Procedures that can help you look and feel your best.

At JCMG Aesthetics, listening to patient needs creates the foundation for the high-quality and comfortable services they provide. JCMG Aesthetics providers include Dr. Stephanie Hose; Dr. Robyn McCullem; Amber Abeln, MSN, APRN-BC; Amanda Peters, MSN, FNP-C; and Dr.Caleb Steffen. We sat down with Amanda and Dr. Steffen to discuss how their group is pushing the well-known standard of health care at JCMG even higher. As JCMG Aesthetics enters its third year of operations, they are seeing a continuously growing demand for what they provide for the Central Missouri community.

With selfie culture, filters, and social media amplifying particular features, the “ideal” look these days might seem unattainable. The JCMG Aesthetics providers are making sure JCMG Aesthetics isn’t just a service — it’s patient care, combined with opportunities to see results and feel like your best self. Amanda explains that results can be attained easily and quickly. Dr. Steffen notes that many aesthetic services have important physical and psychological benefits.

“Moreover, we find that many patients who have aesthetic services will spend less time worrying about their appearance. I think that’s a good thing,” Steffen says.

“Luxury doesn’t have to be a heavy price tag,” Amanda says. “You can do something as simple as elevating your skin care line, enjoying a facial, or having a consultation for an anti-aging product or procedure.”

Amanda is well-known in the community for her work to prevent melanoma. After losing her father-in-law to skin cancer, her passion for educating others about skin cancer grew. She provides free skin care screenings in Mid-Missouri, visits with local groups on how to prevent skin cancer, and is the president of Miles AgainstMelanoma. Peters knows how to provide great skin care, and through a consultation, patients can explore the variety of options and services that JCMG Aesthetics can provide. And their team is eager to listen and hear what patients are looking for.

After the consultation and deciding where the patient wants to make improvements, small steps are put in place to safely and comfortably achieve results.

Dr. Steffen agrees that Botox, when properly administered, can create profound improvements in facial appearance without looking artificial, and he notes that many patients receive benefits from neurotoxin beyond reducing facial wrinkles. He uses Botox to treat patients with facial paralysis and facial spasms with great success. Dr. Steffen also has a strong interest in medical and surgical management of migraines, and Botox is an important part of the treatment process. Other uses include a variety of conditions afflicted by muscle spasm and even hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating).

“Natural results are the goal,” Dr. Steffen says. “Sometimes patients may have a goal to look a particular age … and many procedures and surgeries can make patients look significantly younger. But I think the best outcomes occur when patients have specific problems and we come up with a plan to treat them with proven techniques.”

Dr. Steffen has been a surgeon with JCMG for several years and enjoys being part of a provider-led effort to offer aesthetic services based on solid science and clinical studies. He takes pride in his ability to make lives better for his patients. Dr. Steffen provides a wide range of services. Many are aesthetic, but he also cherishes other aspects of his plastic surgery practice, including reconstructive surgery and hand surgery.

Services include breast reconstruction (which is often requested after breast cancer) as well as postnatal procedures that help new moms feel rejuvenated. JCMG Aesthetics also helps patients of all ages with minor to major surgeries that range from head to toe, and they operate on congenial differences, carpal tunnel syndrome, traumatic wounds, and many more special cases.

At JCMG Aesthetics, Dr. Steffen also commonly works with skin cancer removal, facial reconstruction, facelifts, blepharoplasty, hand surgery (for conditions such as carpal tunnel syndrome or thumb arthritis), rhinoplasty, and mommy makeovers.

“Many patients ask me, ‘What does ‘plastic’ mean?’”he says. “It comes from the Greek word plastikos, which means moldable. Plastic surgery is a principle-based specialty that is all about restoring form and function— hence the beautiful interplay between reconstructive and aesthetic surgery.

“I had a patient not too long ago who had excess skin removed for vision purposes,” he continues. “She had a lot of bagging around her upper eyelids. After the surgery, she told me she hadn’t seen her eyes in a long time and now that she could see them, they reminded her of her dad, who had recently passed. She teared up telling me that story. It was really special to see how surgery had made such a difference for her.”

The JCMG team makes it a priority to ensure patients are helped with a certain standard of care and results that are second to none. Throughout the past couple of years, Dr. Hose, Dr. McCullem, Amber, Amanda, and Dr. Steffen have heard many success stories from their patients in the community.

“Plastic surgery is a principle-based speciality that is all about restoring FORM and FUNCTION – hence the beautiful interplay between reconstruction and aesthetic surgery.”

Dr. Caleb Steffen

Dr. Steffen knows each patient’s needs are different, but he loves seeing patients meet their goals. He focuses on what is natural and ideal. He also notes that sometimes people feel that aesthetic plastic surgery is only for vanity.

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” he says. “The biggest reason people seek breast augmentation is so their clothes fi t better. Regarding breast reduction, it’s neck and back pain. For abdominoplasty, patients note an improvement in their core strength and back pain because their muscles are back in the proper position. My rhinoplasty patients will routinely have improved breathing after surgery. Blepharoplasty patients see better after surgery. The list goes on.”

“If you feel good, you look good, and if you look good, you feel good,” Amanda says. “It all goes hand in hand.”

At the end of the day, Amanda, Dr. Steffen, and the team truly love what they do and the community of people they get to help. For Amanda, her favorite thing about her role is helping patients remain medically healthy but also feel good about themselves.

“As a nurse practitioner, we treat the whole person, not the disease or the problem,” Amanda says. “We do what is in the patient’s best interest. Our appearance and self-esteem can play an important role in our life. I am grateful for the opportunity to help so many people achieve their inner and outer beauty.”

“My favorite thing about my job is restoring form and function,” says Dr. Steffen. “Any properly done aesthetic surgery should improve function. Any properly done functional surgery is attentive to the aesthetic. It’s gray where one stops and the other begins. It’s a blessing to be able to provide plastic surgery service — including reconstruction and hand surgery — to the community.