November Specials

• IPL FotoFacial: Buy One, Get One Half Off
• 30-day supply of Dermalogica (up to $40 value) free with any extraction treatment.
• Purchase a series of 3 or more laser treatments and receive a Clinique Medical 5-product Optimizing Regimen kit, a $235 value, for free.

Offers expire 11/30/09

Coming soon: PCA SKIN® professional chemical peels and daily care products

Starting approximately mid-November, we will be introducing a new line of skin care products by PCA SKIN® and using their products for medical grade chemical peel cosmetic treatments.

Since 1990, PCA SKIN has partnered with renowned physicians and scientists to help create innovative formulations that are available exclusively through doctors and licensed skin care professionals. PCA SKIN was the first to provide scientifically researched daily care products and professional treatments that are both gentle and effective to the medical and clinical aesthetics markets.

Progressive, not aggressive, peels

PCA SKIN professional treatments are scientifically formulated to gently stimulate, firm and tighten skin. Advanced ingredients are carefully blended and work synergistically to remove dull, damaged surface layers without the downtime often associated with chemical peels. The purpose of peels is not only to exfoliate but more importantly to increase the penetration and absorption of the active ingredients in both the professional treatments and daily care products to target and treat troublesome skin conditions at the cellular level.

Skin conditions addressed by peels include:

• Hyperpigmentation/sun damage
• acne
• chronic dryness
• sensitive skin
• rosacea
• aging skin

Here's an example of an acne patient treated with both a peel and daily care products:

For more examples of before and after photos, go to: http://pcaskin.com/before_after.aspx

Should you get treatment for your acne scars?

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:

• Raised Acne Scars
• Depressed Acne Scars
• Treating Skin Color Changes due to Acne

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.

September Specials

Good through Sept. 30, 2009

• 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.

Treating acne with light

There's an interesting clinical study that came out recently in the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology that examined the effects of three different phototherapies on moderate to severe acne. The effects of of pulsed dye laser (PDL), intense pulsed light (IPL) and blue-red combination light-emitting diode (LED) treatments were reported in the "Phototherapy in the treatment of acne vulgaris" article. Here are some highlights from the paper:

• 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.

And check out all our current specials on our website.

Best Acne Fighter Sold Here

Readers of AOL Health named Dermalogica’s MediBac Clearing® as the Best Acne Fighter for those in their 20s, 30s, 40s and beyond!

The average reader rating of Dermalogica MediBac Clearing® was 9.5 out of ten. “Why: Readers ‘love Dermalogica,’ and particularly praise this product for ‘working harder on adult oil and congestion.’

‘My skin started to clear up without drying effects,’ says one reader.

‘I use the (Clearing Skin Wash) cleanser…(Sebum Clearing Masque) masque…and my skin has transformed,” says another.

Read the complete article at AOL Health, and stop by our office. We carry the complete line of Dermalogica MediBac Clearing® products.

Mutant acne

If you feel like you're having a harder time controlling your acne with antibiotics, it may not be just your imagination. The bacteria that causes acne, P. acnes bacterium, is becoming more resistant to tetracycline and erythromycin, antibiotics commonly used for acne treatment. The result is that fewer dermatologists are relying on antibiotics alone to treat acne, may only prescribe antibiotics for a short time period instead of years and combination treatments are often used.

To read the complete story at MSNBC.com, click here.

Click here to print out your 15% off coupon for our Clean Start products by Dermalogica to get your skin clean, fight breakouts and get protection from the sun. Coupon is good until 4/30/2009. You must print out and present coupon to receive your discount.