Dr. Ashley Reed on Sunscreen in Aug_2018_Northender_18
Introducing Epionce® Skin Care by Dr. Cyndi Torosky
As skin care providers we know that what you put on your skin matters. Each skin type is unique and can be sensitive to a variety of different ingredients contained in skin care products. We spend a lot of time researching the skin care product lines that we carry. We will put our seal of approval only on the products that we feel good about and those that we would wear ourselves.
In addition to our current skin care product lines: Neocutis®, SkinMedica®, EltaMD® and Revision®, we are excited to introduce Epionce®, developed by Dr. Carl Thornfeldt, a practicing dermatologist with over 30 years of skin research experience. Epionce® is a clinically-proven product line consisting of restorative botanical ingredients. It delivers powerful antioxidants and barrier repair components to maximize the skin’s natural functions, resulting in healthier, more youthful looking skin.
Three ingredient technologies are the basic foundation of the Epionce® product line:
- Anti-Inflammatory Technology helps block the formation and activation of inflammatory factors in the skin. The key ingredients are: Date Fruit Extract, Meadowfoam Extract, Apple Fruit Extract and Flax Extract.
- Barrier Repair Technology helps strengthen and repair the natural protective skin barrier for optimal function. The key ingredients are: Safflower Extract, Avocado extract, Meadowfoam Extract, Phytosterols and Phytosphingosine.
- Keratolytic Technology encourages cell turnover to remove dead skin cells, clear pores of impurities and retexturize skin. Key ingredients are: Azelaic Acid, Zinc Pyrithione, Salicylic Acid and Willow Bark extract.
The Epionce® line is ideal for ALL skin types, and is particularly helpful for our patients with sensitive skin or those with inflammatory skin conditions such as acne, dermatitis or rosacea. The products are gentle, chemical-free and they work well in combination with many of the prescription products that our providers prescribe.
To find out if Epionce® is right for you, schedule an appointment for a skin care consultation or ask about it at your next appointment.
To make an appointment call 757-622-6315 or request an appointment online.
Announcing Our New Chat Feature at PDS!
When you visit our web site at pariserderm.com now you can choose to chat with one of our real, live Patient Relations Specialists. Simply click the “chat” icon in the bottom right corner of the page and get started! It’s a great way to save time asking questions or making appointments.
Our patients love this new feature:
“You new chat feature is awesome! It’s the first one I’ve come across and I love it. I’ll be using it from now on!”
Office Closing due to Hurricane Florence
Melissa Alcox, PA-C, Performs a Full Body Skin Exam
More people are diagnosed with skin cancer each year in the U.S. than all other cancers combined. A head-to-toe skin examination by a medical provider is the best way to catch skin cancer early, which is when it’s most treatable. Our providers recommend that you be seen for a skin cancer screening once per year, and that you keep an eye on your own spots and make note of any changes. Click here to learn more about what to expect during your exam. Watch this video where Pariser Dermatology’s Melissa Alcox, PA-C, demonstrates how she performs a full body exam.
Call 757-622-6315 to make your skin cancer screening appointment today!
Provider Picks: Dr. Ashley Reed’s Favorite Cosmeceutical
In the vast array of medical-grade cosmetics, or “cosmeceuticals”, it can be overwhelming and expensive to figure out which ones work best. So we’ve asked our medical experts who know what to look for in medical-grade cosmetics, what they like best. Today’s highlight is on Dr. Ashley Reed’s favorite: Neocutis® LUMIÈRE.
“My favorite medical-grade cosmetic product is Neocutis® LUMIÈRE. Its powerful blend of moisturizing and anti-aging ingredients gives your eyes a younger, more refreshed look and makes you look like you had a good night’s sleep!”
Neocutis® LUMIÈRE is available at all 6 of our office locations.
To learn more call us at 757-622-6315.
Provider Picks: Dr. Cyndi Torosky’s Favorite Cosmetic Product
As part of our comprehensive skin care focus, we offer “cosmeceuticals” which are skincare products that contain biologically active compounds that can have pharmaceutical effects on the skin. For example, if you want to lessen the effects of aging and smooth out fine lines and wrinkles, there’s a vast array of products on the market. It can be overwhelming and expensive to figure out which ones work best. So we’ve asked our medical experts who know what to look for in medical-grade cosmetics, what they like best. Today’s highlight is on Dr. Cyndi Torosky’s favorite: SkinMedica’s TNS Essential Serum.
“If I had ONE product to choose it would be TNS Essential Serum. This dual-chambered bottle contains the most advanced age-fighting technology. One chamber contains growth factors that maximize our cell’s machinery for collagen production. The second chamber is packed with antioxidants that combat the environmental damage that occurs every day. Together this leads to skin repair and rejuvenation which helps fine lines, wrinkles, skin texture and tone.”
You can find TNS Essential serum at any of our 6 office locations or, you can buy it from our online store and get Free Shipping at https://pariserderm.brilliantconnections.com/.
What’s all the Buzz about Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP)?
You might have heard of the “Vampire Facial” and if you’re like me, it doesn’t sound like something you’d ask for, much less pay for! Yet, the “Vampire Facial” is quite popular thanks in part to publicity surrounding Hollywood celebrities and their experience with it.
What puts the vampire in the facial is the addition of platelet rich plasma (PRP) to a facial treatment such as microneedling. The platelet rich plasma comes from your own blood and contains healing properties and growth factors. When these growth factors are concentrated and reintroduced into the face during a microneedling procedure, they promote rejuvenation within damaged facial tissue. The goal is to see better results when treating facial scars, acne and damage from the sun.
The use of PRP to promote healing has been used in healthcare for over a decade and has made its way to dermatology. Not only is PRP used for skin rejuvenation but dermatologists are also using it to treat hair loss by injecting it directly into the scalp and are getting some pretty amazing results.
Whether the dermatologist is using PRP for skin rejuvenation or to treat hair loss, the basic process of obtaining the PRP is the same. It starts with a basic blood draw of 1 or 2 tubes of blood. The blood is then processed in a high speed centrifuge where the platelets are separated from the red blood cells. This results in a small syringe of plasma containing a high concentration of platelets rich in the growth factors needed for rejuvenation of skin or hair follicles. The PRP suspension is then ready to be used on the face for facial rejuvenation or injected into the scalp to stimulate hair growth.
Whether having PRP treatment for facial rejuvenation or for hair loss, there are very few side effects or risks. A consultation is needed to make sure a patient is a good candidate and more than one treatment is necessary to achieve desired results. While the use of PRP in dermatology is considered cosmetic and there are no extensive clinical studies substantiating its effectiveness, most dermatologists agree that the use of PRP shows great promise in skin rejuvenation and promoting hair growth.
If you’d like to learn more about facial rejuvenation or hair loss treatments with PRP call 757-622-6315 to schedule a consultation with one of our providers or Request an Appointment Online
How to Care for Your Skin in Your 60s and 70s
From the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD)
During our 60s and 70s, the many changes transforming our skin can feel inevitable, but that doesn’t mean you have to live with them. The right skin care can improve how your skin feels — and looks.
Skin care changes dermatologists recommend
When it comes to skin care in our 60s and 70s, dermatologists recommend making the following lifestyle changes if you haven’t already done so.
1. Bathe to relieve dry skin. Some simple changes to your bath time can reduce (or alleviate) dry, itchy skin and prevent dry, itchy from becoming a serious problem. Here’s what you can do:
- Stop using bar soap. Replace it with a gentle, creamy, fragrance-free cleanser or emollient.
- Use warm (not hot) water. Hot water strips skin of its natural oils, which can increase skin dryness.
- Use a soft cloth to wash your skin. A buff puff or bath brush can irritate your skin.
- Keep your bath or shower short. You may find that you don’t need to bathe every day. When you bathe, keep it short. Take a 10-minute bath or shower.
- Pat water gently from your skin after bathing, but leave a bit of water on your skin. Having some water on your skin when you apply moisturizer (next step) helps hydrate your skin.
- Apply a creamy, fragrance-free moisturizer formulated for dry skin within 3 minutes of bathing and throughout the day. This helps ease the dryness and restore your skin’s protective barrier.
2. Use a humidifier when the air feels dry. Heating and air conditioning can strip humidity from the air. Dry air can make your skin feel dry and itchy. Keeping indoor humidity between 45% and 60% can reduce dry, itchy skin.
How skin can change in your 60s and 70s
Everyone ages differently, but during this time in your life, you may notice that your skin is:
- Drier
- Thinner and starting to look paper-like
- Itchy
- Developing more age spots, wrinkles, and creases
- Blotchier
- Irritated easily
- More susceptible to skin infections
- Bruising more easily
- Sweating less
- Healing more slowly
3. Wear gloves while doing housework and gardening. Working around your house and in your garden can expose your skin to harsh chemicals, sunlight, and other things that can irritate and dry your skin. When you wear gloves, you also reduce your risk of injuring your skin.
4. Protect your skin from the sun. If you’re seeing more wrinkles, age spots, and blotches of discolored skin, you may wonder if you still need to protect your skin from the sun. You do! At this stage in your life, sun protection still offers many benefits. It helps to prevent new age spots and blotchy skin. It can reduce dry, thinning skin. It also reduces your risk of developing skin cancer.
To protect your skin from the sun’s harmful rays, dermatologists recommend that you:
- Apply a broad-spectrum, water-resistant sunscreen with SPF 30 or higher every day. You want to apply this to all skin that clothing won’t cover while you’re outside.
- Seek shade when outdoors. Sunscreen cannot block 100% of the sun’s harmful rays.
- Wear clothing that protects your skin from the sun. To find out if a garment offers sun protection, hold it up to a bright light. If you don’t see light shining through, it can protect your skin from the sun.
5. Go fragrance free. Perfumes, colognes, and skin care products that contain fragrance can irritate your skin. When you stop using these, you can reduce your risk of developing dry, itchy skin.
6. See a dermatologist for skin cancer exams. Around 50 years of age, your risk of developing skin cancer and pre-cancerous growths increases. As the years pass, this risk rises. When skin cancer is found early and removed, that’s often the only treatment you’ll needed. If the cancer spreads, treatment becomes more difficult.
7. Examine your skin for signs of skin cancer. This cancer can develop quickly. Learning how to examine your skin for signs of skin cancer helps you to find skin cancer early.
When to seek a dermatologist’s help
While the right skin care can help, medications, surgery, and health problems can take a toll on your skin. A board-certified dermatologist understands the effects each of these can have on your skin and can create a treatment plan tailored to your skin’s needs.
A dermatologist can also help you safely treat skin changes, such as age spots and wrinkles when a product that you used for years starts to irritates your skin.
12 Nail Changes a Dermatologist Should Examine
From the American Academy of Dermatology
Have you noticed a change to any of your nails lately? A change in color, texture, or shape can be harmless, but it can also be a sign of disease. If you notice any of the following changes to a fingernail or toenail, it’s time to see a board-certified dermatologist.
Medical name: Acral lentiginous melanoma
Dark streak
If a fingernail or toenail has a new or changing dark streak, it’s time to see a dermatologist for a skin cancer check. That dark streak could be melanoma, the most serious type of skin cancer.
Not every dark streak is a melanoma, but it’s always good to have a dermatologist examine one. Caught early and treated, that may be the only treatment you need.
Allowed to grow, treatment becomes more difficult.
Medical name: Onycholysis
Nail lifting up
If a nail starts to lift up so that it’s no longer completely attached, you’ll likely see white discoloration, as shown here. When a nail lifts up, the cause is often:
- A fungal infection
- Psoriasis
- Injury from an aggressive manicure
- Injury form cleaning under your nails with a sharp object
A dermatologist should examine any nail that’s lifting up. You may need treatment to clear an infection. A dermatologist can also give you some tips that may help the new nail grow out normally.
Medical name: Paronychia
Redness and swelling around a nail
If you have redness and swelling around a nail, you may have an infection. When diagnosed early, you can often treat an infection with soaks and antibiotics. If an open sore forms, you’ll need more extensive treatment.
Medical name: Paronychia
Greenish black color
When bacteria cause a nail infection, the nail can turn greenish black as shown here.
Without treatment, a nail infection tends to worsen. Treatment can get rid of your pain and tenderness and help clear the infection.
Medical name: Pitting
Pitted nails
If you have dents in your nails that look like they were made by an icepick, this could be a sign that you have a disease that affects your entire body. People who have pits in their nails may have:
Seeing a board-certified dermatologist for a diagnosis is important. Dermatologists are the specialists who diagnose and treat these diseases. Treatment can help you feel more comfortable and prevent the disease from worsening.
Medical name: Yellow nail syndrome
Yellow nails
Wearing red nail polish without a base coat or smoking can turn your nails yellow. If your nails turn yellow, thicken, and seem to stop growing, it could be a sign of something going on inside your body. Lung disease and rheumatoid arthritis can cause yellow nails. You may also have a serious nail infection, which requires treatment.
Medical name: Beau lines
Deep grooves (or gaps)
Lines that run the length of a nail are common and usually nothing to worry about. If you see deep grooves that run the width of your nail like the ones shown in this picture, it means that something slowed (or stopped) your nails from growing for a while.
When something causes your nail(s) to completely stop growing for a while, you may see a gap. If this happens, you’ll have a place on your nail(s) that’s missing nail. The medical name for this condition is onychomadesis (on-ah-coe-ma-dee-sis).
A fever, injury, chemotherapy, or major stress can cause your nails to grow slowly or stop growing.
If you cannot think of what could may have caused your nails to grow slowly or stop growing, see your dermatologist or primary care doctor. Once you find and get rid of the cause, nails often start growing normally.
Medical name: Onychogryphosis
Ram’s horn nails
This happens when the nails thicken and overgrow. Some people get Ram’s horns because the condition runs in the family. If you have a disease, such as psoriasis, ichthyosis, or circulation problems, you may also develop Ram’s horn nails.
Cutting and treating these nails requires help from a podiatrist or dermatologist.
Medical name: Koilonychia
Thin, spoon-shaped nails
If you have thin fingernails that dip down in the middle and look like spoons, you may not be getting enough iron. People develop an iron deficiency for many reasons, including:
- Lack of proper nutrition
- A health problem with their stomach or intestines
- Sensitivity to gluten (celiac disease)
- High altitude
Getting a proper diagnosis and treatment can help you feel better.
Medical name: Onychotillomania
Washboard nails
If you have grooves and ridges in the center of your thumb that look like the ones shown in this picture, you may have developed a habit of picking at (or pushing back) the cuticles on your thumbnails. Many people are unaware that they do this.
A dermatologist may be able to help you break the habit, allowing healthy nails to grow out.
Medical name: Clubbing
Curved nails
The curving can begin so gradually that many people are unaware it’s happening. As the nails continue to curve downward, fingertips often swell and the nails start to feel spongy when pressed on.
If you notice your fingernails start to curve, it’s time to see a board-certified dermatologist. Curved nails can be a harmless trait, which runs in the family. Curved nails can also be a sign that you have a disease in the:
- Lungs
- Heart
- Liver
- Stomach or intestine
Color change
A disease inside your body can cause your nails to change color. Certain color changes can be a warning sign of a specific disease, as the following table shows.
| Color | Disease or other health problem |
| Blue nails | Not enough oxygen in your bloodstream |
| White nails | Liver disease, diabetes |
| Pale nails | Anemia |
| Half pink, half white nails | Kidney disease |
| Yellow nails | Lung disease, nail infection |
| Dusky red half-moons | Could be lupus, heart disease, alopecia areata, arthritis, dermatomyositis |
| Blue half-moons | Could be sign of poisoning |
Seeing a change to your nails or the half-moons doesn’t always mean that you have a disease.
Still, it’s important to see a board-certified dermatologist if you notice any changes. Board-certified dermatologists specialize in diagnosing and treating the skin, hair, and nails. They have the expertise to tell you whether the change is harmless or requires medical testing.
To schedule an appointment with one of our board-certified dermatologists Call 757-622-6315 or
Request an Appointment Online
Images
Image used with permission of the American Academy of Dermatology National Library of Dermatologic Teaching Slides: 4,5,7,9,10, and 11
Getty Images: 3, 12
Images from the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology
- 2: J Am Acad Dermatol. 2014;70(4):748-62.
- 6: J Am Acad Dermatol 2007;57:1-27.
- 8: J Am Acad Dermatol 2015;73:849-55.
References
Braswell MA, Daniel CR, et al. “Beau lines, onychomadesis, and retronychia: A unifying hypothesis.” J Am Acad Dermatol2015; 73:849-55.
Fawcett RS, Hart TM, et al. “Nail abnormalities: Clues to systemic disease.” Am Fam Physician. 2004;69(6):1417-24.
Kiaravuthisan MM, Sasseville D, et al. Psoriasis of the nail: Anatomy, pathology,
clinical presentation, and a review of the literature on therapy.” J Am Acad Dermatol 2007;57:1-27.
Kumar V, Aggarwal S, et al. “Nailing the diagnosis: Koilonychia.” Perm J. 2012;16(3): 65.
Ring DS. “Inexpensive solution for habit-tic deformity.” Arch Dermatol. 2010;146(11):1222-3.
Schwartz RA, “Clubbing of the nails: Clinical presentation.” Medscape. Last accessed 12/21/2017.
