Blog · Note 05 · Timing

When to postpone.

Rescheduling is not a setback. It is usually the cheapest decision available to you. And most weeks, somebody makes it.

Written by the lead nurse practitioner Updated August 2026 6 minute read

Every practice keeps a short mental list of reasons it will move an appointment rather than keep it. Ours is not long and none of it is dramatic. What follows is that list, written down, so you can read it before you book instead of hearing it for the first time while you are already sitting in the chair with your coat on the hook.

Almost everything here is a matter of timing rather than eligibility. Very little of it means you cannot be treated. Most of it means: not this two weeks, and here is when instead.

General information, not medical advice

This page describes how our practice schedules, in general terms. It is not medical advice, it cannot account for your history, and it is not a substitute for being examined. Screening happens in the consultation, where a qualified provider takes a full medical history in our own compliant clinical system. Never through a web form. Please don't send us health details by email or through the contact form.

Seven reasons we move an appointment

Not this week. Here's when instead.

You are unwell: a fever, an infection, or a course of antibiotics just finished

We do not inject through an active infection, and a body already busy with something else is not one we want to introduce a new variable into. The usual shape of it: be symptom-free, be finished with any antibiotic course, then give it a few days on top. The tail end of a head cold is a conversation on the phone. A fever is a reschedule, and there is nothing to discuss.

You are pregnant, trying to conceive, or breastfeeding

Neuromodulators and dermal fillers have not been studied in pregnancy or lactation, and we do not offer them to patients who are pregnant or breastfeeding. That is not a judgment about how risky they are. It is an absence of evidence, and an absence of evidence is not something we are willing to treat through.

Tell us anyway. There is a good deal we can still do, some of it topical and some of it simply a plan built for the year you are actually in. We would rather hold your file open than lose you for two years.

You take an anticoagulant, an antiplatelet, or a shelf of supplements

Blood thinners raise the likelihood of bruising, and so, more mildly, do fish oil, high-dose vitamin E, ginkgo, ginseng and routine NSAIDs. For most people that is a cosmetic consequence rather than a safety emergency. But it changes what we would plan, and when.

Two things matter here. First: never stop a prescribed medication for a cosmetic appointment. If you are on a blood thinner, you stay on it, and any change to that is a conversation with the doctor who prescribed it, not with us. Second: tell us regardless, so we can time the visit sensibly and be honest with you about bruising.

You have had dental work, or you are about to

Many injectors leave a window of roughly two weeks either side of dental work, cleanings included, when filler is involved in the mid-face, cheeks or around the mouth. Ours is one of them. The reasoning is precautionary rather than settled science, and we would rather say so plainly than present a house preference as a law. If your cleaning is next Thursday, we will book you the Thursday after next.

There is a cold sore, a breakout, or broken skin where we would be working

We do not treat through an active lesion. If you have any history of cold sores, say so before lip treatment specifically. Work around the mouth can trigger a recurrence in people who are prone to them, and planning around that is something to sort out in advance of the appointment rather than in the middle of it.

Your event is in ten days

This is the most common reason we move somebody, and the one people are most disappointed by. Bruising from filler can take one to two weeks to settle. A neuromodulator has not finished doing whatever it is going to do until roughly day fourteen, which is also when we would want to review it and make any adjustment. Ten days is not enough runway for either.

For a wedding: first treatment at least three months out, the review two weeks after that, and nothing new inside four weeks of the date. If you are already inside that window we will still happily see you, for a consultation and a plan that starts the week after.

You cannot tell us what you had last time, or where

If you have had filler elsewhere and do not know the product, the volume or the depth it was placed at, that is not a problem you have to solve on your own. It is, though, a reason to go slowly. Bring receipts, an after-visit summary, anything at all with a brand name printed on it. Where the history genuinely cannot be recovered, we plan conservatively and start smaller than we otherwise would.

If we move you

What actually happens next.

STEP 01

We say so early.

Most of this surfaces at the consultation or on the pre-treatment call, not on the day. When it does surface on the day, we say it before anything is opened.

By phoneNo charge

STEP 02

We rebook in the room.

You leave with a date rather than an intention. A postponement for a clinical reason never costs you a deposit and never counts against the cancellation policy.

Same visitDeposit held

STEP 03

The plan doesn't change.

Your written protocol, your photographs and your pricing stay exactly as they were. We are moving a date on a calendar, not reopening the decision you already made.

On fileUnchanged

— When the timing is right

Start with a conversation.

Screening happens in the room, with a provider, on paper we control. Book the consultation whenever suits. Even if today is one of the weeks on this page. Working out the right month is a large part of what the consultation is for.

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Tue — Sat · 9 — 6Cherry Creek · 3rd Ave720.555.0177consult@alderaesthetics.co