Dr. Taub’s Summer 2014 letter

female college student standing by the wallDear patients, colleagues and friends,

I hope you were amongst us for the 4th annual Skin for Life. It seems to just get better every year, with beautiful fashions and a lively presentation of all of our technologies. Most importantly we paid tribute to our melanoma survivors, and there are many of them! Last year we dedicated the evening to Bonnie Sand, a beloved patient who had passed away due to cancer. This time we celebrated those who were still among us, many people who have successfully treated melanoma and are living their daily lives without interruption.

As usual, Susanna Negovan kept the crowd involved and the food and drinks were a treat. We had some super silent auction items such as, backstage passes to the Jimmy Kimmel show, Burberry Men’s and Women’s Cologne Baskets, and a vacation to Atlantis Casino Resort Spa. Most important, I believe we raised awareness of the importance of screening for skin cancer with our survivors and we were able to donate over $20,000 to The Skin Cancer Foundation.

I am hoping that we have had many beautiful days in June to make up for our snow in May and our late spring, not to mention the unmentionable winter we had (I am writing this in May!). Summer days are NOT to be squandered, so we do know you would rather be out doing something fun than coming to see us in the summer. But summer is a great time for body shaping because all of our body shaping devices don’t interfere with outdoor activities or sun exposure. Also summer is the time when we are most conscious about our shape because we have the least amount of clothes on.

We have some unique equipment for body shaping. We have a new device called Vanquish, which uses a radiofrequency field to create heat in the abdominal fat that then causes some of it to be absorbed by the body. It is painless and you don’t have to do anything but lay down! We are the only practice in the midwest to have this ground breaking technology. This is good for those of us who have a bit more padding than we would like all over the abdominal and flanks area. This can be accomplished with 6 weekly treatments.  Then we can proceed to either tighten the skin with Thermage® or Tripollar® Apollo or to further contour or sculpt specific areas of fat excess with CoolSculpting®. Dr. Kashlan is writing an entire article on this in this newsletter, so please read for more details. We feel that we have a truly state of the art line up of the best devices right now to accomplish this difficult task. Please see the specials and events section for the July special on combo treatments for body shaping.

Neotensil is a new advance in the non-invasive treatment of under eye bags. This problem, up until now, has only been able to be addressed via surgery (blepharoplasty) or filler under the eye. This new topical therapy actually creates a membrane that flattens the bag, creating a kind of “Spanx®” for the eyelid fat pouch. It works dramatically within a couple of hours. It does need to be reapplied daily – stop into skinfo® for a demonstration. We will apply it to one of your eyes so a few hours later you can see for yourself what it can do.

The single biggest concern of all of our clients and patients when getting fillers or BOTOX® is that they want to look natural. They want to look better, rested, more youthful, less tired, or however they think of it in their own mind, but not different from who they are. We want to assure you we share this goal with you.! It will NEVER be our intention to make you look “done”, with cheeks and lips out to here and a frozen, expressionless face. That is not our aesthetic and we think that that is as ugly as you do! I am always telling people when they mention the various celebrities that have awful or obvious work that the people who have good work just blend in. YOU CAN’T TELL they had work just by looking at them. This is what we always strive for. Whenever we embark on something as precious as altering our own face, it is natural to feel nervous. But please know that we are 100% with you and share this intention to keep you looking like you – just the best version of you!

Keep your sunscreen on but do enjoy your time outside. See you in the fall!

Amy Forman Taub, MD

And the Staff of Advanced Dermatology and skinfo® Specialty Skincare Boutique