Hand Rejuvenation

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Transcript

Why Hands Reveal Age

SPEAKER_03 0:02

Welcome back to the For Your Best Self podcast. I'm Dr. Rebecca Novo, excited to be back in the studio with Max Polling, one of our incredible aesthetic dermatology PAs.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 0:13

We are talking about a topic again near and dear to our hearts. I do not think we've done a podcast yet on this topic, and it's hand rejuvenation. Yep. Hand is often overlooked. Agreed. You know, kind of in the last few decades, it was the neck. You know, don't just pay attention to your face, always include the neck.

SPEAKER_00 0:33

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 0:33

Um, and now it's really the hands. It's a telltale sign of aging if we don't take care of it. So we're gonna go over some of our strategies today to prevent and improve the appearance of your hands.

A Real Patient Hand Plan

SPEAKER_03 0:48

And Maxi saw a patient today in the office. You were just telling me for hand rejuvenation. What did that look like?

SPEAKER_00 0:54

It was pretty fun. I told her, I was like, hey, by the way, we're gonna do a podcast tonight. You should listen to it.

SPEAKER_03 0:58

So what was your approach with this patient?

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Uh so she came in concerns. And the crazy thing is, I didn't actually bring this up to her prior to. She called in, I was looking back at my notes, I'm like, we actually haven't talked about this. And she made an appointment just for hands. She wanted to know what opportunities existed. And we we have actually done a laser to her hands previously, but she was looking at some of the kind of more of the veininess of the hands. You know, as we age, you lose a little bit of the fullness, accentuate some of the veins, and you know, it's amazing how that tissue to the skin of the hands is so thin to begin with that as we age, you know, it really kind of makes it a bit more prominent in the vascularity. So she wanted to know what opportunities existed, and for her, today we landed on Radius. Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_03 1:38

So for those who don't know Radius, how would you so it's like a part filler, part biostimulator?

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Biostimulator is helping to you know increase the degree of collagen. Um best takeaway from that is trying to thicken the skin a little bit. Yeah, minimize that contour, I think. And uh basic sense of what I get to do and noticing shadows is understanding hills and valleys. And you take the hill and bring it down or the valley and bring it up to kind of smooth that out a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 2:04

So that approach was kind of dual, working on the skin quality and some re-volumization. Yep. Beautiful.

Daily Protection And Smarter Habits

SPEAKER_03 2:12

So, you know, hands are overly exposed. You know, we usually forget to protect them, whether it's driving or activities or hard working.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 2:23

Um, I mean, how many times do you wash your hands a day? Five to ten to twenty. I don't know, and they're constantly moving and dynamic and doing things. And I know I'm not great about putting on skincare lotion. I I need to be better. So it can be as simple as hydration. It is. I think skin always looks better when it's not dry or flaky. So I think the simplest approach you can have to your hands is developing some smart habits of protecting them. Yeah. Um you had mentioned one of our practitioners.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Alessa, she's she skin diligent. Oh my goodness, to say the least, and in the best possible way. She cares deeply.

SPEAKER_02 3:05

Leads by example. She cares deeply.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

Uh I mean, and truly lead by example, not by you know walk in the walk. Exactly. And she puts a physical barrier on her hands, uh, gloves when she drives.

SPEAKER_02 3:16

That's smart.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

And I mean, even for Florida, you know, there's a lot of fishermen, there's a lot of just outdoorsmen in general, um, men and women, of course. But even when I go fishing, I actually have gloves for my hands to protect the top of them just because again, you sweat so much. Yes. You know, that humidity is brutal, and it's so easy to put your hands in your pocket, sunscreen that was on there, brush off. So physical barriers are always ideal. Yes. And I think for your point of skincare, you know, it's so easy to take skincare that we put on day in and day out all through our face, drop it down to the neck, but then do the same thing as once you're done with the neck, just roll over it on the top of your hands.

SPEAKER_03 3:47

Yes. So that could be anything from your moisturizer, hydration. I think it's essential. Absolutely. A mineral sunscreen if you're gonna be exposed. Um, and then from there we can get a little bit more sophisticated. My personal favorite anti-aging for anything uh on the body is an elastin product. Uh, it's called Transform.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Amazing stuff.

SPEAKER_03 4:12

Um, it has trihex technology, which scientifically what I love about the brands we carry in general is they're scientific, they're in the lab. You know, this brand specifically does biopsies where they're studying on a microscopic level, they can measure the improvement in collagen elastin. And I think their number was twice a day for six months, reduced visible creepiness, which we usually kind of just describe as that superficial, like little starting to show texture crinkly uh that improved or was reduced by 60%, which is significant.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

And those daily applications, I mean, it is compound interest. So if you really want to I think we sometimes negate the ability to make impacts just because you don't see it quickly. Right. But if you make that compound interest and you know you really invest day in and day out, you get a massive return in the in the long run.

SPEAKER_03 5:04

Absolutely. That's probably the simplest way to elevate your skincare for your hands if you're already doing the basic things like hydration and protection.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

Is there a product that you have thought of or as a guy who grew up here uh and worked lifeguarding on the beach seven years? I mean, I've I was not kind to my skin previously. I'm much better about it now, thankfully.

SPEAKER_03 5:24

Your hands look better than mine.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

Yeah, and as a guy with a same eczema too, so there's that. Yeah. Um but I really love using Isdin, you know, just transitioning on top of the hands. Obviously, it can help to fight some of those precancerous lesions. Unfortunately, I've had those pop up on face, but I'm trying to avoid the hands too because it's functional.

SPEAKER_03 5:41

We do, we are we are talking about rejuvenation and anti-aging, but we remove skin cancers from the back of the hands all the time. Um so it's a skin health prevention is male and female too.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

It's not just one or the other. I mean, that's I think that's a one of those locations that you just don't appreciate the degree of exposure that it's always had there.

SPEAKER_03 6:04

Right. It's our our feet are covered, you know, it's it's uh constantly working in an exposed area. So skin care, I think, is essential. From there, we can get a little bit more in-depth, upon intended, how we work with the skin. Another

Laser Options For Spots And Texture

SPEAKER_03 6:20

approach we take for rejuvenation is lasers. There's different laser options. You brought up a great point about a simple add-on because we do so much for the face, face-neck. Absolutely. Why not? Hands when you're there. It's a quick, simple add-on. You're already kind of doing the social downtime hideout, you're doing the same care, same post-care.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

It takes a little bit longer to heal, but it's it comfort-wise is not bad. Yeah. And most of the time we're doing dealing with more of like a cool peel and or a CO2 laser uh to really help to retexture the skin, lift a lot of those brown spots, especially if you have more not just sun damage, but even uh some of those suburbate keratoses, the little growths on top of the skin, you know, you those typically only go away by intention.

SPEAKER_03 7:01

Yes. I find, I don't know about your experience, but when I see things that don't lift with uh our bladed lasers, sometimes those SKs need a little bit more scraping or freezing if they're too thick for the laser. So sometimes we'll do that dual approach so that we can clear those brown spots for you. Um and like Max said, it does heal take a little bit longer. Your skin basically feels like sandpaper, looks like sandpaper. Um, so it's not open wounds per se, but it will be rough for a week and a half to up to two weeks. But the more hydrated, the quicker it'll recover. And another laser that we do a lot of uh at the beachhead location is BBL. I think that's a beautiful one. Absolutely. And it goes so fast, hands, forearms, arms, you can treat that as one.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

Recovery, so easy.

SPEAKER_03 7:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

I mean, very few things can you say there's really negligible downtime. Right. But it's such a fun thing to see, to see that little pigment, those little coffee grounds just start flaking off the skin. And for a treatment that is just really convenient, simple, not painful by any means. Uh you come in, you leave, and it it's pretty straightforward for the only exception of just trying to minimize sun exposure for the you know weeks to come. Uh, but it's a great option. I mean, Didi, I think she's been operating that laser for how was it like five, six years? Yeah. I mean, there's multiple providers, but yeah, they we have a we have a great crew of of people that you know are very proficient in in lasers, and yeah. That one I think it's fitting to be beachside.

SPEAKER_03 8:35

Yeah, it's one of my favorite treatments because we're always one of our the hardest we reasons like to get on the schedule is thinking about that recovery time of UPL, there's really no barrier, um, other than obviously basic Sun Smart. So it's it's a great treatment that you can schedule any time of the year.

SPEAKER_00 8:54

And if you are a person that is kind of reserved, you know, nervous of the word laser, you know, this is a variation of IPL and incredibly comfortable. And there's I'm typically the person that's usually going to make stuff sound worse than what it is. This is the one laser.

SPEAKER_03 9:07

It feels good. It does. Yeah, it's kind of like a hot stone massage. It does.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

Like you know it's working, but you're like, I don't mind it. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 9:14

Also, you're thinking about the benefits. And we talked a little bit about the resurfacing. So those are probably the two most prominent laser choices for the skin rejuvenation as far as procedures.

Volume Loss Fillers And Biostimulators

SPEAKER_03 9:28

Uh Max alluded to a big uh part of hand aging is volume loss, losing fat as we age in places we don't necessarily want it. Um so that tissue thins and it makes the tendons more visible, bony structures, veins more visible. Um and you said that you did uh you said radius. Radius today, yep. And then some other options that we use, uh Max and I both use are uh more in the fat grafting family, the RNUV, which we've done a podcast on recently. If you want to take a deep dive into RANUVA, basically revolumizing, and these are safe. You did your procedure today with cannula. Absolutely. You know, so a cannula is blunt tip, it's gliding under the skin surface, so it's gonna a blunt tip. Cannula's gonna bounce off any um important structures like vasculature.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

And it's comfortable. The patient today, she had never had anything done to her hands prior to, and she was kind of nervous uh just because in looking at the hands, she thinks because the skin's so thin, she thought it would be painful. I typically just do a little lidocaine bleb initially for entry point, and she's like, I I didn't feel any of it. And she was like, That wait, we're done. That's it. That's beautiful, and really you know, high satisfaction.

SPEAKER_03 10:43

Uh there's instant gratification with that product because it is a a structure.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

You see tissue expansion and the longevity on that is typically around 15-18 months when you're you know blending it down in that. Um Reneva, on the other hand, you're dealing with on average between seven to eight years is what seven to ten years is what you're dealing with common fat growth. And know that with hands, it's typically a sequence, it's not one of those things where I don't like injecting a lot of product at one time because the swelling can be more prominent, and I think that's there's a degree of discomfort. I'd rather do you know multiple sessions uh broken up over a series to make it much more comfortable and have a more controlled results.

SPEAKER_03 11:21

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 11:22

You can always add more, right? And that's what we prefer to do is reassess, go from there. Um but I I think great options though, and again, comfort really easy. It's something easy to fit into your lifestyle.

Choosing Products By Timeline

SPEAKER_03 11:34

Yeah, and there's another product on our pipeline, Alla Clay. We have our um, we're gonna do some models and uh model patients in the next month. So that'll be an another product available for revolumization. We're very excited about. Yeah. Especially areas where I'm looking, I'm thinking about hands specifically. Um sometimes with Renewva, you do need modest fat you do to create fat. If there's not enough there, if there's nothing, um, it might be underwhelming. So the alloclay, which is the actual fat, will probably be a really exciting option for green.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

Alternatively, your your kind of last option, which you know, I not to say it's a bad option, but just telling you for completeness, of course, would be a hyaluronic acid filler like rest on lift. It does have an FDA indication for the hands. You know, I I don't think it's used as much cannonly just because you know it's gonna provide an immediate fill to the space, but you're not getting any added, you know, collagen induction or anything like that. So for the right patient, right reasons, you know, it is more immediate if you said, Hey, I have a wedding that is in two weeks. That's a reasonable option because you're gonna see more of that true result right then and there. Where a lot of these other products are a bit more delayed in that onset, like you'll see a little bit, but not everything. So that's where we always take timeline into consideration and saying when you need to see results by and the duration of what you're gonna expect on each thing. That's incredibly customizable. It's a fun part.

SPEAKER_03 13:00

Um, so we've covered prevention and skincare topicals. We've gone a little deeper with the lasers and then injectables.

Multimodal Results And Next Steps

SPEAKER_03 13:11

Uh my daughter's nine, and she held her hand up next to mine. She's like, Mommy, is your job to make people with hands like yours look like hand look like mine?

SPEAKER_02 13:23

That's just like, uh, like kind of kids, they are brutally honest. I think that's part of a part of my job. Yeah. Yeah, if only I could get my hands look like yours. I'll work on it.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

To that point, I think it's it's always the multimodality approach, yeah, oftentimes. And I mean, generationally, whether you're in your 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, so on and so forth, there's different approaches, but the one thing that's standard throughout all is skincare to it. Yeah. Um, the lasers, it's kind of the plus minus depending on what you're presenting with. Right. Uh, the degree of like textural changes that are present there and volume, you know, from a you know, if you need volume, if you're seeing more of the veiny complexion of the hands, that can absolutely be minimized. And you know, as we once said, as you mentioned earlier, it used to be the neck. And now oftentimes people say, like, well, you can see your age in your hands because it's one of the things that is always exposed and people kind of forget about.

SPEAKER_03 14:15

Right.

SPEAKER_00 14:16

It's kind of nice.

SPEAKER_03 14:17

Um so if you'd like to learn more, visit our website, www.foryourbestself.com, or call our office and schedule a consultation with one of us, and we can talk about all the options. Uh it's never too late. That being said, it's always better to prevent and stay ahead. So hopefully this helps you gain a few pearls on how to prevent aging. Um, anything else?

SPEAKER_00 14:44

You gotta hit the mark on those. Yeah, I mean, uh know that it's not a one size fits all, and it's just a custom tailored approach to each person, regardless of the generation that you're in.

SPEAKER_03 14:54

Perfect. Well, hands down, this is the most fun I've had all day. Thank you for listening in.

SPEAKER_02 15:00

We'll talk to you soon.