What is Sclerotherapy?
Sclerotherapy is a method of removing spider veins in the legs by injecting a liquid into the vein. This liquid causes the size of the small blood vessels to swell so the blood can’t travel through it anymore. The body eventually absorbs these vessels.
While there are several different liquid compounds used for these injections, we most commonly use Asclera — a solution that effectively treats the vein and has an anesth...
What is Feminine Rejuvenation?
Female rejuvenation, commonly referred to as vaginal rejuvenation, encompasses several procedures. In the past, physicians like plastic surgeons and even OB/GYNs used procedures including labia tightening, labiaplasty, and other surgical procedures for female rejuvenation.
Now we have less invasive, energy-based procedures available that don’t require surgery and require less downtime for recovery. These include the...
What is a Blistering Disorder?
Blistering disorders of the skin are different from friction or inflammation-induced blisters. Commonly, these blisters come from one of two autoimmune disorders, pemphigoid or pemphigus, that causes a blister breakout on the skin.
Pemphigus and pemphigoid are autoimmune conditions where your body produces antibodies that attach to the layers of the skin. The antibodies attach to the epidermis or sub-epidermis and create ...
What is a Cold Sore?
A cold sore is a viral infection, usually caused by the herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1). A patient’s first outbreak after contracting the virus typically produces blisters, erosions or painful sores all around and inside the mouth.
Later outbreaks of the herpes simplex virus typically produce blisters or sores in one isolated area — either around the lips or inside the mouth. These sores seem to appear with increased stress or a...
While general dermatologists have experience and training in a range of pediatric dermatological conditions, they may refer young patients to a pediatric dermatologist for evaluation and treatment of rare, genetic, or severe conditions or those unresponsive to current therapies.
A pediatric dermatologist specializes in evaluating and treating skin disorders in infants, children, and teenagers. Beyond their education in general dermatology, pediatric de...
Shingles is a manifestation of the varicella-zoster virus — the same virus that causes chickenpox. While chickenpox is usually isolated to young children, shingles typically happens to people over age 50.
When the herpes zoster virus is triggered by a stressful event, shingles begins as a painful, itchy sensation in the skin followed by a blistery, fluid-filled rash isolated to one side of the body.
What are the Symptoms of Shingles?
The herpes zoste...
Nail surgery is a way to remove a portion of the nail or an entire nail due to a disorder, deformity, or fungus. Nail surgery isn’t typically the first line of treatment for nail problems, but ingrown nail surgery or nail surgery to remove an extremely thick fungus may be the best option after consultation.
Often, podiatrists conduct an ingrown toenail nail surgery for their patients after other nail grooming methods prove inefficient. For example, a...
Cryosurgery, also known as cryosurgical destruction, uses liquid nitrogen to treat various skin lesions. This intense cold liquid (liquid nitrogen), with a temperature of -196 °C (-320 °F), is applied to target areas to destroy unwanted cell structures.
Cryosurgery vs. Cryotherapy
What’s the difference? Cryotherapy is a light application of liquid nitrogen used for cosmetic purposes while cryosurgery is reserved for destruction of various skin lesi...
What is a Fungal Infection?
There are two broad categories of fungal infections:
Relatively innocuous fungal infections that live on the skin, hair, and nails (like athlete’s foot or jock itch)
Potentially more dangerous fungal infections that invade deeper structures of the skin or organs in the body called “deep fungal infections”.
Dermatologists treat fungal infections of the skin, as well as fungal infections in hair and nails. Often, t...
A biopsy is the removal of a piece of skin to help render a diagnosis of skin cancers or inflammatory conditions. Dermatologists biopsy an area to confirm a diagnosis that cannot be rendered with the eyes alone. We need a microscope to be certain.
If a patient comes in with a mole, the dermatologist can closely examine the mole and suspect it may be skin cancer or a spot that could later become a cancer – but without a biopsy, we can’t know for s...