PATIENT EDUCATION
BIRTHMARKS/PIGMENTED SKIN
The professionals at The Dermatology Center of Memorial believe that informed patients are better equipped to make decisions regarding their health and well-being. For your personal use, we have created an extensive patient library covering an array of educational topics, which can be found on the side of each page. Browse through these diagnoses and treatments to learn more about topics of interest to you. Below we include a brief description of some of the Cosmetic Services we offer. Please feel free to contact our offices with questions.
As always, you can contact our office to answer any questions or concerns.
Cosmetic Services
Botox Injection
An excellent treatment for wrinkles caused by muscle movement, Botox injection is a simple procedure taking only 10 or 15 minutes which involves minimal discomfort. Botox is used to treat forehead wrinkles, crow's feet, and frown lines between the eyes. It can also be helpful on the lower face.
Juvederm
Juvederm is a hyalurinc acid filler which can be used to improve wrinkles in the lower face, plump up aging ear lobes, and fill in deep troughs under the eyes. It is not a permanent filler, lasting between six and nine months. Dr. Schwartz has found Juvederm to be a great improvement over the injection of bovine collagen which lasts a shorter amount of time and introduces and an animal substance into the body.
Restylane
Restylane is a hyaluronic acid derivative which absorbs water and adds volume to skin giving a youthful look. Hyaluronic acid is a substance which occurs naturally in skin and which diminishes with age. Injections of restylane are used to diminish deep large smile lines (nasolabial folds) and to fill out the lip and diminish wrinkles around the mouth. It can also help to fill in scars and indentations, to plump up floppy earlobes, and to decrease hollows beneath the eyes.
Other filler materials are available at our office including Radiesse. All injections of botox and filler materials at our office are personally administered by the doctor.
Birthmarks are abnormal skin colorations in spots that are either present at birth or appear shortly thereafter. They can be flat or slightly raised from the skin. They can be any number of colors, including red, brown, black, tan, pink, white or purple. Birthmarks are generally harmless. There are two major categories of birthmarks: pigmented birthmarks and red birthmarks.
Pigmented Birthmarks can grow anywhere on the skin and at any time. They are usually black, brown or skin-colored and appear singly or in groups. They can be moles (congenital nevi) that are present at birth, Mongolian spots, which look like bluish bruises and appear more frequently on people with dark skin, or café-au-lait spots that are flat, light brown or tan and roughly form an oval shape.
Red Birthmarks (also known as macular stains) develop before or shortly after birth and are related to the vascular (blood vessel) system. There are a number of different types:
- Angel kisses, which usually appear on the forehead and eyelids.
- Stork bites, which appear on the back of the neck, between the eyebrows on the forehead, or on eyelids of newborns. They may fade away as the child grows, but often persist into adulthood.
- Port-wine stains, which are flat deep-red or purple birthmarks made up of dilated blood capillaries (small blood vessels). They often appear on the face and are permanent.
- Strawberry hemangiomas, composed of small, closely packed blood vessels that grow rapidly and can appear anywhere on the body. They usually disappear by age nine.
- Cavernous hemangiomas are similar to strawberry hemangiomas but go more deeply into the layers of the skin. These can often be characterized by a bluish-purple color. They also tend to disappear naturally around school age.