COSMETIC DERMATOLOGY
Age Spots
Are blemishes on the skin associated with aging and exposure to ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Age spots are flat brown, gray, or black spots on the skin. They usually occur on sun-exposed areas. Age spots are also called liver spots, senile lentigo, solar lentigines, or sun spots.
Typical Features
They range in color from light brown to red or black and are located in areas most often exposed to the sun, particularly the hands, face, shoulders, arms and forehead, and the scalp if bald., age spots change in color and in shape with time.
Treatment
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Laser and intense pulsed light. Some laser and intense pulsed light therapies destroy melanin-producing cells (melanocytes) without damaging the skin's surface. These approaches typically require two to three sessions. Wounding (ablative) lasers remove the top layer of skin (epidermis). There are a variety of laser options that can be used to treat age spots and brown spots depending on the patient’s condition and skin type.
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Freezing (cryotherapy). This procedure treats the spot by using a cotton-tipped swab to apply liquid nitrogen for five seconds or less. This destroys the extra pigment. As the area heals, the skin appears lighter. Spray freezing may be used on a small grouping of spots. The treatment may temporarily irritate the skin and poses a slight risk of permanent scarring or discoloration.
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Dermabrasion. Dermabrasion sands down the surface layer of skin with a rapidly rotating brush. New skin grows in its place. You may need to undergo the procedure more than once. Possible side effects include temporary redness, scabbing and swelling. It may take several months for pinkness to fade.
Thread Lift/Facelifting
Thread lift is a cosmetic procedure that offers a minimally invasive alternative to facelift surgery.
Thread lifts claim to tighten your skin by inserting medical-grade thread material into your face and then “pulling” your skin up by tightening the thread.
Also called a barbed suture lift, it aims to lift and sculpt the shape of your face or breasts. Thread lifts use temporary, medical-grade suture material to “stitch-up” your skin so that it’s drawn taut.
A thread lift works in two ways. Your doctor first places temporary stitches under your skin to pull it back or up. This gives the area a tighter appearance. The threads are textured filaments that grab the underside of your skin to hold it in a new position. These threads instantly give your face a lifted look.
The second thing the threads do is stimulate your natural healing response. Your body will treat the threads like an injury and make more collagen where the threads are. Collagen is the protein in your skin that makes it look full and plump. You lose it as you age, which leads to wrinkles and sagging.
It takes a few months for the full effects of the collagen boost to be noticeable. The initial tightening from the threads will help your skin look younger. The improvements will continue as your skin makes more collagen. The threads will dissolve under your skin after about 6 months.
Some people have longer effects thanks to the extra collagen that their skin produces after the lift.
Talk to a doctor if you are considering a thread lift. They will be able to discuss your goals and whether it’s the right treatment for you.
Botox
Cosmetic applications, botulinum toxin is considered safe and effective for reduction of facial wrinkles, especially in the uppermost third of the face.
It generally takes 7 to 14 days to take full effect. It’s best to avoid alcohol starting at least 1 week before the procedure. You should also stop taking aspirin and anti-inflammatory medications 2 weeks before treatment to help prevent bruising.
Avoid rubbing the injection site for 24 hours so you don’t spread the Botox to another area. Your doctor may also tell you to stay upright for 4 hours after the shots and to take a day off from exercising.
The effects from Botox will last 3 to 6 months. As muscle action slowly returns, the lines and wrinkles begin to reappear and need to be treated again. The lines and wrinkles often appear less severe with time because the muscles are shrinking.
Cellulite
Cellulite is the herniation of subcutaneous fat within fibrous connective tissue that manifests as skin dimpling and nodularity, often on the pelvic region (specifically the buttocks), lower limbs, and abdomen. Cellulite occurs in most postpubescent females.
Typical Features
The causes of cellulite include changes in metabolism, physiology, diet and exercise habits, obesity, sex-specific dimorphic skin architecture, alteration of connective tissue structure, hormonal factors, genetic factors, the microcirculatory system, the extracellular matrix, and subtle inflammatory alterations.
Treatment
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Laser and radiofrequency treatments. Various wounding (ablative) laser treatments are available to treat cellulite. In one method, a thin fiber is slipped under the skin to deliver laser heat that destroys the fibrous bands binding fat. This approach has shown to reduce the appearance of cellulite for six months to a year.
There's also a device that uses heat (radiofrequency) for nonablative treatment that improves how the skin looks. You'll likely need several sessions before you notice an improvement in the appearance of your skin. Nonablative treatments typically need to be repeated more often than do ablative treatments.
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Cryolipolysis. With cryolipolysis (CoolSculpting), fat below the skin is reduced with a device that uses vacuum suction to raise tissue into contact with cooling plates. You'll need multiple treatments. Results appear gradually over two to three months.
Chemical Peel
A chemical peel is a procedure in which a chemical solution is applied to the skin to remove the top layers. The skin that grows back is smoother. With a light or medium peel, you may need to undergo the procedure more than once to get the desired results.
Chemical peels are used to treat wrinkles, discolored skin and scars — usually on the face. They can be done alone or combined with other cosmetic procedures. And they can be done at different depths, from light to deep. Deeper chemical peels offer more-dramatic results but also take longer to recover from.
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A chemical peel is a skin-resurfacing procedure. Depending on the issues you're addressing with the procedure
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A chemical peel is usually done at an office or in an outpatient surgical facility. Before the procedure, your doctor will clean your face, protect your hair, and cover your eyes with ointment, gauze, tape or goggles.
After a chemical peel of any depth, your skin will be red, tight, irritated or swollen. Follow your doctor's directions for sun protection, cleansing, moisturizing and applying protective ointments to your skin. And avoid picking, rubbing or scratching your skin. It may take several months before your skin color returns to normal and you can see the full results of the peel.
Fillers
Is a soft tissue filler injected into the skin at different depths to help fill in facial wrinkles, provide facial volume, and augment facial features: restoring a smoother appearance. Most of these wrinkle fillers are temporary because they are eventually absorbed by the body.
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Different types of dermal fillers are designed to treat varying signs of aging. Depending on the filler selected, they may:
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plump up thinning lips
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enhance or fill in shallow areas on the face
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decrease or remove the shadow or wrinkle under the eyes caused by the lower eyelid
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fill in or soften the look of recessed scars
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fill in or soften static wrinkles, especially on the lower face
Static wrinkles include those around the mouth and along the cheeks. These wrinkles are usually a result of a loss of collagen and elasticity in the skin.
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Filler procedures are performed each year, and they have a good track record of safety.
Laser Skin Tightening
Laser skin tightening is a minimally invasive, non-surgical process that uses an infrared light source (a laser) to tighten skin by heating the collagen under the skin’s surface, causing the skin to contract (tighten). Facial skin tightening is noticeable immediately after the treatment, and there is no downtime.
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Laser resurfacing is done by a plastic surgeon or dermatologist. It's an outpatient procedure, meaning you'll not have to stay overnight.
The doctor may treat wrinkles around your eyes, mouth, or forehead individually or treat your entire face. For small areas, the doctor will numb the areas to be treated with a local anesthetic and may also sedate you. You may require general anesthesia if your whole face is being treated.
Treating just parts of the face takes about 30 to 45 minutes. A full-face treatment takes up to two hours.
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Following the laser procedure, the doctor will bandage the treated areas. After 24 hours, you will need to clean the treated areas four to five times a day and then apply an ointment such as petroleum jelly to prevent scabs from forming.
Swelling after laser skin resurfacing is normal. Your doctor may prescribe steroids to manage swelling around your eyes. Sleeping on an extra pillow at night can also ease swelling.
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Melasma
Typical Features
Is a tan or dark skin discoloration. Melasma is thought to be caused by sun exposure, genetic predisposition, hormone changes, and skin irritation.
Melasma are dark, irregular, well-demarcated, hyperpigmented macules to patches. These patches often develop gradually over time. Melasma does not cause any other symptoms beyond the cosmetic discoloration.
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Treatment
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Chemical peel: In this procedure, your dermatologist will put a chemical on your skin that may make it peel. The skin that regenerates should be smoother and more evenly colored.
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Light-based procedures like intense pulsed light, non-ablative fractionated lasers and low fluence Q-switched lasers.
Mole Removal
Typical Features
Moles are a common type of skin growth. They often appear as small, dark brown spots and are caused by clusters of pigmented cells.
Benign moles are usually brown, tan, pink or black (especially on dark-colored skin). They are circular or oval and are usually small (commonly between 1–3 mm), though some can be larger than the size of a typical pencil eraser (>5 mm). Some moles produce dark, coarse hair. Moles generally appear during childhood and adolescence. Most people have 10 to 40 moles, some of which may change in appearance or fade away over time.
Treatment
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Laser Treatment
It is noninvasive. Because there is no cutting or burning of the skin, the risk of infection is significantly reduced.
Lasers are also able to reach areas of the body such as the face or nose that may be difficult to treat using other methods. Lastly, multiple moles can be treated during one session.
Results are acceptable even for those who wish to remove moles on visible parts of the body such as on the face or in the neck area. This pulsing action prevents heat damage to the skin and minimizes the risk of scarring. Laser treatment for mole removal usually gives great cosmetic results
Platelet Rich Plasma Therapy
Treatment
Platelets, also called thrombocytes, are blood cells that cause blood clots and other necessary growth healing functions. Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy uses injections of a concentration of a patient’s own platelets to accelerate the healing of injured tendons, ligaments, muscles and joints. In this way, PRP injections use each individual patient's own healing system to improve musculoskeletal problems.
Hair Loss
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PRP injections can be effective in treating male pattern baldness, both in preventing hair loss and promoting new hair growth. PRP can also aid in the stimulation of hair growth after hair transplants.
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Skin Rejuvenation
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PRP injections are sometimes used as an anti-aging treatment, but there is little evidence to show that PRP reduces wrinkles and other signs of aging.
Scars Removal
Treatment
A scar is an area of fibrous tissue that replaces normal skin after an injury. every wound (e.g., after accident, disease, or surgery) results in some degree of scarring.
Laser treatment
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Ablative lasers such as the carbon dioxide laser (CO2) or Er:YAG offer the best results for atrophic and acne scars. Like dermabrasion, ablative lasers work by destroying the dermis to a certain depth. Healing times for ablative therapy are much longer and the risk profile is greater compared to nonablative therapy; however, nonablative therapy offers only minor improvements in cosmetic appearance of atrophic and acne scars. Combination laser therapy and microneedling may offer superior results to single modality treatment. The biggest recent advance in scar management is the use of fractionated CO2 laser and immediate application of topical steroid Triamcinolone.
Skin Discoloration
Discolored skin patches are irregular areas where there are changes in skin color. They are a common problem with a wide array of potential causes.
Some of the more common causes for changes in skin color are illness, injury, and inflammatory problems.
Discolored skin patches also commonly develop in a certain part of the body due to a difference in melanin levels. Melanin is the substance that provides color to the skin and protects it from the sun. When there is an overproduction of melanin in a given area, it can result in skin discoloration there.
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Discolored skin patches have many different causes, including:
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birthmarks
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skin pigmentation disorders
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skin rashes
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skin infections
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medical conditions
Treatment
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Laser therapy: Intense pulsed light devices and Q-switched lasers are commonly used to help lighten skin areas that have darkened.
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Topical creams: Topical hydroquinone or prescription retinol (vitamin A) cream may help decrease the appearance of dark skin patches.
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Chemical peels: Chemical peels containing salicylic acid and glycolic acid can be used to remove the outer, discolored layer of skin.
BB Facial Glow
BB Facial Glow is a non-surgical procedure that is minimally invasive. A highly effective tinted pigment is applied by using a nano-needle or microneedle to probe the skin. It braces skin rejuvenation and collagen production. The BB glow serum adds nutrients meanwhile adding your desired colour tone to your skin.
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How BB Glow Works
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BB Glow combines a powerful tinted serum with microneedling .The microneedles penetrate the layers of the skin infusing the BB Glow serum adding nutrients and most importantly the colour tint required. The skin subsequently becomes stimulated thereby naturally producing an increased amount of collagen, elastin and hyaluronic acid resulting in skin rejuvenation.
Skin Tag Removal
Typical Features
It's a small benign tumor that forms primarily in areas where the skin forms creases (or rubs together), such as the neck, armpit and groin. They may also occur on the face, usually on the eyelids.
Tags up half an inch (12.7 mm) long have been seen, they are typically the size of a grain of rice. The surface of an acrochordon may be smooth or irregular in appearance and is often raised from the surface of the skin on a fleshy stalk called a peduncle.
Treatment
Laser treatment – This skin tag removal treatment involves the precise use of laser technology to destroy the skin tag from its base without harming the surrounding skin
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Cryosurgery – Cryosurgery is a method to freeze the skin tag by using liquid nitrogen. This treatment stops it from growing, and the skin tag sheds off on its own eventually.
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Excision – Excision is a small surgical procedure that involves the removal of skin tags using a scalpel or surgical scissors. The doctor will snip the skin at the base of a skin tag with a sharp, sterile scissor. If a skin tag is small, you will hardly feel anything. For larger ones, the doctor might use local anaesthesia or numbing medication. Your doctor may apply sutures if needed depending on the size of the skin tag.
Stretch Marks
A stretch mark is a type of scar that develops when our skin stretches or shrinks quickly. The abrupt change causes the collagen and elastin, which support our skin, to rupture. As the skin heals, stretch marks may appear.
Not everyone develops these narrow bands on their skin. Fluctuating hormone levels seem to play a role. You may also have a higher risk if people in your family get stretch marks.
Treatment
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Light and laser therapies. A variety of light and laser therapies are available that might stimulate growth of collagen or promote elasticity. Your doctor can help you determine which technique is appropriate for you.
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Microneedling. This type of treatment involves a hand-held device with tiny needles that stimulate collagen growth. This technique has less risk of pigmentation changes than does laser therapy so is the preferred initial approach for people with skin of color.
Tattoo Removal
Tattoo removal is a procedure done to try to remove an unwanted tattoo.
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Lasers remove tattoos by breaking up the pigment colors with a high-intensity light beam. Black tattoo pigment absorbs all laser wavelengths, making it the easiest color to treat. Other colors can only be treated by selected lasers based upon the pigment color.
You should first schedule a consultation with a trained professional who can evaluate your tattoo and advise you on the process. The number of treatments you will need will depend on the age, size, and color(s) of your tattoo. The color of your skin, as well as how deep the tattoo pigment goes, will also affect the removal technique.
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During a laser tattoo removal session:
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You’ll be given a pair of protective eye shields.
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The technician will test your skin's reaction to the laser to determine the most effective energy for treatment.
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The technician uses the laser to pass pulses of intense light through the top layers of your skin that will be absorbed by the tattoo pigment only.
Smaller tattoos will require fewer pulses while larger ones will need more to remove them. In either case, to completely get rid of a tattoo, it will take several treatments. After each visit, your tattoo should become progressively lighter.
Laser tattoo removal is uncomfortable, but most patients don’t need anesthesia. Depending on the location of your tattoo, you may want to apply a topical anesthesia cream beforehand.
Immediately following the treatment, use an ice pack to soothe the treated area. And apply an antibiotic cream or ointment and bandage to protect it. You should also be sure it’s covered with sunblock when you’re outside.
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Laser Hair Removal
Lasers are useful for removing unwanted hair from the face, leg, chin, back, arm, underarm, bikini line, and other areas.
Benefits of laser hair removal include:
Precision. Lasers can selectively target dark, coarse hairs while leaving the surrounding skin undamaged.
Speed. Each pulse of the laser takes a fraction of a second and can treat many hairs at the same time. The laser can treat an area approximately the size of a quarter every second. Small areas such as the upper lip can be treated in less than a minute, and large areas, such as the back or legs, may take up to an hour.
Predictability- Most patients have permanent hair loss after an average of three to seven sessions
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For a day or two afterward, the treated area of your skin will look and feel like it's sunburned. Cool compresses and moisturizers may help. If your face was treated, you can wear makeup the next day unless your skin is blistering.
Over the next month, your treated hair will fall out. Wear sunscreen for the following month to help prevent temporary changes in the color of the treated skin.
Vaginal Tightening
Estrogen deficiency leads to a variety of physical changes of the vulva, vagina and lower urinary tract. These can include vaginal dryness, burning, irritation, lack of lubrication, painful intercourse, as well as urinary symptoms of urgency, painful urination and urinary tract infections. Vaginal discomfort and urinary incontinence can also occur in pre-menopause and after childbirth.
These symptoms are chronic in nature and may worsen with time jeopardizing sexual function and the quality of life. Local estrogen treatment may be effective to treat vaginal changes, however, the data on its safety, particularly in women with a personal history of estrogen-dependent tumors, is lacking.
Laser rejuvenation has been shown to be effective and safe in treating the troublesome vaginal and urinary conditions of menopause, increasing sexual function and improving the quality of life.
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Procedure
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The CO2 fractional laser gently and painlessly acts on the vaginal walls through a special scanner. This action creates indistinguishable micro-lesions that are required for the production of new collagen which reorganizes and re-equilibrates the components of the vaginal mucosa and the urogenital structures.
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Results
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A tissue regeneration process lasting numerous weeks is triggered with each laser treatment. Significant improvements can be seen even after the first treatment: the vaginal mucosa becomes more nourished and hydrated and the epithelium becomes thicker, more toned and elastic. The correct vaginal pH becomes re-established, which helps maintain its natural protective barrier and reduces the risk of infection. Enhanced vaginal tissues at the urethral opening may reduce problems with incontinence and improve sexual function. However, laser rejuvenation in itself cannot guarantee a heightened sexual response, since desire, arousal and orgasm are complex, highly personal responses.
GFC Therapy for Hair Loss
Alopecia or Hair Loss is common with increasing age can affect both men and women. Many factors contribute to this including hormonal imbalance, stress, nutritional deficiency, genetic conditions etc.
The current standard of treatment consists of oral or topical medications. Medication is required for an indefinite period, and effectiveness is limited by patient adherence and frequent side effects. Surgeries such as hair transplantation are generally reserved for refractory patients. Due to the varying efficacy and safety profiles of the present treatment modalities, there remains the need for additional treatments promoting hair regrowth. Growth factor concentrate or GFC is a highly concentrated growth factor preparation engineered from person’s own blood for superior results in hair loss and facial rejuvenation treatment.
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Prior to hair transplantation for growth of hair –
– GFC therapy can be used into scalp of patients prior to hair transplantation, which provide nourishment to hair follicles & stimulate Hair-cell proliferation
– It improves thickness of hair in donor as well as recipient area of scalp
– At least 2 sittings prior to hair transplantation are required for optimal results
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