Glynis Ablon, MD, FAAD Talks Non-Invasive Skin Tightening Procedures at SPDA Fall Conference

The 2022 Society of Dermatology Physician Assistants (SDPA) Conference is underway in Miami, Florida. Glynis Ablon, MD, FAAD and associate clinical professor at UCLA talked to Dermatology Times® about her 2 sessions at the SPDA Fall Conference, “Non-Invasive Skin Tightening Procedures” and “Regenerative Dermatology.”

Video transcript:

Glynis Ablon, MD, FAAD: I am Dr. Glynis Ablon. I'm a board certified dermatologist, and I run the Ablon Skin Institute and Research Center in Manhattan Beach, California. I am an associate clinical professor at UCLA. I'm excited to head over to Miami which I get to visit often, I'll be talking about regenerative dermatology, as well as novel treatment devices that are new to the art, the aesthetic space. So regenerative medicine, or regenerative dermatology, specifically, is really an exciting thing. The idea is we're dealing with tissue engineering, and coming up with ways to stimulate stem cells and growth factors. There are new technologies available every day; we do a lot of PRP, we do things like exosomes, and they're really coming to the forefront where we're realizing that we can develop these products, these liquids, these tissue versions, and use them topically on the skin, some are being injected into the skin, some people are doing IVs with it, to really allow the body to rejuvenate itself, whether that's with new hair growth, whether that's with new skin, whether that's with wound healing, wound care, a lot of different topics. It's very exciting technology. I'm excited to share it with everybody. Then the other one that I'm doing is novel treatment devices. So there are some really new exciting developments out there. So when I talk about devices, I try to go over the fact that when I see a patient who wants the overall cosmetic consultation, I'm going to talk a little bit in the beginning about evaluating the face and talking about what's going on with the face. More than really looking at the face as not just, oh, someone's got a spot here or they need some fillers, but really kind of looking at the overall structure of the face. I look at the facial strcture, I look at the morphology and I look at cement symmetry. And then I say "we've got injectables, we've got neuromodulators". Then you can get into the kind of the device realm. That's where I have new devices. One is the ultra-clear technology and that is the newest device in the resurfacing realm. That has an erbium device that allows us to treat all skin types with less downtime that works very quickly. We can tighten the skin, lighten the skin, and even out pigmentation in a matter of a few days as opposed to in the past. It's always been a lot longer, with a lot of downtime and we're not seeing that. The other one I'm going to mention is the newest ultrasound technology, which is for skin tightening and lifting. It's a wonderful device; we're actually using it on the face, on the neck, on the arms on the legs, on the thighs. I mean everywhere, to really kind of get that boost on the skin. So we're excited about that. Then I'm going to mention radio frequency , which has been around for a while but we are combining it now and we're having new devices that have microneedling with radiofrequency and really neat microneedling devices changed, so they have different kinds of tips, different kinds of duration, different kinds of depth, that all play a part into, especially for acne scars and skin rejuvenation as well as distributing products onto the skin or into the skin for remodeling is very important. I also want to mention this newest technology on rejuvenation that is in oxygen. I'm going to mention dermal coring, which is a novel technology where they actually pour tissue out of the skin and it allows it to heal and tighten in that way. Then there is a thermal mechanical fractional titanium alloy tip that heats up the tissue; it's very hot, allowing that to heat and penetrate deep into the skin without really traumatizing the skin. So patients have very little to no downtime at all, but it does tighten the skin from the outside in. It's pretty exciting, exciting stuff.

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