What is aesthetic medicine, and who is it for?
It gathers the treatments that change the face, the skin or the contour without going to the operating theatre: injectables, peels, devices and skin protocols. It is not a lesser version of plastic surgery, nor an automatic substitute for it: it has its own indications and its own limits.
It serves three profiles: someone only beginning to see the first signs who wants to delay rather than reverse; someone with an established change who prefers to correct it without a long recovery; and someone who has already had surgery and wants to keep what was gained.
In Puebla they are performed by Dr. Arístides Arellano at the clinic on Calle 20 Sur 2539, Col. Bellavista, founded in 1971 by his father, the dermatologist Dr. Francisco Arellano Ocampo, and which Dr. Arístides Arellano directs today. He is a plastic, aesthetic and reconstructive surgeon; the dermatologic consultation is a service of the clinic.
How a case is assessed here: three axes, not a menu
Almost everyone arrives asking «what should I have done?». The assessment starts the other way round, because the commonest error in aesthetic medicine is treating one problem with another problem's tool. First we define what is happening, and that sorts into three axes:
- Lost volume. A face does not only fall: it also empties. Deep fat and bony support are lost, and the deep fold, the hollow under-eye and the flat cheekbone appear. That is replaced.
- Skin quality. Texture, pores, pigmentation, fine lines, radiance. This is surface and collagen; it does not improve by adding volume underneath.
- Genuine laxity. Skin and tissue already in excess and hanging. No injectable repositions anything here, and saying so is the uncomfortable part of the consultation.
The starting point is measured, not remembered
So that nothing is judged from memory we use VISIA facial analysis, which quantifies pigmentation, pores, wrinkles and sun damage under standardised light: it allows the choice to be made from a measured baseline and, months later, a comparison that does not rely on recollection.
The same consultation reviews history, phototype and whatever has been injected before —which product, how much and when— because a face with previous filler is not planned like an untreated one. Results may vary from one person to another.
Relax, replace or stimulate: choosing among the injectables
Injectables are not rivals: they do different things and are often combined. Dr. Arístides Arellano administers them himself.
Botulinum toxin relaxes the muscle that creates the expression line —forehead, frown lines, crow's feet—; it adds no volume and does not improve texture. The original Allergan (Botox®) product is used, and that is not a marketing detail: a «unit» only means something in relation to a named product, because units are not equivalent between brands. Anyone quoting «units» without naming the product has not quoted you a price.
Hyaluronic acid fillers immediately replace the volume that is missing. Facial harmonization is not another product: it is the plan that uses those fillers with a sense of proportion —profile, chin, jaw angle, nasal dorsum— instead of treating isolated areas. That is where a surgeon's eye shows: it is the same reasoning about proportion that governs a rhinoplasty.
Collagen biostimulators do not fill: they prompt your own tissue to produce collagen, so the change is slow and starts to show around the third or fourth month. Bioremodelators work on hydration and dermal quality rather than on shape. In the same family of gradual stimulus are facial PRP, drawn from your own blood, and facial mesotherapy.
When the answer is not an injectable
If what bothers you is established laxity —the descent of the mid-face, the neck, the lid resting on the lashes— filler will not lift it. If you insist, it only adds weight to a face that no longer asks for it: it looks wider, not younger. Correcting laxity is surgical —a facelift, eyelid surgery— and the assessment says so even if you arrived asking for an injection.
And when a filler has already gone wrong —migrated, overdone or leaving a nodule— hyaluronic acid can be dissolved with hyaluronidase. That reversibility is an argument for starting with it rather than with materials that cannot be removed; dissolving carries risks of its own and is done on indication, not as routine.
Other limits:
- Injectables do not slim the body and do not replace liposuction.
- Toxin does not erase the line already etched at rest: that mark is skin, and it is treated with laser, peels or resurfacing.
- No treatment is free of risk: swelling, bruising, transient asymmetry and, infrequently, vascular complications. It requires a prior assessment and a technique that knows the anatomy underneath.
- None of this holds by itself: the effect of toxin wears off, hyaluronic acid is reabsorbed and induced collagen also ages.
Skin is treated separately: it is a question of depth
No injectable changes the texture of the skin: surface treatments are a parallel route, not an add-on. What separates them is not intensity but the depth at which they work, and on that depth depend the recovery and the risk of pigmentation in darker skin.
A chemical peel renews the skin with a chemical agent at a depth graded for pigmentation, acne or texture. Dermabrasion acts mechanically and reaches deeper, for marked scars and irregularities. Nanopore opens microchannels that induce collagen and let active ingredients penetrate.
A third level is pure maintenance: HydraFacial, OxyGeneo and the Casmara medical facial cleanse, exfoliate and hydrate with a result visible the same day and short-lived. They are useful before an event or as a routine every four to six weeks; they are not a wrinkle treatment and are not offered here as one.
Not everything in this section is cosmetic
Hyperhidrosis treatment with botulinum toxin is not about looking better: it reduces the excessive underarm, hand or foot sweating that interferes with work and with clothing. Same molecule, medical indication.
The hyperbaric chamber is used mainly as recovery support —oxygenating tissue after surgery or an aggressive procedure— rather than as anti-ageing in itself. Intravenous therapy, peptones and hormone therapy are adjuncts: they are indicated when the assessment —and, for hormones, the laboratory— justifies it, not as a welcome package. They do not replace diet, sleep or medical treatment.
On the body, buttock firming works on tone and skin quality in the area; it does not add volume and does not replace an implant or a fat transfer.
What it actually asks of you, and what it costs
Almost everything here is done in the consulting room, but each family has its own rhythm. Botulinum toxin shows around the third or fourth day, completes at about two weeks and wears off over the months. Fillers are visible the same day, with one or two weeks of swelling and a possible bruise. Biostimulators and bioremodelators ask for more than one session and for patience: the result is built over months. Peels, dermabrasion and microneedling leave predictable redness and flaking, with strict sun protection.
For reference on cost: botulinum toxin from $6,000 MXN; hyaluronic acid filler from $6,000 MXN per vial. These are starting points and not fixed tariffs, because the cost depends on how much product your case needs and how many areas are treated, and that cannot be worked out over the phone or from a photograph. Every figure published on this site is approximate and is not a quote: any treatment first requires a private assessment consultation with Dr. Arístides Arellano —$800 MXN, charged separately— and it is there that the definitive cost of your case is set.
Who assesses and who injects
The injectables are administered by Dr. Arístides Arellano himself; they are not delegated. The difference from an aesthetic centre is not the product —the vials are the same— but who decides and who injects.
He is a plastic, aesthetic and reconstructive surgeon. Medical degree from Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana Xochimilco (1986), professional licence D.G.P. 1125959 and specialty licence 0002008. He trained in his specialty at Hospital General de Agudos Dr. Abel Zubizarreta in Buenos Aires between 1987 and 1989; he has been a Fellow of the International College of Surgeons (F.I.C.S.) since 1994 and holds United States patent US 5,928,158 (USPTO, 1999). Both licences are public and anyone can look them up in Mexico's National Registry of Professionals: trust is verified, not promised.
He is the second generation of a clinic founded in 1971. Open Monday to Friday 8:00–20:00 and Saturday 8:00–14:00; contact +52 221 155 2228.