Location: Center for Excellence in Dermatology 8901 W. Gage Blvd. Kennewick, WA 99336
RSVP: 735-1100, ext. 114
Event highlights:
We’ll be giving away two door prizes, each for 20 free units of Botox® Cosmetic.To be eligible to win, you must RSVP in advance by calling 735-1100, ext. 114, and attend the open house.
20% off Ultherapy™ We’ll demonstrate this exciting new device that uses ultrasound energy to lift, tighten and firm skin without surgery or downtime. Book your Ultherapy™ treatment at the open house to get 20% off plus a free introductory facial and a travel kit of products based on your skin type.
PCA Skin® peel demos We’ll do peel demonstrations on volunteers while we discuss our new peels and daily care product line from PCA Skin®.
New laser treatment We’ll show off our new Fraxel® re:store DUAL wavelength system that now targets pigment problems in addition to skin rejuvenation.
Now, we're looking forward to getting two new machines that will give us even more ways to rejuvenate aging skin.
Ulthera™ System
The Ulthera™ System was just approved by the FDA for noninvasive eyebrow lifts. It can also be used on the lower face and neck. (See before and after pictures above.) This new device uses ultrasound energy to stimulate collagen production deep below the skin’s surface without harming the outer epidermis. This means great results with zero downtime.
Fraxel re:pair®
We’ll also be adding Fraxel re:pair® to our line-up of treatments soon. (We already have the Fraxel re:store®.) The Fraxel re:pair® laser is the only fractional CO2 laser on the market that delivers the results of conventional bulk ablative lasers—without the prolonged downtime, risks or complications. This laser gets rave reviews for its ability to firm skin and reduce fine lines, wrinkles and hyperpigmentation.
Oh, and did I mention we also have gift cards available now?
This is a personal decision that only you can make. Some people feel that acne scars diminish their quality of life. Others can see the same type of scarring as not so bad.
Dermatologists generally recommend making an appointment to talk about treatment if you experience any of the following:
You frequently wish that you could just get rid of your acne scars
You feel that the scars limit your opportunities to date, to get a job or a promotion, or to do well at school
You feel more depressed or less self-confident than before you had acne and acne scarring
You get together with people less often because you feel so self-conscious about the scars
In deciding whether to treat acne scars, it is important to know a few facts about scar treatment. Probably the most important fact is that medical insurance generally does not cover treatment for acne scarring. You will have to pay for the treatment. Be sure to get an estimate for the total cost before starting treatment.
You also should know that scar treatment may require several treatment sessions and some downtime.
Having realistic expectations about the results also is important. While treatment can improve the appearance of your skin, restoring it to the way it looked before you had acne scarring may not be possible. A dermatologist can tell you what you can expect.
For best results, if you still have acne, your dermatologist will probably want to get it under control before addressing your scars. And if you don't have scars, but do have acne, the sooner you get it treated and under control, the less likely you'll be to develop scars.
For more information about treatments dermatologist use for treating acne scars, go to the following American Academy of Dermatology links:
And call us at (509) 735-1100 to make an appointment to discuss your options if you'd like to treat your acne scars. If you have severe scarring you probably want to make your appointment with one of our medical providers. If your acne scarring is less severe, one of our licensed estheticians or laser technicians can give you a free Visia consultation and let you know about the skincare products, chemical peels, microdermabrasion and/or Fraxel laser treatments that can improve your scarring.
Get a free Dermalogica® Skin Brightening System kit with the purchase of 3 ChromaWhite TRx™ facial treatments. Powerful exfoliants and botanical extracts help treat and prevent cellular discoloration for unsurpassed brightening and tonal balance. The ChromaWhite TRx™ Brightening Regimen kit, a $188 value, contains 6 products for brighter, more luminous skin.
Save 20% on all Clinique Medical Skincare products. These clinically proven products are specifically designed to prepare patients for non-surgical cosmetic procedures, minimize unintended effects following a procedure and support the healing process. Available exclusively through physician offices, Clinique Medical's lineup includes pre and post procedure formulas, as well as daily use products.
Purchase 4 Fraxel® treatments and get the 5th one free. Treatments with our Fraxel re:store® laser remove years from your appearance, promoting smoother, fresher looking skin, reducing fine lines around the eyes, as well as improving the appearance of acne scars and surgical scars.
$125 for 6 Blu-U acne treatments. (That's one free.) These blue light treatments kill the bacteria that cause acne, so it's perfect for those with sensitive skin and can be used in conjunction with topical therapies.
Celebrate Jane Iredale’s Sweet 15 with a Limited Edition Sweet 15 Kit with $172 in savings. This is a comprehensive palette with shades for the eyes, cheeks and lips. This makes a great gift or a travel make-up kit.
Includes 15 shadow shades, three blush shades and three lip shades
Packaged in a dual compartment palette
Features a large mirror for easy application
Perfect for all skin tones
Wonderful gift idea
A $236 value for only $78, and if you buy this kit before Sept. 30, 2009, you'll also get a free crease brush worth $14.
Get rid of unwanted hair for good with laser hair removal. Purchase a package of 6 laser hair removal treatments before Sept. 30, 2009, and in addition to the usual 20% discount you'll get the 7th treatment free.
Get your acne under control and look cool for school. Pre-pay for 3 extraction treatments and get a free Dermalogica Clean Start skincare kit (a $35 value). During an extraction treatment, deep-pore cleansing begins with the Dermalogica double cleanse. A fluid designed to dilate the follicles and soften the impacted sebum (oil and dead skin cells that form the pimple) is then applied. After thorough steaming, manual extractions are performed. Direct high frequency current may be applied to reduce redness and inflammation. Post-extraction solution is applied to further purify the affected areas. Oil-free moisturizer and sunblock complete the treatment. Then take home the Clean Start kit which includes a cleanser, toner, pore-refining scrub, overnight acne treatment and a lightweight moisturizer with sunscreen.
We've got three specials good until August 31, 2009 :
Free Lipstick with $100 Purchase: Get a free Jane Iredale PureMoist™ LipColour of your choice (a $19 value) with the purchase of $100 or more of Jane Iredale cosmetics. With 32 fashion shades to choose from, ranging from matte to shimmer, you're sure to find your perfect color. It's also SPF 18 so it will protect your lips from the summer sun while it moisturizes.
Free Dermalogica®AGE smart™ starter kit (a $50 value) with the purchase of a package of six AGE smart™ facial treatments. As always, by prepaying for a series of 6 AGE smart™ facial treatments, you will also get the 7th treatment for free.
Free FotoFacial™: Buy a 3-treatment package of IPL FotoFacial™ treatments for skin discoloration and get the 4th one free (a $380 value). As always, by prepaying for 3 IPL FotoFacial™ treatments, you will also get 10% the regular price.
These offers cannot be combined with other promotions or discounts.
Necks can often give away a person's age easier than their faces. Part of this is because the skin on your neck is thinner than everywhere else on your body and has fewer oil glands. Some of it is just that we take better care of our faces until we notice that time has taken its toll on our necks.
"Most of us don't think about our neck until, well, let's say...a little later," says Dawn Risk, a licensed esthetician at the Center for Excellence in Dermatology.
However, it's never too late to start pampering your neck. We carry the complete line of Dermalogica® products. Of those, Dawn suggests a few for taking care of your neck:
daily microfoliant® ($50): There's a reason this is Dermalogica®'s most popular product. Use this exfoliant after cleansing and before toning to instantly leave skin noticeably smoother and brighter.
super rich repair ($75): Use this super-concentrated, heavyweight moisturizer at night. An active soy isoflavonoid helps stimulate collagen and Hyaluronic Acid production.
extra rich faceblock spf30 ($48): Use this moisturizer/sunblock combination to protect your neck from sun-induced wrinkles and brown spots.
If you usually use a lighter moisturizer, Risk says, "Heavier moisturizer on the neck is usually tolerated well except for acneic or very oily skin types."
If you'd like to learn more about Dermalogica®'s products, call (509) 735-1100 today to book an Introductory Facial ($80). This hour-long treatment and lesson are perfect for anyone wanting a change in their skin or home skincare regimen. It includes a free 30-day supply of Dermalogica® products that are right for your skin.
If the right skincare products alone aren't enough to cure your neck problems, call (509) 735-1100 today to schedule a free consultation with one of our laser technicians. They will be able to tell you if one of our laser packages can help reverse the premature aging of your neck.
One advantage phototherapies have over standard topical and oral acne treatments is that patients don't have to do anything in between treatments, like remembering to take their pills or apply their lotions.
PDL took fewer treatments to work. It took an average of 4 PDL, 6 IPL or10 LED treatments to clear up the faces of the test subjects. (They counted a person's face as clear if they had 90% fewer zits than when they started.)
After one month of treatments, PDL had cleared the most zits at 73.75% reduction compared to 41.68% for IPL and 35.64% for LED. (PDL and IPL treatments were given once a week and LED treatments were give twice a week. So on average those gettting PDL treatments had clear faces in 4 weeks, LED in 5 weeks and IPL in 6 weeks of treatments.)
All phototherapies tested in the study were easy to deliver, well tolerated, pain-free and side-effect free and gave a satisfyingly high clearance rate in patients with inflammatory acne.
So, PDL looks like the choice if speed and the fewest number of treatments are essential. The LED treatments take the most treatments but are also the most economical. (At our office we have two blue light machines, ClearLight® and BLU-U® which are similar in treatment effects to the red-blue LED light that was in the study. Twenty-minute acne treatments with these cost only $25 each.)
If topical or oral treatments aren't working for you, you have options. And we have those options available here. Call 509-735-1100 today to schedule your PDL, IPL or blue light treatment today.
For more information about using laser and light treatments for acne, take a look at this article from the American Academy of Dermatology.
Our Cutera CoolGlide Laser for laser hair removal recently broke down. Instead of getting it repaired, we've just ordered a new and improved machine, the Cynosure's Elite Aesthetic Workstation. Its larger spot size means a shorter treatment time for you. It's also more powerful and more effective at targeting lighter hairs than the old one. We'll have the new machine delivered, up and running in about 2 weeks, so call (509) 735-1100 now to book your appointment.
Whether you want to call them sunspots, age spots, photodamage, hyperpigmentation or just ugly brown patches, I've got them. (Chalk it up to growing up in California during the disco era back when tanning contests were all the rage and you slathered on coconut-scented oil before going outside in order to help you bake faster instead of sunscreen!)
Anyway, the brown spots I hate the most are on my face, just because they're more noticeable. I've tried various topical treatments to try to get rid of them. Products with hydroquinone worked fairly well, but I stopped using them when I read about hydroquinone causing cancer in rats. (Who knows if the same is true for humans or not, but I didn't feel like taking any chances.) And I've been making some visible progress with the hydroquinone-free ChromaWhite system by Dermalogica that we sell at work, but I'm just not a very patient person. I want those spots gone now!
So today I had my first of six treatments that are part of our Sun Damage Package, which is made up of three IPL and three Fraxel treatments. Today was the IPL, short for Intense Pulsed Light. If you've ever heard of Photo Rejuvenation or FotoFacial Light Therapy, this is the same thing. We generally call it a laser treatment, but IPL is not really a laser. The machine generates short bursts of very bright light which are absorbed by the darker pigment in brown patches of skin. The body then gets rid of these damaged cells as part of the natural healing process, leaving even-toned skin behind. IPL machines are also used to treat rosacea, telangiectasia, vascular lesions, and other pigmented lesions.
OK, so much for the technical stuff. What's it really like? Well, I showed up for my appointment and Jennifer, one of our laser technicians, first wanted to get some of the infamous before pictures so I removed my makeup so she could get good look at the brown spots. (Hint: Next time, I'll save some time and come without make-up.) The camera for this is attached to a contraption that keeps your head, the camera and the lights in some pre-defined positions so that when I go back for the after photos, they'll be easier to compare.
Next I was given a little jar of numbing cream and directions how to put it on using a mirror in our medical spa's waiting room. I was told to put it on nice and thick. I remember she said it was lidocaine mixed with some sort of petroleum jelly. It made my face look really shiny, and started to turn my skin splotchy. Then came a half hour wait. There are plenty of magazines and even some snacks and drinks in the waiting room, but I was anxious to get started. The numbing cream did as advertised and my face started feeling alien to my body, complete with tingly lips, in no time.
Finally Jennifer led me to one of the treatment rooms. She told me about the IPL machine and showed me the icy tip of the device that keeps your skin comfortable during the treatment. I was also given a little wand that blows cold air and told how to direct it during the treatment. After taking off the numbing gel and applying some cooling gel, she then put on these very small high-tech-looking black-out goggles. They're fairly tight and I couldn't see anything through them. (Hint: Next time, I'll make sure to take off my eye make-up. It was really a mess after the treatment.)
OK, so I'm laying down all nice and comfy on the treatment table and Jennifer puts the cold IPLhandpiece on my skin, which I could barely feel on my numbed face. Then she warns me that there will be a bright light. ("Yeah, right," I'm thinking. "I can't see a thing with these goggles on.") Then: Pop! There was a little zap feeling to my skin which was noticeable but not painful with this weirdly bright light that I could see even through the opaque goggles. I was so surprised I must have flinched halfway across the table. Jennifer, very patiently asked if I was OK, and reassured me that the light pulse was perfectly safe because of the goggles and wasn't going to blind me even though I was still seeing a red blur of afterimage from the pulse.
Long story, short: The freaky light pulses were what I noticed most about the treatment. There was no pain. I could feel a little zap to my skin — which I've heard described as a rubber band snap — but that's all. I didn't even really need the cold air wand thingy. Jennifer continued to zap little sections of skin all around my face. She scraped off gel as she went, and went back over a few areas on a different setting after the first pass.
The session itself took maybe 15 minutes. When she was done, Jennifer took the goggles off. And after my eyes adjusted, thankfully, I could see again! Then I got what we joked was a little mini-facial: Jennifer cleaned the remnants of the numbing gel off my face and applied some Dermalogica Soothing Protection Spray and some Z-Silc Plus sunscreen. I took a look in the mirror afterwards and wished I had brought my makeup with me. My face was a bit blotchy from the numbing gel and the treatment still. In fact, it took my face a few more hours to get rid of the numb feeling completely. But I was able to go back to work with no problems, no downtime. As feeling returned to my face it was a little warm and a little tight, sort of like a slight sunburn.
By the end of the day, my face looked and felt normal except that the freckles on my face were much darker, a sure sign that they'll soon be gone. I can't wait!
Written by Jackie Johnston, the marketing coordinator for the Center for Excellence in Dermatology.
We are now carrying Clinique Medical, a line of clinically proven products specifically designed to prepare patients for non-surgical cosmetic procedures, minimize unintended effects following a procedure and support the healing process. Available exclusively through physician offices, Clinique Medical's lineup includes pre and post procedure formulas, as well as daily use products.
Optimizing Regimen
The 5-product Optimizing Regimen is specifically formulated to help complement the benefits of non-surgical cosmetic procedures, including chemical peels, microdermabrasions, and IPL and fractionated laser treatments. Clinically proven to help both significantly reduce the unintended effects following a procedure and complement its outcomes, this regimen is designed to be an at-home extension of in-office procedures.
$230 for 5-product Optimizing Regimen Kit
Dry Spot Balm
This ultra-hydrating formula helps to relieve discomfort, especially on or around the lips, eyes, nose and other facial areas experiencing extreme dryness that is often associated with certain prescription medications.
The 5-product Optimizing Regimen is specifically formulated to help complement the benefits of non-surgical cosmetic procedures, including chemical peels, microdermabrasions, and IPL and fractionated laser treatments. Clinically proven to help both significantly reduce the unintended effects following a procedure and complement its outcomes, this regimen is designed to be an at-home extension of in-office procedures.
This ultra-hydrating formula helps to relieve discomfort, especially on or around the lips, eyes, nose and other facial areas experiencing extreme dryness that is often associated with certain prescription medications.