Sometimes people ask me how I got to JD. I had always worked in Intensive Care Units and Emergency Rooms. I traveled in this setting from California to Florida and I loved my job. So after 7 years of that how the heck did I land in derm? The PDL laser, that’s how.
Dr. Sandy and Dr. Brad had just opened their practice in Fort Smith and Dr. Sandy had a booth at the FSPD health fair to spread the word. Jarrard(my cop husband) stopped by her booth and informed her he was always red but knew she couldn’t help him with that problem. Never tell Dr. Sandy she can’t do something. She very quickly informed him he had Rosacea and she had a laser that would semi-permanently solve his problem. This was life changing. My husband was on the news regularly as the public information officer and people commonly asked him why he was so red. Was he mad, nervous or anxious? He wondered why as well and always felt frustrated to not have answers. It was a nuisance on top of an embarrassment. That’s the thing about the skin, it’s very difficult to hide your condition. He could very easily keep his high blood pressure, high cholesterol and heart stents a secret (if it wasn’t for me being his wife). He could never hide his rosacea. So monthly he went and saw Dr. Sandy for her to personally laser him. She changed his life and attitude with that laser. So much so that he made me go with him to his future treatments so I could see how amazing Dr. Sandy and her laser were in person. I saw what results she achieved and it was much more than the redness on his skin. That’s where my love for Dermatology began. Fast forward 10 years and here we are at JD with 4 laser rooms and 10 devices with a variety of results we can achieve. We have the largest laser center in the River Valley so I asked Dr. Sandy to write a blog about our lasers and here it is…….
As the granddaughter of a carpenter and a concrete man, I was taught the importance of having the right tools for the job. They taught that just because you have a hammer, not everything is a nail. As a child, I wanted to enter the family concrete business….I was denied and was told I needed an education. Reflecting on this, I am grateful because I love treating skin so much. Also, it may be that because they let me play with their tools as a child I now like to have so many tools in our armamentarium in our family business of Dermatology. My favorite tools in the clinic are the toys/tools that I and our well trained and physician supervised laser techs get to play with daily.
I love lasers and was fortunate to be trained by experts at UAMS and Harvard. I was honored to use some of the latest technology when I was on faculty at UAMS. I learned to respect lasers and what they can do when I served on the Laser Committee for the Arkansas State Medical Board. These experiences early in my career further enhanced my desires to have a lot of laser tools as well as my desires to provide the highest level of patient outcomes and experiences.
So now at Johnson Dermatology, if you tell us what you would like to enhance, we can tell you if we have a tool or tools for that. As Alice, one of our lasers techs, likes to say…”we have the most comprehensive laser center and the best trained team to use those lasers”.
Acne…we can treat with the Blu light, PDL or sublative
Acne scars…we can treat with PDL, sublative, YAG, IPL or subcision
Red marks, spots, birth marks, facial redness, or broken blood vessels…we can treat with PDL, KTP, IPL
Psoriasis…we can treat with PDL
Excess hair…we can treat with YAG for patients who have very light colored skin to very darkly colored skin. We can also treat with the motif for a more comfortable treatment experience
Loose skin…we can treat with YAG, sublative, PDL or velashape
Stretch marks…we can treat with PDL, YAG, sublative, velashape
Want 32% fat reduction that is permanent and painless…we can do that with velashape and ultrashape power
Unwanted tattoos…we can rid those with PicoSure or ATV
Brown spots…we can treat those with creams, peels, ATV, PicoSure, PDL, IPL
Yes, we have a lot of toys and we have fun playing with them for the benefit of our patients. The PDL and YAG were the first lasers we purchased for Johnson Dermatology in 2006. The V-beam perfecta we use now is the third version of the PDL I have used; and is still my favorite laser of all time. One of my favorite patients of all time was a sweet guy with a tattoo on his arm that he wanted gone before his baby was born. He challenged me and we accomplished his goal with the laser. Together our laser team has more than 40 years of experience and countless stories of these success stories. We are so thankful to every patient who has trusted us for that past 11 years and for every patient who will trust us in the future.
I would like to take this opportunity to offer Congrats to Dr. Bise on his retirement after a very successful plastic surgery career. I also want to thank him for trusting us with his PicoSure and KTP lasers…the latest tools we have added to our laser toolbox. We will do our best to make him and his patients satisfied.
Stay skintastic!
