For Dr. Scott Gerrish, it was a way to merge his academic pursuit with a personal passion.
The union between two seemingly opposite fields was the spark that led to the founder of Gerrish MedEsthetics’ thriving 25-year cosmetic medicine career.
“I always loved medicine, but went through mechanical engineering,” says Gerrish, who holds a mechanical engineering degree from Lehigh University in addition to his D.O. from Midwestern University in Illinois. “But once I got into medicine and was working with plastic surgeons and lasers, I thought, what a great integration of my degrees.”
That combination proved to be a winning one, where Gerrish’s skill and talent for giving patients the gift of a new and fresh look with minimally invasive procedures and decreased downtime was honed in private practice.
His Scottsdale practice is the west division of his long-standing Virginia practice. In 2019, Gerrish and his family moved to Scottsdale to soak up some west coast living in a warm and sunny space that was conducive to the outdoor lifestyle he, his wife, and his teenage children craved.
Since then, the Boston native has been living a cross-country professional life on both coasts.
Although located on opposite sides of the nation, they share a common reason of what brings the majority of patients in—a desire to offset the natural aging process with the most natural-looking results and the best way to maximize those.
And, they prefer to get these results without surgery, scars, or lengthy downtime.
“One day, they look in the mirror and start to see their parents. They say, ‘Oh no, I’ve got to slow this down,’” Gerrish says of his classic patient, who ranges in age from 30s on up. “They say, ‘I want to look better but still want to look like me.’”
In addition to naturally enhancing the skin and maximizing its potential, much of Gerrish’s time is spent on ways to minimize recovery while giving patients the best possible outcome.
For example, Gerrish is working with a company to create an herbal-based product that reduces recovery time by 50%. This allows patients to get back into their usual groove a lot faster.
Gerrish has countless success stories about patients for whom his work has been life-changing.
For example, the woman who saw her industry colleagues slowly get younger while those in her age group seemed to be more rare. When she lost her job, she felt like the oldest person in her office and found herself back out in a competitive and younger job market. Her confidence took a hit.
But after Gerrish’s care, that changed.
“We made her look like a better version of herself at her age. It gave her the confidence to go out and get a new job, and she was really excellent at it,” he says.
And for many, what Gerrish does for them is far from merely skin deep.
“We all spend time buying nice shoes and clothes and when we look good, we feel good. When you dress up for an event, you have a feeling that’s associated with that,” Gerrish says. “If you go even deeper as to how your face looks or your body looks, it makes you feel better about yourself… and that goes a long way.”