Meet Gregory Andonian, Md

We recently connected with Gregory Andonian, Md and have shared our conversation below.

Gregory , so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.

Everyone in the medical field knows the saying fake it till you make it. We all start out knowing very little to nothing about our professions and as our journey starts we build our confidence and knowledge base and go through stages. At first you go through medical school where you learn everything you can about medicine and by the time your done you think you know everything and start diagnosing with confidence, that is, until you start your intern year of residency when you realize you know very little to nothing again. It isn’t until you’re done with residency when you start to transition from knowing to understand how to practice medicine, key word being practice. You will always hear people say they practice medicine and that is because it is a practice, a lifelong journey of practice that never stops or ends and is ever growing. After finishing residency you come out with all the confidence in the world and are ready to show your colleagues just how knowledgeable you are, till you actually start practicing as an attending and work with other attendings who have been doing it for much longer. It is then that you again realize you know very little to nothing about the practice of medicine in the real world where your left to yourself and don’t have the safety nets you did during all those years of schooling and residency. It’s at this time that you develop what we call imposter syndrome where you wonder about your validity as a physician and how much you actually know and are able to do. However, this third transition is the one that sets you on the path that develops your confidence. We like to say the most you’ll ever learn is the first year out of residency when you’re truly on your own making decisions without the guardianship of those before you but as time goes on you develop the confidence and self esteem through experience and wisdom that you gain through each case or interaction with patients. I am no exception to this journey. I have developed my confidence and self esteem through years of experience, never shying away from the tough or challenging cases and always putting myself through the rigors of the tough cases and constantly training my skills to ensure I have the confidence and self esteem to know what I can handle and what I can’t. It is through the years of experience that I have developed my confidence and self esteem to know that you have to always strive to learn more and improve, always aiming for perfection but understanding that perfection isn’t a hundred percent obtainable and that there is always more to learn and improve on.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

Anyone who knows me knows I love to speak, it’s very evident with my patients, when I teach, with my friends and with my colleagues. However I am not very good at talking about myself. I am very social and love speaking with people and hearing about them and their stories but when it comes to me I tend to not speak much about my personal life., however, I will try my best to tell you about the real Dr. Andonian. I am the son of two immigrants who immigrated with little to no money and they worked hard to give me the life they never had. They taught me to always work hard and strive to achieve my goals and dreams and to never give up. It is this upbringing that gave me my work ethic. I always wanted to be a physician and after all my schooling and training I became a double board certified physician that specializes in aesthetic medicine. I became interested in aesthetic medicine because of how it can impact people’s lives, especially how it makes them feel on the inside and not just the outside. Aesthetics was a field that attracted me because of its detail-oriented and hands-on nature with people and procedures, as well as the connections it makes with them on a personal level and the rapport and journey you have with people. I opened up Andon Aesthetics in Toluca Lake, California, where I began to see patients and transform lives not only on the outside but on the inside as well with my personalized approach to achieve natural results that made patients look and feel younger and refreshed. I took a holistic approach in providing procedures that would be most beneficial to patients to achieve their desired results while maintaining that natural refreshed look with combinations of procedures that best fit each patient on a personal level. Approximately a year after opening up Andon Aesthetics I was invited by the American Board of Aesthetic Medicine to become an instructor and about a year after that I was awarded the lead instructor role for Southern California for the board.. I founded Andon Aesthetics on the principle of honesty, ethics, and morality, always endeavoring to provide patients with what they need to look and feel younger without compromising or risking their well-being. I am focused professionally on providing the best care for my patients as well as teaching the next generation on how to provide the same care to others so that the aesthetics field can strive and flourish in giving people the best and safest results possible so that they look and feel younger. I specializes in cutting edge as well as tried and true aesthetics procedures for patients to provide them with the best results in order to look and feel younger and refreshed. I am known for and specialize in facial analysis and balancing as well as a comprehensive approach that includes all areas of aging in order to provide the appropriate aesthetic procedures to obtain not only the results you’re looking for but also to look and feel younger on the inside and out. What sets me apart from others is my approach to patients, not only in developing a rapport with them but also recommending only what they need to look and feel younger while taking into consideration their desired results as they set out on their journey of looking and feeling younger. My motto is that this is a marathon, not a sprint, and your journey starts with choosing the best and right procedures to get you looking and feeling younger. This is what is most exciting, how I can provide full facial balancing and rejuvenation using various products like fillers, biostimulators, PRP/PRF, exosomes, PDO threads, and neuromodulators, to name a few, as well as lasers, microneedling, and peels, in addition to other areas like the neck, chest and hands in order to provide the best results to make people look and feel younger. I’m proud of the fact that your journey and visit does not just start and stop in the office but continues after you go home with skin care products that I provide and recommend in order to maintain that look. I pride myself in recommending only procedures and products that work and provide real results. I have tried and tested each product and procedure that I provide, which gives me a better insight into recommending things for my patients as well as providing them with the best recommendations possible. I like to say that you should look enhanced, younger, and fresh, and the best compliments I get are when my patients tell me that their friends and family ask if they had something done because they look younger, but they can’t tell that anything was done.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

The three most important qualities, skills and/or areas of knowledge that were most impactfull in my journey was one, to always train to be better, learn from your mistakes. Two, never give up on your dreams, keep pushing forward and adapt as you need to reach those goals and dreams you have. Three, always remember to stay humble, medicine is a profession that will always show you how little you really know if you get complacent or comfortable but if you keep an open mind and always put your patients first it will give back in ways that are fullfiling. The best advice I can give is find what you love to do, if you love it you will always strive to learn more, be better, learn from your mistakes, will never give up, will stay humble and will develop all the skills you need to improve.

Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?

One of the most helpful people that has helped me in overcoming challenges as well as build and develop my skills and knowledge to be successful has been my mentor and the director of the American Board of Aesthetic Medicine, Dr. Mason Dang. He has not only taught me a lot of what I know but he has also guided me in all areas of the aesthetics field from skills and knowledge to opening up, running and making my practice successful. It is his confidence in my ability and knowledge that helped me strive to become what I am today and the fact that he made me an instructor showed me that not only am I capable of doing what I do but I’m also able to teach it well so that others can do it as well. It is with his guidance and tutelage that I can proudly say that I have become the aesthetics physician that I am today.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.andonaesthetics.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andonaesthetics
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AndonAesthetics
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/AestheticsAndon
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/andon-aesthetics-los-angeles
• Other: https://twitter.com/AestheticsAndon