We are very excited to announce that we are now stockists of the Skinceuticals range, an advanced skincare range from the USA, which is backed by science and which improves overall skin health.

Skinceuticals provides advanced anti-ageing skincare breakthroughs and they are at the forefront of anti-oxidant technology.  There are three fundamental steps in their routine:

PREVENT:  Anti-Oxidant Serums which neutralize free radicals such as UV rays, pollution, stress, smoke.  The serums act to reinforce the skin’s natural anti-oxidant defences against free radicals and they help to provide extra protection from the sun.

PROTECT: Sunscreens (Broad-spectrum filters) which form a barrier against damaging UVA/UVB rays responsible for the accelaration of natural ageing. The sunscreen acts on the surface of the skin to protect it from free radical attacks, in order to complement the action of the anti-oxidants.

CORRECT:  Specific Corrective Treatments which repair the skin with powerful formulas enriched with reparative, brightening and exfoliating active ingredients – they are fomulated in optimal concentrations, proven to penetrate optimally into the skin.

Our favourite products to date?

C E Feurlic and Phloretin CF Anti-Oxidants – they are absorbed quickly and deeply into the skin.  They help to increase the body’s natural reservoir of anti-oxidants which provides extra protection from the sun.  They improve radiance and texture of the skin, stimulate collagen synthesis and elasticity, to boost the skin’s structure among many other benefits.

Hydrating B5 – a  moisture enhancing fluid with high concentrations of Hyaluronic Acid and Vitamin B5.  Wonderful product especially for people with dry skins who need additional moisture under their normal moisturisers.  Lovely when travelling for extra moisture.

Phyto-Corrective Gel - a wonderful oil-free, hydrating product for sensitive or problematic skins – it soothes and calms irritated skin, it reduces redness and provides extra moisture.  The product also helps to prepare skin for rejuvenating procedures and can be used to reduce post-treatment redness.

Ian has also been busy helping journalists and editors with various articles, both local and international especially on the topic of Vitamin D.

We have tried and tested many new products in our practice during the winter months.  Although these products are evidence-based, we have spent many hours reading up about them, testing them on ourselves and willing volunteers, getting feedback and finally making a decision about whether to incorporate them into our product range.

We pride ourselves on trying to source the best anti-ageing products to make sure that they work and that we have happy patients and clients. Our vision is to help people who ask for our advice, to age as comfortably and gracefully as possible with the right information and support.

We have tested two new product ranges, Skinceuticals from the USA and PH Formula from Spain – I am busy writing about these products in more detail and I will send these out shortly.  Skinceuticals is an anti-oxidant range and can be used as an add-on product with existing products (they also have some other wonderful products) and PH Formula have an exciting range of affordable, problem-targeted, lunch time peels which can still be done in summer provided you are not a Sun God/Goddess,

We are also busy testing two new products, one an eyelash/eyebrow treatment which stimulates and strengthens hair follicles – I have been quite amazed at the growth of my eyebrows – while not thick and bushy, I can definitely see a difference as can my skin therapist!  I have used the product for about 6 weeks and will test it for 3 months, so I am looking forward to the end result and reporting back to you about the results.

The other product I am currently testing is a nail product for fragile nails. After years of artificial nail coverings, I have decided to give my rather weak nails a break – what a drama this has proved to be and I have endured weeks of hell trying to strengthen my splitting, peeling nails.

We recently attended the local Dermatology Congress in Durban and while Ian covered the more intellectual side of the congress, he booked me in as an accompanying person so that I could scout out new and interesting products in the exhibition hall.  It was rather like being a toddler in a sweetie shop and I had hours of fun talking to the experts, trying various products and treatments.   I was very excited to find the above mentioned product for weak and fragile nails – I will also report back on this after a few more weeks of use.

Our beautiful range of CANSA-approved, UPF50+UV Emthunzini sun hats have got even more beautiful this summer with new designs and colours.  They are selling well because hats are now seen as a real fashion item and we could not be happier that more people than ever are using this extra protection to preserve their skins. Golfers and bowlers love them too which is an added bonus!

I have discovered something really interesting about hats:  there is a sun hat to suit everyone!  So many people say that they do not suit hats but with a bit of time and patience, I have managed to match a hat to most people who say this to me – it all depends on the style of the hat and how it is worn.  It has given me great pleasure to see the happy smiles when someone finds the right hat for themselves.

It is the start of the beautiful Cape summer – we have endured a long, cold and wet winter and it is time to enjoy the full bounty of summer which of course does include some extra sun exposure – treat your skin with care and respect in the hot African sun.

I was horrified to hear from someone the other day who said her doctor had told her to stop using sunscreen because her Vitamin D levels would be too low if she didn’t get enough sun exposure!  Scary stuff indeed, speaking of which …

Carte Blanche will be screening a documentary about the early detection of melanoma and the role of sunscreens and mole mapping on Sunday 25^th November 2012

Enjoy the longer days of summer, the beautiful fresh summer fruits and vegetables, the wonderful wines – for a second year running, I swopped a sun hat for half a case of bubbly from a wine-farmer’s wife.  Our husbands just shake their heads at our business acumen!

Best wishes for a wonderful festive season and any other celebrations you may be enjoying over the next month.  We will be sending out another newsletter in mid-summer when we get back from a Dermatology Congress in India at the end of January.

Sandy

Many people think that using good skin care products, undergoing cosmetic procedures and treatments on their faces and bodies will help them to slow down the ageing process. These obviously helps greatly but when it comes to preserving the skin, topical antioxidants are becoming a popular weapon in the arsenal of anti-ageing products. Antioxidants contain vitamins and nutrients which neutralise free radicals and help to prevent future damage.

A good skin care regimen should include:

• Cleansing – Morning and night
• Exfoliation – Fruit acids (such as glycolic) which are often found in a good anti-ageing creams, exfoliate on a daily basis or have regular monthly peels - some people have said it is the best facial they have ever had.
• Antioxidant serums – Use morning and night under your moisturising creams.
• Day Moisturiser - This should contain active anti-ageing ingredients and an added sunscreen.
• Night Moisturiser – Generally richer than a day moisturiser - night moisturisers often have more active anti-ageing ingredients such as Vitamin A.
• Sunscreen – It should be used in the morning, over the moisturiser if it is does not contain a sunscreen.  Always add an extra layer if you are going to be outdoors for long periods.

Sun exposure without the use of a sunscreen creates free radicals which in turn causes damage to DNA – when DNA is compromised, cells mutate and skin cancers forms. Skin starts to sag and wrinkle as the elastin fibres and collagen become damaged. With the continued onslaught of UV rays, skin literally breaks down and either becomes tough, leathery and sagging in people with more subaceous (oily) skins or tissue paper thin and badly wrinkled in people with dry skins - this is often peppered with dark brown sunspots, uneven skin tone and telangiectasia (red veins).

The best way to protect against UV damage is to try and prevent it happening in the first place and to be Sun-Sensible i.e. limit sun exposure, just getting enough sunshine to keep your Vitamin D levels healthy and to be mindful of what time of the day you go into the sun.  Most importantly, always apply a sunscreen  – the modern sunscreens also contain antioxidants and good moisturisers which keep the skin hydrated.

Antioxidant rich fruits and vegetables, together with antioxidant supplementation in the form of Vitamin C (protects collagen and elastin), Vitamin E (protects against UV damage), Vitamin D3 (for overall health), Omega-3 Fatty Acids will provide further protection against free radicals and oxidative stress as will the antioxidant Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ-10)

We have had feedback that patients and prospective patients like the fact that they can look at our website and see what treatments we offer and what products we stock.  We have also had many new subscribers to our newsletters which tells us that people are looking for more  information about their skin, hair and nails.

We have introduced a fabulous new peel treatment for your hands – a peel solution is used to exfoliate the dull, dry skin from the back of your hands and after neutralising, a deeply moisturising vitamin serum is massaged into the freshly peeled skin to provide moisture.  This treatment leaves your hands feeling soft and in some cases some brown marks can appear a little lighter.  Winter is a good time to have brown marks removed with liquid nitrogen or laser and this treatment is a good pre-cursor to either of these treatments to remove any blemishes on your hands.

NEOSTRATA have introduced a fabulous new anti-ageing neck cream for both men and women called Triple Firming Neck Cream.  It contains three clinically proven matrix building ingredients.  I have tested this product and I am very impressed with it – so often we concentrate our anti-ageing products on our faces and our necks get left behind.  It is therefore good to see a targeted treatment added to our existing Neostrata anti-ageing product range.

We are also currently testing a new range of cosmeceutical serums which include add-on anti-oxidant serums – the wonderful part of this range is that they can be used with any anti-ageing range of products.  I particularly like the hyaluronic gel serum – talk about an instant boost to the skin!  We do not like to endorse products we have not tested, so if you will bear with us we will give you feedback very shortly.  There is also a serum which helps with redness and I will give feedback on this once the testing process is complete.

Hyaluronic Acid (HA) is deeply hydrating and retains moisture.  In a more youthful skin, HA is found in our cells and it helps to retain moisture.  As we age the HA decreases, the cells shrink in size and they lose their ability to retain moisture – the sad side effect of this is wrinkles!

Therefore we need to add more moisture to our skins as we age and while topical moisturisers help tremendously, many people find they need that something extra and this is where an add-on product like a hyaluronic acid serum can fill the gap – it is deeply hydrating and it gives the skin an added bonus – radiance!  Anti-oxidant serums aid the skin in their defence against the ravages of free radicals which also cause ageing and skin cancer.

This range also has some wonderful treatments, including a very specific treatment for men – we are going to be testing these shortly.  It is exciting to note that men have woken up to the fact that they too can have beautiful skins and it is good to know that the cosmeceutical companies have embraced this sector of the anti-ageing market.  Our Skin Active range is particularly good for men as it does not contain any fragrance, it is easy to use (only 3 products) and of course the products are packed with potent anti-ageing ingredients .

We recently attended a talk by Dermatologist from Germany, who is an expert on scars and he spoke on topical silicone gels for the prevention and management of abnormal scars.  We shall be writing about this topic as we know there is a lot of information about scars and it can be confusing at times to know how to handle a scar for the best possible outcome.

We also attended a fascinating talk last week titled “Skin Pigmentation: Its Evolution and Meaning in the Modern World. Hours after this talk, a fascinating article appeared in the online newspaper, Daily Maverick, written by Rebecca Davis and titled, Race ain’t nothing but an illusion. We couldn’t have written it better ourselves and we have included it in a separate blog.  We were pleased to note that much of what was written in our Vitamin D article tied in well with Dr Jablonski’s research.

Remember winter is a good time for skin maintenance especially to remove those non-threatening but irritating brown marks and it is really a good time to have rejuvenating skin peels on your face, neck and décolleté, ready for the summer days that lie ahead!  If your skin is feeling dry because of winter, you can always add a layer of neutral moisturiser on top of your products with active ingredients.

Keep warm and make the best of what the Cape has to offer in winter … cosy fires, good food, great wine, brisk walks and quality time with friends!

Sandy

The skin on your bottom is intrinsic or chronological-aged and the skin on your face, neck, arms and the back of your hands is photo-aged.  In other words, the skin on one’s buttocks has essentially been protected from the sun over the years and conversely, the face, neck, arms and back of your hands have been exposed to the ravages of ultra-violet radiation and other environmental factors.

The degree of photo-ageing will depend upon one’s skin type and the accumulative dosage of ultra-violet radiation one has accumulated over a whole lifetime.  I usually explain it to my patients by saying that when you are born, it is almost as though you have a meter on your forehead that registers: 000 and every time you are exposed to the sun, the meter ticks over. Most people will get approximately two-thirds of their total sun exposure before the age of 20!  Photo-ageing can take a long time to become apparent because of this accumulative effect.  Often skin laxity is one of the first signs of photo-ageing due to the collagen and elastin becoming damaged by the UV rays – it becomes loose and causes wrinkles, skin tone becomes dull and of course gravity also takes its toll when jowls and sagging appear.

There are numerous other signs of chronic sun damage and these include darker sun freckles, paler areas, dryness of the skin, dilated capillaries, venous lakes on the lower lip and easy bruising especially on the forearms – this we call purpura. With chronic sun damage, one often gets milia which are tiny little whiteheads and sebaceous gland hyperplasia. Solar Keratoses (i.e. pre-malignant) are often red, scaly areas, commonly seen on sun-exposed areas and usually in patients with a fair skin. A certain percentage of these solar keratoses can develop into squamous cell carcinoma so it is generally recommended that the solar keratoses be treated.  If there are just a few lesions, then these can be treated with cryotherapy or liquid nitrogen.  Other treatments would include Efudix ointment and Aldara cream.

While you cannot stop the intrinsic or chronological-ageing process, you can prevent a certain amount of photo-ageing by avoiding the sun during the hottest part of the day, always wearing a sunscreen, even on overcast days, wearing a protective hat and clothing, avoiding smoking and tanning beds. Treatment for photo-aged skins includes the use of anti-oxidants, anti-ageing moisturisers with a sunblock during the day and the addition of anti-ageing serums at night.

Leading on from the subject of skin ageing, I am planning to discuss various topics in future blogs which would include the myths and facts of sunscreens, anti-ageing creams, Botox, chemical peels and the various lasers used for photo-ageing.

Dr Ian Webster

August 2012

Race ain’t nothing but an illusion by Rebecca Davis

Daily Maverick – 26.7.12

One of the world’s most distinguished evolutionary biologists was in Cape Town this week to remind a country which has made race obsession a national sport that, in fact, the whole thing’s a biological sham. Nina Jablonski knows a thing or two about skin pigmentation, and she also knows that it has nothing whatsoever to do with race.

South Africa is probably the most appropriate place on Earth for Nina Jablonski to address an audience. You could practically hear the preconceptions of her largely white, largely older audience being re-wired while she spoke at an open lecture at UCT’s Medical Faculty on Wednesday night. Jablonski, who is more often found at Pennsylvania State University, was in town to give one of the African Genome Education Institute’s Darwin Seminars.

Jablonski, who is technically a primatologist, an anthropologist, palaeontologist and evolutionary biologist, is nuts about skin. A few years ago she told the New York Times that her preoccupation began while she was teaching anatomy to medical students in Hong Kong in 1981. She noticed that when the students were presented with a cadaver to dissect, they were scared and freaked out. But once the skin had been pared away, they were able to view the body far more neutrally and proceed with the task at hand.

“That moment showed me how much of what we consider our humanity is imbued in our skin,” she told the newspaper. “It stayed with me for a long time.”

Jablonski began studying the history and evolution of skin colour – no easy feat, because fossil records contain no traces of skin. Though the current variations of skin pigmentation have been abundantly recorded, compared and geographically mapped, there has been little discussion of why human skin tone had evolved in such a way that we find some of the darkest skin pigments in Africa and some of the lightest in Northern Europe.

Without fossils to fall back on, she turned to our closest relatives, chimps. (Jablonski made headlines in 2004 when she discovered the world’s oldest chimpanzee fossil, at half a million years old.) Although chimps are covered with a thick matt of dark hair, underneath that they have fairly lightly pigmented skin: infant chimps in particular have very light skin because it has not yet begun to be darkened by UV radiation.

Jablonski displayed a picture of the skeleton of Lucy, the 3,2-million-year-old Australopithecus specimen discovered in Ethiopia in 1974. Although Lucy had the ability to walk on two legs, it’s believed that her lifestyle was more ape-like than human – she would have spent more time climbing trees, for instance, than running in the sun. Because she didn’t do much running, she wouldn’t have had to keep her body and brain cool through sweating, so Lucy, too, would have been likely covered with dark fur. It was when the earliest humans developed long limbs suitable for running that they lost their hair, in order to facilitate the evaporation of sweat. Naked skin became de rigueur for humans between 1,5 and 2 million years ago.

Without their protective hair, Jablonski surmises, the earliest humans – based in Africa – would have evolved permanently dark pigmentation. The reasons for this have everything to do with UV radiation, levels of which are highest over dry areas around the Equator. “In evolutionary terms, what has evolved in human skin is a permanent natural sunscreen,” Jablonski explained. Dark skin contains high quantities of “eumelanin”, a dark pigment which has the ability to absorb and scatter UV radiation. People with dark skin, then, can absorb tremendous amounts of UV radiation.

That explains why the first humans had dark skin. But how did the lighter shades come about? The answer lies in migratory patterns. Jablonski reports that the fossil record indicates that homo sapiens dispersed energetically from Africa, with the first waves of migration taking place about 100,000 years ago to the Mediterranean, followed by the Indian subcontinent and Asia. Migration to Western Europe happened relatively late – only 40,000 years ago. The humans who left the mother continent underwent interesting evolutions in their pigmentation.

The Northern Hemisphere, as anyone who’s ever spent a winter in the UK will know, is very UV-poor. In particular, no UV-B rays make it through to the Northern Hemisphere in the height of winter, which is what is necessary for the skin to start the vital process of making Vitamin D. (Vitamin D is essential because it maintains the immune system, ensures bone growth and inhibits cancer.) The original homo sapiens who flocked to this UV-depleted region would have suffered serious health problems as a result of the slowed vitamin D production in their skin, which led to a process of “depigmentation” – skin getting lighter – in order to absorb as much UV into the skin as possible.

(Even then, Jablonski notes, the only way that humans could evolve to live above the latitude roughly on which London falls – due to the paucity of UV – was to become proficient at catching and eating Vitamin D-rich foods: oily fish and marine mammals.)

“Skin pigmentation is an evolutionary compromise,” Jablonski said. At the equator, what you need is maximum sunscreen. Closer to the poles, what you need is maximum photosynthesis ability. Moderately pigmented people evolved in moderate climes.

Of course, modern humans live far from their ancestral homelands, and have done – whether voluntarily or not – ever since the advent of long-distance mass transportation. Also, as Jablonski put it: “Lucy did not go on holiday” – a point which she illustrated with a slide of the stereotypical Englishman at the beach with a terrible sunburn. What is common to most people in big cities these days, she says, is that they work indoors all day – which is why Vitamin D production is becoming a problem once more, particularly when concealing clothing is worn. To illustrate this, she points to the high prevalence of osteoporosis in Muslim women who wear full hijab.

But the real crux of this all, Jablonski says, is the point that skin pigmentation evolved independently of other physical traits, and not in tandem with a bucket of the other physical characteristics commonly used to distinguish race. “So we cannot group people into genetically distinct groups based on skin colour,” Jablonski holds. “Skin pigmentation is not a unique attribute that can be used to define human races.”

History tells us that, nonetheless, this is exactly what has been done. When Swedish zoologist Carl Linnaeus was drawing up his classifications of animals and plants in 1748, he grouped humans together only by continent and colour. Ten years later, however, he expanded his classification of humans to define the groups not just by geography and skin tone, but also by character, disposition and morality.

He based his classification in this regard on the ancient theory of the “Four Temperaments”, which held that there were four essential bodily fluids that affected human personality. So in terms of Linnaeus’s 1758 revision, Africans became “phlegmatic”, for instance, and the Europeans “sanguine”.

However, Jablonski notes, Linnaeus stopped short of explicitly suggesting that there was any kind of race hierarchy attached to these classifications. Later scholars jumped on his taxonomy with alacrity and did just that. The 18th century German philosopher Immanuel Kant argued in Of the Different Human Races that each race had fixed, immutable qualities, and he placed them in a hierarchy. “The yellow Indians do have a meagre talent,” he wrote. “The Negroes are far below them, and at the lowest point are a part of the American people.”

These racial definitions and stereotypes became what Jablonski terms “colour memes”, endlessly reproduced and given weight by being promulgated by well-respected scientists and philosophers. The legacy of this racist typology is, as no South African needs to be told, still with us today.

“Skin colour is the most visible product of evolution – use it as a teaching tool,” Jablonski urged the audience on Wednesday in conclusion. “Now that you’ve learnt that there’s no relationship between skin tone and race, take it forward to help promote the end of racism and race-based discrimination.”

Vitamin D is inexorably linked to human evolution.  The most favoured, current theory about human evolution is that all modern man i.e. Homo sapiens, originated from Africa and moved out of Africa to the rest of the world.  Approximately 70 000 years ago, there was the Toba super volcanic eruption on the island of Sumatra.  This produced a huge ash cloud over the whole world and produced an approximate decade long volcanic winter.  This resulted in a massive dying out of the modern human population, leaving a small remaining population of a possible 10 000 individuals.  It is thought that most of these individuals were in Africa.  This is called the ‘bottle-neck’ in human evolution.  It is interesting that the San people of South Africa have the greatest genetic diversity and they are rightly called the ‘first people’ – it is thought that the geographical origin of all modern humans is south-west Africa, on the coastal border between Namibia and Angola.

Man who moved out of Africa would have had a darker skin and as he moved further north, by natural selection, his skin would have become lighter.  Vitamin D is required for the normal functioning of the body and a Vitamin D deficiency in children causes rickets and in adults it causes osteomalacia, a bone disorder.  Humans with a lighter skin are able to produce Vitamin D in the skin with lower levels of UVB.  In other words, in the absence of high diet of Vitamin D, man with a darker skin would have been more likely to develop rickets or osteomalacia the further north he went.  Rickets, in women, would have produced an abnormally shaped pelvis and these women in all likelihood would have died in childbirth.

Therefore by natural selection, humans with a paler skin would have survived better in the more northern hemispheres. It is interesting that the Neanderthals who inhabited the northern hemisphere but who eventually died out, did in fact have a paler skin with reddish/blonde hair. The one exception to this are the Inuit, who have a darker complexion and are able to survive in the far northern hemisphere;  the difference here is that the Inuit have a very high dietary intake of Vitamin D, due to the fish that they catch and this has ensured their survival.

The two sources of Vitamin D are dietary intake and the production of Vitamin D in the skin from UVB radiation.  Unfortunately very few foods in nature contain Vitamin D.  The best source of Vitamin D in food is to be found in oily fish such as salmon, tuna, sardines, mackerel, flaxseed and egg yolks.  In addition, some dairy products and cereals may be fortified with Vitamin D.

The bottom line is all about achieving the balance for the individual: between exposing oneself to enough sunlight to maintain adequate Vitamin D levels and avoiding an increase in the risk of skin cancer.  During the summer months, most people should be able to achieve adequate Vitamin D levels through incidental  outdoor exposure outside peak times. For example, for someone who burns easily in the sun, they may only need 5 minutes of sun exposure each day before 11.00am and after 4.00pm (to the face, arms and forearms) to achieve adequate Vitamin D levels.  Conversely, someone who tans easily or has a darker skin type, will need more time, for example, up to 20 minutes.  The liver stores Vitamin D and these stores can be used by the body during the winter months.

Deliberate exposure to sun at peak UV times is not recommended as this increases the risk of skin cancer, eye damage and photo-ageing.  It is thought that Vitamin D production is more effective while doing exercise.  It is good to be aware that UVB is absorbed by glass i.e. your skin will not produce Vitamin D while you are driving your car with your windows closed.

It is impossible to give universal guidelines but if in doubt, one can have a blood test to check your Vitamin D levels.  My recommendation would be a healthy, balanced diet that would include some oily fish, to take one good multivitamin each day and contained in these multivitamins would be Vitamin D of a dosage of between 400 and 600 IU daily.  If your Vitamin D levels are found to be low, I would recommend that you consult a dietician to advise you on  achieving normal Vitamin D levels and then maintaining them.

I run in the mountains near my home early in the morning twice a week for approximately one hour. I do not use a sunscreen at that time and I take one good multivitamin daily as well as Environ Omega 3 and I also have a well-balanced diet.  I recently had my blood tested and my Vitamin D levels are perfectly normal.

Dr Ian Webster

June 2012

A good source of EFAs are found in avocado pears, cold water, oily fish such as salmon, olive and coconut oils, raw nuts, flaxseed.

Environ Omega 3 dietary supplement is a blend of mercury-free deep ocean fish oils with 30% Omega 3 fatty acids. The capsule is gelatin-free and it contains no preservatives, yeast, gluten, lactose or sugar.

We are stockists of the Environ quality Omega 3 Essential Fatty Acids at Dr Ian Webster, 29 Bright Street, Somerset West, Cape Town.  Tel : 021-852 5858/9.

Winter is a wonderful time to undergo skin maintenance and treatments:  the reason being that it is less of a risk to have glycolic peels or laser treatments when you are not outdoors in the hot summer sunshine.

By now most people are in the habit of visiting their dermatologists regularly for their annual skin check-ups or as we call them, mole patrols.  It is good to see families booking their annual appointments as they would do for their dental check-ups.

During these annual check-ups, people often ask about skin/ageing treatments and removal of non-cancerous lesions for cosmetic purposes.  They like to go away, read the information brochures and think about it, before making a decision about their particular problem.

Dr Webster generally recommends that laser treatments and glycolic peels be done in winter, as pigmentation is an ever-present threat when the sun is at its hottest and its strongest, in the summer months in Africa.

Below are some suggestions for winter skin maintenance and treatments:

Glycolic Peels

• Polish your skin with a glycolic peel on the face, neck, décolleté, arms, back and hands. This procedure rapidly removes the damaged layer of dead surface skin cells revealing the fresh skin, and stimulating cell rebuilding and restructuring of the deeper skin layers, which can help the skin appear smoother, healthier, plumper and lighter, with more even pigmentation and skin tone.

Laser Treatments

• Collagen Remodelling on face, neck & chest and skin tightening for deep wrinkles.
• Skin Rejuvenation for wrinkles, pigmentation, age spots, even skin tone, brown freckles.
• Red broken veins on face and blue broken veins on nose
• Cherry angiomas (tiny raised red spots)
• Severe acne scarring

Medical Procedures

• Sebhorrhoeic Keratoses (non-cancerous, brown, slightly raised skin lesions) removed with liquid nitrogen.  Often when these are burnt off with liquid nitrogen on the lower legs or arms, recovery time is longer because of the poorer circulation in these areas. During winter these areas are covered and you are not so aware of the lengthy period it takes for these treated lesions to disappear.
• Skin tags snipped off – these are tiny little flesh-coloured tags, the size of a rice grain. They are usually painless but can look unsightly.

Sclerotherapy

• Sclerotherapy is a simple and effective treatment which significantly helps to lighten and in many cases, removes spider veins from the legs.

For further information on some of these treatments, download a patient information brochure under either Cosmetic or Medical Dermatology.

Keep warm!

Sandy