Dermatology & The Science Behind

The skin is a vital part of your body. It serves as your first line of defence against sickness and safeguards your other organs. Not just that, the skin keeps you warm and cool and conveys what information is needed about your internal health.

So, it makes natural that something this important needs a doctor who specializes in the treatment. That is where a dermatologist comes into the picture.

According to AAD:

A dermatologist is a physician who focuses on diseases of the skin, hair, and nails. Whether it’s rashes, wrinkles, psoriasis, or melanoma, no one understands your skin, hair, and nails better than a board-certified dermatologist.

What does a dermatologist do?

There are thousands of disorders of the skin, hair, and nails, that can be reliably diagnosed and effectively treated by a board-certified dermatologist thanks to their considerable training.

In addition to treating skin conditions that affect your look, dermatologists are well-trained to offer cosmetic procedures including Laser hair removal, Botox, Fillers, Chemical peels, Microneedling, CoolSculpting and more.

What is a board-certified dermatologist?

Dermatologists go through a lot of formal education and training. To become board certified, the procedure entails:

A 4-year degree program from a medical school and becoming a doctor
Successfully completing a 3-year (or more) residency training in dermatology
Passing the board exam

Passing board examination from the American Board of Dermatology, American Osteopathic Board of Dermatology and/or Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada renders board certification to the dermatologist.

So, when you see that your dermatologist is board certified by one of these organizations, you can be assured that you’re receiving care from a highly-trained, qualified specialist.

Other Specialities of Dermatology

Some dermatologists continue their medical education after earning their board certification. They might pursue additional dermatology training to become one of the following specialists:

Pediatric Dermatology Experts

Although technically all dermatologists can treat children, some skin, hair, or nail disorders are more common (or only found) in infants and teenagers. The treatment of these problems is the specialty of a pediatric dermatologist.

Mohs Surgery Experts

This type of dermatologist is an expert in Mohs surgery, which is a specialized procedure used to treat skin cancer.

Dermatopathology Expert

A medical professional with training in both dermatology and pathology is called a dermatopathologist. This specialist can detect illnesses by using a microscope to examine a little piece of skin, hair, or nail that has been removed.

11 Most Common Dermatology Procedures

A dermatologist can identify and treat 3,000+ skin, nail, and hair conditions. Some of the most common procedures they usually perform are:

1) Dermaplaning

Dermaplaning is a minimally invasive cosmetic procedure for your skin. Here, your medical professional removes the topmost layers of your skin using a specialized tool.

Benefits of Dermaplaning:

By exposing fresher, unharmed skin, dermaplaning can help to lessen the appearance of acne scars, fine lines, wrinkles, dull skin or other skin blemishes
While exfoliation and hair removal makes your skin appear younger, they cannot reverse the ageing process

2) Chemical Peel

Chemical Peels are popular aesthetic procedures that can be used on the hands, neck, and face. In this treatment, a chemical solution is applied to the area to be treated, causing the skin to exfoliate and ultimately peel off.

Benefits of Chemical Peels:

Get rid of the fine lines around your mouth and under your eyes
Treat wrinkles, discoloured skin
Treat certain forms of acne
Enhance the skin’s appearance and feel

3) Lip Filler Injections

For people who want to have fuller, plumper lips; an injectable dermal filler can do just that. Lip augmentation is a cosmetic procedure that adds volume to your lips.

Dermal fillers come in a variety of sorts that can be injected into your lips and the area surrounding your mouth. But today’s most popular fillers are those that include compounds that resemble hyaluronic acid.

Benefits of Hyaluronic Acid Lip Fillers:

Improve the appearance of your lips by adding shape, volume, and structure
Less bruising and swelling
Effects are not permanent but they do endure for a while
Unlikely to trigger an allergic reaction because they are created from materials that are comparable to those found in the body

4) Laser Hair Removal

Laser hair removal is yet another extremely popular cosmetic procedure performed by a dermatologist in U.S. and Canada. It uses a concentrated beam of light to remove unwanted hair.

The pigment in the hair absorbs the laser light that is emitted during laser hair removal. The light energy is transformed into heat, which destroys the skin’s hair-producing follicles

Benefits of Laser Hair Removal:

Target the dark, coarse hairs with pinpoint accuracy
Remove ingrown hairs, reduces the likelihood of swelling, rashes, and itching
Sessions for laser hair removal are brief. Lip, underarms, and the bikini just take 10-15 minutes
Can be applied to face, legs, armpits, upper lip, chin and the bikini line
Less painful alternative to other hair removal techniques such as waxing, tweezing and threading

5) CoolSculpting®

Cryolipolysis, often known as CoolSculpting®, is a cosmetic procedure that eliminates extra stubborn fat in certain parts of your body. It functions by killing and destroying fat cells by freezing.

With the help of a CoolSculpting® machine, the dermatologist will cool your fat to a degree that will cause it to be destroyed while sparing your skin and other tissues from any injury.

Benefits of CoolSculpting:

No downtime is associated with the treatment’s non-invasive nature
Quick and Simple, most procedures last only minutes
Gives natural-looking body contours that begin to show gradually over a period of time
As long as you continue living a healthy lifestyle, CoolSculpting® benefits can last for a very long time

6) Botox

Botox Cosmetic is an injectable muscle relaxant for wrinkles. Muscle is momentarily paralyzed by OnabotulinumtoxinA, a botulinum toxin type A. As a result, fewer facial wrinkles are visible.

A Botox injection causes little to no discomfort. It is regarded as a secure, successful method of treating wrinkles and fine lines around the eyes. Moreover, it can also be applied to the area above the eyes on the forehead.

Benefits of Botox:

Easy way to enhance your natural beauty
Improve health conditions such as muscle pain, chronic migraines and prevent severe underarm sweating
Non-invasive and relatively fast
Less expensive compared to other surgical procedures

7) Microneedling

Taking a cue from the body’s natural healing reaction, dermatologists utilize microneedling as a cosmetic technique to promote collagen creation. It involves sticking tiny, sterile needles into the skin.

Also called Collagen Induction Therapy, your body produces more collagen and elastin as a result of the little injuries, which helps your skin repair and makes you appear younger.

Benefits of Microneedling:

Reduce the appearance of scars, acne scars, fine lines and wrinkles
Reduce enlarged pores, dark spots
Smooth uneven skin tone and reduce the appearance of stretch marks
Less expensive than laser treatments

8) Mole Removal

The majority of moles are safe, but if one appears worrisome, your doctor may advise having it removed. The mole can still be removed if you don’t like how it makes you look.

Apart from everything, a dermatologist visit for an annual skin cancer screening is the best technique to determine whether a mole is malignant.

Benefits of Mole Removal:

Improving your appearance by cleaning up your skin
Boost your sense of self
Detect skin cancer early and protect you from the mole developing into cancer

9) Skin Tag Removal

A skin tag is a little, floppy patch of skin that hangs there and may have a stalk, or peduncle. They can appear anywhere on the body and are extremely prevalent. In addition to this, Skin tags typically appear in both men and women after midlife.

10) Ultherapy

Ultherapy is a nonsurgical substitute for a facelift. It is based on the same technology as ultrasound imaging in radiology.

The Ultherapy device is pressed up against the skin, and your doctor will set it up properly using an ultrasound viewer. The targeted locations are subsequently given ultrasound energy. It results in the muscle contracting and shrinking, giving the skin a firming, smoothing, and contouring appearance.

11) Thermage

Thermage is a non-invasive therapy that uses radiofrequency (RF) to encourage the generation of new collagen, which helps to tighten and smooth skin.

Thermage is typically advised for face, eyes, thighs, and abdomen.

5 Top reasons to see a Dermatologist

Skin issues like blemishes and wrinkles are fairly prevalent. But thousands of illnesses can have an impact on the skin. The point to be noted here is that some have negligible symptoms while others may cause major disruptions to daily living.

The treatment of the skin, hair, and nails is a dermatologist’s area of expertise. So he should be consulted if there are any signs of redness, itching, pain, rashes, or pus. Following are the 5 best reasons why you should see a dermatologist:

Acne

Acne is the most common skin condition in the United States and Canada. Teenagers frequently get acne, but anyone can develop it. On the face, it causes a variety of imperfections such as deep cysts, pimples, blackheads, and whiteheads.

A dermatologist can identify various forms of acne, recommend treatments, and assist in reducing acne scars.

Eczema

The excruciatingly uncomfortable and upsetting skin inflammation is caused by several chronic skin disorders. These disorders are generally grouped together under a common term called ‘Eczema’. It frequently results in irritated, dry, and reddened skin.

With certain tests and a skin examination, dermatologists can identify and treat eczema.

Psoriasis

The problem of psoriasis is linked to the immune system. Skin cells form excessively quickly as a result of this. They then amass the skin’s surface and could hurt or itch.

Psoriasis can be easily identified by dermatologists by examining a sample of skin under a microscope.

Hair Loss

The average person loses up to 100 hairs per day. Nevertheless, bald spots or thinning hair can be indicators of disease. Hair loss can be caused by stress, pregnancy, a variety of medical conditions, and more.

A dermatologist can identify the cause and suggest remedies if you’ve observed that you’re starting to lose hair.

Cosmetics

Skin is a sensitive organ that changes as we age. You might detect wrinkles, dryness, or age spots, which are discolorations. In addition to this, smoking and the damaging UV rays from the sun can hasten and exacerbate these ageing symptoms.

And if you don’t like the way you age, you might want to consult a dermatologist. There are plenty of cosmetic procedures that can be used to tighten the skin and reduce wrinkles. The procedures that make the skin look younger.

Now that you’ve read about the science behind dermatology, you might be interested in knowing about the top-rated dermatologists in your area. So here they’re:

15 Best Dermatologists in Victoria

12 Best Dermatologists in Halifax

12 Best Dermatologists in Kelowna

13 Best Dermatologists in Oakville

13 Best Dermatologists in Brampton

6 Best Dermatologists in Regina

15 Best Dermatologists in Surrey

7 Best Dermatologists in London

7 Best Dermatologists in Barrie

8 Best Dermatologists in Scarborough

4 Best Dermatologists in Markham

7 Best Dermatologists in Kitchener