layers of tissue in the skin and face. Without that training, it is very difficult to provide someone with ideal results.”
This unique expertise brings patients across state lines into Dr Amy’s office and has allowed her to cement herself as a leader in the minimally invasive treatment option field. This, coupled with her refusal to accept what she considers subpar norms in the industry, has garnered her a reputation as someone who is not only rejecting many of the negative parts of the cosmetic industry but as someone who is trailblazing a new path and disrupting the status quo entirely.
Disrupting an Industry
After spending enough time in the aesthetics industry, Dr Amy had proactively analysed the state of the field and found her own approach to starkly contrast the norms. She disliked the prescriptive nature of treatments, which she considers no different than handing someone a menu with no substitutions — there is no account for personal taste or preference. To her, aesthetics should be custom, boutique.
“The industry largely operates on a volume model: appointments are short, and they don’t have the time to hear about your goals and aspirations, so they hand you a menu to order from and, ultimately, you get what they give you. When you are having treatment for the first time, patients just accept that this is the way of things. I wanted to take a different approach.”
Dr Amy vowed to herself and her patients that she would be different, no matter the cost. She and her team would take a more holistic approach, focusing more on what is actually best for clients, even if it meant signing up their patients for fewer — sometimes even zero — treatments.
Whether researching cutting-edge medical techniques or jumping into the driver’s seat of her Porsche 911 GT3 and passing naysayers on the track who didn’t even believe she could keep up, Dr Amy still can’t help but continue to deny prescriptions of the world around her.
“I really, really enjoy doing things that people don’t expect me to do. I enjoy the look on a patient’s face when I tell them they might not need as much work as they thought and that a little sunscreen and some topical products could go a long way for them. I enjoy it just as much when I get on the racing track, and people have to accept that the woman they didn’t count in the race is beating their times by large margins.”
She knew that she could be a doctor and change people’s lives for the better. She knew that she could resist how the negative parts of the industry operated. She knew that by spending intentional time with her patients and keeping their best interests in mind, she could build a reputation and a practice focused solely on patient outcomes.
At The Centre for Medical Aesthetics, Dr Amy and her team are able to prove every day that their approach to medical aesthetics is a stark improvement to the industry, and the gratitude she receives from her patients every day is all the proof she needs.
Looking Forward
Dr Amy is still looking toward the future. Her mission to improve the experience of patients is never over, and her pursuits are also multifaceted — soon, she will be publishing a book on the state of the aesthetics industry, which will be, in her own words, a no-bullshit guide to cosmetic care that cuts down the less-than-ideal systems in place and shows us what a better path looks like.
