Aesthetic Medicine and Aesthetic Health Psychology: Toward an Integrative Framework for Patient-Centered Care

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Abstract
Aesthetic Medicine is advanced as an integrated, evidence-based framework for patient-centered care that unites physical, psychological, social, and aesthetic dimensions of health. Drawing on Clinical Health Psychology, the paper introduces Aesthetic Health Psychology as a specialization that embeds psychological theory, assessment, and intervention within aesthetic medicine and surgery, emphasizing interdisciplinary collaboration rather than professional mistrust. The paper argues that integrating Aesthetic Health Psychology into aesthetic medicine can enhance ethical practice, improve patient-reported outcomes, and support equity-focused implementation across diverse procedures and settings. It further suggests a practical framework for implementation. Three interrelated models are proposed: the Aesthetic Biopsychosocial Model, which conceptualizes aesthetics as a distinct health domain alongside biological, psychological, and social factors; the Aesthetic Health Care Process Model, which structures care as a five-stage journey supported by systematic screening for body dysmorphic disorder and the routine use of patient-reported outcome measures; and the Aesthetic Health Systems Model, which situates aesthetic care within institutional, policy, and cultural contexts. Idealized but clinically grounded vignettes from elective cosmetic, reconstructive, and gender-affirming settings illustrate how these models address non-linear trajectories of adaptation, evolving expectations, complications, and stigma. These concepts jointly define both the motivation for Aesthetic Health Psychology and its practical implications, from the use of brief, selective aesthetic screening during primary health care visits to the design of equity-focused implementation strategies across aesthetic procedures and settings.

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