We all need some self-care and TLC after our hot summer! Our medspa team will walk us through the latest trends in skincare and minimally invasive fat reduction. Andrea, our fabulous San Antonio esthetician, will walk us through the difference between Skinpen and Vivace. Vivace is one of the newest and hottest RF micro-needling devices on the market. We will also review skincare products and how to have an incredible skin care regimen on a budget. You don’t want to miss this rapid-fire episode about all the latest skincare treatments available at Austin Plastic Surgeon.

Transcript

Dr. Johnny Franco: Welcome back to Plastic Surgery Untold, the greatest podcast in the world as voted by us. Doing something a little bit different today, we’re actually going to do the Medspa Minute. We get so many questions, we thought we’d bring our expertise in today, Andrea, who you’re going to meet shortly and she’s going to basically cover a bunch of topics and questions that we get all the time. 

Before we get to that, let’s go around the room and check in with everybody. We’ll start with you Dr. Arredondo, tell us a little bit about what’s going on in your life.

Dr. Sean Arredondo: Well, we did one other fantastic vacation this summer. We spent about 10 days in the Yellowstone area.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Oh, damn! Okay.

Dr. Sean Arredondo:  Yup, and my daughter showed that she is an awesome fisherwoman, she caught, let’s see, what was it, four rainbow trout in under an hour on day one, and then on day three, another four…

Dr. Johnny Franco: Yeah.

Andrea Benavides: Oh, wow!

Dr. Sean Arredondo: …so she’s feeding the family on these trips.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Yeah.

Dr. Sean Arredondo: Because I’ve caught about four fish in my life I think. (Chuckles) 

Dr. Johnny Franco: what about you?

Dr. Johnny Franco:  And this is something that I think people don’t realize you do, to be a board-certified plastic surgeon, it’s a process, you know, people are going to be several years out. And this is one of the things that’s super unique and challenging, challenging for us, but great for patients is that you know, for someone to be a part of this elite group they’ve jumped a lot of hurdles… 

Dr. Johnny Franco: …made a lot of accomplishments, so congratulations.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Dr, Weinfeld? 

Dr. Adam Weinfeld: Well, I’m really excited. I’m starting to plow through a lot of my pre and post-operative photographs with Ashley, the office nurse Ashley, in order to get them up on all of the channels that we have to be able to distribute them or show patients what we’re able to do, so that’s been a lot of fun to work with her on that.

Dr. Johnny Franco: So, you’re welcome to all the patients who get to see all this work.

Dr. Adam Weinfeld: Yeah, and thank you to Ashley because she’s been a really immense help.

Dr. Johnny Franco: That’s great. And then our special guest Andrea, our new esthetician in our San Antonio office, came all the way to Austin to share her knowledge with all of you. You’re new to Austin Plastic Surgeon…

Andrea Benavides: Yes.

Dr. Johnny Franco: …but not new to the world of aesthetics.

Andrea Benavides: Exactly. So, I’ve been doing this for about five years and I’ve been laser certified for three.

Dr. Johnny Franco: You look way too young to have been doing this for five years.

Andrea Benavides: I know. How old do you think I look?

Dr. Johnny Franco: Oh, shoot, I can’t answer that question. (Chuckles) (Voice overlap) right off the bat and she’s been sandbagging us, she said she was nervous…

(Chuckles)

Andrea Benavides: I know.

Dr. Johnny Franco: …and she’s (voice overlap) shots fired.

(Chuckles)

Dr. Johnny Franco: Well, tell us a little bit, what did you do with your other practices just so people know where all your knowledge and expertise come from?

Andrea Benavides: Yeah. So, I’ve done a little bit of everything, so micro-needling radio frequency, MDPen, I’ve done a lot of lasers, non-ablative, ablative, laser hair removal, IPL, HydraFacial, so I’ve done pretty much a lot of it.

Dr. Johnny Franco: So, let’s jump into it because we get a lot of questions and one of the most common questions we get, and I know this is a specialty and near and dear to your heart, so that’s why we stole your valuable time today and appreciate it…

Andrea Benavides: Of course.

Dr. Johnny Franco: …is the difference between SkinPen and like a Vivace or Morpheus8 which are the Vivace and Morpheus8 are radio frequency micro-needling, but there’s the traditional SkinPen, and from the more I’ve talked to you there are places for both of these and maybe tell us the differences and where we would pick one versus the others.

Andrea Benavides: Yeah.

Dr. Johnny Franco: We got a lot of facial specialists in the world, too…

Andrea Benavides: Yes.

Dr. Johnny Franco: …so I apologize when they start peppering you with questions.

Andrea Benavides: I know. Okay, so typically…

(Voice overlap)

Andrea Benavides: Oh yes, of course, I promise. So, a lot of the questions I get asked when I see a lot of my patients is, you know, when should I do my bigger procedures? So, my — a lot of my patients in their 20s and 30s like, well, I want to do my micro-needing radio frequency, but a lot of the times I, you know, say you can get away with the SkinPen because you’re not really losing that elasticity, so we want to stimulate that collagen, wake it up.

And then I have my other patients that are like in their late 50s, 60s and, you know, they’re like, well, I want to get SkinPen, I heard it’s great it stimulates collagen, but they have that little bit of you know saggy skin, so that’s where the Vivace or the Morpheus comes into play, you know, with that radio frequency that heats the skin and heats that tissue. 

So, there’s – they’re essentially the same thing but different, and I mean they can cater to all skin types but, you know, if you want to get a little bit of that skin tightening that’s where, you know, the radio frequency and micro-needling comes from.

Dr. Johnny Franco: How about from a downtime perspective, is there a downtime difference between SkinPen and one of the RF micro-needling? Because that’s a huge question that patients ask us, you know… 

Andrea Benavides: Yeah.

Dr. Johnny Franco:  …because a lot of times somebody will — I that’s another question, I — take this one question at a time.

Andrea Benavides:  Yeah. So, it’s just it’s different, you know, I feel like the older you are you — your healing time isn’t as quick as if you were younger, and I think if you’re on blood thinners…

Dr. Johnny Franco:  You shouldn’t talk about Dr. Arredondo that way…

Andrea Benavides:  (Chuckles)

Dr. Johnny Franco: …he’s a lot younger than he looks. (Chuckles)

Andrea Benavides: I think especially if you’re like on blood thinners as well I think, you know, with the bleeding and the micro-needling and things like that it can probably prolong your healing process as well.

Dr. Johnny Franco: How do you work with — the three of them sit across from the, from us, you know, do a lot of facelifts, facial rejuvenation, how do you work with them? And maybe I’d love to get your guys’ input. When do you want them to do some skin resurfacing, because I’ve always in my mind thought that like, hey nobody comes in and says I was in my convertible going 100 miles an hour my skin was so taut.

(Chuckles)

Andrea Benavides: Yeah.

Dr. Johnny Franco:  So, we can only pull people so tight and that won’t get rid of some of the fine lines and wrinkles, and I think that’s what you use the SkinPen, RF micro-needling for. How should you do the timing of this? 

And I’d love to hear from all four of you, you know, do you like to pre-treat some people? Do you like to do the face and neck lift first? And then how long do you make them wait before doing some of this? What or how should people approach this overall? 

Andrea Benavides: Yeah.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Well, Dr. Weinfeld?

Dr. Adam Weinfeld: Okay, yeah, you know, the — this field and the marriage between non-invasive and invasive facial rejuvenation really has accelerated, so I don’t pretend to have the absolute answer to this. But conceptually, and in my experience, what has made sense is to do the facelift, the neck lift and then come back and do the non-invasive procedures subsequent to that. It’s that kind of analogy of, you know, I don’t know, I’ve never built a drum, but, you know, when you build a drum (Chuckles) you’ve got like the barrel, you know, that supports the drum and then you put the skin over it, and so that would be the process of doing the facelift, and then what you do is you get that skin and help shrink it, whereas you wouldn’t want to shrink the skin and then try to pull it, you know, tighter over that drum that you’re building.

So, another analogy, you know, you build the house, and then you paint it, all of these kinds of work well. So, I think that it makes sense to kind of — to do that facelift, the neck lift, and then really to polish things off with all the… 

Andrea Benavides: Yeah.

Dr. Adam Weinfeld: …wonderful options that you have available. But if someone were to say, no, it makes more sense to do it another way, I’m not opposed to that in any way whatsoever.

Dr. Johnny Franco: And that’s the category of people that need a face and neck lift because there are some younger patients that maybe, “We just didn’t take care of our skin as well as we should have grown up.”

Dr. Adam Weinfeld: Are you looking at me?

(Chuckles)

Dr. Johnny Franco: I’ll tell you when I…

(Chuckles)

Dr. Johnny Franco: When I grew up, we used to get out first good sunburn at the beginning this summer, that was it and we thought that that was a good idea because then you were like set you got your, you know, a couple of days of peeling…

Dr. Sean Arredondo: Yeah.

Dr. Johnny Franco: …and now we realize how horrible of an idea that was, you know, for our skin and so there are some people that may not have the skin laxative to need MyEllevate, a face or neck lift, but they have a little skin tightening they want or some just texture stuff they want to do, is that correct?

Andrea Benavides: Yeah correct. So I…

Dr. Johnny Franco: So, you want to steal patients from Dr. Weinfeld? 

Andrea Benavides: Yes, exactly.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Okay.

(Chuckles)

Andrea Benavides: Would you say, you know, after a patient who gets a facelift, would it be better to maintain their results with these types of treatments from me?

Dr. Adam Weinfeld: Absolutely, yeah. So much so that it’s almost a rhetorical question, definitely.

Dr. Johnny Franco: I feel like she set us up.

Dr. Adam Weinfeld: Yeah, she did.

Dr. Johnny Franco:  Because you wouldn’t buy a Ferrari and never take it for an oil change like it just doesn’t make any sense. And we’ve talked about our previous episodes, you know, we’re turning back, resetting the clock but if you don’t do these things to take care of it and – required but sunscreen, a good moisturizer, maybe you can hit up some of those, and then you’ve spent all this money I mean it’s I guess it’s fine for us you’re going to be back in a couple of years, but it’s not really protecting your investment.

Dr. Sean Arredondo: Right, like you said on a previous episode, you don’t just want to turn back the clock you want to slow it down…

Dr. Adam Weinfeld: Yeah.

Dr. Sean Arredondo: …and that really helps slow it down.

Dr. Adam Weinfeld: Yeah, keeps it slow, absolutely.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Oh it’s a good question.

Andrea Benavides: Yeah. 

Andrea Benavides: Yeah, that’s a great question. So, if you have a specific goal, say you’ve never had any type of procedure done to the skin, filler, Botox and you have — you come in and you have a lot of elasticity, it’s going to take a few treatments on a monthly basis along with a good regimen. But if you were someone who was wanting to pre-treat, I would say quarterly, do your big treatments quarterly and then your facials in between to maintain the skin.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Let’s say we have a good-looking middle-aged plastic surgeon that just wants to brush it up.

Dr. Adam Weinfeld: Oh, thank you very much.

(Chuckles)

Dr. Johnny Franco:  What would a true regimen look like in terms of from a number of SkinPen treatments that I know it varies on their skin, but like on average, and then what other things would you put them on, we alluded to sunscreen, moisturizer, what would you tell all these middle-aged mature men in the room that are (Chuckles) that are interrogating you for a personal game here?

(Chuckles)

Andrea Benavides: Yes, so I would say three treatments off the bat monthly, and then use a really good retinol at night, vitamin C, sunscreen, of course, moisturize the skin. And then after your three treatments consecutively, then I guess try to do it quarterly if that makes sense.

Andrea Benavides: Oh, exfoliation, yes, definitely. So, you can get exfoliation in different types of ways, you could do it chemically, you can do it manually so whether you’re doing Dermaplaning or using like a scrub or things like retinol so you can get your exfoliation either way. 

I don’t know if anyone’s ever mentioned this, but as we get older, our skin cells they don’t turn over as fast, so if you — when you’re younger or a baby every other day it turns over, and as we get older it’s like every 20 days, 30 days 40 days, so that’s where, you know, exfoliation comes in, yeah. (Chuckles)

Dr. Johnny Franco:  So, I just want to summarize micro-needling so because we have a lot of questions, we want to pepper you with today.

Andrea Benavides: Yes.

Dr. Johnny Franco: And so, basically, it’s the two, so you have SkinPen if somebody doesn’t need any skin tightening, if they have a little bit more skin lax that we want to treat, then you would suggest doing the RF micro-needling which would be either Vivace or Morpheus8.

Andrea Benavides: Yes.

Dr. Johnny Franco:  If they were going to get a face or neck lift, save this, do it after the surgery. Would you guys say — are you comfortable with about six weeks after the face, and neck lift?

Dr. Adam Weinfeld: Oh, I would say I’d be just fine.

Dr. Sean Arredondo: Yeah.

Dr. Sean Arredondo: Six weeks with no healing issues, no problem.

Dr. Adam Weinfeld: Yeah. 

Dr. Adam Weinfeld:  Yeah.

Dr. Adam Weinfeld: Yeah, I think that’s a good point. I mean, one of my mentors used to do um light CO2 ablative laser and facelift with no issues too, so I think that’s certainly impossible.

Dr. Johnny Franco:  One of the stuff I would love for us to start exploring, you know, as we’ve tried to get more into this minimum invasive, imagine doing a little bit of cheek fillers, maybe a buckle fat pad, MyEllevate and then a little RF micro-needling, you know, for some of those people that you had talked to on a previous episode, they just have a little bit of jazz, a little something. I mean, there’s a lot of good that can happen there with no real exposed sutures cuts type things –

Dr. Adam Weinfeld:  Yeah.

Dr. Johnny Franco: — and that’s exciting in this world of technology that we can get to.

Dr. Adam Weinfeld: Yeah, and ah …

Dr. Sean Arredondo:  Just adding all those procedures, it’s more than just the small procedure.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Yeah. And this is where it’s nice to be able to work in a team where we have, you know, a facelift expert, a Morpheus expert, and so forth, because, you know, we talked about it like with Travis, you know if it’s just a hammer that’s all you get.

So, if you go somewhere and all they have is Vivace, then that’s all you’re going to get. If you only have someone that does face a neck lifts, that’s all you’re going to get, where we, we — there are lots of times that we turn people down, and they come in for a lipo in my case and I’ll be like, hey look I can lipo you, but you’re going to spend a ton of money, you’re going to see very little difference, if you have some tiny little spot that bothers you let’s do some EON let’s do something else and maybe some Msculpt, it’s just not even worth it for you. 

And I feel like coming to a place where you have all the options, I think that’s one of the benefits, one of the reasons I love having all of you here.

Andrea Benavides: Yes. Thank you. 

Dr. Sean Arredondo: Absolutely.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Any other key take-home points about micro-needling that I missed or that you want people to remember? Because if not I’ll pepper here with some more questions.

Andrea Benavides: I don’t think so. I love that you can add PRP to micro-needling, so that’s fun, you know, vitamin C, hyaluronic acid, there’s really many different, you know, combinations that you can make. And AQUAGOLD, I know it’s a little different. It’s micro channeling but —

Andrea Benavides: Yeah. So a little bit I — a little bit of AQUAGOLD for my knowledge so far is you can — it’s a cocktail pretty much, it doesn’t go as deep as your traditional micro-needling, it’s really at the superficial layer, but the concept of adding filler for hydration, Botox to minimize the pore size and vitamin C, PRP, you can add so many different things, you know, just to hydrate the skin and really help with the barrier function of it.

Dr. Johnny Franco: And AQUAGOLD is great for — because I’ve seen you guys most commonly use it around the eyes, and that’s an area that drives people crazy, and that has been really, really nice, and that’s an area that the skin is so thin that you really don’t need as much deep penetration.

Andrea Benavides: Yes, exactly. It’s not going as deep as micro-needling, where we have to kind of fix the settings on that, and on the AQUAGOLD, it’s just very minimal.

Dr. Johnny Franco: So, it’s basically like a fine little touch?

Andrea Benavides: Yes, exactly.

Dr. Johnny Franco: It’s called fine touch.

Andrea Benavides: Yeah. (Chuckles) Oh, yeah, it is, it is, sorry.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Let’s move on to one of my other favorites, if you don’t mind.

Andrea Benavides: Yeah.

Dr. Johnny Franco: There’s something called Hydrojelly mask —

Andrea Benavides: Yes.

Dr. Johnny Franco: — and I absolutely love these. One, like it’s just like a moment of Zen, it was first initially designed for the face, but I know you guys do it a bunch of other intimate areas, including the pubic area but also, and my favorite is for the buttock, because it’s nice after these BBL procedures, you know, to kind of rehydrate, freshen this up. You know, it’s still bikini season where it’s 100 degrees, so you can really, you know, the icing on the cake and do something for this.

So talk to me a little bit about the Hydrojelly mask because people see it on the gram, but I don’t know that most people realize the benefits, what it does, and maybe how the cost of effective this is.

Andrea Benavides: Yes. So Hydrojellies is so fun, there are so many that you can pick from, from discoloration, hydration, and acne. What I find a lot in, I guess, the skin world is KP, so a lot of people do suffer from that, and that’s where the Hydrojelly comes into play on the, you know, buttocks region…

Dr. Johnny Franco: For those of us that don’t have the skin knowledge, KP is…

Andrea Benavides: Yes, keratosis pilaris, so it’s little pimples that a lot of people…

Dr. Johnny Franco: Oh, I got that.

(Chuckles)

Andrea Benavides: …commonly get. (Chuckles) Okay, you’re fine, I brought Hydrojelly today.

Andrea Benavides: I know. (Chuckles) So there are exfoliating ingredients in there that can help smooth that area down, so that’s what I really like, and it helps with discoloration as I said, so you can — they’re very customizable, and you can add them to HydraFacial or, I don’t know just come in and say, Hey I want to Hydrojelly.

Dr. Johnny Franco: And how long does a procedure like that take? Is there downtime? What would I expect? Is there something that — Dr. Weinfeld’s got a little longer lunch break if he only has 30 minutes, can he do this, or what’s going on?

Andrea Benavides: Yes, yeah, so you can come and get out on your lunchtime, I think it’s like a $20.00 add-on, so it’s, you know, very affordable, and the downtime none, you’re just going to look amazing after.

Dr. Johnny Franco: I wanna look amazing.

Andrea Benavides: I know.

Dr. Johnny Franco: I need this. And so, I know we alluded to it, but list off the places that you can get a Hydrojelly mask like where? I know both Austin and San Antonio, but on your body where could you get it?

Andrea Benavides: Yes, you can get on the face, the buttock region, I’m assuming the thighs, the arms, pretty much anywhere.

Dr. Johnny Franco: So, really kind of anywhere you want to treat that you’re having some issues, want a little refresh.

Andrea Benavides: Yes.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Okay, cool, awesome. Any other Hydrojelly nuggets you would like to share with us?

Andrea Benavides:  I don’t know, I think that’s it.

Dr. Johnny Franco:  Okay. What topic would you like to talk about next with all the questions you asked?

Andrea Benavides: Yes, I…

Dr. Johnny Franco:  Well, you’re excited, go ahead.

Andrea Benavides: Oh, sorry.

Dr. Johnny Franco: No, go, you’re excited.

Andrea Benavides: I’m talking over you. EON, I think it is such a cool device. I’ve worked with many different body contouring devices, not CoolSculpting, but I’ve worked with truSculpt, which is radio frequency, and I’ve worked with sculpture which is another laser.

I really love EON because it’s touchless, you don’t have to worry about arcing, or burns, and it’s great for all skin types so, you know, I’m really excited to work with that device.

Dr. Johnny Franco: How would — Dr. Arredondo, talk to me a little bit, you know, because one of these things that’s always hard for patients, we all love 20 minutes no down time, but how do we get to who’s a good lipo tummy tuck EON? 

And this is where — and if I know that you guys actually saw a patient recently together with Andrea and Gilbert, and she came in for EON, and then you guys decided hey this isn’t the right course pass. And maybe the two of you guys can jump in a little bit, and this is one of the benefits where we don’t want you to just do something that’s not right for you.

Dr. Sean Arredondo: I mean, in my head, I always look at the volume that someone’s trying to achieve introduction. I think that’s sort of the starting point. And then taking for like if there’s excess skin, I think that’s –, you’re trying to get skin retraction. I think that’s another point.

Dr. Johnny Franco: I think skin is a huge one. That’s a great point that people forget about.

Andrea Benavides: Yeah.

Dr. Johnny Franco:  Because EON does — it’s fabulous but it does not, you know, have a tremendous skin tightening degree of treatment.

Andrea Benavides: Yes.

Dr. Sean Arredondo: Right, you’re looking at different procedures.

Dr. Johnny Franco: And I think — maybe just tell people what to expect with EON because it’s unlike a tummy tuck where we’re cutting off, and even a tummy tuck, most people don’t realize tummy tuck flap is only about five pounds at most, you know, so people think it’s going to be this massive weight change which is not true, EON is going to be even less. But how long or what should people expect in terms of time frame to see a result?

Andrea Benavides: Yeah, so typically about 12 weeks. It’s recommended two treatments every six weeks, and the procedure, it’s really fast. It’s only 20 minutes, and it’s very tolerable from what I’ve seen, so you might feel little hot pockets, but for the most part, it’s pretty easy.

Andrea Benavides: Yes.

Andrea Benavides: Yes, correct.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Can I let you guys on, and you may already know this, a couple of little nuggets about EON, one of the really interesting cool part is the jet cooling that was actually designed at –

Andrea Benavides: NASA.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Yeah, you know, so this is pretty cool.

Andrea Benavides: Yeah. 

Dr. Johnny Franco: You know, because this – you have NASA technology doing this, and it’s actually the same robotic arm that da Vinci uses for all of the surgeries. So, it just shows you the degree of precision of — maybe from your jaw surgery…

Dr. Sean Arredondo: Yeah.

Dr. Johnny Franco: …may bring back some nightmares, so sorry.

(Chuckles). 

Dr. Sean Arredondo: Never bring robotic surgery into the world of plastic surgery, right?

Dr. Johnny Franco: The other exciting news that I don’t know — probably going to get in trouble for saying this, but we have actually been working with EON to create their first center of excellence where we’re actually going to train providers from around the country on how to use EON, how to treat people appropriately, so Andrea is going to be one of our trainers here in the near future, we’re working on setting up these protocols to make this time worthwhile for everyone so…

Andrea Benavides: Yes.

Dr. Johnny Franco: …thank you for doing that, super excited about that. So any last EON stuff, I think we got a couple more little nuggets you’re going to share.

Andrea Benavides: No, I think that’s it for EON.

Dr. Johnny Franco: What — can we cover HydraFacial because I love this.

Andrea Benavides: Yes.

Dr. Johnny Franco:  Because I think people want to (Chuckles). I love how – I do for myself, but Andrea and Christina are almost too busy, I put myself on the schedule, and then it’s like I get the notification you’ve been canceled. It’s okay, sorry.

Andrea Benavides: Sorry.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Sorry for that appointment, better like next time. And then I see Dr. Weinfeld walking into the room (Chuckles), and I’m like, holy sh*t, I got bumped.

But what’s different about a HydraFacial versus like the Groupon, you know, blast that we all get, and I see you kind of cringing right now in your seats, your toes are probably curling right now.

Andrea Benavides: Yeah.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Compared to your Groupon $30 facial versus a HydraFacial, can you tell us the difference a little bit?

Andrea Benavides:  Yeah, so I don’t know — you just really don’t know what type of products you’re getting, you know, if you were to get a Groupon HydraFacial. I feel like a lot of gimmick names like HydroFacial kind of trick you because, you know, some people might not really know the actual HydraFacial term. 

It’s very different, I’ve worked with the replica, and it was not — you didn’t get the glow that HydraFacial would get.

Dr. Johnny Franco: And correct me if I’m wrong, but HydraFacial itself has this vortex of fluid, so the HydraFacial name comes from because it’s this water basically mechanical dermabrasion. 

So the idea is you have this vortex, it’s basically dermabrasion because you’ve talked about this earlier where you’re trying to get this skin to turn over, you’re trying to clean out the pores, you know, some of us I have really, really oily skin which is why I keep trying to get on the schedule, (Chuckles) you know, but, you know, if you can’t get this filled, can’t get that off then that’s when it sets you up to other problems and acne and so forth because those pores start to get clogged, so the idea is that it’s not just a fluff where you’re rubbing on somebody’s face, putting a hot towel in and being like boom, boom great, you know, listen to some soft music. That’s cool, (Chuckles), but that’s not the medical-grade facial that you guys are performing.

Andrea Benavides: Yes, exactly. And I like to tell my patients, you know, you can spend so much money on skincare, but if you don’t renew that skin cell turnover, it’s just sitting on there, it’s not doing anything. So you can have the best skincare, and you’re like, I’m not that excited about it, but once you get that HydraFacial and use that in conjunction with that, just get amazing results.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Can we also talk a little bit about skin care products? I’ll just tell you guys, my mom, any department store even though — she does this at the office too, she’ll come in, you guys will recommend stuff, she’ll get what you guys recommend, she’ll also walk by the cabinet grab a bunch of random stuff that she just things looks cool. 

We’ll be at Nordstrom’s later that day, and she’ll feel the need to get more stuff, but people can spend endless amounts of money on stuff that’s slightly cheaper, but in there, on their bathroom table cabinet, they have, like 80 products that are half used, they haven’t saved any money, they’re not buying medical grade products I — obviously this is a pet peeve of mine, but tell us your thoughts as to skin care.

Andrea Benavides: Yeah, yes, so typically, I love to have the conversation with my patients, I like to get started as what do you use at home? And I kind of call it like a skincare pyramid, so you have your over-the-counters, I guess, your prestige which is like Ulta, Sephora, and then your medical grade.

A lot of people I find that use over-the-counter stuff, they always are like, oh, I saw it on TikTok or a celebrity like Kim Kardashian or JLo, they have their skincare lines, and they have a maiden skin, it must be great.

But what I like to educate my patients on is, you know, the active ingredient is not as potent as something you’d find at a, you know, doctor’s office, and there’s a lot of preservatives and additives and those skin care products versus us there’s really none, so you’re getting for what you pay for, essentially with, you know, doctor’s office.

Dr. Johnny Franco: And the other part that I think you left out because you’re too modest is they’re getting you, right? 

Andrea Benavides: Yes. (Chuckles)

Dr. Johnny Franco: So somebody to help guide them because most people don’t know what they need. They know they need to do something, but they’re not sure where to go, which cleanser is best for them, which moisturizer because what might be best for Dr. Weinfeld may not be what’s best for Dr. Arredondo, and this is we talking to them about, is your skin too dry, is it too oily, do you — what kind of problems do you have? And I think that’s the part that people miss.

Andrea Benavides: Yes, and that’s the question I always ask, you know, before we get started, I’m like, what is your skincare concern? And they’ll, you know, address it to me and like, okay well let’s get started with this and let’s make a skin care plan with your skin care products and treatments moving forward.

Dr. Sean Arredondo: And your schedule, not everybody can devote…

Andrea Benavides: Yes.

Dr. Sean Arredondo: …you know, the same amount of time to their morning routines or their daily routines.

Andrea Benavides: Exactly, yes.

Dr. Sean Arredondo: So that’s where you come in, and you can say this is how — these are the core of what we need to do every day.

Andrea Benavides: Yes.

Dr. Johnny Franco: And when you go to like a department store, you don’t know who you’re going to see there this day as I mean — so you do something, they’ll come back and see you a month you know, two months later so you’re following their skin progression because there may be some specific issues you’re treating and you’re like, okay we’re at the right spot, now we need to do this or hey now your skin’s drying out a little bit, let’s cut back on this, let’s do that, and so it’s basically like a, you know, you’re their personal trainer for their skin, right?

Andrea Benavides: Yes.

Dr. Johnny Franco: You know, and so, hey, as stuff involves, we need to keep changing, as the weather changes, we need to keep changing, as we have 105 and no rain, we got to keep changing, too, it’s — you’re their partner in this.

Andrea Benavides: Yeah, I am, I like to believe that. (Chuckles)

Dr. Johnny Franco: So, you’re, you know, where — if Nordstrom’s, Macy is their Tinder date, you’re more like silver lining or like Hinge. 

Andrea Benavides: Yeah. Oh, yeah. I don’t know what that is. (Chuckles) I mean, I kind of know what that is, but I don’t.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Which one? Tinder?

Andrea Benavides: Oh, yes, yes.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Oh, you do know what that is.

Andrea Benavides: Yes, I do.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Okay.

Andrea Benavides: I just don’t get on them.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Okay, because you’re not like that?

Andrea Benavides: No.

Dr. Johnny Franco: No, you’re more like Hinge.

Andrea Benavides: I don’t know.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Long term.

Andrea Benavides: Yes, yeah, yeah (Chuckles), you’re right, (Chuckles) sorry I don’t know any of that. They were talking about it at work, and I’m like, oh, okay.

Dr. Johnny Franco: What other med spa treatments that you want to… 

Dr. Adam Weinfeld: I think we might be able to answer the question about how old she is now. (Chuckles)

Andrea Benavides: Oh, my God how old do you think I am?

Dr. Adam Weinfeld: Because you don’t know what Hinge is (Chuckles) or Tinder.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Don’t worry, we’ll connect you with Gilbert, he’ll enlighten you with all the different apps and the plus and minuses of each. (Chuckles)

Andrea Benavides: I’m sure. I’m sure.

Dr. Johnny Franco: But we’ll have him do it — we’ll have him do a flow diagram. (Chuckles)

Andrea Benavides: Yeah. Please teach me his ways. No, kidding. 

Dr. Johnny Franco: What other med spa treatment would you like to share with people?

Andrea Benavides: I – Dermaplaning…

Dr. Johnny Franco: Oh, that’s a good one.

Andrea Benavides: I love Dermaplaning, it’s so satisfying for me.

Dr. Johnny Franco:  Here’s a – well, you tell me, fact or fiction? I’ve heard a lot of people don’t want to do Dermaplaning because if they shave that hair that it’s going to come back thicker, harder, and darker.

Andrea Benavides: No, that’s not true. But I will say, I’ve come across like two people in my whole like esthetician career that said that but I don’t know, I don’t think that’s true. 

Dr. Johnny Franco: Okay.

Dr. Sean Arredondo: Ohio sales were…

(Voice overlap)

Andrea Benavides: Yes, yeah.

Dr. Johnny Franco: What does Dermaplaning do?

Andrea Benavides: So, it pretty much, we use a surgical scalpel and we exfoliate the skin at a superficial level obviously, so it takes off loose hairs, dead skin, so pretty much that’s what it is. I feel like it really enhances the HydraFacial. I’ve had a HydraFacial without it, and then when I added it with it, oh my gosh, it was like a game changer.

Dr. Sean Arredondo: It’s amazing how much comes off…

Andrea Benavides: Yes.

Dr. Sean Arredondo: …just from one session of that.

Andrea Benavides: Yeah.

Dr. Adam Weinfeld: Do you do it before or after?

Andrea Benavides: Before.

Dr. Adam Weinfeld: Before the HydraFacial.

Andrea Benavides: Before the HydraFacial. And there’s also oil planing which I introduced to Christine.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Oh, I don’t know about this.

Andrea Benavides: Yes.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Teach me.

Andrea Benavides: Yeah, okay. Do you want to write it down?

Dr. Johnny Franco: Oh, yeah. 

Andrea Benavides: No, I’m kidding. I’m kidding. I’m kidding.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Hold on.

Andrea Benavides: No, no, no.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Yeah. Somebody came in hot today (Chuckles) but I am going to get a…

Andrea Benavides: No, I’m just kidding.

Dr. Johnny Franco: …I am going to get a little video of you, okay, no pressure, go, oil-planing.

Andrea Benavides: Okay, oil-planing, so it is for more mature, drier skin –

Dr. Johnny Franco: Oh wait. No wonder she said you want to write this down. (Chuckles)

Andrea Benavides: No, no, so I feel like sometimes you can get like a little pull so the oils it’s going to help really give you a nice glide on the skin and help it hydrate at the same time.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Oh, so it’s kind of a combination treatment if you will.

Andrea Benavides: Yeah.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Okay.

Dr. Adam Weinfeld: So and what do you — what oil do you use?

Andrea Benavides: There’s one on a website called DermaplanePro for estheticians. So I think it has hydrating properties in it, but I don’t think you can use just any oil.

Dr. Sean Arredondo: So you shouldn’t be using avocado oil?

Dr. Adam Weinfeld: I was just going to ask her that avocado oil.

Andrea Benavides: Yeah, no. I would assume that maybe molecules are too big that’ll clog the pores or something like that so — oh I know the one that I have is non-comedogenic, so it won’t clog the pores as opposed to the other ones.

Dr. Johnny Franco: What about uh peels like — so now that we’re getting towards the end of summer, you know, I think peel season’s coming back and so talk to me about that because people, especially with this heat, tend to have some sun spots, some other things, peels are different than lasers, where do peels coming along, because I feel like that’s a thing that people like to say, don’t necessarily know what they do.

Andrea Benavides: Yeah, so really…

Dr. Johnny Franco: You seem excited.

Andrea Benavides: …I know, I love peels…

Dr. Johnny Franco: Okay. (Chuckles) 

Andrea Benavides: …like I do them on myself all the time. It does help with pigmentation; I feel like more melasma than sun damage.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Okay.

Dr. Sean Arredondo: You think so?

Andrea Benavides: Yeah, I mean it can’t help with sun damage, but I feel like a lot of, you know, my melasma patients, I have to turn two for peels because you can’t really do much but –

Dr. Johnny Franco: I think that’s a great spot because a lot of people want to treat melasma with lasers and other things, and that can actually make them worse.

Andrea Benavides: Yes. It’s a specific wavelength. There’s, I think one wavelength out on the market that helps with melasma, so it’s really important when you’re seeing a laser technician knowing that they know that because easily you can think, oh I can just IPL that when that’ll burn their skin off so you don’t want to do that.

Dr. Johnny Franco: So, what kind of peels…

Andrea Benavides: Yeah, back to peels.

Dr. Johnny Franco: …can you do for melasma and those types of things?

Andrea Benavides: You know, we have melange in the office that’s a…

Dr. Johnny Franco: Which I love.

Andrea Benavides: …Yeah, it’s a really deep peel, some downtime you’ll have a mask on for like 12 hours, so Halloween’s coming up so it’s like perfect.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Yeah. (Chuckles)

Andrea Benavides: If someone wants to go get one and be like, this is my mask for Halloween, just walk around like that for eight hours, but…

Dr. Johnny Franco: What kind of downtime are you talking about? Just being red for a couple of days, or what would you say?

Andrea Benavides: Oh, yes. So, you’re going to have a white face for eight to 12 hours, and then after that, you’re going to be red-pinkish for a few days, and then the peeling process honestly really starts on day three or four. So a lot of people will be like, oh, I’m going to plan my peel like on a Friday, I’m like, no, you’re going to start peeling like that Monday or Tuesday, so you’ll look normal for the first two to three days…

Dr. Johnny Franco: Okay.

Andrea Benavides: …and then, you know, so I’d plant it like on a Wednesday. That way that weekend, you’re peeling. But typically, peeling takes about seven days total, so probably two weeks with your deeper peels. You have, you know, your light, medium, and, you know, higher grade appeals, so it’s just it’s different, you know.

Dr. Johnny Franco: And peels are for different things, so — and this is where you help guide them, melasma is probably one of the most common things that’s hardest to treat. 

But tell me and correct me if I’m wrong, but with melasma, even if you treat it with the peel, this is where you got to get on a good post regimen because just like with the face and neck lift, if you don’t take care of it, you’re going to be back to see us again.

Andrea Benavides: Yes, exactly. You want to suppress those melanocytes. We have a great cream in the office for that, the Boom Boom Brightening, and then — I think good sunscreen, you know, a lot of people think SPF 100 is like the best thing and it’s not that it’s, you know, Titanium or zinc oxide that you really want to find in your sunscreen that’s really going to protect that skin so, you know, you don’t – when the sun is exposed to your skin it wakes up those cells that create pigments, so you want to kind of suppress them.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Other questions you guys have for Andrea about some skincare, some of the med spa treatments that you guys do?

Andrea Benavides: Yes, I’m doing free consults right now (Chuckles). You don’t have to pay $50.00.

Andrea Benavides: Okay, got it.

Dr. Johnny Franco:  What are — if you had to have three take-home points for people about skin care, about, you know, this type of stuff, what would be the three take-homes?

Andrea Benavides: I would say investing yourself, I like to say I only do 20% of the work you do the 80% — 

Dr. Johnny Franco: You only do 20% of the work?

Andrea Benavides: Yeah, I do, you do 80. 

Dr. Johnny Franco: Wow, interesting.

Andrea Benavides: Yeah, I do, so because maintaining at home is super important, and I guess the third thing it’s, you know, have a good sunscreen.

Dr. Johnny Franco: And it’s funny because people don’t realize some of the stuff that’s the most inexpensive, like a good sunscreen, good moisturizer, cleanser stuff makes such a huge difference and, you know, people will spend all this money on other treatments and won’t do the basics, and that’s never made sense to me, you know, and so…

Andrea Benavides: Yeah.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Yeah, because if you go and you get one of these peels and then don’t even do a sunscreen afterward, like again you’ve wasted this effort, you know, and Andrea, she’ll probably be happy to see you, she’ll probably give you the look of like disappointment, the mom or dad shake of like…

Dr. Sean Arredondo: Shape, yeah.

Dr. Johnny Franco: …yeah. (Chuckles)

Andrea Benavides: Yes, exactly. I’m going to say, put that LaCroix back in the fridge, and come see me in my room. No, I was kidding. (Chuckles)

Dr. Johnny Franco: Exactly, exactly, taking every dirt road.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Well, I think these are some really, really good points and maybe we’ll be able to follow up with some of these if you guys want to DM us some more questions maybe we can steal you here in the near future, and do some more of these med spa minute stuff. Because I think this is super helpful, I think a lot of people want to do some small, subtle stuff, the nice thing about most of the things you’ve talked about are things that people can be right back to work the same day or the next day, and I think with the craziness of the world now that’s super appealing to people and small differences early in life make a big difference over time.

Andrea Benavides: Yes, I agree.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Any closing notes you want to…

Andrea Benavides: No, just come see me, my books are open and yeah, I’m super excited to treat everyone and if you’re new to this, I’m super excited to help educate you and take you through this path of skin care.

Dr. Johnny Franco: And when you see her, please educate her about your favorite app so…

Andrea Benavides: Yeah, please. (Chuckles)

Dr. Johnny Franco:  But Andrea, thanks for coming all the up and seeing us.

Andrea Benavides: Thank you.

Dr. Johnny Franco: Greatly appreciate this. This has been fabulous, and thank you to all of you for listening, Plastic Surgery Untold, is the greatest podcast on earth, as voted by us.

Oh, before I close, what’s your Instagram handle so people can follow you because you drop all sorts of fun TokToks and other stuff?

Andrea Benavides: Yes, so it’s a_esthetically_andrea.

Dr. Johnny Franco: We’ll type it out for you guys don’t you worry, we’ll make this easy.

Andrea Benavides: Yeah, yeah, please. (Chuckles)

Dr. Johnny Franco: Don’t forget to follow us on iTunes, Pandora, Spotify, and iHeart, and if you want to see our pretty faces from all this skincare we’ve done 80% of the work, follow us on YouTube as well. We’ll see you guys, bye.

Andrea Benavides: Bye.

Dr. Sean Arredondo:  Bye.

Dr. Adam Weinfeld: Bye.