The staff are the ones who answer patient questions the most. The more we can educate them on how to answer the questions, the more effective they will be in helping us be more efficient with our time. I asked my staff to put together a list of the most common patient skin care questions. This column can be used as a guide for your staff when answering questions about skin care.
Q: Should my sunscreen be applied first or last?
A: The best way to remember is that medications should be applied closest to the skin and sunscreen should be applied closest to the sun. I recommend that morning skin care be applied in the following order:
Step 1. Facial cleanser
Step 2. Eye products (protect the delicate eye area from the medication)
Step 3. Treatment product (medications, or the most important active ingredients)
Step 4. Moisturizer (if needed)
Step 5. Sunscreen
Q: When can I restart my normal skin care regimen after receiving dermal fillers?
A: The morning after receiving dermal fillers, you can resume your normal facial skin care regimen.
Q: How do I treat my skin after receiving cosmetic injections such as Botox?
A: After you are injected with dermal fillers, keep the Arnica gel, Arnica pads, or post procedure product on your face until bedtime. Prior to bed, wash your face with a gentle cleanser and lukewarm water. Do not use any scrubs, facial brushes, or hydroxy acids. Apply a soothing gel or soothing moisturizer. Do not use hot water on the face for 48 hours. Avoid hot showers, saunas, facial steaming, facial massage, and exercise for 48 hours. If you must exercise, try to keep the face cool with an ice filled bottle of water. Heat makes you more likely to bruise.
Q: Will retinol make my skin sun sensitive?
A: Retinol breaks down upon sun exposure so it should only be used at night. It is a myth that retinol makes your skin sun sensitive. Retinol is a form of vitamin A that helps protect your skin from sun damage by reducing levels of an enzyme called collagenase that is produced after sun exposure. For this and other reasons, retinol can help protect your skin from sun damage. However, if your skin gets irritated from the retinol and you go into the sun, you can develop postinflammatory hyperpigmentation – or dark patches on the skin. It is a good idea to always wear sunscreen in the morning every day whether you are using retinol or not.
Q: What do I do to treat the dark circles under my eyes?
A: Dark circles can be caused by sluggish blood flow around the eyes leading to deposition of a pigment found in blood called hemosiderin. Dark circles around the eyes also can be caused by an increased amount of the pigment melanin that occurs from sun exposure, heat, estrogen, and stress. Treatments include lifestyle habits that increase blood circulation, such as smoking cessation and exercise. Supplements such as horse chestnut may help improve circulation. Ingredients such as the tyrosinase inhibitors ascorbic acid, kojic acid, arbutin, and hydroquinone will help decrease melanin production, and may improve dark circles caused by increased melanin. Wearing a daily sunscreen around the eyes is a very important part of improving the appearance of dark circles under the eyes.
Q: Do I need an eye cream?
A: Most people need an eye product whether it is a serum, gel, or cream. Eye treatment products are usually one of the first skin care products that male patients purchase. The most common indications for eye treatment products are dark circles under the eyes, puffy eyes, dryness, fine lines, or redness. Each one of these indications requires very different ingredients; therefore, most people need more than one eye product depending on what eye issues they are experiencing. Eye treatment products can protect the delicate eye area from medications such as tretinoin that gets on the pillowcase and is transferred to the eye area at night. Eye products that have humectants, such as heparan sulfate or hyaluronic acid, should be used to treat fines lines and dryness, but these may make eyes puffy. For those with dry and puffy eyes, a second eye product with vasoconstrictive ingredients should be used in the daytime while the hydrating one is used at night. Antiaging eye products with retinol and hydroxy acids may irritate sensitive skin types so they can be paired with a soothing eye product. Consider using different eye products for the morning and evening depending on what eye issues need to be treated.
Q: Will moisturizer make my acne worse?
A: Noncomedogenic moisturizers can help improve acne and speed recovery. Using the proper cleanser and moisturizer will make acne medications more tolerable. Many patients cannot tolerate their acne medications every day. The bacteria that cause acne reproduce every 12 hours. For this reason, acne medications must be used consistently twice a day. Using the proper cleanser and moisturizer makes this possible in most patients. Avoid moisturizers with coconut oil, isopropyl myristate, and other ingredients known to cause acne.
Q: Why does my face get so red after washing it?
A: Rosacea-prone skin types get red from the friction of washing the face – even if just using water. If this occurs, use skin care products with anti-inflammatory ingredients such as argan oil, green tea, fever few, chamomile, caffeine, resveratrol, and niacinamide to sooth the skin. These can be paired with prescription rosacea medications such as Rhofade (oxymetazoline hydrochloride) to reduce facial redness. People with rosacea-prone skin types should avoid facial brushes, scrubs, and vigorous exfoliation.
Q: Why is my melasma not getting better on skin lighteners?
A: It takes 12-16 weeks in some cases to see the effects of tyrosinase inhibitors. Progress can be impeded if the patient is exposed to infrared (heat), UVA, UVB, or inflammation. Daily sunscreen is a must. Consider adding anti-inflammatory ingredients to the skin care regimen. Oral supplements such as Polypodium leucotomos may help. Stress and use of melatonin supplements may worsen melasma.
Educating our staff on the basics of skin care can make our office much more efficient. If you liked the format of this column or have questions that you hear often from patients, please email me at DrB@derm.net .
Dr. Baumann is a private practice dermatologist, researcher, author and entrepreneur who practices in Miami. She founded the Cosmetic Dermatology Center at the University of Miami in 1997. Dr. Baumann wrote two textbooks: “Cosmetic Dermatology: Principles and Practice” (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002), and “Cosmeceuticals and Cosmetic Ingredients,” (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2014), and a New York Times Best Sellers book for consumers, “The Skin Type Solution” (New York: Bantam Dell, 2006). Dr. Baumann has received funding for advisory boards and/or clinical research trials from Allergan, Evolus, Galderma, Aclaris, and Revance. She is the founder and CEO of Skin Type Solutions Franchise Systems LLC.
