Question:
For psoriasis??? I'm surprised, because his yellow page ads don't even
mention Ps and emphasize laser treatment for wrinkles, rosecea (redness
reduction), tattoos, scars, acne & spider veins, dermapeels, botox and
collagen therapy. Plus he does a lot of radio advertising promoting this.
I wouldn't be surprised, actually. In *ads*, derms appear much more
likely to go on and on about the more "elective" procedures, rather than
disease maintenance of the psoriasis kind. Advertising is, of course,
designed to drum up new business, and I doubt derms would advertise
those things they're perfectly capable of doing, yet most-often come
into the office via referral. They won't see a lot of people referred to them
for tattoo removal, for example, so they advertise it.
I wanted to see if Bill would respond with more detail about why this derm
was his favorite, hence I replied as I did to elicit a response. Since it
hasn't worked yet, I guess I should have been more direct and asked Bill why
the derm was his favorite.
As you might recall, I have mentioned in the past that I ran the Seattle
Psoriasis Support & Education Network for about 10 years. I spoke to a lot
of people over that time and I remember getting at least one negative report
about this derm.
However, I was reluctant to say that publicly as I know that one cannot
really fairly assess a doctor on one or even a few disparaging comments. It
must be put into perspective; unless someone reports outright malfeasance or
inappropriate behavior, it could be a disagreement over treatment modality,
unhappiness over the doc's "bedside" manner or even just a personality clash.
I certainly wouldn't want to impugn someone's reputation based on one of the
latter complaints. Hell, I even heard negative things about derms that I
know fairly well and respect.
You have made very valid points in your post; the dentist analogy (whitening
vs. cavity-filling) especially resonated. However -- and perhaps my bias is
way off base -- I've always reasoned that a derm who heavily promotes the
cosmetic procedures and the latest equipment to do them and doesn't even
mention Ps or other skin diseases is going to spend the vast majority of his
education time on keeping up-to-date on (or researching new) cosmetic
procedures, thus leaving little or no time for staying abreast of the latest
in treating Ps.
Conversely, if I see a derm who has Ps listed in his advertising, I will
figure that is one of the foci (I like saying that word ) of his practice
and it stands to reason that he will likely stay more current on methodology
and have equipment (UVA & UVB) that a cosmetically-oriented derm might not
have. Perhaps that is faulty reasoning on my part, but it seems to make
sense to me.
One thing is clear from this discussion: it is wise to do some research on a
derm (call the office & ask questions...even speak to the doc if you can)
before choosing to see that derm.
Answer:
- Here's a thought. Maybe, and this is a huge maybe, if a doctor was sufficiently
interested in skin problems from a cosmetic perspective he/she might discover a
brand new way to give Psoriatics that lovely, soft, supple skin we so desire!
Maybe we need to find a derm so completely dedicated to making everyone
beautiful that Psoriasis becomes his greatest challenge and clearing it his
greatest achievement!
And maybe, I'll wake up tomorrow and I will be beautiful and young and have a
shit load of money in my bank and I'll get up and go shoot hoops with my
Grandson and hang out at the beach in a teeny bikini with my teenage
Grandaughter. Then I'll take the three year old grandaughter down the street
to the new Disneyland California and ride all the rides with her.
After the kids are tired out I'll go out and dance latin salsa dances with
Antonio Banderas and then I'll....................
- I didn't see the original post, but something that happened to us
recently seems like it might be relevant. My daughter's psoriasis has
spread over a good part of her body and had not been responding to
numerous treatments, so her derm (who specializes in psoriasis)
referred us to another derm for light therapy three times a week. The
first time we went to his office, we were surprised to see that it was
very elegant and there were all kinds of brochures on display for
cosmetic procedures. One that really caught our attention was for
facial liposuction! We kind of felt like we weren't in the right
place, but when the derm came in, he told us that at one time he
specialized in psoriasis and it was still an interest of his. Must
be, because the appointment book for treatments is always pretty full.
When I looked him up in the phone book, his (rather large) ad didn't
mention psoriasis either, just the cosmetic stuff.
