The Dermatology Blog

Botox can get into your head. Literally. Researchers from Pisa, Italy have been injecting rats with botox and watching what happens. The results were a little surprising. Read more…

Save your money. Dermatologists agree, spending more money on a cream does not mean you will have better effects.

Despite the promises of many anti-aging products, don’t expect major changes from an over-the-counter cream—regardless of how much you spend on it.

I’m afraid it’s true. Companies such as Oil of Olay and Neutrogena have excellent over the counter products that work just as well as expensive, I’m-a-Beverly-Hills-Dermatologist designer creams. Sometimes the expensive brand is worth the money. Usually, it’s not. Here are five pointers to help you save your hard earned money:

1. I have never seen an over the counter cream that actually eliminates wrinkles. Nope. Not a one.
2. Any over the counter face cream, whether you pay $8 or $400, will hydrate your skin, improving the texture of your skin and making your wrinkles less noticeable.
3. I have never seen a cream eliminate stretch marks. I am sorry — it’s the truth. Stretch marks are tears of the elastic fibers in the deep layers of the skin; creams simply cannot repair that. The good news is that all stretch marks improve with time — they become less pink and less noticeable. This is why people think that the product they used helped and why people swear by a whole range of products from cocoa butter to expensive department store creams.
4. Try for yourself. Apply Eucerin Body Creme to the stretch marks on the right side of your body. Apply your expensive stretch-mark-eraser-cream of choice to the stretch marks on the left side of your body. Do this for a month. Ask yourself (honestly) and three other people if they can see a difference. They won’t be able to.
5. There are hundreds of excellent products for your skin. If you have a question, then write to me at Dr (dot) Benabio (at) TheDermBlog (dot) com. Over time, I’ll tell you about the best possible products (and money savers) for your skin.

The latest trend in the quest for youthful skin is acupuncture face-lifts. Devotees tout its holistic approach to solve the problem of aging skin. There are several theories purported to explain the effects. One expert claims that the tiny needles induce new collagen growth, another states simply that the procedure “heals from the inside out,” and a third actually uses tiny electric currents to stimulate muscle growth, thereby increasing muscle volume. However, not all “experts” agree that this will improve your wrinkles:

Not likely, said Dr. Richard D’Amico, the president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

‘First of all, increasing tone does not increase muscle volume,’ said Dr. D’Amico, an assistant clinical professor of plastic surgery at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. [Moreover] ‘… anything that stimulates muscles will cause skin to fold even more and the wrinkles will get worse.’

Think about it. If simply contracting your muscles increased muscle size, then I would have massive fingers from all the typing I do and huge jaws from talking all day long. It doesn’t make sense.

As for the stimulation of new collagen, there are technologies such as Fraxel® lasers that blast microscopic holes in the skin which do induce new collagen growth. You would need literally thousands of acupuncture needles to equal one treatment of Fraxel, and it takes multiple Fraxel treatments to produce subtle results.

I believe in acupuncture; controlled studies have shown it can effectively treat conditions like chronic pain and high blood pressure. I believe that many medical or laser treatments are no better than acupuncture at treating wrinkles.

I want you to be an educated consumer. Before plunking down thousands of dollars ask:

• What is the evidence for this procedure?
• Has it been published in respected journals, such as the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology or Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery?
• Do you have photos from your office to demonstrate minimal, modest, and excellent results?

Photo by Natasha Calzatti for The New York Times.