In a scurry to be the first to come up with a great new use for Botox, some doctors have been injecting the drug into other problem areas without the proper research or approvals. There has been talk recently about using Botox as an alternative to getting a breast life, or using it to fix an upwards point on the tip of the nose. But as is often the case, when something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Gene Rubinstein M.D. of the Dermatology and Laser Centre of Studio City advises that before getting any Botox procedure you should be aware of the risks, the history of the technique and the experience of the doctor injecting you. A popular request made by many Botox users is to have injections in the bands of their neck to reduce sagging. But because the muscles in the neck are much larger than in the upper face, where Botox is approved for use, not enough research has been done to assure the public that the procedure is safe. Dr. Rubinstein warns that it is just too new and dangerous.

These procedures are so new that if you do decide on getting your crooked smile fixed with Botox, you may have a hard time finding a doctor who will comply with your request.  And if you do find the rare and willing doctor, be sure that he is safe. Before going to any doctor, gather enough information about him that you feel completely confident in his hands, recommends Dr. Rubinstein. This means getting dozens of referrals, researching he education history, finding out what organizations he belongs to and how long he has been successfully doing the procedure in question.

In an effort to stop the use of Botox in unapproved areas, many states have begun to create stricter laws limiting the use. And in April 2009, the FDA announced that it would be placing a black box label warning — the FDA’s strongest — on Botox to alert users of rare but potentially life-threatening complications when the effects of the toxin spread far beyond the injection site.

While no cases of the complications were reported by people who use Botox for cosmetic procedures, it is an attempt by the FDA to open people’s eyes to the dangers of using the product on unapproved and under researched locations.

This doesn’t mean though that in the future the FDA won’t approve other uses for Botox. There are alternative areas to the face to use Botox that have been deemed suitable.  Many have found relief from excessive sweating after having Botox injected under their arms or on their palms and soles. And Botox has also been found to relieve the severity of persistent migraines.

The information in the article is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your healthcare provider. We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with an appropriate healthcare provider.

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How to Find a Good Dermatologist

Word of mouth is usually the best way to find a decent doctor, and that includes a competent dermatologist. He should also have the right credentials, a well-run office and a caring bedside manner.

What is Medical Dermatology?

Any skin condition or problem that is not purely cosmetic falls under the heading of medical dermatology. If you have a skin condition, a medical dermatologist should be much more qualified to deal with it than a general physician, as this article points out.

What is Cosmetic Dermatology?

Anything that can affect the cosmetic appearance of your skin falls under the rubric of cosmetic dermatology, which mainly is concerned with fillers, lasers, injectables and cosmeceuticals.

Talking to Your Dermatologist About Skin Cancer

Nobody should feel embarrassed to visit a dermatologist if they have a skin condition that is worrying them. Early treatment is always the best cure. So if you have a suspicious-looking mole or a sore that won’t heal, see your doctor.

Detecting Skin Cancer Early

You know your skin better than anyone else, so you can keep an eye out for anything that doesn’t look right. Follow these guidelines to stay in the pink, and don’t wait more than a month if anything looks a bit suspicious.

Preventing Skin Cancer

Proper protection from the sun, including wearing a high SPF sunscreen and avoiding the midday rays, all contribute to healthy skin. Seeing your dermatologist regularly is also vital when it comes to avoiding skin cancer.

Lasers to Treat Psoriasis

Lasers are now considered the most effective treatment for psoriasis, although they don’t work well for absolutely everyone. New technological advances mean that the present laser treatment is safe, targeting only areas affected by this often unsightly and embarrassing condition.

Using Lasers on Brown Spots

It’s important to have a dermatologist determine what exactly your brown spot is before any treatment can be carried out. After all, you don’t want a med spa technician lasering off a potentially dangerous melanoma, do you?

Lasers to Reduce Acne Scars

Several laser treatments work well on acne scars, but not all scars respond positively to lasers. See your dermatologist to determine is the type of scarring you have is a good candidate for this type of treatment.

What is a Medial Facial?

A facial works best when it is designed for your own special skin type. These doctor-designed facials are made for specific types of skin, so there are almost always excellent results, whether you have older skin, rosacea or melasma.

What are Seborrheic Keratoses?

These raised or flat pigmented spots occur often with age, and although they may look unsightly, they are completely harmless. Various treatment options are available, such as freezing them off with liquid nitrogen.

Treatment for Melasma

Often referred to as the mask of pregnancy, this skin condition usually appears on the face of women with darker skin. But hormones don’t always play a role in who gets it.

Getting Rid of Dark Under Eye Circles

Many treatments don’t eliminate under eye circles. It all depends on why the circles appeared in the first place. Giving hollows under the eyes more volume with an injectable filler works the best, but that’s only appropriate for some people, as this article points out.

Getting Rid of Razor Bumps

People with thick coarse hair, both men and women, are usually more prone to getting unsightly razor bumps than other people. Laser treatment can stop the problem entirely, and many people find it almost completely painless.

Dealing With Male Pattern Baldness

Several treatments are available to “cure” this distressing cosmetic problem. Some are topical, others require taking a pill everyday. They usually have little or no side effects, and the majority of people see an improvement. However, how your hair is thinning may determine how well the treatment will work.

Treatment for Excessive Sweating

Few people realize that prescription antiperspirants can work wonders on excessive underarm sweating. For hands and feet that sweat, you have a variety of options, such as pills and injections of BOTOX, which blocks the chemical transmitters which cause us to sweat in the first place.

The Benefits of Beetle Juice

Thousands of children every year get Molluscum contagiosum, a wart-like virus which can be distressing for them as well as for their parents. Interestingly, the juice of the Blister beetle seems to be the best cure!

Treatment for Cold Sores

Oral pills can reduce the severity of cold sores on the mouth and face, and can make life much more bearable for the sufferer who has them. Some pills taken at the first tingle can also help prevent outbreaks, or at least lessen their severity.

How to Treat Genital Warts

Caused by the Human papillomavirus, or HPV, these warts can cause cervical cancer in women if left untreated. Yet they can be cured through destructive techniques, which usually involve freezing or burning them off. Make sure your partner is treated as well.

Is There a Cure for Toenail Fungus?

Yes! Although toenail fungus is a challenge to treat, it is possible to make thick, yellowing toenails a thing of the past. The problem is that reinfection so easily occurs. Learn what the treatment involves, and what steps to take to stop reinfection – as much as possible.

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1. Myth: Spending money on cosmetic procedures is a luxury. Determining a budget you’re comfortable with and finding a dermatologist who presents you with all the possible choices for you is a much more effective way to yield better results than avoiding maintaining your appearance altogether. So many treatment options easily fall within any budget that it is important to not let yourself go. Smaller dermatological procedures such as Botox, chemical peels or Photofacials keep your skin looking vibrant without drying out your bank account.

2. Myth: I can’t afford cosmetic procedures. With so many options for cosmetic procedures from lasers to fillers to Botox, fitting a procedure within your budget is feasible. There are always alternatives. It is just a matter of finding a doctor whom you trust and who will go over every option with you. For example, if you cannot afford laser resurfacing for acne scars, you can always opt for Photofacials, a series of three treatments which will run you less than $1,500. Or, if you cannot afford laser acne treatments, find a dermatologist who will prescribe you acne medication that will cost less than $100 a month.

If you still feel that you cannot afford a procedure, another moneysaving idea is to ask offices and drug manufacturers about ongoing promotions and rebates. A lot of dermatologists offer more incentives than people take advantage of, especially around holidays when many offices package treatments at a discount.  Competition between suppliers is also another way that patients benefit. Both dermatologist offices and drug manufacturers want your business and will offer discounts to assure that you will choose them.

3. Myth:The skincare products that dermatologists sell are too expensive. A dermatologist’s office which carries medical-grade skincare lines offers alternatives to department or drugstore products. These products are almost always less expensive than their department-store counterparts and are packed with effective, clinically proven ingredients. The office’s skincare consultant can help you select the items that will be most beneficial for you so that don’t waste time and money testing products.

In the end, it is all about knowing your options and being an educated consumer. Still, Dr. Rubinstein warns that nothing works better than taking preventative measures to protect your skin. He argues that it is much more expensive to treat cosmetic problems once your skin becomes more deteriorated. For anyone looking to cut corners, it may seem logical that if you space out your injection and filler appointments, in the end you will save money. However, cautions Dr. Rubinstein, that’s not always the case. In fact, by prolonging your treatments, you actually may spend more money. By skipping your appointments for a few consecutive months, it is likely that once you do get in the doctor’s chair, you’ll need more help than you originally anticipated.

The information in the article is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your healthcare provider. We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with an appropriate healthcare provider.

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Seborrheic keratoses are benign warty growths that occur more frequently as you get older. They are not dangerous, just unsightly, and they are common. They look different from other types of skin lesions because they have a pasted-on appearance, although they can be either flat or raised.

Often people come in to see a dermatologist because their seborrheic keratoses are brown and pigmented and changing. But if they are actually seborrheic keratoses, they are always benign, people just do not realize that they are not melanomas.

Treatment Options

If you have one or two, you can freeze them off like a wart or sometimes shave them off, although this can leave some scarring, often a tiny white spot. If you have hundreds of them, the treatments options are limited. You can treat some of the big ones, but it is impractical to treat people who are covered in them.

You can burn anything off with a laser, but that’s not an inefficient way to treat them. It’s considered maybe too destructive to use a laser on seborrheic keratoses, so that’s not really done either. It would have to be a CO2 or a resurfacing laser. We don’t do it as it does not seem to be an efficient way to get rid of them. It’s more efficient to freeze them, which is more simple and less expensive.

Causes

Researchers have discovered some findings as to why people get seborrheic keratoses, although the exact cause is still unclear. There appears to be a genetic link, and some people are predisposed to get many of them. Some studies suggest that excess sun exposure may play a role, although they appear on both areas of the body that have and have not been exposed to the sun. Often they appear during pregnancy or as a result of estrogen therapy.

If you have several or many seborrheic keratoses, you may consider seeing your dermatologist to discuss treatment options. However, as they are completely harmless, you may want to leave them alone. Treatment is not really necessary, although some people find they itch, and others just don’t like their cosmetic appearance.

The information in the article is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your healthcare provider. We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with an appropriate healthcare provider.

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Psoriasis is a common skin disease that usually strikes between ages 15 to 35, but can appear at any time. It occurs when the skin’s cells regenerate too quickly and build up on the surface of the skin, creating red flaky lesions on various parts of the head, face and body. Some people are covered in these patches, some people have such a mild case of psoriasis they hardly know they have it.

We have always known that people who have psoriasis have some sort of defect in the immune system in the skin, which is why we use treatments that calm down or laser the immune system, like UV light or cortisone creams. UV light used to mean just getting the sun. Then as medicine progressed we put psoriasis patients in light boxes. The next generation of treatment was a narrow band UV with only one or two wavelengths instead of the whole band of UV. Now we prefer to use lasers.

Concentrated Sunlight

By definition, a laser is one specific wavelength of light, not a spectrum. The ones we use for psoriasis are 311 nanometers. There are several of these lasers. In this case, it is like concentrated sunlight, given in a small space at much higher energy.

The nice thing about lasers is that they are an alternative to creams, injections or pills. The disadvantage is that lasers are small, which means you cannot treat someone who has their entire body covered in patches of psoriasis, as you would be there all day.

Less of a Dose

Every treatment, of course, has its own side effects. The sun could increase your risk of skin cancer or accelerate the aging process. The nice thing about the laser is that you are only treating the psoriasis plaques. So in contrast to standing in a light box, you are sparing the normal skin and getting less of a dose. In effect, you are only exposing the specific plaques to the side effects, not the whole skin.

Laser treatment for psoriasis is only appropriate for specific situations, however. It is not practical for large areas as it is a little time-consuming. And it requires more than just one treatment so often patients will be coming in two or three times a week for a few weeks.

Also, laser treatment is like every treatment: Some people respond dramatically and some do not respond well at all. You don’t know ahead of time who will respond and who will not. But it’s a nice option as people with stubborn psoriasis who do not respond to some things do respond to lasers.

The information in the article is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your healthcare provider. We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with an appropriate healthcare provider.

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Going to your dermatologist on a regular basis to stay healthy is just a matter of getting a baseline skin exam. You get undressed, the dermatologist examines your skin and looks at your moles. It’s quick, it’s easy, and there’s no need to feel embarrassed.

People have skin exams for a variety of reasons. They include:

• Suspicious-looking moles, growths or any type of skin lesions
• Early signs of skin cancer, such as a new growth, a change in a mole, or a sore or irritation that refuses to heal
• Fifty or more moles around the face and body
• Family history of skin cancer
• Previous personal history of skin cancer

Based on what kind of sun damage you’ve had in the past, your family history and what moles you have, the dermatologist will then come up with a plan in terms of monitoring your skin. That will be once a year or several times a year, depending on those factors.

Whenever the dermatologist sees something suspicious, he or see will either magnify it and look at it closer, or take a piece off and send it to the lab. That will give the patients complete peace of mind to know that everything on their body is safe – or will be treated appropriately.

Not Wasting Doctor’s Time

Nobody should be made to feel inferior or embarrassed to see their dermatologist, and you should never think asking about something that worries you is silly.

The best advice I can give is to follow the rule of thumb that something that is there for more than a month should be looked at by a professional. If you have a mole or something suspicious for just three days, don’t run to your dermatologist. Wait and see if it goes away within a month, and if it doesn’t, then make an immediate appointment.

Most doctors would rather see it and tell you it’s nothing, than have you neglect it and have something that could have been treated early. After all, it only takes two seconds for us look at it, as we are trained to spot anything suspicious right away. And it could save you a lot of trouble down the road.

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All kinds of myths are out there about liposuction procedures. But, in general, I would say the following are three of the biggest myths that people hear that are completely untrue.

1. Myth: The post-operative recovery will be completely pain-free. People expect liposuction to be completely painless, but of course that can’t be the real case. If we as doctors could figure out or come up with a real cosmetic procedure that would deliver the kinds of results that patients want and also be completely painless—well if I could discover that then I would be a gazillionaire and own my own island. Of course, it is just not feasible.

   Now, patients know that we have done everything we can do to optimize the liposuction procedure and make it the least painful as possible. And I think we have done a really great job of that. Here at OKC Lipo, I am judging from our patient comments, and people think we have done a really great job of making the liposuction procedure as pain-free as possible.

   But at the end of the day, any type of procedure that you perform is going to have a little bit of sting to it. Whether you are having a breast augmentation, or liposuction, or your gall bladder taken out—everything is going to have a little bit of pain to it, that is just a part of life when it comes to medical procedures.

2. Myth: You have to be put completely asleep to have liposuction done. There is this longstanding myth that patients have to be completely put out under anesthesia to have liposuction done, and that is completely untrue. Here at OKC Lipo, I do liposuction without an IV. Instead, I do our procedures completely under a local anesthetic. And what my patients have found out is that the recovery process is like night and day when compared to having to go through general anesthetic and having to be put under all those drugs that make you feel like you have been drunk for two days.

   Going under just a local anesthetic instead makes it possible for me, as the doctor, to talk with patients during the procedure and really make them feel as comfortable as possible. So that whole idea that a patient must be put all the way asleep during a liposuction is just completely untrue, which is why it’s a myth.

3. Myth: Liposuction isn’t safe. This is certainly a myth that is completely false. Liposuction is definitely safe for patients, without a doubt. As a physician, the biggest thing in terms of safety that I handle is picking the right patients. You don’t want to choose risky patients who are not going to be stable, medically speaking.

So when I choose to do a procedure on a patient, he or she can feel confident that it’s because he is a good candidate and everything is going to go really well. And certainly with the way we handle anesthesia here at OKC Lipo, undergoing liposuction is a safe, and definitely effective, procedure.

Overall, many myths are out there about liposuction and other cosmetic procedures that just aren’t true. For the best chances of sorting through the myths and finding the facts, anyone who is interested in undergoing a procedure should contact a qualified physician in his area and schedule a consultation.

The information in the article is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your healthcare provider. We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with an appropriate healthcare provider.

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One of the pretty fun procedures we are offering to patients now—which falls into the realm of liposuction, believe it or not—is called the Brazilian Butt Lift. Now, the name can actually be a little misleading to some, because we are actually using this technology not only to just plump up our patients’ backsides, but in some cases also to give them additional cup size in their breasts, as well.

So the Brazilian Butt Lift is a cool thing that we are using to help a lot of patients achieve their desired look. Essentially how it works is that I work with a patient to find an area on his or her body where we can suck out the fat. So once I get that fat out of the body, we will clean the fat and reconstitute it. And after doing that, we will turn around and inject that same fat into the area of concern for a patient—usually either the buttocks or the breasts.

I have been seeing an increasing number of patients, especially Latina women, coming in and asking to have their booties look more like Jennifer Lopez’s butt, and this is a great way for them to achieve that effect.

As far as the breast augmentations are concerned, this is a really cool treatment for that, as well. In fact, I just did a breast augmentation using this same technique the other day. What we call it when we are working on the breasts is usually a Natural Breast Augmentation. But, the technique of taking out the fat, cleaning it, and injecting it in a new area is essentially the same.

Whether it is the breasts that are being made bigger—and, in general, we can increase a woman’s breast sizes by up to a cup size using this technique—or simply making a woman’s backside look larger and rounder, we are using this new procedure to give a lot of women some pretty great results. Plus, it’s something that a lot of people haven’t quite caught on to yet as the momentum is still building.

In addition, a lot of women really appreciate this as an option for their breasts specifically because they are able to increase their size without inserting any foreign objects in their body. The fat that we are using is coming straight out of another area in their own body, so there is none of that concern about having an implant put in your breasts and worrying about something going wrong. No foreign objects are involved in either the breast augmentation or the butt lift.

The only drawback to this procedure that I do have to caution patients about is that many times not all of the fat will survive. What that means is that only about 30% of the fat that we inject in the new area will survive and stay in that area, and you can never really tell exactly where the fat will or won’t survive beforehand. So what some patients may need to end up doing is coming back into the office for a follow-up appointment to level that out. And, once again, that is something that we always speak to patients about during their initial consultation, just to make sure that they are completely aware of any potential issues with the procedure before going forward.

So basically, I really think a lot of people are enjoying this Brazilian Butt Life—along with the Natural Breast Augmentation—because it is a permanent solution that is going to add significant volume to their breasts or buttocks without inserting any foreign objects or implants. And for a lot of people, being able to get these results from such a simple procedure is something they are really enjoying and telling their friends about.

The information in the article is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your healthcare provider. We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with an appropriate healthcare provider.

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The broadest definition of cosmetic dermatology is the study of procedures and products that will make you look better, or make your skin look better. It is a specialized branch of dermatology that is concerned with maintaining, improving or restoring your appearance, and can apply to everything from the face to the neck to the feet – and everything in between.

Several main categories, or types of procedures, fall under the category of cosmetic dermatology, and my main interest as far as cosmetic dermatology is concerned would be the first three. The four are:

• Lasers: When it comes to lasers, the biggest procedure is probably hair removal. It’s the most popular as everyone has hair, and a lot of people have hair they don’t want. Another popular laser technique is what we call laser resurfacing, or laser peels, which are used to treat sun damage or wrinkles. Then we also have lasers that target specific things, such as getting rid of spider veins, attacking redness and age spots, and treating acne scars. Those are all things which fall under the guise of cosmetic laser dermatology.
• Injectables: Relaxers make up the first main category, such as BOTOX and Dysport. They are mainly used for the upper half of the face, for what we call dynamic wrinkles such as frown and smile lines which are caused from movement. BOTOX is probably still the most popular today, which we administer in our office.
• Fillers: Fillers are used for the lower half of the face, treating lines caused by volume loss. Examples would be your nasolabial folds, lines which go from your nose to the corners of your mouth, or your marionette lines, lines which appear from your lips down to the chin. Major players in the filler category are Restylane and Juvederm, but they are always coming out with new stuff in the fillers category, there are new fillers coming out almost every month. Next year we may have five more for all we know.
• Cosmeceuticals: These are largely something in between a cosmetic and a pharmaceutical, like Provage, La Mer and Vectin, all of which are anti-aging creams. A lot are sold over the counter and some are available only by prescription.

Cosmetic dermatology does not concern itself with life-threatening diseases such as skin cancer, but it can be important for those who have issues with the way they look. Visit only a board-certified dermatologist and you can’t go wrong.

For example, a lot of people try to give BOTOX these days; some people tell me their dentist even does it. But it’s better to have it done by a dermatologist. Being trained as a dermatologist you are taught to understand the anatomy of the face, and you often have to cut out things from the face such as skin cancer, so you are familiar with that.

Dermatologists are already trained to do other injectables, so BOTOX is sort of a natural extension of that. In fact, it was actually a dermatologist who discovered the cosmetic use for BOTOX, which illustrates how familiar we are with what we do.

The information in the article is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your healthcare provider. We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with an appropriate healthcare provider.

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Medical dermatology concerns any problem or condition of the skin that is not purely cosmetic. That means there is a dysfunction in the skin, either in its function or appearance. Examples of medical dermatology include psoriasis, eczema, warts, acne and skin cancer. Those are the most common diagnoses that fall under this rubric, which we see often in our practice.

Some of the other things that fall under the heading of medical dermatology, or are common, are sexually transmitted diseases such as herpes and genital warts. This is because all these types of STDs affect the skin, so this category is broad.

We also see a lot of infections which give you skin diseases, such as folliculitis, which is an infection of the hair follicles. It looks like pimples or pustules on the skin, and people often get it on their rear ends or thighs, which happens when they are spending a lot of time sitting or sweating. Boils are also a infection that affects the skin; they are just sort of a deeper version of the pimples or pustules.

Dermatological Specialty vs General Doctor

People with STDs often prefer to see dermatologists because they are specialists in the field as far as skin conditions are concerned. They are set up to treat warts in general, and that would include genital warts. In our office, we have medicine we use for that such as liquid nitrogen, and we have other specialist instruments on hand which a regular general doctor may not have.

Another benefit of a dermatologist is that we can usually diagnose these things as we see them frequently, without having to do special tests. It falls under our specialty. We have learned about it, and it is part of our expertise. A general doctor might know a little about a specific skin condition, for example, but will not have any specific intimate knowledge about it.

If you have something wrong with your skin, it often saves time to go straight to a specialist. I often see patients who wasted a few days or weeks treating something incorrectly, something a regular doctor might only see once a year. We see it every day, which is why it is usually more efficient to see somebody whose specialty is dermatology.

Get Someone Board-Certified

When looking for a good dermatologist, you can always go to the American Academy of Dermatology website. They have a dermatologist finder according to area, and everyone who is on that website is a board-certified dermatologist. I would recommend seeing someone who is board-certified only. Otherwise there are people who say they are dermatologists but are really medical doctors in the broadest sense of the word, even though they have not actually done a residency in dermatology.

In Florida, where Minars Dermatology is located, they just passed a law saying that someone cannot use the term “dermatologist” without having been accredited with one of the major boards. That new law means you are getting someone who is specifically trained in the field, who will treat you using the best techniques and drawing on specific knowledge of the profession.

The information in the article is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your healthcare provider. We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with an appropriate healthcare provider.

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