In their own words

I had been thinking about it for years. What I wanted was not to look different — I wanted to look rested. Dr. Van Beek understood that immediately. After surgery, friends started telling me I looked well. No one could place exactly what had changed, and that was exactly the point.

Six months later, I forget I had surgery. I just feel like me.

I had been self-conscious about my nose since I was a teenager. Two surgeons I met with talked only about what they would change. Dr. Van Beek asked what I liked about my face and what I wanted to preserve. That conversation decided it for me.

The result is mine, just balanced. I wish I hadn't waited so long.

Reconstruction was never going to undo what I went through. But Dr. Van Beek treated the whole experience — not just the surgery — with a kind of care I did not expect from anyone. I felt like a person, not a procedure.

I would do it again, and I would come here.

I researched for two years. Dr. Van Beek's experience with the aging eye was unlike anyone I found locally. The consultation was unhurried and honest. He told me exactly what surgery would and would not do.

I look like I slept ten hours. That's all I ever wanted.

Men my age don't talk about this much, but a lot of us think about it. My eyelids were heavy and it showed in every photo. Dr. Van Beek understood that I wanted to look like a rested version of myself — nothing more.

My wife noticed. No one else did. That's the highest compliment.

After three children, I had resigned myself to the way things were. Dr. Van Beek explained what was realistic and what wasn't — he didn't promise perfection. The result is better than I hoped and exactly what he described.

I feel like myself again, just no longer hiding.