>> KATH i welcome to the BioBalance health cast. This is Dr. Kathy Maupin and we're continuing our decisions about BioBalance skin one of the parts of BioBalance Health where we rejuvenate skin. >> BRET ight, and I'm Brett Newcomb and we have our guest with us again today. Abby Calaubio, and Abby is a Nurse Practitioner and Medical Esthetician. And in our previous episode we talked about what those terms mean and how Abby does her work. But we're going to remind you of that in case you missed the other episode. Tell me what a nurse practitioner is opposed to a nurse. And tell me in a sentence or two what a medical esthetician does. >> ABB 'm nurse practitioner so what that means is that I have advanced training. Usually nurses, it's a four year degree but I actually have gone on to get my masters degree as well. >> BRET ut not everybody that has a master's degree in nursing is a nurse practitioner. It's actually a licensed credential that allows you to do certain things that nurses are not allowed to do. >> ABB xactly, and one of them is, I can actually prescribe medication. So when you come to see me if we're talking about certain services and your needing let's say Retin-A, I can prescribe that to you as well. >> BRET o there's a class of drugs that you're authorized to prescribe. >> ABB ight. >> BRET nd then as a medical esthetician, what is that? >> ABB hat it means is that I actually have specialized in medical esthetics. So I'm able to do non-invasive medical procedures like Botox and fillers at the same time I'm also capable of doing lasers treatments. >> BRET o what comes to mind, and I know I'm abysmally ignorant in this field so I'll rely on you to help me. All through childhood I had a friend in school that had a port wine stain, a purple coloration on her face. Could you help somebody with that? Because that poor girl suffered so much abuse as a child because she had this coloration. >> ABB h, definitely. At BioBalance we have the latest state of the art lasers available to our clients that can treat issues like discolorations of the face, as well as any issues with photo-aging, sun damage, or even just improving their overall skin tone texture or skin rejuvenation. >> BRET o you say the latest equipment that suggests that you don't by second hand stuff? >> ABB o we don't have refurbished equipment. We have what's brand new, what's out there, what's in right now. >> BRET ou have the best equipment, the newest equipment, and you also have you and you are one of only three in the St. Louis Metropolitan area that do what you do. That have the credentials that you have to do what you do. >> ABB hat's correct I'm really just one of three nurse practitioners that specialize in medical esthetics in St. Louis. >> BRET k, so in our last episode we talked about the different skin treatments you do for rejuvenation of skin and talked mainly about the injectables; the Botox, the jubiderm, the redese. And there was a whole other category of treatments that you specialize in. And that has to do with an IPL, what is that? >> ABB orrect, What the IPL is, it stands for Intense Pulse Light, or Intermittent Pulse Light. What's great is we have a laser that's called the alma laser. And the alma, what's nice about it is, it's multi functional. >> BRET 've always wanted a multi functional laser. >> ABB t provides IPL treatments, at the same time it also does pixel for laser resurfacing and also has medality for laser hair removal. >> BRET reak that down. >> ABB bought this machine because it was like Barbie with all the accessories. You have one laser and you can switch out what you need right then. So if a patient is getting her IPL and she go goes oh you know what, IPL takes out the brown spots, makes the texture better, makes her skin tighter, and then she says you know I need these wrinkles gone and I just really need to have more collagen I want to be even tighter than that. So we can do the pixel which is a fractional laser, it goes down. Pixel means tiny little dots, so it uses tiny little dots to go very deep into the collagen and stimulate it as well as makes the texture of the skin better and tighter. >> BRET o what does that result in when you stimulate collagen? >> KATH hat makes your skin smoother and tighter. It gets rid of wrinkles. You can use it on wrinkles; you can use it on stretch marks. >> BRET o the laser doesn't burn the surface of the skin it penetrates into the substrata. >> ABB ight, what it does is it creates these micro channels deep in the tissue and when it does that it kind of fills with collagen. >> BRET he body naturally fills it with collagen? >> ABB nd that stimulates the growth. Yes, I tell people, it's like aerating your lawn. If you're putting those multiple channels in the soil and that absorbs the nutrients and stimulates the roots and the grass. It's really the same concept. >> BRET ardening for your face. >> ABB ea, that's really what it is. >> BRET o when you talk about skin issues. The thing I hear a lot of people my age talk about, because I'm marginally elderly is the risk of skin cancer. So you can identify precancerous discolorations in the skin and treat them with the laser that you have so they don't ever become cancerous? >> ABB specially with that IPL laser, it's a light based laser so what it does is it targets that damage that's deep in the skin and brings it to the surface. So after a few days those brown spots start peeling and sluffing off. And that's the precancerous cells that we're getting rid of. >> BRET s that a one treatment thing or do you sometimes are they deep enough or dark enough? Does it matter if they're dark as opposed to light? >> ABB ith one treatment you are going to see a nice result. But really it's a series of treatments to really get rid of all those brown spots. To really even out your complexion. >> BRET s that just on your face? >> ABB o you can actually use it for your face, your neck, your chest. And also hands are a great treatment to do. >> BRET ike what they used to call liver spots. >> ABB es. And it treats those as well. >> KATH hat's really important. >> BRET remember my step mother was a real light skin red head and she had what she called liver spots and she would put a massive amount of cold cream on every day. And it never really helped. But that was 50 years ago. >> KATH ut I started getting IPL's long before I had my own machine. I was 40 and the very first one I had I looked like I had a terrible disease because I had done tons of sun damage. Iodine and baby oil was what we did back in the 70's. So I had damaged my skin a lot and never used sun screen before I had IPL. So when it came to the surface it was big black horrible spots. So for about three or four days of the first treatment I just didn't plan to go out. After that every treatment was a lot less dark, I usually could just cover it with makeup. And that's what we see with our patients. As you go through a series to begin with. Usually you do face and hands and possibly chest. And then after that, once a year I go back once a year for IPL. It's kind of like maintenance. I get whatever damage I created through the summer, when it hits the fall and I don't have a tan anymore. >> BRET was going to ask you about that. Cause you don't do it with a tan. >> KATH hen IPL is really the only thing we can do with a tan. Maybe hair removal as well. >> BRET o what about if you're dark skinned? Not tanned but just naturally pigmented darker. >> ABB o someone with darker skin like myself I'm really not a candidate for the treatment because it's attracted to the melanin in the pigment. So let's say if I had done the treatment, I would be really blotchy, it could even burn me. It's really not ideal. >> KATH 'm as dark as you are and I do it. I just think you have to do the spots that need to be done. You don't have to do your overall face. But actually our alma laser will allow us to do that especially with hair removal if the hair is darker then the skin we can do that. And we have one head that's like for are skin tones. And that laser can do darker people. >> BRET hen you do hair removal, I know bikini line kind issues. >> KATH ou don't want to talk about that too? >> BRET ure! People come in and they say hair removal problems and that's the only thing that comes to my mind. What else do people have issues with? >> KATH ike where they have hair? >> BRET ea I mean like my hair's all fallen off the top of my head and gone down to my back. >> ABB ou can do your underarms you can do full leg treatments. For men we do a lot of backs even just chests. >> BRET erious? >> ABB e're not trying to do all the hair but really to reduce it. So you're not like a caveman. >> BRET ike a wooly bear. Yea, exactly. People get their underarms done? And it doesn't hurt? >> ABB ea, no. >> BRET ine are really sensitive. >> KATH his is the benefit of having the newest machine. >> ABB t's very gentle. >> KATH t doesn't hurt. >> BRET hat makes me hurt just thinking about it. >> KATH n fact I treated a gentleman who wanted his chest hair either removed totally or at least decreased. And we did a series of treatments and he said he had tried it1 before maybe 5 years before and it hurt so badly he never went back. And I did this treatment1 on him and he said it doesn't hurt, is it really working? And I said yea in about 51 days it's going to all fall out and it did.1 >> BRET k so it doesn't burn it off today like if you were camping and you put your1 hand over the flames and.1 >> ABB o, you shouldn't have any kind of sunburn or burning reaction with the laser1 hair removal.1 >> BRET K.1 >> KATH ut we do women's arms, they don't want to have hair on their arms. Some women1 actually have hair down the middle of their abdomens and you can take that off. And they1 don't want to have that.1 >> ABB retty much all hair is fair game.1 >> KATH nywhere. Now if it's white hair, we couldn't do your beard because it's1 white. It has to have a color.1 >> ABB t has to have pigment.1 >> BRET t has to have color and pigmentation because that's what the laser find and burns.1 >> ABB t's attracted to that melanin and that pigment in the hair follicle.1 >> KATH y advice to people who are, we're all getting older, who have dark hair that1 they want to have removed someday is do it now before it turns grey. Because then we1 can't do much with and I'm not sure there's a laser out there that can do that.1 >> ABB nd there's no laser that can treat blond or grey hair.1 >> BRET nd you can't dye it or color it and then have it burned that color.1 >> ABB t's the root.1 >> KATH t's the root.1 >> BRET t's below the skin.1 >> KATH ight and we're killing the root of the hair follicle.1 >> BRET nd then it never comes back.1 >> KATH ot that hair. You can get hair in other places. Because hair has a 45 day1 cycle. And so you're going to have to.1 >> BRET o you might have to have 2 or 3, 2 at least treatments.1 >> ABB here are different cycles of hair growth. And certain cycles there's more1 pigment in that hair follicle so at that time it's more susceptible to that laser. So1 that's why it's a series of treatments. You want to get it at that active growth phase1 of that hair follicle so it has the most color in it.1 >> BRET o do you do aesthetic designs in hair?1 >> ABB o.1 >> BRET ust thought I'd ask.1 >> KATH e don't do requests. We do what area you want to have done. And we listen1 but we don't do artistic drawings.1 >> ABB here's no design with hair reduction.1 >> KATH ut the hair removal is one of the things that people do when they're younger.1 And so that's a good treatment for younger people. If you're thinking about getting1 a gift certificate or something for your teenager, they love that.1 >> BRET ou know talking about younger people, one of the cultural changes I'm concerned1 about is the proliferation of tattoos. And I remember years ago Lee Trevino, a golfer,1 had somebody's name tattooed on his arm and then they were no longer together so he1 wore a band aid to cover that up. Can you do tattoos?1 >> KATH e don't have a head for tattoos.1 >> ABB e don't have a head for that, but there are lasers out there that are effective1 for the tattoos. Keep in mind though that when you have a tattoo the easiest color to1 remove is black. Because it's the darkest.1 >> BRET o if you get all the exotic colors you're in trouble.1 >> ABB o if you get the pastels, like yellows, orange, it's very difficult.1 >> KATH nd it leaves you without melanin in that area.1 >> BRET o you're susceptible to other burning issues.1 >> KATH r you have a white area where you had a black area.1 >> BRET lmost like a skin graft kind of look.1 >> KATH o it's not going to be your normal melanin coming in.1 >> BRET o this is really fascinating stuff and it's not cutting edge because it's1 a laser but it's the non-cutting edge of medical involvement. If you are interested1 in knowing more about these procedures or the injectable procedures that we talked about1 last time, you can contact Abby at BioBalance health. And you can contact BioBalance health1 by.1 >> KATH alling 314-993-0963 or you can get on our website at www.bioblancehealth.com.1 >> BRET r you can reach me at www.brettnewcomb.com.1 1 Copyright ยฉ 2011 BioBalance Health | St. Louis, MO 63141 โ€ข 314.993.09631 Produced by Davis Interactive.