Patient in Trouble

What follows is a comment that was posted to this weblog 08/31/08.
"I had radiesse 3 weeks ago and now have terrible nodules under my eyes, are these permanent?  How can they be treated? 

M. Smith"

There is no one who does any type of procedure who has not had complications. No one can guarantee you that any procedure will turn out well. I had a patient in last week who was considering Fraxel CO2 skin resurfacing (Fraxel Re:pair). Her husband asked me what type of results I could guarantee. I replied that I could not guarantee anything. His wife might have problems and, after all was completed, feel like she looked worse than before the procedure. Of course, these type of events are very uncommon. Otherwise we would not be performing these procedures.
I stress again that it's VERY important to trust your experience to a physician who is experienced and who is competent to deal with problems that might occur. Generally the incidence of problems will be less if the person treating you is further along the learning curve. But when problems occur, studies show that the patients, treated by unsupervised nurses or by physicians who are unfamiliar with skin problems, tend to be abandoned. We have seen this repeatedly. The patients are told that they will have to find someone who has the expertise to help them. This is not the time you want to be left on your own and not the time you want to be seeking answers from internet sites.

Gerald N. Bock MD
California Skin & Laser Center
Stockton & Lodi, CA