What Is Cosmetic Dermatology?

Each of us knows there are doctors we see for different things. You go to an ophthalmologist for your eyes, an OB/GYN for yearly checkups or if you’re pregnant, and your general practitioner if you’ve got a sore throat. You probably know to head to your dermatologist if you have an unusual mole or another skin issue, but what about when you have aging concerns you want to be addressed? Call North Dallas Dermatology Associates in Dallas, TX and find out about cosmetic dermatology.

What Is a Dermatologist?

A dermatologist is a medical doctor who specializes in the conditions and diseases of the skin. They also treat diseases and conditions of the hair, nails, lips, and mouth. People will make appointments for the dermatologist to look at skin conditions like:

• Acne
• Rashes
• Cysts
• Warts
• Eczema
• Rosacea
• Skin lesions

It’s recommended everyone see a dermatologist once a year for a body scan to look for suspicious moles or skin lesions. They are the experts in skin cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Because there is a medical need to see these doctors, your insurance is likely to cover some or all of the treatments you receive. There are also several subspecialties within the dermatology division of medicine.

Dermatopathology

This medical doctor specializes in the cause of disease and the lab examination of samples of body tissue to diagnose.

Pediatric Dermatology

Pediatric dermatology deals with all the skin conditions that are unique to children and babies, plus hereditary diseases.

Cosmetic Dermatology

Perhaps the most sought after dermatologists are leaders in this field. Cosmetic dermatology deals with how to treat aesthetic concerns on the skin, like signs of aging. Most cosmetic dermatologists limit their practices to minimally invasive treatments to address areas of concern their patients may have like:

• Lines, wrinkles, and folds
• Sagging skin
• Lost facial volume
• Thinning lips
• Unwanted pockets of fat
• Uneven skin tone and texture
• Acne and acne scarring
• Sun damage
• Hyperpigmentation
• Varicose and spider vein treatment

They can address all of these issues and more while still being able to treat suspicious moles and other common dermatological issues. Cosmetic dermatology, on its own, is a branch of medicine for people who want certain aesthetic treatments but have no medical need. That being said, cosmetic dermatologists understand what an important role how you look plays in how you feel.

When to See a Cosmetic Dermatologist

If you look in the mirror and see imperfections in your skin like signs of aging or pockets of fat that are diet and exercise-resistant, a cosmetic dermatologist is the right person to call. A comprehensive cosmetic dermatology practice will offer an array of treatments and procedures to address all your areas of concern when you’re ready to tackle signs of aging but aren’t ready for more invasive procedures like surgery.

What Treatments Are Available at a Cosmetic Dermatology Office?

No two centers are the same, so you’ll want to do a bit of research to ensure that what you’re looking for is available at your dermatologist’s office. We’re breaking down what you can often find under the “cosmetic dermatology” umbrella.

Injectables

If you lump together all injectable treatments, they surpass all other minimally invasive cosmetic treatments combined. There are many reasons for their popularity. They offer quick appointment times, are comfortable, work quickly, and get results. They’re also relatively inexpensive when compared to other procedures patients can get from surgeons.

Botox

Botox is the most requested doctor-administered cosmetic treatment in the world. Botox belongs to a family of injectables called neuromodulators. Botox was approved by the FDA in 2002 for the temporary relaxation of the frown lines between the eyebrows, and after that, it was off to the races. Botox is made of a purified protein and is called a neuromodulator because, when injected into a muscle, it prevents communication between that muscle and its nerve.

The nerve’s signal to move is blocked from getting to the muscle, inhibiting its ability to move. This is important when we’re talking about dynamic wrinkles, or those wrinkles caused by movement.

Dynamic Wrinkles

When we make the same expression repeatedly for our whole lives, the skin on top of those muscles will look like a road map for the expressions we make. Using Botox prevents those muscles from moving, allowing the skin on top to smooth and the wrinkles to soften and even disappear. Botox is a great treatment for the temporary improvement in the appearance of:

• Frown lines
• Forehead wrinkles
• Crow’s feet
• Marionette lines

Since 2002, the cosmetic dermatology world has gotten very comfortable with Botox and has discovered revolutionary off-label uses for this injectable. Off-label means it hasn’t been cleared by the FDA but physicians are using their clinical judgment in application, deeming it safe and effective for certain uses.

Gummy Smile

If you show more of your gums when you smile than you’d like and are often unhappy with the look of smiling pictures of yourself, Botox can help. The same way this treatment can help relax the pull your muscles have on the skin on your face, it can relax the muscles that are over-pulling your smile.

With just a few precise injections, you’ll still be able to smile, but you’ll show your beautiful teeth and not too much of your gums. Botox can also upturn down-turned corners of the mouth. These can happen because of a mild down pull. Just a slight tweak and your whole expression can be opened up and make more vibrant.

Eyebrow Lift

One of the most amazing features of Botox is not just its ability to inhibit the movement of one muscle but to “activate” the opposite muscles. For instance, if you have drooping eyebrows, one of our doctors may relax the muscle that’s pulling the front and the tail of your eyebrow down.

When those muscles are relaxed, the muscles that pull the arch up are activated. This gives you the natural result of eyebrows with fluid movement that have lost their droopiness and now have a beautifully high and sculpted brow.

Chin Texture

Sometimes aging and repetitive movements in our chin can leave it with a dimpled look. A distinct line between our chin and the bottom of our lip can form. Both of these concerns can be addressed with Botox and the relaxation of a few muscles near your chin area. This has been known to soften the look of pre-jowls too, which may very well be one of the most dreaded signs of aging.

Lip Lines and Fullness

We know you probably think of dermal fillers when you think of lip fullness, but people are having a lot of success by having something called the Botox lip flip done. This works on your upper lip and relaxes the muscle that folds your top lip under. People are amazed at the amount of top lip that had always just been hiding against their teeth.

Strong lip lines can be softened by relaxing the muscles you use to make certain expressions. Many clients don’t realize how tightly they pull their facial muscles together until they see themselves do it in the mirror and realize their lines directly result from those expressions. We can loosen the tightness around your lips and soften those pesky lines.

Underarm Sweating

It’s natural for all of us to sweat, but if you suffer from hyperhidrosis, then you know how debilitating this kind of excessive sweating can be. People who suffer from this condition sweat during most waking hours, have to plan their wardrobe around managing their sweat, and find it fills their lives with a lot of anxiety about people’s perception of their sweat and odor.

If you’ve tried prescription antiperspirants and nothing has worked, Botox has been proven to reduce the symptoms of hyperhidrosis. It blocks the signal from the nerve telling the sweat gland to produce sweat. Most of our patients see up to an 82% reduction in the amount of sweat they produce.

Dermal Fillers

These are another popular treatment in any cosmetic dermatology practice. These injectables serve many functions depending on the filler being used. All results are transformative, and most are immediate. There are several types of filler available, and each performs a specific function. A popular family of fillers, Juvederm, are made from hyaluronic acid, a substance our bodies produce to keep our skin hydrated and healthy-looking.

Another filler, Radiesse, uses calcium hydroxyapatite microspheres that form a scaffold under the skin and cause your body to produce its own collagen. Once collagen is formed, the microspheres are naturally absorbed by the body.

Lines, Wrinkles, and Folds

When we age, we lose collagen production and areas under the surface of our skin weaken. What was once a smooth and strong surface isn’t packed as tightly together and allows for movement to compromise the collagen, allowing crevices to form. The surface of our skin falls into the crevices and we’re left with moderate-to-severe lines and folds.

When we inject the right filler into your area of concern, you’ll see an immediate plumping and inflating of the area. Because the ingredients are so natural, your results will be too. One benefit of going to a cosmetic dermatologist is how experienced and knowledgeable we are. We’ll never leave you looking “over-plumped”

Lip Enhancement

One of the most popular requests we get is to help our clients achieve the full and luscious lips they see on all the supermodels and celebrities. Here’s our little inside tip: most of those people weren’t born with those lips, either. When we inject certain fillers into your lips, the results will look and feel natural and pillowy. We can shape your mouth, so if you’ve always wanted the cupid’s bow at the top, we can do that.

We can turn the corners of your mouth up, which immediately gives you a younger, more positive aesthetic. We can eliminate vertical lip lines or smoker’s lines that make wearing lipstick so frustrating because the color bleeds onto the surrounding skin. We can ensure the edges of your lips are well defined and your color stays in place. We can make your results as subtle or dramatic as you’d like.

Asymmetry

If you’re dealing with areas of asymmetry on your face like one eye looking bigger than the other, an uneven nose, or even a crooked smile, you don’t need a facelift to address these issues. Using dermal fillers can even out crooked or imbalanced areas.

Lost Areas of Volume

As we age, the fat pads in the deepest layers of our skin aren’t held as tightly in place because we lose the strength of the collagen that kept them in place. Over time, the fat pads that gave us our young contours, like high cheekbones and rounded apples of our cheeks, slide downward, leaving those features flattened and even hollowed.

When these areas flatten, it gives us an overall tired and aged appearance. It happens so gradually that many people don’t know what’s changed: just that something has. We have dermal fillers specifically made to be injected deeper into the skin to build up volume for a natural-looking result.

Back of the Hands

We lose volume on the back of our hands, and if we’re not careful, this area can betray our age almost as quickly as our faces can. When we lose volume here, our bones and ligaments become very visible. Losing collagen means that our skin can become thinner, which makes our veins more apparent.

Couple these things with the fact that we wash our hands all the time and they may be drier than other parts of our body, and our hands can really do a number on our self-esteem. Several fillers are formulated for the back of the hands and work wonders to restore youthful plumpness and volume.

Kybella

Kybella is an injectable approved to eliminate unwanted submental fat, aka a double chin. Kybella is an injectable made from deoxycholic acid, a substance our bodies uses to break down dietary fat. When injected, it finds and destroys fat cells under the chin. The fat is naturally metabolized, and once the cells are dead, that’s it. They can’t come back.

Liquid Face Lift

With so many innovations being made to the cosmetic dermatology field all the time, there are more options than ever for patients who want transformative results without committing to the expense, risk or downtime of surgery. Ask us about what we call a liquid facelift. We can do things like:

• Nose shaping
• Eye area enhancement
• Jawline contouring
• Facial contouring

When you combine those things with our ability to fill in lines, wrinkles, and folds while eliminating dynamic wrinkles, it won’t outperform a facelift, but it can rival it for those not ready for that kind of procedure.

Call for Your Consultation

The first step for any of the treatments we’ve highlighted is to come in for a consultation. We know it’s difficult to face the aging process, but you don’t have to do it alone. Our staff of very talented and experienced dermatologists can identify the right solution for each of your areas of concern.

Call North Dallas Dermatology Associates in Dallas, TX for your consultation. We’re a full service and comprehensive dermatology office and can take care of all your skincare, anti-aging, and aesthetic concerns.