In this guest-branded bonus episode of Business LO, hosted by Michelle O’Dell and presented by the Lake Oswego Chamber of Commerce, the focus is on aging gracefully with Dr. Peter Vila of Portland Face Doctor. Dr. Vila, a double-board-certified facial plastic surgeon, discusses the nuances and misconceptions surrounding facial plastic surgery and the importance of individualized care and recovery plans. He delves into the Pacific Northwest aesthetic, emphasizing natural and undetectable results, and offers insights into male plastic surgery, recovery timelines, and the comprehensive approach of his practice. Dr. Vila’s expertise is highlighted alongside his commitment to patient-centered care. Listeners are encouraged to visit his website to see before-and-after images and learn more about his services.
Dr. Peter Vila is a double board-certified facial plastic surgeon and the CEO of Portland Face Doctor, a boutique facial aesthetics practice based in Portland. Known for his commitment to natural, undetectable results, Dr. Vila specializes in facial rejuvenation and rhinoplasty, helping patients look as good as they feel without looking “overdone.”
Dr. Vila completed his surgical training at renowned institutions including Washington University in St. Louis and Northwestern University in Chicago. Since bringing his expertise to the Portland area, he has earned a reputation for exceptional outcomes, clinical integrity, and a warm, patient-centered approach.
Whether in the operating room or performing nonsurgical treatments, Dr. Vila combines technical precision with an artist’s eye—serving working professionals, creatives, and community members who want to feel refreshed and confident at every stage of life. He is proud to lead a world-class team at Portland Face Doctor, where he, alongside a dedicated group of nurses and patient care coordinators, delivers outstanding care and beautiful, lasting results.
LIZ HARTMAN: [00:00:00] This is Business Lo, a podcast by the Lake Oswego Chamber of Commerce, which connects, educates, advocates, and champions, our business community. We have nearly 500 members from international corporations to home-based businesses, and we serve them all. Each episode of Business LO gives insider information to the local business community and the neighbors who support them.
Speaker: And now let's talk Business LO.
Michelle O’Dell: It's another guest branded bonus episode of Business Lo and today it's all about the art of aging gracefully with Dr. Peter Vila of Portland Face Doctor. Dr. Vila is a double board certified facial plastic surgeon and the CEO of Portland face doctor, a boutique facial aesthetics practice based in Portland, known for his commitment to natural undetectable results.
Speaker 2: Dr. Vila specializes in facial rejuvenation and rhinoplasty [00:01:00] helping patients look as good as they feel. Without ever looking overdone. Dr. Villa completed his surgical training at renowned institutions, including Washington University in St. Louis and Northwestern University in Chicago. Since bringing his expertise to the Portland area, he has earned a reputation for exceptional outcomes, clinical integrity, and a warm.
Speaker 2: Patient-centered approach, whether in the operating room or performing non-surgical treatments. Dr. Vila combines technical precision with an artist's eye serving, working professionals, creatives, and community members who wanna feel refreshed and confident at every stage of their life. He is proud to lead a world class team at Portland Face Doctor, where he, alongside a dedicated group of nurses and patient care coordinators, delivers outstanding care and beautiful lasting results.
Speaker 2: And you should check out his website. There are some before and [00:02:00] afters. You will be blown away. I'm Michelle Odell, and I am so looking forward to understanding more about the art of aging gracefully. Dr. Villa, thank you for being here.
Dr Peter Vila: Thank you so much, Michelle. It's an absolute pleasure and I've listened to so many episodes of the podcast that I just am blown away by, so it's really fun to be here.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you so much. I appreciate that. So let's go ahead and dive in. What sets you apart? What differentiates Portland Face, doctor from other plastic surgery practices?
Speaker 3: One of the things that it's easy to get caught up with is that when we see it before and after, when we see a really good result, you're seeing two distinct points in time separated by sometimes up to a year, right?
Speaker 3: And so our brain thinks, wow, that happens immediately. That is not the case. There's very much a recovery after surgery and all of these things. And so one of the things that I pride myself on in our practice is that we take that recovery process very seriously and have thought through all of those steps.
Speaker 3: As someone who does a lot of facial surgery. I know [00:03:00] where the touch points are gonna be. I know where there's gonna be some times where we're feeling like, man, I really wish the swelling was gone. Man, this incision looks a little ropey. Yes, all of these things are normal part of the recovery. So as a part of that, we actually have a whole team of nurses here that helps you recover and get back on your feet.
Speaker 3: People wanna get back to their jobs. They wanna get back to their lives. They don't wanna stay hiding out forever. And I totally understand, and I also want that to speed up as quickly as we can make it. The approach to the post-op care is really one of the big things that I pride myself on in our practice, and I have an excellent team that I've built to really deliver that to our patients.
Speaker 3: And I would say that is a huge thing in this practice.
Speaker 2: Okay. That makes sense. So isn't a facelift just a facelift? What is so different about different surgeons?
Speaker 3: One of the most common misconceptions that I think I see as far as facelift is that people assume that if you do a facelift and you get a quote from somewhere and whatever procedures they recommended at one office, you can just go to a different office and they'll just do all that stuff.[00:04:00]
Speaker 3: It's not like buying a car. Okay? So if you go to A BMW dealership in Seattle. And you come down and decide to buy it in Portland. Instead, it's gonna be the same car. Maybe there's some little differences here and there, but it's mostly the same, same product. That is not the case when it comes to surgery with a surgeon and your choice of surgeon, there's a million decisions that are made both in the consultation during the surgery while you're asleep.
Speaker 3: And I'm operating and then afterwards. And so all of those little decisions are gonna be very different from surgeon to surgeon. And so it comes down to really doing the right result for the right patient in the right way. The best results that we can possibly get is often a combination of all the things that we did over the course of months.
Speaker 3: Of course, all of that. It gets produced down to a before and after. And I love showing those off too, when you have a really beautiful result. But there's a lot of thought that went into that. It's really important to understand that. And so finding a surgeon that you trust. Finding a surgeon that is delivering consistently the results that you're looking for, and that you just feel like you get a good feeling from, you know, that's, that's really what's gonna separate out.
Speaker 3: [00:05:00] Obviously, you need to figure out if they have board certification and experience doing the procedure that they're talking about, all this kinds of stuff. That is absolutely the bare minimum. But then you're really gonna want someone that you like and trust. Like I see my patients a lot after surgery and yeah, we're gonna get to know each other pretty well, so might as well make it fun while we're doing it.
Speaker 2: Do some people get like a second and third opinion? They go to like different doctors to try to see who's gonna do what to their face?
Speaker 3: I think Do whatever you feel is right for yourself. Just like if you're gonna do a big project on your house, maybe you want to get a couple different bids from contractors.
Speaker 3: You know, surgery is not quite the same thing, but. It's often helpful to talk to different people, get some different opinions, especially if you're not quite sure about what it is you're trying to achieve. Sure. Get a couple different opinions and I think that's helpful.
Speaker 2: Alright. So, you know, my husband and I talk about this all the time.
Speaker 2: There's a Pacific Northwest aesthetic. There's definitely one when it comes to clothing and attitude. I guess just overall. A way of life. So tell me about the, the Pacific Northwest aesthetic.
Speaker 3: Definitely. I would [00:06:00] absolutely argue that there is a Pacific Northwest aesthetic. And we're not talking like tattoos and like piercings and things like that.
Speaker 3: 'cause of course that is part of it. But what I mean by that is that if you go to Beverly Hills. If you go to Miami, if you go to certain parts of New York City, people look a certain way and there's a certain kind of type that is drawn to that. And it tends to be the celebrities that are looking for a certain look.
Speaker 3: And there is nothing wrong with that. And if that's what people are looking for, that's great. I would argue that that is probably not what most people in Portland or in the surrounding areas are looking for, where the aesthetic up in the Northwest is much more natural, just sort of. Work with what? What you were born with, right?
Speaker 3: And whether that's turning back the clock a little bit to really just kind of erase some signs of aging on the face. Or maybe you had a bump on your nose that you didn't love, or whatever the case may be. You're just working with within the confines of what's natural and what looks like you didn't just have surgery.
Speaker 3: It's not a flex like it is maybe in Beverly Hills to some people, right? Yes. So that's, that, that's really what the Portland, [00:07:00] sort of northwest aesthetic is all about. People are very quietly elegant in this area. Yes. And you see billionaires wearing like hiking clothing, right. And like. That's just kind of how it is in the Northwest, and that's cool, right?
Speaker 3: I mean, people are much more relaxed about their outward appearance and so there's nothing wrong with that. And I think that also applies to surgery results that people are looking for.
Speaker 2: I'm sure people are a little worried they're gonna look a little weird after because they're gonna look different. So talk about that a little bit.
Speaker 3: That's one of the most common questions I get when we're talking about doing something like a facelift, where obviously we want enough of a change to where it looks like we've addressed something where it looks good. But yes, you still wanna look like yourself. And so the helpful analogy is really with the facelift, we're not trying to make you look like someone else.
Speaker 3: We're just trying to reverse the clock. You're still gonna look like you we're just erasing those signs of aging on your face.
Speaker 2: You're taking the clock back.
Speaker 3: Absolutely. And I would add to that, that I have the benefit of, I haven't been doing this for 30 years, which means I would've trained 30 years ago.
Speaker 3: In the current era, [00:08:00] I get to stand on the shoulders of giants where other people have sort of figured out what works and what doesn't work. And I haven't invented any of these procedures, but what I am doing is I'm doing for my patients what I think works best. And sometimes that means doing things a little differently than the way I was taught, even in training, you know, five years ago.
Speaker 3: So the sort of way to keep things natural, the way to still, to get dramatic results, but have people look good, is just the decisions I'm making in the operating room. Whether it's a deep plane facelift, avoiding. Buckle fat procedures and people who don't need them. Just really trying to be conservative, but still dramatic in ways that people will just look dramatically better and not altered, not like the pull of the old school facelifts where people looked kind of like they stuck their, you know, head out the car window for a little while.
Speaker 3: So those are the old school techniques that do that. And so I don't do those techniques, so my patients aren't gonna look like that.
Speaker 2: Take 10 years off their life. I love the idea of that. Okay. So, you know, we see her everywhere. How do celebrities like Kris Jenner, she looks really [00:09:00] good and she does not look kind of that fake Hollywood look.
Speaker 3: Absolutely. And I love that you brought up Kris Jenner. First thing I want people to understand is that this is a combination of multiple modalities over the course of years. Things like non-surgical treatment like Botox, like fillers here and there, sparingly, like S sculptor. Well, all the non-surgical things that you hear about those can be done well.
Speaker 3: And for people that think like, I don't want Botox, it's gonna make me look weird. You just don't notice the good results. You only see the bad ones, right? So she's been doing that for years and years and years. Finally, you are gonna need some things for the skin, like a laser treatment here and there. And so they're constantly doing that.
Speaker 3: Every year they're doing some lasers here and there, just so you erase the sun damage just to keep the skin looking nice and fresh. And then every now and then, yeah, surgery. And everybody's been talking about the facelift she had recently? Yes, definitely. It's a good facelift. Is that the only thing she did?
Speaker 3: No, she's done a bajillion other things too. And so that's, I think like her third facelift. I don't know. I didn't do her surgery, so I don't know for sure, but, you know. Yeah, but you,
Speaker 2: you [00:10:00] kind of know. I would imagine she's, she's
Speaker 3: had some things done along the way and that's great, and that's why she looks so good.
Speaker 3: Right. Other thing I would just caution people about when it comes to the Kardashians, and I think they've got a great thing going, but keep in mind that they love to alter their photos. They've never released a photo just right off someone's iPhone camera. So those photos are all touched up. She looks great.
Speaker 3: There's no doubt about that. She doesn't look that good. Right. There's definitely some retouching that's been done, so just kind of keep that in mind. Whenever you see like magazine shoots or you know, whatever magazine, you're gonna see photos that have been altered. And so unfortunately it creates a bit of an unrealistic aesthetic where people think like, oh, I can just look like I did when I was 20.
Speaker 3: When I'm age 65. That's not possible. Of course, we can definitely make you look better and take some years off the clock, but within reason, that's why I think the best way to really see what's actually possible is just look at before and afters and. Pick your favorite surgeon, look at my gallery, and you'll see like, okay, this is what's actually possible.
Speaker 2: Right? And it looks natural. I tell my
Speaker 3: patients the best compliment they can give me afterwards is that they say things like, you know, my friends didn't even notice. They just ask me [00:11:00] like, Hey, did you sleep well? Did you Yes. You know, get your haircut. Like, what did you do? And it's, you know, you can tell 'em all about your new olive oil that kinda raises your hooded eyelids.
Speaker 3: You know, it's like, it's one of these things where it's just natural and people can't put their finger on it. That's what we're going for.
Speaker 2: That sounds great. I love that. Okay. Now, do men get plastic surgery?
Speaker 3: They absolutely do. Okay. And I will tell you one of the most common patients in my practice is the male sort of business leader that wants to continue to look youthful because, you know, it took a while to get to whatever position they're at in life.
Speaker 3: And so they want to continue that. Absolutely. That is a thing. I would say my practice definitely skews more female, probably 80% female and 20% male. But guys do this stuff too, and it's really just they, they even wanna talk about even less than the women. But you know what, it's, it's absolutely a thing and there's no reason why not.
Speaker 3: Of course there's some scars and things after facelift and things like that, which we talk about, and we have a good informed discussion about what that means prior to jumping into surgery so everybody knows what they're getting themselves into. But it's a really nice way, just like [00:12:00] women benefit from it and look younger.
Speaker 3: We can do that for guys too. Absolutely. What are they like? A lot like focus on the most. One of the biggest differences between men aging versus women aging is that for men, primarily the issue's gonna be hair loss. That is what a lot of guys are dealing with. So there's things like hair transplants and things like medical treatments like Finasteride, minoxidil, things like that rho game that will help to prevent hair loss and minimize the effects of it.
Speaker 3: After a while, you're just, you don't have any hair left, so a hair transplant's really where you wanna go with that. For other things though, there's a difference between having guys look younger and having guys look weird. And so you people love to point out like Kenny Rogers or you know, other celebrities that just didn't look normal after their surgery.
Speaker 3: And what I personally think I didn't do their surgeries, I don't know. But what I personally think happened is that. The same procedures that would've been done on a woman were done on a guy, and that's not quite the way we do it. Of course, we do the same things in terms of facelift, neck lifting with guys in particular.
Speaker 3: I leave the brows alone. I don't like to mess with the brows because [00:13:00] guys typically have a lower brow. That's sort of a masculine thing, so why undo it? Of course there's still room for, you know, doing things there and have I done brow ups and guys of course, but conservatively, that's really one of the tells and celebrities who you think look weird after surgery tends to be the brows in guys.
Speaker 2: So you talked about this very early on. What sets you apart is the careful detail that you put into the recovery. So let's talk about what does recovery look like after? For the average person,
Speaker 3: the first thing that people wanna know is how quickly can I get back to normal life? And what I tell everybody, regardless of the surgery that we're doing, it's going to be about two weeks of downtime.
Speaker 3: Okay? There's some swelling, there's some bruising, incisions that are gonna be red for a while. About two weeks later, you'd be surprised how little other people notice it now. There's still some signs there at two weeks. It's not like you're totally healed up, but that sort of like impressive bruising and swelling first two weeks for sure.
Speaker 3: After the two weeks, you're starting to get back out there and to the point where you can now go out to eat and people won't really be able to tell. You'll still look swollen. You'll still be able to tell when you look in the mirror. [00:14:00] Other people won't be able to place that. So a little bit of foundation over the incisions, things like that.
Speaker 3: Tinted sunscreen is great. You know, little tricks like this is how we get back to work and people just don't know any better. Once you're further out, about a month, you can get back into like the really heavy sort of CrossFit type stuff, heavy lifting, things like that. You do wanna hold off on that for the first month, just because those incisions and everything that we did in the operating room is still healing.
Speaker 3: You don't wanna rip those sutures, you don't want to cause hematomas, things like that. So, really. Two weeks as far as like jogging, absolutely one month for really this sort of heavy lifting type of stuff. Once you're past that point, you can get back to normal stuff. Go get your hair dyed. If you wanna get your hair dyed, go back to your normal workout routine, go paddle boarding, do all the water things.
Speaker 3: Absolutely. Three to four months is sort of that magic time where now it's really starting to be undetectable. The incisional redness is fading. The RPIs of the incisions is fading, and then it takes. All the way out to a year for those things to fully, fully mature.
Speaker 2: Okay. And do people tend to just [00:15:00] like take a couple weeks off?
Speaker 2: Like they just take time off work and they just stay home and just chill and
Speaker 3: Totally. I tend to tell my patients it's best. If you don't want any nosy coworkers knowing, just give yourself a couple weeks and when you come back a couple weeks later, no one's the wiser. Certainly by like three to five days after surgery, you'll feel like you can sit at your computer and do like off camera work, but certainly the second week, definitely ready to answer questions on emails, send emails out, sit at a computer if you need to.
Speaker 3: But I'd just like to tell everybody just to be safe. It's best to give yourself a couple weeks after surgery.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, is there anything else people should know about you and, and what you do and and tell everybody where you are and how to find you.
Speaker 3: We have a really great thing going here and it's really fun to be able to.
Speaker 3: Meet with patients on a daily basis, talk to them about the things that are really affecting them, and one of the most common things I hear is like vanity. And people are almost apologetic about coming in to see me and I tell them, listen, you got dressed up today. You showered today, you did your makeup today.
Speaker 3: You clearly care about your external appearance. How is this any different? It's never a sort of vein thing. I [00:16:00] don't judge people. I don't, you know, this is, I don't try and sell people on surgery. That's really not what I do here. Like I said, most of my patients are working professionals that just wanna look good and continue to stay good.
Speaker 3: And one of the most common things I hear is I wanna look the way on the outside, that I feel on the inside. That's really what gets me going in the morning, is being able to do that for people. And so we go through some surgery, sometimes it's just Botox, sometimes it's a laser treatment, sometimes it's surgery and all the other things.
Speaker 3: All of those things are options, and it really comes down to the individual patient. So having a surgeon that you can trust. I have excellent nurses here that also do these things. If, if cost is the issue, great. My nurse does Botox and all the other things too. So we really just pride ourselves on that connection.
Speaker 3: It's not like going to the doctor's office, it's going for a fun visit where we get to do happy medicine and talk about some really fun ways to make you look younger and just. Vitalized, so I have a fantastic team. You'll see that too. Patients that come in and get to benefit from that as well. We work together well.
Speaker 3: We deliver excellent care, and it's really just fun to do the [00:17:00] job that we do.
Speaker 2: I bet, and you are very handsome and you are the perfect person to be doing this job. Let me tell you, you are the, you're like the billboard for it. Have you had a little work done?
Speaker 3: I've had actually upper eyelid surgery. Yes. I did have some droopy eyelids.
Speaker 3: So funny enough, when I look back on my photos from residency, okay, you're. You're basically sleep deprived for about five years straight. And I didn't recognize it at the time and I was like, ah, I'm just sleepy or whatever. But like, I actually know my eyelids were drooping, like not so much like the skin, but like the actual eyelid itself.
Speaker 3: So I have had ptosis repair to address that. And if you look at my earlier photos, you can totally see it. So yeah, I've been through it too. I went through that recovery too. Like I think you have to know kinda what you're doing for your patients and you know, there's no stigma associated with that. If there's an issue, you get it fixed, right.
Speaker 3: It's no big deal. Yeah. So, sure. You know, people think I'm trying to like convince people into getting stuff done and things like that. That is absolutely not what I do. In fact, I talk a lot of people out of surgery because sometimes the expectations are not there and they think I'm a magician, which, okay, I appreciate the people that think that for the results, but I'm not a [00:18:00] magician, right?
Speaker 3: There's certain things that I cannot do. Sometimes the answer is no, and people really don't want to hear that, and. I get it, but that's what I want is happy patients.
Speaker 2: Right. And you want it to work and you want the recovery to work. If they're not the right candidate, absolutely then, then none of it's good.
Speaker 3: And the thing is, is like it's not so much like a week from now or a month from now. It's a year from now when you are totally healed up, are you gonna be happy with the time you invested the money, you invested the time off of work, all that stuff like. I, I don't wanna do that unless I know that it's gonna be a slam dunk.
Speaker 3: And if that's the case, yeah. I know what I can do in the operating room. I've traveled around the world to improve my skills. I went to some worldclass institutions. I know what I'm good at. But it's not just that in isolation. Right. It has to be a match for everyone involved.
Speaker 2: Exactly. Well, thank you so much.
Speaker 2: This was very informative and tell everybody where you are.
Speaker 3: We're physically located in Tigard, right off I five. It's right next to the highway, just down the street from the Costco. A lot of people find me on Instagram and TikTok. My handle is DR Peter Vila. My name, it's just Peter VILA. And we can also go to Portland Face [00:19:00] Doctor.
Speaker 3: I tend to hold that account just for the practice, so if you're really looking to see me and my stories in the daily stuff that I do, that's on the Dr. Peter Vila account. So feel free to head to that. And if you wanna check us out online. Our website is portland face doctor.com.
Speaker 2: All right, nice. And the show notes will have all the information for Dr.
Speaker 2: Vila. Check out his website when you get a chance and thanks so much for joining me today.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much, Michelle, for featuring me on the podcast and, and it's been an absolute pleasure speaking with you.
Speaker 2: Thank you. And I wanna remind all of our listeners that every day is a Chamber of Commerce Day.
Speaker 2: Here in Lake Oswego,
Speaker: the Lake Oswego Chamber of Commerce. Thanks you for listening to Business Lo. We would love to have you as a member so you can help Lake Oswego continue to be one of the best places to live, work, and play. If you wanna share an idea for a future episode. Or become a member. Visit us@lakeoswegochamber.com and please like and follow us on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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