What's Next in Aesthetic Medicine?

Changing Eye Color

“This is a really exciting new topic…[This new] technology is non-ablative. It uses a green light laser to repeatedly heat the anterior surface of the iris to the point that instead of bleeding pigment into the eye, macrophages come in and clear the pigment through the circulatory system. It’s about a three-week process...Underneath every brown eye, there’s actually a grey stroma, and this is what actually appears blue when you look at a person’s eye who has blue eyes.”

—Julie Woodward, MD

Watch Now: DermTube.com/series/meeting-coverage-las-vegas-2017-dec/

Short- and Long-Term Laxity Fixes

“I’ll do something quick like an Ulthera Body lift. I do it on the breasts. I do it on the buttocks. And that can be something that’s done with no downtime, and patients are literally ok and good to go the next day and look better in their dresses…

There are some more long-term things. I love the Reaction laser from Viora for skin tightening. It’s excellent for doing small areas like the elbow and the knees, the knuckles and the hands. A lot of people think that hand aging has more to do with volume, but I really think early hand aging has a lot to do with skin laxity. So those procedures, the results may take a month to two months, so you need to plan a little bit earlier.”

—S. Manjula Jegasothy, MD

Watch Now: DermTube.com/series/meeting-coverage-las-vegas-2017-dec

Neuromodulator Combinations to Grow

“I’m a great believer in combination treatments in aesthetics. I think more and more we’re using neuromodulators in combination to reduce the hyperfunctional muscles and then using the fillers to reduce the existing atrophic lines, the atrophic scars. We are using it in combination with rejuvenation with lasers, with radiofrequency…we get a more sustained and smoother result with the lasers and radiofrequency.”

—Nick Lowe, MD

Watch Now: DermTube.com/series/meeting-coverage-las-vegas-2017-dec

Rethink Scars: Making and Erasing

“When you think about any invasion into our integument, it allows us to bleed and to allow pathogens to come into our body. Scar formation is important, but obviously scars are problematic for their appearance, and a lot of people don’t realize that some scars hurt. They burn. They itch. Scars are a good and a bad thing.

In terms of advancements, I think the laser in my perspective has been one of the most important advancements in the last 25 years. I do a lot of scar resurfacing in my practice. The fractional lasers, especially the deep fractional lasers, really add a lot to that.

Also various wavelengths, such as the pulsed dye lasers and even intense pulsed light or IPL, have really been important because you can improve the size, the texture, and the appearance of scars.

One of the most important things about scars is in making them. We all do surgery and we’re all making scars…People that really figured that out—and I just do facial surgery—once you figure that out, it’s really important to follow those tenets for a good scar. Because a good scar is the surgeon’s signature.”

—Joe Niamtu, III, DMD

Watch Now: ModernAesthetics.com/tv/?f=scarprevention

Fillers for Texture

“One of the most important innovations when it comes to aesthetics is the new advancements in fillers and the filler materials that are being used. There are a few fillers out there that have not yet been FDA-approved, and are in the pipeline. Some of these fillers are longer lasting. Some of these fillers are more natural. Some of these fillers don’t just fill— and this is one of our understandings of fillers in the past, they’re used to just fill, especially if they’re HAs—but no, they actually change the structure and the texture of the skin.

There’s a lot of fillers that are out there that are not yet available in the United States that do that. Hopefully, this is going to be approved fairly soon.”

—Hassan Galadari, MD

Watch Now: modernaesthetics.com/tv/?f=fillerspipeline