Local nurse offers beauty enhancers

Published 7:30 pm Tuesday, April 17, 2018

For a local nurse, it started with the 11s.

This is the terminology the Botox industry uses for the two vertical lines that form in your forehead between your eyebrows.

It’s also the thing that the majority of Mary Thompson’s clients come to see her for. Thompson runs Enhancing Beauty at Dinah’s Style, which is open on Thursdays.

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Thompson has been operating Enhancing Beauty at Dinah’s Style since July, after completing her online and hands-on training in Botox injections, non-surgical facelifts and cheek and lip fillers.

“I just want women and men to feel better about themselves,” Thompson said.

She started her training after being approached about getting injections for her own 11s.

“I was barely 30, so that bothered me,” Thompson said.

She also received encouragement from friends to start practicing herself.

Thompson is a nurse at the Baby Place at Mayo Clinic Health System in Albert Lea. She said getting into administering Botox and Xeomin and performing fillers has not been a steep learning curve.

“Up at the hospital, I deal with needles all the time,” Thompson said. “I’m starting IVs, so if I can thread a needle into a vein, I can definitely hit larger muscle groups. So, that has been really beneficial for me for what I’m currently doing.”

Thompson has been operating Enhancing Beauty at Dinah’s Style since July, after completing her online and hands-on training in Botox injections, non-surgical facelifts and cheek and lip fillers. – Sarah Kocher/Albert Lea Tribune

Instead, the challenge was figuring out how to get started. Thompson said when she first began, she didn’t know anyone who was doing this type of work. Since then, she has made some professional connections and gains experience through an arrangement with Radiance Medspa in Woodbury. When she is there (for now, between one and two days a week), she will have between 11 and 14 clients a day.

Although Thompson said approximately 95 percent of her clients come to her for cosmetic reasons, Botox is certified by the FDA to treat migraines. Thompson is also certified to inject Botox into the masseter muscles to treat Temporomandibular joint (TMJ) syndrome. Botox operates as a muscle relaxer, Thompson said, which is why it can be helpful for these issues.

When consulting with a client, Thompson said she starts at the top of the face and works down. For example, for someone looking to eliminate nasal labial folds — the vertical smile lines that form around the corners of the mouth — a cheek fill may, in bringing the skin of the jaw area up, eliminate those lines. Still, the conversation is guided by what the client wants.

“Whatever is bothering them when they look in the mirror, that’s where we start,” Thompson said.

Thompson performs her lifts using Polydioxanone threading. Using a needle, Thompson inserts the thread, which is left behind in the cheek or lip. As the body dissolves the thread, it is replaced by collagen, temporarily giving the area more shape. Lip threads last about six months, while the threads for non-surgical facelifts last approximately a year.

“Nothing I do is permanent,” Thompson said. This can be reassuring for first-time clients, she said, who may come in nervous about the outcome.

Looking ahead, Thompson said she just has the tear troughs and temporal regions left to become certified in all the major Botox treatment areas.

She is also planning to get a body contour machine and a fat melting machine, which overheats the fat cells so the body destroys them permanently. Finally, Thompson would like to get into doing more chemical peels and microdermabrasion. Now, she largely treats muscle, she said; she would like to start working externally as well.

Dinah’s Style owner Rachel Miller said she was thrilled when Mary Thompson took up a space in Dinah’s Style.

“I thought it’d be a great addition,” Miller said. “I was really excited for it because it’s something people can really treat themselves to.”

Miller said she has seen a positive reaction from the community for Enhancing Beauty.

“She just keeps adding more and more things,” she said. “… She’s such a driven little girl that really just wants to make everybody beautiful. It’s just really fun.”

About Sarah Kocher

Sarah covers education and arts and culture for the Tribune.

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