Have you (or someone you know) had a Laser Disaster?

We love helping fix other people's problems!  And we're not shy to tackle the high risk difficult clients either!

Take this example:
This patient of SouthEast Asian background was severely burnt during a laser procedure undertaken overseas, and was then inappropriately treated after the burn also.  The result?  A severe case of post-inflammatory pigmentation, which took many months of very careful lasering and topical at-home treatment using prescription-only skincare products.
But boy oh boy, does she look better now!

                                                                BEFORE

                                                                  AFTER

If you've had a terrible laser experience please seek help immediately from a qualified and experienced medical laser expert.  Burns must not be treated in salons by non-medically qualified staff as many of these will require prescription-only treatment.  By acting quickly, you can prevent severe disfiguration that may require multiple costly laser treatments to remove.

Contact Skin Temple by email (only general enquiries will be answered): info@skintemple.com.au
Call us for an appointment to discuss your specific problems in person 03 9867 2992.
View our website for further information on the range of services available: www.skintemple.com.au
Like us on facebook: www.facebook.com/skintemple and remember to share this post with your friends!

Is Adolescent Acne Getting You Down?

Congratulations on discovering the ‘joys’ of having unpredictable acne problems..just when you least needed to have a crisis of self-confidence!

Acne problems come in all forms..it’s not just the obvious cystic acne that needs treatment..even years of blackheads can leave permanent scarring.

There are 3 types of acne lesions:

1)   Non-inflammatory, meaning the acne lesions are mostly just a mixture of white- and black-heads (also known as milia and comedones)

2)     Inflammatory, meaning that in addition to the above lesions there are numerous red angry looking, but non-tender, fairly superficial pimples

3)     Cystic- meaning that in addition to points 1 and 2 above, there are also very red, hardened, tender lumps deep in the skin

Acne forms largely as a result of the hormonal effect on the skin at puberty..all those circulating hormones stimulate oil production enormously, and the oil has an effect on the outer dead skin cells much like ‘glue’..it sticks the cells all together and slows down the natural shedding effect of the skin.  This leads to congestion around the openings of the pores, and stagnate oil is a major risk factor for infection setting in.

So, what to do?

Firstly, because acne can vary from person to person, make sure you get prompt advice to minimize the chance of your acne progressing to the most severe forms. 

In the early stage, your local cosmetic physician, chemist or dermal therapist may be able to help out with some simple advice for appropriate skincare containing AHAs or BHAs (these are products containing gentle acids, which work by loosening the build up of dead skin/keratin). Eg ASAP products.  It is important to balance these with some very gentle skincare products, to avoid having your skin become overly irritated or sensitive. Eg Avene products

Here's a before and after of one of my clients with only mild inflammatory acne: 

However, if you have any sign of inflammation at all, you will need to consult a cosmetic physician or general practitioner with an interest in skin to obtain prescription based medication, (eg antibiotic tablet or toner, vitamin A based creams) not available over the counter.  You will almost certainly need to use these as well as an acid based skincare range.  Chemical peeling can also be very useful and rapidly effective for mild-moderate acne.

If your skin doesn’t respond to medical treatment within 3 months (eg a combination of creams and possibly antibiotic tablets or chemical peels), or if your acne problem is in the most severe category, you will need  to be referred to a dermatologist for a medication that is an oral form of vitamin A.

There are numerous brands of iso-tretinoin, such as Roaccutane or Oratane.

Iso-tretinoin works extremely well for severe cystic acne, but can have a lot of side effects (such as birth defects), so must be prescribed and used very carefully.

Diet is important for some people, less so for others.  What’s important overall is to be on the lookout for foods (and drinks eg alcohol) that can precipitate acne breakouts, and avoid these whenever possible.

Stress can be a common precipitant for many people, and learning some healthy techniques for minimizing the impact of stress (eg pre-exam times) can be a useful lifelong measure.

Acne scarring gets many people down, and can be a costly thing to treat with laser.  What’s essential therefore, is to get great advice quickly, and to therefore minimize the chance of needing laser later on.  Some scarring is easily fixed by great skincare advice alone.  
Here's an example of one of my clients with lots of nasty pigmented scars (who hadn't finished treatment when this follow up photo was taken) which have dramatically improved with medical treatment only:

On the other hand, if you leave your cystic acne for too long, even though your skin will look a lot better once the active lesions are controlled, you'll be left with significant scarring that only aggressive lasering can fix.  See another of my client before and afters (this is after medical treatment, not laser!): 

Makeup to school?  That’s ok as a short term thing.. most of us understand what it feels like to have something you’d rather hide on your face! Try to choose a makeup that is oil free, and better still, try one of the mineral powders rather than a liquid foundation..a powder will absorb your excess oil and reduce any shine in the process!  As soon as your acne is under control, ditch the makeup and just use sunscreen every day..much more important for your skin’s long term health!

Controlling oil production isn’t always easy as a teenager.  Be aware that the more you’re tempted to overcleanse your face, making it feel squeaky clean will in fact only stimulate your oil glands to crank up the oil production even more!  Oil is there because your skin needs a certain amount of it to stay healthy, keep out water, bugs and other potentially harmful substances.  If you strip it entirely, your body will try to replace it faster than you realize.  If your pores are blocked, this will lead to cystic lesions forming very quickly.  Use a gentle soap free cleanser once a day, and an acid containing scrub daily also.  You won’t believe the difference it will make!

BIO:

I started my passion for skincare as a somewhat pimply and sun obsessed 16yo, growing up in country Victoria.  A summer spent frivously working on my tan and observing the scary effect it had on my skin, convinced me of the need to accept the skin colour I was born with, a decision that I am proud of making at such a relatively young age!

Fast forward a number of years, and after graduating from Monash University with honours in 1993, I went on to post graduate studies in General Practice (which showed me how little is taught to GPs about general skincare and especially the non-pharmocological treatment of acne) and obtained a Certificate in Dermatology in 2005. I started my ‘official’ training in Cosmetic Medicine between 2000-2002, including with a Cosmetic Dermatologist between 2001-2002, and then started my first business, Victorian Cosmedic Service, in 2002, opening Skin Temple Medi Clinic and Spa in 2010, and won the Australasian Spa Association award for Best MediSpa only 15months later in 2011. Please check out our website for a full list of treatments available: www.skintemple.com.au

Interested in providing cost effective solutions especially in the area of acne management, we pride ourselves on also offering first class skincare education to our clients, which means that our treatment results last far beyond a temporary short term solution to what is often a long term problem.

If you have a general enquiry about our acne services, please email: info@skintemple.com.au

Specific enquiries about your acne problems will require a consultation with Dr Teska.  Please call our medispa on 03 9867 2992 to make an appointment.

For further general information on the range of services available at Skin Temple, please view our website: www.skintemple.com.au 

Our facebook page is located at: www.facebook.com/skintemple Please like our page and remember to share with your friends!

Is Vitamin D deficiency the Scurvy of our time?

We're hearing a lot about vitamin D deficiency these days.

Nutritional research is rarely a topic of much interest for the big pharmaceutical companies, but finally there is some research being done that would suggest that vitamin D is a much more important molecule than previously suspected.  A definite association with osteomalacia and rickets, and possibly linked to depression, diabetes, multiple sclerosis and other illnesses, vitamin D research is finally getting the attention it deserves, but at this stage it seems that we are a long way from really understanding what the full effect of vitamin D deficiency is.

Vitamin D is a substance usually made in the skin from the UV light, but there are also dietary sources too, such as eggs and fish, making it quite unlike all the other vitamins.

Unfortunately, this mixture of sources is also affecting scientific research, preventing many studies from having true 'control' groups.
But the biggest problem of all is the lack of consistency when it comes to measuring vitamin D levels in the different laboratories..and we're not talking about the difference between countries.  Unfortunately, even in Australia, there are numerous ways of measuring vitamin D levels from one lab to another. 

 This makes it virtually impossible to compare data or entertain the thought of doing a meta-analysis (where data is pooled from a variety of studies around the world).  And for patients having treatment for Vit D deficiency..let's hope they're not changing labs for their next blood test or the result will be meaningless.
Hard to believe that in this modern age, a lack of consistent analysis and an inability to therefore share information is preventing us from learning about one of the most important vitamins known to mankind.

One hundred years ago, the term 'vitamin' was first coinied by Casimer Funk at the Lister Institute in London.  Vitamins are micronutrients essential for normal cellular function.  They generally fall into 2 groups..the fat soluble (A, D, E and K) and the water soluble (Bgroup, C).  With the exception of vitamin B12, only the fat soluble vitamins can be stored in the body.
Scurvy, due to a severe deficiency of Vitamin C (also known as ascorbic acid), was a common disease affecting the sea-farers of the 16th-19th centuries.  It took more than 300 years for the cure of scurvy to be identified, and even longer for the ultimate cause to be identified (ascorbic acid wasn't isolated until 1932).  In the meantime, countless naval tragedies claimed the lives of millions of men, either directly or indirectly as a consequence of vitamin C deficiency.  Scurvy killed more people than all the storms, shipwrecks, combat and other diseases combined.  Lemon juice rations were used as a means of scurvy prevention by the British during the blockade of Napoleonic France, and thanks to the resultant unusually healthy navy, the British rapidly became the first truly global superpower, able to send large numbers of people to the Antipodes on searoutes that took many months to complete.

How sad then, to discover that the cure for scurvy was actually documented in the early 17th century by a English naval merchant who had grown up in Portugal, recognising the value of lemon juice and going to great lengths to ensure that he always carried it on journeys to the East Indies.  Somehow, this cure was overlooked within 30yrs of its discovery, (perhaps partly because lemon juice was expensive!) and it took another 260years before official instructions re lime juice were issued by the British.

Scurvy is still around today, for it cannot be vaccinated against.  The early signs being that of lethargy and mental dullness..in more advanced cases dental loss, swollen gums and poor wound healing.  Wherever there is a war, a drought, a famine, a flood, (anything that interferes with normal transport and food distribution networks), the elderly and infirm, or those with imbalanced diets, you can be sure to find scurvy.

The prevalence and incidence of vitamin D deficiency, on the other hand, can only be estimated currently, but it is very likely to be of a much greater magnitude than that of vitamin C deficiency,given our modern lifestyle of working long hours indoors with deliberate avoidance of excessive sun exposure, especially in those trying to limit the cosmetic and medical consequences of a life spent too much in the sun, as our parents often did from the 1950s through to the 1980s.


Let's hope that scientists and governments around the world remember the millions who died unnecessarily from scurvy, and unite in the near future to share data on vitamin D from a universal research method.  For everyone else, please remember that a varied diet, rich in fruit and vegetables, is one of the most important health measures you can do on a daily basis..especially in those over 40!

Blogging...this is new!! Welcome to my first ever blog page!

It's mid winter, 2011, time to get this blog started..which has been on the list of to-do's at Skin Temple for quite some time.

I've decided to call the blog "Xxxxx Queen", since that is the topic of enquiry most often encountered in the clinic, and after 11 years of injecting Xxxxx (and Xxxxxxx), I think I can easily claim credit to being Melbourne's Xxxxx Queen!

Obviously I do quite a bit of Xxxxx injecting in the practice, but I also do quite a lot of other injecting, such as Xxxxxxx, Xxxxxxxxx, Xxxxxxx, Xxxxxx, XxxX, Xxxxxxxx and Xxxxxxxx.


Many people remain underinformed about the extensive range of products out there today, and how each product differs, and how they can be used in different ways to achieve the look you are after.

Unfortunately, due to TGA censorship of this blogpage, I am unable to provide any specific information to the general public about any of these products.
Sometimes it is difficult to know which product is right for you..that's where a consultation is essential.
Unfortunately, it really is impossible to give good cosmetic advice over the phone! I wish it was that easy!!

So if you have a question to ask about injectables, ask away, but I will have to keep the advice general, given that injectables are such personalised treatments!