Thursday, June 25, 2009

Did you know that you could get a Liquid Lift for your hands..?

Yes, indeed! Typically, when we think about a "liquid lift", we think about minimizing fine lines and wrinkles in the face.... but there is no reason you cannot do that for your hands!

As we grow older, we typically take care of our "looks"... but our hands.... well, they end up showing our age.

Liquid Lift Hands – This is a very fast way to improve the aged look of hands. As we get older we lose volume all over the body, but it is very apparent in the hands with the protrusion of the bones and veins. This procedure plumps the hands to give it a youthful look that lasts up to 18 months with no down time.

We use the product "Radiesse" which is also used as a filler in the face.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Acne Scarring … Do I have to live with it? (Part 2)

If you missed part 1, click here...

The objective of treatment is to give the skin a more normal appearance. Total restoration of the skin is most likely not possible, but scar treatment does usually improve your skins appearance.
Scar treatments that are available include:
  • Collagen injection- It is injected under the skin the stretch and fills out certain types of superficial and deep soft scars. Repeated treatments are usually needed. It is not recommended for all types of scarring. There are certain medical conditions that are contraindicated.
  • Autologous fat transfer- Fat is taken from another site on your own body and prepared for injection into your skin. The procedure usually needs to be repeated.
  • Dermabrasion- Under local anesthetic, a high speed brush or fraise used to remove surface skin and alter the contour of scars. It does not work for all types of scars. It can cause pigmentation changes in people with darker skin.
  • Microdermabrasion- This is a surface form of dermabrasion. Only the very surface cells of the skin are removed, so no additional wound is created. Multiple treatments are often required.
  • Laser treatment- Lasers of various wavelengths and intensity may be used to recontour the scar tissue and reduce the redness of the skin around the healed lesions.
  • Skin surgery- Some ice pick lesions may be removed with punch excision of each individual scar. It results in a hole in the skin that may be repaired with sutures or skin grafts.
  • Skin grafting- This may be necessary if for example dermabrasion unroofs massive tunnels (sinus tracts) caused by inflammatory reaction to sebum and bacteria in sebaceous follicles. Grafting may be needed to close the defect.
  • Treatment of keloids- Surgical removal is rarely used to treat keloids. Because the person usually has a tendency to form keloids, they may also keloid in response to the surgery. Sometimes keloids are treated by an injection of steroids in the skin around the keloid. Topical retinoic acid may be applied directly to the keloid. In people who are very susceptible to keloids no treatment at all is recommended.
The best way to prevent acne scarring is to treat acne early and as long as needed. If scars do form, a number of effective treatments are available and should be discussed with a skin care specialist.








DeAnna Maher (RN.)

Clinical Manager. Sona MedSpa - Galleria
*source: AcneNet.com

Monday, June 15, 2009

Skin Care Myths Debunked (Part 3)

Click here if you missed part 1 and part 2.

Continuing with our list of popular skin care myths...

Eating chocolate and greasy foods cause acne

Sorry about all the chocolate you missed out on over the years....but eating c
hocolate does not cause acne. Hormonal factors, bacteria and skin cells are at the root of problematic skin, and stress can contribute to flareups.

Blackheads are a caused by improperly cleansed skin

Blackheads are caused by clogged pores. Hard scrubbing to clean the skin can irritate and further inflame skin. Blackheads often contain dirt (hence the name), oil, and dry and dead skin cells that need to be removed.

Antioxidants can reverse wrinkles

Antioxidants fight free radical formation. The chief danger of free radicals is the damage they can do when they react with important cellular components such as DNA, or the cell membrane. Cells may function poorly or die if this occurs. To prevent free radical damage the body has a defense system of antioxidants. so, they have a very important function in preventing skin damage, but they cannot make wrinkles go away.

10 Things Damaging Your Skin... that you would never have thought of!

Forbes magazine had a great article about 10 Sneaky Things Damaging Your Skin. It takes a bit of time to work your way through it, so I thought I'd summarize the list below:

Driving without sunscreen

The glass in car windows normally does not block UVA rays, which cause skin aging (UVB rays cause skin to tan or burn.)


Sitting in the Shad
e Without Sunscreen

UV rays reflect off both sand and water, even if you're in the shade.

Wearing Old Sunscreen


Most sunscreens expire after one to three years.

Your Hairstyle


When wearing their hair back or up, women often forget to apply sunscreen on their neck and ears. Parting hair can also cause skin damage on the scalp. There is just no way around it.... Wear a hat!

Thinking Clothing Blocks the Sun

Here's news for you! A typical white T-shirt offers you about a 7 to 8 SPF and then when it gets wet, the sun protective factor goes down to a 3!

Thinking Your Sunscreen is Waterproof

There is a big difference between waterproof and water-resistant sunscreen. It should be reapplied when you exit the water.

Medication

Antibiotics and some antihistamines increase the skin's sensitivity to sunlight. If you are now out in the sun without a good sunscreen, it will cause tissue damage and intensified sunburn.

A Base Tan

Seriously! Who came up with this? The normal way to get a "base tan" is to use a tanning bed. ..and see what THAT does to you!

A Cloudy Day

UVA rays penetrate clouds more readily than UVB rays. So, even when it is cloudy, you are at risk of skin aging and damage.

Not Applying Enough, Often Enough

Most people use less than 50 % of the recommended amount of sunscreen, according to a study published in the Archives of Dermatology.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Even Wonder Woman needs BOTOX!

It seems that no one is immune... to getting a few wrinkles as they age! Even Wonder Woman (Lynda Carter) admits to using BOTOX.

IN TOUCH reported in their June edition that, when asked whether she uses BOTOX, Lynda replied that she has a big crease between her eyes, and that's where she does her BOTOX. But she also added that she didn't get so much that her face looks frozen.

In a previous post we covered a number of BOTOX Myths.

Myth no.2: BOTOX ® will give me that “frozen face” look.

Quite the opposite! BOTOX ® restores the balance in the facial muscles and creates that “relaxed” look. By injecting the right amount of BOTOX ®, you can reduce the fine lines and wrinkles and achieve that “soft” look.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Acne Scarring … Do I have to live with it? (Part 1)

First we need to discuss types of acne scarring. There are several types including some that might look like scars but in actuality a permanent change has not occurred.
  • Macules- “Pseudo-scars” are flat, red pots that are at the final stage of most inflamed acne lesions. A macule may remain for up to 6 months. When the macule disappears, no trace will remain-unlike a scar.
  • Post-inflammatory pigmentation- Discoloration of the skin at the site of a healed acne lesion. It occurs more frequently in darker skinned people. It may persist for up to 18 months, especially with excessive sun exposure. Chemical peeling may hasten the disappearance of post-inflammatory pigmentation.
  • Ice pick scars- Usually occur on the cheek. They are small, with jagged edges and steep sides. They may be shallow or deep and hard to soft to touch.
  • Depressed fibrotic scars- Usually large, with sharp edges and steep sides. They are firm to touch. Ice pick scars can develop into depressed fibrotic scars.
  • Soft scars, superficial or deep- They are soft to the touch. Gently sloping rolled edges that merge into normal skin. They are usually small, and either circular or linear in shape.
  • Atrophic macules- They are usually small on the face and larger on the body. They are soft, wrinkled base and may be bluish in appearance due to blood vessels under the scar. Over time they change from bluish to white in light skinned people.
  • Follicular macular atrophy- These are more likely to occur on the chest or back. They are small white lesions, barely raised above the skin surface. It sometimes called “perifollicular elastolysis”. The lesions may persist for months to years.

There is treatment!

There are a number of treatments available for acne scarring, which we will discuss in Part 2. The type of treatment selected should be one that is best for
you in terms of type of skin, cost, your goals and risks.









DeAnna Maher (RN.)

Clinical Manager. Sona MedSpa - Galleria
*source: AcneNet.com

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Will Ferrel Sunscreen..??


I stumbled across this, and although Sona does not stock it, I thought it was for a good cause, and I should share it...

Click here to read more about it.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Skin Care Myths Debunked (Part 2)

Click here if you missed Part 1.

Continuing with our list of popular skin care myths...

Natural and organic products are always better

This just sound so right! However...you really need to be careful. Many natural and organic products commercially available are not what they claim to be. Synthetic products or compounds can actually be identical to those found in nature, and may be more effective. Natural vs. synthetic should not automatically lead to an up or down decision about whether a product is good or bad. Not all chemicals are bad, and not all natural or organic ingredients are good... so do take the extra time to do your homework.

A suntan will clear up my acne

Have you forgotten that "tanning is skin cells in trauma, trying to protect themselves from cancer?" You're more likely to do serious damage to your skin. In the MedSpa, certain light-based treatments use the blue light frequency of the visible spectrum to eliminate acne. However, this is a much more controlled process than lying with your face in the sun! And here's another question to ponder: Does the sun's intense light (from the total spectrum, including the feared UVA and AVB rays) and the heat flush out the sebum to clear acne, or does it produce more oil to clog pores?

If you're a tanner, you're risking skin cancer. But not only that.... you are also prematurel
y again your skin. There are quite a number of effective acne treatments, but sun tanning is not one of them!

At Sona you can control Acne with light-based treatments utilizing Advanced Fluorescence Technology (AFT), killing acne-causing bacteria by interrupting the metabolic process. Treating active acne in its early stages minimizes the potential for scarring.

We will continue this series and expose more Skin Care myths in Part 3.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Skin Care Myths Debunked

Unless we do a significant amount of our own research, we may never know whether that skin care "hint" or "handed-down-the-generations-truth" is really true! Does it really matter..? Well, sometimes it does, and sometimes it probably won't hurt you. But that doesn't mean that it will help you either!

Here is a list (by no means exhaustive) of popular myths....

1. Adding several layers of product, each with its own SPF, will increase your protection

Unfortunately, this one is not true. Three products applied in sequence (like a foundation SPF 10, moisturizer SPF 10 and sun screen SPF 20) does not give you the combined protection of SPF 40. It only gives you the protection of the highest SPF that you apply (SPF 20 in this example).

2. A higher SPF is always better

This is true, but only barely! Let me explain... The biggest danger of a high SPF sunscreen is the false sense of security that it gives. The amount of light that induces redness in sunscreen-protected skin, divided by the amount of light that induces redness in unprotected skin is the SPF. It is mainly a measure of UVB protection and ranges from 1 to 45 or above.

A sunscreen with SPF 15 blocks close to 93% of UVB radiation, while an SPF 30 will block around 97% of UVB. But the SPF "number" only indicates protection against UVB rays. In order to be protected against UVA and UVB rays, use a sunscreen containing physical blockers, such as titanium dioxide and zinc oxide.

3. Indoor tanning is safe

If you have any doubt about this myth, read this earlier post...

This myth has it's foundation in another myth: you have to have sunburn to get skin damage... which is also untrue. Tanning is skin cells in trauma. There is no other way of explaining it. In response to UV damage, skin cells produce melanin to protect themselves. However, one damaged cell can start a deadly melanoma growing.

We will continue this series and expose more Skin Care myths. Click here for Part 2.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Household solution for itches and burns

MedSpas are all about health and wellness, and improving yourself. So, it would be appropriate to add some hints on well-being that have been around for a while.... and that we happen to have readily available at home. We all grew up with Epsom salt in the house, but with summer arriving, doctors say there’s an important use that isn’t as well-known:

Reducing the itch that comes from mosquito bites, bee stings, mild sunburn, poison ivy, poison oak and poison sumac.

“Basically, anything that itches or burns the skin, Epsom salt can soothe,” says Dr. Joe Matusic, a pediatrician in Charleston, W.Va., and an assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at the Charleston division of the West Virginia University School of Medicine.

Epsom salt helps reduce itching in three ways:

  • Make compresses by soaking a cotton washcloth in cold water that has been mixed with Epsom salt (two tablespoons per cup), then apply to the skin.
  • Create a paste to apply to the skin by adding a teaspoon of Epsom salt to about a cup of hot water until it dissolves, then chilling the solution in the fridge for 20 minutes. Note: Clean the skin and pat dry before applying the paste.
  • Take an Epsom salt bath, by adding two cups of Epsom salt to the water in a standard-sized bathtub and soaking for at least 12 minutes. The Epsom salt will dissolve quicker if you put it under the running water.
Epsom salt is always there in the pantry, and you should use it as soon as possible for temporary relief. It helps draw the moisture out of lesions caused by rashes, such as poison ivy, according to the doctors. With bites or stings, Epsom salt reduces the swelling. This in turn eases the itching sensation because the body’s nerves fire less frequently, according to the doctors.

Always remember: You should consult your doctor for serious or persisting skin conditions.

To learn more, please visit www.epsomsaltcouncil.org.