Dermatologists: The OG Skinfluencers

Unlock the secrets of discerning truth from fiction in the world of online dermatology with Dr. Shannon C. Trotter and our esteemed guest, Dr. Lawrence J. Green, a board-certified dermatologist and clinical professor. As misinformation runs rampant across social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and , we promise you'll leave this episode equipped with insightful knowledge on how to identify credible skincare advice amidst the chaos. Dr. Green shares his expert insights on the unique challenges dermatologists face in combating bizarre trends and highlights the importance of turning to certified professionals for skincare advice to avoid harmful consequences.

Dr. Green shares stories of colleagues who have harnessed the power of social media to provide accurate information, underscoring the dedication required to combat falsehoods and promote healthy skin practices. With so much at stake, it's crucial to seek expertise from board certified dermatologists to ensure your skincare routine is both safe and effective.

Transcript

Navigating Social Media in Dermatology

Speaker 1 0:00

Welcome to Dermot Trotter Don't Swear About Skin Care where host Dr Shannon C Trotter, a board-certified dermatologist, sits down with fellow dermatologists and skincare experts to separate fact from fiction and simplify skincare. Let's get started.

Speaker 2 0:18

Well, welcome to Dermot Trotter. Don't Swear About. Skin Care podcast. We have an exciting topic today. We're going to talk about exactly what we're doing the presence of dermatology on social media. Here with us today I have Dr Loren Screen, a board-certified dermatologist and clinical professor of dermatology at George Washington University School of Medicine. He's an internationally recognized leader in medical and aesthetic dermatology treatments and research studies, and was selected as one of the top dermatologists in the United States by Newsweek Magazine in 2024. Dr Green, welcome to the podcast.

Speaker 3 0:52

Thank you, Shannon. It's an honor to be here on your podcast. It means I've crossed another milestone to be able to make it on this.

Speaker 2 0:58

You're so generous and flattering, I love it, so we'll have to have you back. So you know, one of the things that you know my you know audience is really interested in is obviously social media. It's why they're here. They're tuning into the podcast and dermatology Everything's skin is all over social media. Can you talk a little bit about the social media scene right now for dermatology and skin related topics and how you're involved?

Speaker 3 1:26

involved. So the social media scene is really all over the place, as you know, because there's so many different venues for social media. We go from X to even LinkedIn, to Facebook, to Instagram and to TikTok, just to name a few, and there's others, there's Threads, which has just come out, that some people are participating in, so there's so many avenues to participate and I think that's part of the problem is that physicians like you and I who want to contribute to social media, don't know exactly where to get started and where the audience is, because social media is full of everything Truth, untruth, information, misinformation. There's no one to fact check anything that's put out there, so you never know what's out there, what's true and what's not true, what's helpful, what's not helpful. Are you going to waste your time doing something?

Speaker 3 2:10

And it's all the place, and I think the best way for people who want to look social media to get real information is to look at who would be the experts in what they're looking for. So if you're looking on how to be a good chef and cook something and cook a recipe, you want to go to a social media outlet where a famous chef is teaching you or giving advice on a recipe. So the same thing with physicians. I think the patient should look, or the person I shouldn't say patient, you and I think the patient should look, or the person I shouldn't say patient. The person should look to the people who are the experts in the field that they're looking at. So if you have skincare issues, well, who's the skincare expert? The dermatologist? Of course your board-certified dermatologist.

Speaker 3 2:57

If you have issues with how you walk or issues with your joints, of course you may want to look at an orthopedist post or a rheumatologist. Issues with your joints, of course you may want to look at what an orthopedist posts or a rheumatologist and medical doctors are always going to be the place for anything medically related, because we have the most education. That's our job. Forget about the education. It's our job. It's what we do for a living and I think when it comes to social media it's best to look at the person who does that for a living and who has the certification to give the information you need. And that's difficult to do and not everyone gives their certification. That sort of you know, all that sort of makes everything hard to figure out. So that's the crux of social media. It's all over the place and I really hope people look to the educated experts to get information for that specific thing. So you have to go searching for specific experts.

Speaker 2 3:48

Yeah, I think that makes sense. It's kind of like that you know, consumer beware, you know, really, if you're out there searching for that information, you need to know who you're talking to. You know, I looked up there was a study just kind of evaluating this back in 2020, healthcare professionals on Instagram about 38% of Instagram accounts with popular dermatology content and board certified dermatologists accounted for just 4% of those, which was kind of shocking to me. And then with those healthcare professionals too, they found credentials were missing for about 27% in the healthcare professional category and a lot of those social media self-care experts or skin influencers. I think what people don't realize is they may lack qualifications and if you really just look at a whole, the majority of skin or dermatologic advice on social media is being provided by non-dermatologists, which is essentially why we're here to hopefully have that presence and that voice. When you've looked at social media, what are some of the positives or negatives that you feel like that have come through, and particularly with skin and dermatology?

Speaker 3 4:49

Boy Shannon, that's a question with a full half hour answer because there are so many positives and negatives.

Speaker 3 4:56

I know there's so much on social media, so now I concentrate on TikTok and Facebook and Instagram, and I think most dermatologists do. X is really more political and LinkedIn is more professional, and I do when I publish an article, a new article on something I've done clinical research on, I'll put that on LinkedIn and try and get everyone the information about that new article. That's not something I would do on Instagram or Facebook or TikTok, but for general interacting with the public. Those are the three media that I think most dermatologists engage in. I think most of the population engages in Facebook because it's a bit of an older demographic, tiktok's middle-of-the-road demographic and TikTok is a younger age demographic. But really there's a huge mix and everyone's on, all of them checking them all the time, and I know I am, I know my wife is. She goes from TikTok to Instagram to Facebook and back, because new information keeps coming out at lightning speed. New information keeps coming out so and you never know what, the how, instagram or TikTok, why it sends you the feed of this person versus that person, even if you follow them or don't follow them. You're following, you know hundreds, if not thousands, of people and why are you getting this feed coming to you first. I have no idea, but you have to, even just because you're getting that feed. I think the public doesn't need to think that that's because that's most important to you and something you should listen to.

Speaker 3 6:16

We don't know how the algorithms work, but I think it's important to seek out and that's where social media can be very helpful. Seek out qualified people to give you the information you're looking for. You're not going to look to me to give you information about cooking or even orthopedics or something like that. I don't want to give information. If you're seeing me give information on that, don't trust me. I can say it right now. So I'm looking to this not as a you know, not something personal. For me, instagram and Facebook and TikTok are a business. I don't have a personal account. For me, it's a business in a way that I think it's important to tell truthful information, educate the public and get rid of misinformation. So I think when the person is looking for something, if they can do an educated search, social media can be very helpful. A specific, targeted search looking for the right experts to give you that information, can be very helpful. A specific, targeted search, looking for the right experts to give you that information can be very helpful. If you're not, you're doing sort of a haphazard search you're not necessarily going to get information that's going to be helpful. I'll give you an example Back.

Speaker 3 7:18

I was doing some work for the Acne and Rosacea Society about a year ago and they had me look at videos that were on Instagram and TikTok about people promoting cures and treatments for acne. I mean, there were things like green juice mixed with spinach or some green stuff helping their acne and playing with acne as another cure and picking at pimples All the things we nothing we'd recommend and nothing was science backed behind it. So crazier things like certain foods causing acne which there's no information and relevance for. But these are just random people with credentials that who knows what they are. They're there, they're on there, they're on social media. That kid. That's credentials enough. If you, if you want to, you can put it out there and they would get thousands of views on these ideas which have no scientific merit. So that's where you have to be careful, in my opinion.

Speaker 3 8:14

Yeah, just because someone said you know, if I said to you, shannon, you know what I ate cream cheese on carrots today and my acne cleared up and I'm going to post on Instagram about the cream cheese and carrots is the best thing for acne. Does that mean it's a good treatment for acne? No, it's not a good treatment for acne. Just maybe you experienced it. That's great, and your friend experienced it. That's great. But that's not the way science works. Science works on that. We have to do a clinical trial. We have to show works In general, not in a specific individual, but in general. We have trends that it works and that's what we want to recommend. We want to use scientific information and that's why I think the dermatologist role is very important in social media to put out what's there so that when people can search appropriately, they can find information that's helpful.

Speaker 2 9:03

Yeah, I think that's the positive. You know you can get out there and put out information that makes sense, it's accurate, especially expert, led by a board certified dermatologist. And the negatives, like you highlighted, it's the misinformation and potentially some of those stories, although I know that the carrots and cream cheese I hate carrots, I'm okay that you did that story, but carrots and cream cheese, you know, maybe seem relatively harmless, but you're right, does it make sense? It's not even evidence-based. But then there are things people are saying that potentially could cause harm and they have no idea of the potential harms of things they're recommending. So I think, yeah, taking that with a grain of salt, as you mentioned, look for those credentials and definitely, before you attempt anything that you've learned about, make sure you check with your local board certified dermatologist that you see Now you talked about you know.

Speaker 2 9:47

Going back to those carrots and cream cheese, what about some other myths? Where have patients come in and said, hey, I saw this on TikTok, you know, I think this works, or what do you think about this? What are some of the more crazy things you've had people come in and talk about that they've seen on social media?

Speaker 3 10:00

Well, I'll give you an example. It happened to me two ago. It was on Thursday that someone came in with hair loss, a gentleman which, in hair loss, is, I think, one of the most common things we dermatologists see now it's a whole other podcast is why hair loss from 15 years ago I barely saw, but now I see it more commonly than acne pretty much. But he came in with hair loss and his wife was on the phone during the visit and I mentioned potential treatments and the wife through the phone said what about vitamin K? And I said I don't know anything about vitamin K. I've never seen any scientific literature on vitamin K helping hair. And she's no, no, no, I've reached her.

Social Media Influence on Dermatology

Speaker 3 10:43

I've seen on social media people are promoting it and goes on and and on, and I'm trying to say I'm sorry, but I've never seen that information. I'd like to see it. Where you got the information, the sources, and she was going on that it's a credible people. So this is the type of information that comes to you, that we see on a daily basis and at the end it turns out she was talking about zinc. She got the information wrong, she couldn't remember correctly and zinc is associated with hair loss.

Speaker 3 11:12

It's an important thing to have to help stabilize and grow hair, but people come in with this idea from social media that has no basis In fact, just because people are saying it out there and they say, well, multiple sources. Well, who are these multiple sources? So there's an example right there of something we see in the office every day that, to be honest with you, takes away time. Where I can help the patient more, I need to redirect to because I want to be helpful to the patient, to give them good information that will really help their hair.

Speaker 2 11:42

No, I think that is true. You know people don't realize, you know, and then, just through telephone or not remembering right, you know, they're questioning something that they might have heard and it sometimes even teaches us, it draws us, you know, to that attention of what's being said out there. I can remember a patient coming in and talking about period facials and I said period facials, what's a period facial? And she said oh, you use your menstrual blood and you apply it to your face and it's supposed to help you have youthful and glowing skin. And I said Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Where did you see this? And she had mentioned she had seen this on social media, and so I tried to talk with her about this not being a great idea of you know, bacteria, other contamination, and you know the problems that could happen in infection. And I said you know, did you actually try this? And she said I did. She said I think it might have helped, but I'm really not sure. But that was something you know. She didn't think to double check and just thought I saw it looks like a good idea and I'm going to do it.

Speaker 2 12:34

And I think that's the fear a lot of us have in dermatology. People aren't really vetting the people they're talking to and just go out and attempt it without talking to their dermatologist and there are risks with that to their dermatologist and there are risks with that. You know that we want patients to kind of be aware of. I think slugging is the other thing. You know people talk about slugging all the time and I remember working with dermatologists back in my training that recommended, just didn't have a cool term yet you know people wanted that extensive occlusion and hydration. But I think people forget about the risk of acne and the other challenges and come with it that there are some pluses and minuses, even with things that could seem, you know, somewhat harmless. You know where you might just apply petrolatum to the face. So I think that's kind of neat how it's bringing this to our attention, to have the conversation with patients.

Speaker 2 13:14

But you're right, sometimes it's a lot of time to redirect and rebuild that trust, because sometimes they're trusting what they hear out there from folks without credentials and sort of second guessing what we're doing in the office, which is something I'm hopeful with our presence we'll be able to turn around office, which is something I'm hopeful with our presence we'll be able to turn around. Can you think of you know some conditions or situations in dermatology where you feel like social media has definitely had a positive influence for sharing more accurate information with the public, where you feel like people were going to skew, whether it was with sunscreens and people were ready to abandon them because the impact on you know the reefs. Or whether certain medications you know, maybe isotretinoin, where patients thought, oh, it's the most terrible thing ever. I heard it causes all kinds of problems on social media. Anything that really sticks out to you where you've really seen it be helpful for us as dermatologists.

Speaker 3 13:57

Well, actually, let me backtrack because I can think of so many things where it hasn't helped. You mentioned acne with. I've had acne with slugging as well. People who have acne want to use slugging, and that's good for someone if you have really dry skin an old person like me but if you're younger and you have acne, slugging is not a good idea, and petrolat on your face, of course, is not a good idea.

Speaker 3 14:16

Another thing those roller needles. People come by over the counter. Instead they think it's microneedling. That is not microneedling. It's not the same thing we do in our office. It's very safe. I've seen people scar themselves and horribly injure themselves for that.

Speaker 3 14:29

So we can go on and on, and I think part of the problem is you know we can have a positive influence and we do, but it's an uphill battle because we're. How many of us are on social media? You know we're physicians, we work, you know, 10, 12 hours a day, five to six days days a week, and when do we have time for social media? So the people who post on social media, that's what they're doing. So how can we, who are working full days, then have to post and then do this, keep up with people who. That's what they do and they can. They can search the internet and come up with all these crazy ideas because it'll get them more views and things like that you.

Speaker 3 15:10

It's very, very difficult and there are some dermatologists one of my former George Washington residents after he finished, no presence in social media. He said I'm not going to work, I'm not going to find a job, I'm going to build a social media presence and try and get out some good information. And he didn't work. I don't know where he made his money, but for a few years he built it. He has hundreds of thousands of followers and that's all he did for a living. But that's what you have to do in order to build a social media presence and that's what these people do, and I don't think we can do it.

Speaker 3 15:40

I think it's important that every dermatologist do the best they can. There are how many of us in the United States 15,000, 16,000 to try and post on social media, but the truth is we can't do it. I'm lucky if I can post five days a week. I try and post five days a week, but I can't always do that because I have a job and my primary focus is not social media. My primary focus is taking care of patients Right, and so is yours, and that's the disadvantage that we face and that's I don't know the answer to that. I don't know how to overcome that, I think, except that people who look have to do searches and be very specific in search for board certified dermatologists or search dermatologists so they can at least hopefully get someone who's got credible information Now, positive information, you know we try.

Speaker 3 16:25

The American Academy of Dermatology has really been focused on getting a better social media presence. Out there we have some dermatologists that work and take some time off to exclusively post on truthful things, relevant information for the public. That's trending and they're trying, but that's just a few people in this massive world of social media. But that's what we have to do more of is I wish dermatologists could just do social media like that one of my former residents at George Washington did, or what the American Academy of Dermatology is doing paying people to take off from work and spend time posting and post correct messages because that's what we need more of. And I think where we've succeeded, I think we've done pretty good with sunscreen.

Speaker 3 17:06

Listen, there's a lot of people who still believe that sunscreen can be bad for you and harmful, and the FDA is looking at some ingredients in sunscreen. So there's some that gives just fuel to the fire for people to make it like. Sunscreen doesn't help people, don't forget. We have 50, 60 years of safety and no one's really gotten hurt from sunscreen. Just not using sunscreen gets people hurt and people forget that. They just look at these little pieces of information and then people will amplify that and misinformation comes out. But I think we are still doing pretty well on sunscreen but we've got to continue because misinformation continues to come out there no-transcript.

Speaker 2 18:12

I think we've made strides, you know, probably in really awareness of certain skin conditions that just get little attention. You know, probably like hidronia separativa, I would say that's been one of the successes from not only board certified dermatologists but even some of the quote unquote skin influencers out there that may lack some credentials but they've talked about their condition. I would say that's been one success to get patients through the door where I feel like I've been able to help somebody with something that's not as well known or just not diagnosed, and so I really feel that's been a positive. For social media and in the last couple of minutes that we have here today, how do you feel like being on social media really helps improve your credibility with patients and the public and do you think it's something important that you're going to continue to have that voice out there?

Speaker 3 18:56

So I don't know how many people really have come to my office because they've seen me on social media. But social media is just all over the place. It's not local, so it's not, I'd think, a way to. I mean, there's been a few, but very few. I don't think social media is a way to build a practice. But what I think is important is we're here for the population, we're here for the public, we're here to educate the public about what we know, about our job, and that's what we've gone to school for, had all this advanced training. We spent all these years training, for it's part of giving back, and I think dermatologists should give back.

Speaker 3 19:26

It's difficult because we're working 60 hours a week and where do you find time to create videos? It's all video content and you're not going to see from me these super edited videos that take so much time to create, me superimposed on this and that and then cut and paste. I barely have time to do just a regular video, and that's what we're up against is. People will do that, but I think it's important besides that. So what if it's basic? Get it out there.

Speaker 3 19:53

I started social media probably seven, eight years ago. I was on the ASDS Board of Directors and Doris Day is a dermatologist in New York was already on Instagram and talked to me about it, and she really brought to my attention that this is an important way to gain patient trust and to increase the influence of dermatologists out there. At that time there wasn't so much riffraff and all this other misinformation, but still it's the venue that we can bring our message, because our job is to educate. We want to treat and help patients, but our job is also to educate patients. I think it's important we do our best if we have time Of course, patient care comes first to educate the public.

Speaker 2 20:32

Yeah, and, like you said, patient care this is an extension of it. You know, taking time if you can to go on social media, the time you took with us here today just to talk about it, to make you know our audience really aware of looking for those credentials board certified dermatologists really, you know, really just looking for accurate information and hopefully we've been able to provide that, I think, to the audience today to give them a little perspective on surfing the internet next time if they're on TikTok or Instagram that they look for dermatologists providing that, because that is an extension of the care that we provide every day. So, dr Green, thank you for coming on the podcast. I greatly appreciate it For our audience members that want to find you. Do you mind sharing your social media with them as well?

Speaker 3 21:09

Yeah, of course I'm easy to find on Facebook, tiktok and Instagram. It's at drlaurencegreen L-A-W-R-E-N-C-E-G-R-E-E-N. Got to put the dot after doctor and that's where I'm at and it's on all three the same, on all three of those social media presences. And Shannon you mentioned, one of the things people can look for is FAAD, and I put that on all my social media as fellow American Academy of Dermatology, because then you know you have a legit board certified dermatologist that if you're searching for an FAAD, that's another way to do it. But please, you're welcome to visit. I try and post lots of good stuff, good information that's interesting. I just posted this week, for example, I'm in the soda aisle at the supermarket and a lot of people come to me and say, hey, does soda make acne worse? Can I drink soda? And the answer is yes, soda does not really make acne worse. I don't know where that information comes from, but so those are the things that I'll post about and try and give you a little tidbit each time.

Speaker 2 22:05

So before you guys drink that Diet Coke, make sure you check out Dr Green's video on Instagram. Well, thank you again. So much for coming on the podcast. Stay tuned for the next episode of Dermot Trotter. Don't Swear About Skincare.

Speaker 3 22:19

Thank you, Shannon.

Speaker 1 22:22

Thanks for listening to Dermot Trotter. For more about skincare, visit DermotTrottercom. Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review and share this podcast with anyone who needs a little skincare sanity. Until next time, stay skin smart.