In the News

It is do it yourself cosmetic procedures. People are going online to show how they brush up their face with Botox or plump up their lips with fillers, but should they? I didn’t feel like my lips were big enough. So Rene Spruce bought something called a Hia Pen to inject filler into her lips. She even made a Tiktok video showing how she did it. I would strongly discourage people from doing this yourself at home. When Rene’s video caught the attention of board certified dermatologist Dr Whitney Bo who made her won video about Rene – please don’t do what I think you are going to do. And her lips look beautiful today but maybe she will get an infection tomorrow. I wanted to draw attention to the fact aht there are significant risks to what she was doing in that video. Obviously she has very strong opinions as a doctor as she should. I am taking a risk and I am some one that doe that regularly. Complications of self-injections can be serious. Board certified dermatologist Dr. Christine Lee showed me a patient she had treated to correct bad results. This patient had an eye droop after injecting Botox and these patients had scarring around the cheek and mouth from fillers. Is it dangerous for women to be self-injecting Botox and fillers? It is very dangerous for women to be injecting themselves. If somebody actually injected into the wrong nerves they can get paralysis of the face. I want you to push it in, into the tissue as gently. But not all doctors are worried. Dr. Stanley Covac who runs Mirror care outside Chicago says it is okay to self-inject with proper medical supervision. He says he is breaking barriers by providing Telehealth for those wanting to do it. Perfect that is the right amount. He even invited us watch as he instructed a patient how to inject herself with Botox. Hey you did a good job how did it feel? Not so bad at all, very easy. According to medical and legal expert they have said what you are doing is “dangerous and crazy. Obscene and completely unethical an shady as hell.” I believe that 1 – they are not being as informed as to what we are doing. I think if they were more informed they would see that it is not shady as hell or obscene or unethical. Have to admit that it is safer to do this in a doctor’s office under medical care – I will not admit that it is not safer to do it in a doctor’s office than it is to do it via Telehealth with a doctor guiding you who knows properly how to do it. What you just told me is that it is not safer for a patient to go to a doctor than for a patient to do it themselves? Not if the doctor is guiding them. Many in the medical community totally disagree. When it comes to injecting foreign substances into your skin which could have potential complication including infection scarring and blindness I would think twice.

Beauty at a painful price – a local mom injecting chemical cosmetics into her face and she is no doctor. She is a YouTube blogger and the Eldorado Hills mom says she has the answer to beauty on a budget. But the big question is – what she is doing – is it safe CBS’s reporter Russell Proma is getting answers for us tonight front h experts. Hey you guys this is Ki I am with Natural Chaos – Kimberly Pratt has 425000 page views on what she calls her rebellious skin care channel. My goal has always been to just share my experience with things. Her how to videos are broadcasted to the world, so I just washed my face off and you run it around your face and it just stabs you a bunch of times. This mom of 4 boys says you can save thousands of dollars by doing these procedures at home – do you think what you are doing is dangerous? I think what I am doing; there are risks right with anything. Pratt is one of hundreds of DIY injectors out there. She shows us how she buys these chemicals and these accessories on line – it is just amazing what you can find online. The products she says are all available at a touch of a button. The fillers come from China or the UK and they will show up at your doorstep in days. Some of those are available on Amazon, EBay and then some of them come from outside the US from different vendors. The injectable she buys are not yet FDA approved. Just because something is not FDA approved does not mean that it is bad or harmful but doctors disagrees. The FDA guarantees the potency is purity. Plastic Surgeon Dr. Terry Zimmerman says these products can be anything even vegetable oil disguised as fillers. When you get something in the mail from another country you have no idea what you are getting. Sometimes you have horrific complications. Dr. Christine Lee – cosmetic surgeon shared photos with us of 3 women who came to her after they bought injections online and used them at home. This woman self-injected with filler from china which turned out to be fake. This shows the infection she got afterwards. She still has the swelling and lumps. You r skin can die and star falling off and you can get poorly disfigured from that. Pratt says she knows the risks – whenever you decide to do something you are opening up your skin you are opening yourself up to potential infection and says that she has no plans to stop. I think we can all stick our heads in the sand and say no you are not supposed to do it at home these products should not be coming into the United States but the truth is they are. Doctors tell us that the manufacturing companies who are selling these products to people without a medical license are to blame and the bigger problem they say – no one is regulating the industry.

It’s great to have you back for another issue of derm to daily update from the American academy of Dermatology in Washington DC. With us today is Dr. Christine Lee from Walnut Creek, California who is going to be updating us on new and emerging laser technologies. Thanks for having me here Joel it is a pleasure to be here at the Washington DC AAD I am very excited about my talk – I am going to be talking about lots of new laser devices that are coming out. One of the new ones is sculpture by Sinecure. Very exciting it is actually a similar device to something we have that freeze, but it actually has heating technologies at 10 64 nanometer laser using duo technology and it has 4 flat contact services that you attach with a belt to the patients abdomen and you can acutely in 20 minutes be able to get fat reduction without having an operator – so it is operator indecent, and it is something very easy and effective so we are very excited to have a new technology no the fat melting front, so I think this is ogin to be something a lot of practices we are going to be excited about, and then there are other devices you know dermatologists have not thought so much about vagina rejuvenation but vaginal rejuvenation is becoming a very big part of my practice. I probably was one of the first doctors in the united states to introduce the Fotona Intima Lase and as a dermatologist I do have a background in OBGYN but I can tell you for sure that this is something that nay dermatologist would be able to easily add to their practice – so noninvasive vaginal rejuvenation has become very popular and very necessary treatment. 40 percent of the US population female population, has Uterine prolapse so many medical application for this device in addition to vaginal tightening, you can acutely help with urinary incontinence and uterine prolapse – those are probably things dermatologists would not want to be doing better with an OBGYN but definitely in terms of vaginal tightening and labial remodeling, there are some fantastic devices out – first one that was out I mentioned is the Fotona Intima Lase and they also have another device called the incontinal lase  which helps with urinary incontinence and the Intima Lase is for Vaginal rejuvenation. There are other companies now that want to develop these treatments. Sinecure has the Mona Lisa a Co2 based device. The Fotona Intima Lase is a non-ablative fractional erbium. Psyton has their new Diva which is also a fractional erbium. There is also the diva which is an RF device – RF is used for vaginal rejuvenation. Can you tell us some of the things for facial rejuvenation that are on the radar? Oh there are some wonderful fractional devices – the new one by Psyton called the Halo which is a combination device using fractional erbium along with a non-relative 1440 meter wave length so you can actually get heating and tightening long with fractional resurfacing so they are getting remodeling of the skin but with less downtime. The Fotona 4D is a new novel approach to the face that I am excited to talk about. I was one of the first doctors in the US to introduce this new procedure using an intra-oral hand piece – and it is a 4 set procedure using a non-ablative fractional erbium laser inside the mouth, and so that is the first step and then there are 3 lasers on the outside. They call it the Frac 3 which is a non-ablative fractional NDag – the 3^rd laser is a super long pulsed NDag that heats the skin up to 42 degree Celsius to just a few seconds. It has a super duper long pulse of 6 seconds and it is the first laser on the mare to have that kind of long pulse. There are other NDags but there are no other NDags that can do this kin do volume metric heating in such a short amount of time and so that is the 3^rd laser – so the 4^th laser is a traditional erbium. So when I combine all 4 of these lasers together – We call it the Fotona 4D so a 4D approach so it treats every part of the skin – it has been nicknames the inside out laser lift or the inside out face lift, and so if you do 4 to 6 of these treatments a month a   part. You can make someone look about 10 to 20 years younger it actually does 3 things it does smoothing tightening and plumping.  And the neck has certainly been an area where there has been a lot of focus this year. Targets through omen of the devices that is becoming popularized. Well the treatments I mentioned the Fotona 4D the Halo the luminesce M22 where they actually use the resurfix along with the IPLs wonderful treatment for the neck, it combines IPL with a fractional erbium which actually has the down time for clear and brilliant which is very low downtime but with the results of the store which is the traditional fractal erbium so that is call the M22 by Lumiensce. There are other fractional devices such as the active and deep FX doing fractional Co2 for scrappiness of the neck so you can actually do that in addition with a bit of Altera and Vermage these are treatments and a new device I am really excited about is called the excise Elite it has been a huge improvements upon the existing device. Much more powerful and consistent with homogeneous heating. So if you combine these devices with a fractional device and also with different wavelength of light you can actually treat regularly you can get smoothing and tightening of skin laxity. In addition all the attention of the fat recontouring you have with Kybella and Cool Mini some of the preliminary data. It is great to have you here Christina, and we appreciate all of you joining us for another issue of Derm to Daily update from the American Academy of dermatology in Washington DC.

So there is a new way to fight wrinkles it is a non-surgical procedure that is this laser technology used  to attack wrinkles from the inside put – our girl Rita Ninin has the story. Move over saggy creased skin there is a new skin treatment in town and it is called the inside out facial.  Jackie Adams was a popular model in the 1980s, she posed on the covers of magazines like Vogue and Elle but her days of outdoor sports like rock climbing exposed her to days of wind and sun. Now with plans t return to action she is hoping to smooth out some facial lines. Adam turned to dermatologist Dr. Christina Lee who helped pioneer a new treatment. The procedure is a laser that delivers targeted heat from inside the mouth. Dr. Lee says the goal is to soften the tight tissue and produce a smooth effect on the skins surface. Dr. lee says patients undergo several treatments – roughly 1500 dollars a session and results can last for months. Just look at Jackie’s before and after. For Good morning America – Rita Ninin, ABC New York. The lengths that we will go to!

Do you want to look younger but you are worried about surgery? There is a new option for patients interested in smoothening wrinkles. It is a laser that works something like is inside out face lift. Jackie Adams says that her skin cells tell the story of 2 extremes. As a popular model in the 1980s, she posed as a model on the cover of magazines like vogue and Elle. But later she gravitated to sports like Rock-climbing exposing her face to days of wind and sun. She is hoping to return to acting and is also hoping to find a middle ground. I prefer to look good for my age than look another age. So are you excited about your procedure? Jackie turned to Walnut Creek dermatologist Christina Lee who has helped pioneer new skin treatments that works from the inside out. It is like an inside out face lift. Okay here we go – ready? The procedure employs a device called the Fotona SPF Dynamos it is a non-ablative laser that can safely deliver targeted heat from inside the mouth. Dr Lee says the goal is to tighten the soft tissue and produce a smoothing effect on the surface of the skin. So when you go inside the mouth what it ideas is it causes immediate contracting and that tightening actually makes these nasal waves and fold along the sides of the mouth – and it seems like they are plumping up. She begins by concentrating the heat first on one side of the face and then the other. She says the laser evolved out of technology before dental procedures and has no record of side effects such as burning. So do you see how that nasal labial fold there has nicely plumped up? While the plumping can actually be seen during the procedure – Dr. Lee says a percentage of it will subside when it recovers and that most patents will undergo several treatments to produce the full smoothing effect. Still she said the results can last for months. So it has some of the same effects that a filler does but appears more natural and you are not having to inject a foreign substance in your face. The session takes about half an hour and finishes with an external laser applied to the skin’s surface itself. These before and after photos show the smoothing around Jackie’s mouth and cheek area after several treatments. She believe those results will give her more results when she steps on stage. So it buys me more time as an actor to play. This is fantastic, this is really great. The laser treatment is roughly 1500 dollars per session and many patients will undergo o 2 3 sessions. But because results are more lasting Dr. Lisa’s procedure is competitive with the annual cost of many popular types of filler.

There are many reasons for getting a tattoo but there are very few easy options for getting rid of one. Now that a new generation of lasers are helping to erase tattoos faster and more completely than ever before. So this is one of my favorite bands, so it is finally time to make my mark. Wayne Bland paid a painful price to the heavy metal band ACDC. Not long after the tattooed the groups logo on his arm he started noting a reaction on his skin. Eventually it got to a point where it was almost like the skin was swelling to appoint where it hurt.  Turns out Wayne was allergic to a compound that was used in the blue ink that was in the lettering. To make matters worse the colour is notoriously hard to remove even with commonly used lasers. He eventually turned to walnut creek dermatologist Dr. Christine Lee – Usually Blues and Greens never go away so if you have a weak powered Q switch laser you could be treating it 16 20 30 treatments and you are not going to get anywhere. To remove the stubborn blue ink Dr Lee will use 2 separate lasers, FDA approved to treat tattoos and pigmented lesions, the first known as the Pico Sure which delivers an ultra sound burst of energy known to physically shatter the ink particles. Each particle is known to be delivered I a trillionth of a second. Next Dr. lee follows up with a powerful succulent laser known as the Fotona, which can deliver 4 separate Wave lengths allowing it to treat multi coloured tattoos. Before and after photos show results of a single session which is typically repeated several times or more so over the course of weeks or months. Dr. Lee says the new generation of lasers are able to completely erase blue and green ink and generally work about twice as fast as earlier technologies. They will go away more completely and with fewer treatments. Still the treatments can cost up to anywhere from a few 100 dollars to several thousand depending on the size of the tattoo. For Wayne the concerns go beyond being simply cosmetic and to reducing the pain. Well ideally I just like that inflammation to stop, so that is what this means to me. New lasers are more powerful but Dr. Lee says a short burst actually tends to be safer than older technologies that could leave scars in the case of larger or more difficult to remove tattoos.

Thank  you for joining UVIUR TV I am your host Brad Harold and joining me today is my guest Dr. Christine Lee – Dermatologist with East Bay laser and skin care center – Dr. Lee welcome to the program thank you so much for having me. We are glad that you can make time in your busy schedule to join us – now Dr. Lee as medical professional and dermatologist can you tell me what you would look for before choosing a dermatologist to work with? Well I would look to check if the dermatologist is board certified, there are many physicians who claim to practice dermatology and might not be a dermatologist at all. So it is import to find out first if they are bored certified in dermatology and there are some doctors who have trained or specialty training in family practice or internal medicine but are not actually dermatologists. – the say they do dermatology’s but you would have to check if they are board certified dermatologists, if you want someone who is really specialized like I am who is further trained and do more than just general dermatology, I have fellowship training in Mohs Micrographic surgery, re-constructive and laser and cosmetic surgery and that is additional training beyond a residency and that is called a fellowship, and so you can also check to make sure that there is fellowship trading to further specialize and in doing more surgery and procedures – so it is implant to check to see if they have experience in the procedures that you are looking to have done – that is absolutely right. Thank you very much for sharing with us so that is good to know – so Dr. Lee if someone were to come visit you in your team at east bay laser and skin care center –what kind of experience could they expect there? Well we offer a very wide array of services and we basically cater to patients and the public for anting having to do with the ski hair and nails so if you have any problems or concerns involving the skin such as general dermatology – we take care of all those area and we also do all the procedures and cosmetic services and I do a lot of surgery and laser procedures. I have more than 40 lasers in my practice I do laser liposuction fat melting body contouring servicing fractional resurfacing laser rejuvenation face and body rejuvenation – body contouring we also have aesthetician who does facial and chemical peels, I have nurses and PAs who also help me with doing  laser hair removal so we pretty much cover everything having to do with the skin and all the different cosmetic and laser procedures that you can imagine under one roof and we also do fillers and Botox and lightening treatments so I think you can pretty much find any cosmetic and dermatological surgical procedures that you are looking for under one roof at our office. Well that sounds very impressive- so anything that we need done as far as what the skin hair and nails – you can right there and then and now – so you have a clinic and that is absolutely right. Now I also understand that you specialize for surgery in skin cancer? Yes I do I am a Mohs surgeon – Mohs is the gold standard for treating skin cancer and I did fellowship trading and I am part of the American College of Mohs Surgery so we are the only college that has fellowship training for Mohs surgeons and you can find a Mohs surgeon in the area you are in via the ACMS – the Mohs surgery website and that is ACMS.org    and it is the gold standard for treating skin cancers and if you have skin cancer and you don’t have a Mohs surgeon you can find them on the website you can ask your health care plan for a referral it is also important to check out your Mohs surgeon that they are indeed fellowship trained and they are not just qualified from attending a weekend course or to be learned without doing formal fellowship training  that is good to know thank you for sharing that with us now Dr. Lee I also understand that you have a book out – would you like to tell us a little bit about your book? Oh yea thank you for asking about that – I have actually written a book for the lay person called the ultimate Gide for the best skin ever –  lasers and it is a book for the consumers to understand the myriad of laser procedures that are out there and all the different lasers – thera re so many different lasers and competing companies it is very confusing for the average consumer to understand what laser is best for me so that is why I wrote this book to help the lay person understand what they have to look for in the right doctor for the right question – ho to differentiate between someone who is kid of dabbling in lasers and to someone who really specializes and that sounds like someone who has a wealth of resources and you know when you mentioned that you had 40 different lasers in your clinic – I was surprised that there were even that many. So you definitely need some help getting through all that information. Yes it can be very confusing yes thank you for sharing that and thank you for writing that book for us all. Now Dr. lee if someone is watching this programme and they would like to take advantage of you and your expertise – laser and skin care center what is the easiest way to get started. Well they can pick up the phone and call us at 925 932 9389 or you can reach us through our website www.eastbaylaserc.om you can make appointments or contact us through the website and there is always someone willing to answer your questions. Great thank you Dr Lee you have been a wealth of information and I didn’t know that there was a wealth of information to know about dermatology. Thank you so much for sharing that with us – we have enjoyed having you on the programme and we appreciate you for tuning into UVIUR TV. If you would like to work with Dr Lee and her team you can visit her website at East Bay Laser.com or you can telephone them at 925 932 9389. Thank you for joining us on UVIUR TV and I hope that we see you really soon!

Dr. Christine Lee is a dermatologist and director at Eat Bay laser and skin care center in Walnut Creek. She was fellowship trained in most surgery and her practice specializes in early detection treatment of skin cancers – she recently spoke at the academy of American dermatology and is being featured in many media outlets like the new york time, USA today the Washington post, Chicago tribune’s glamour and fitness, women’s day CBS, NBC, Fox news and the discovery news to name more than a few, so welcome Dr Lee. Hello everybody than you so much for coming to this event and thank you for inviting me to speak this is melanoma and skin cancer awareness month and it is always this month because it is important to tell people before the sun comes up in summer and it is a reminder to all of us to the things we need to and protect ourselves from the sun which is our friend and also our enemy. So I am just gone to go ahead and talk about some of the different kinds of skin cancer. A brief over view – I see a lot of it in my practice, and we are in the middle of the biggest skin cancer epidemic in history. The reason is because we are all living longer and the longer you live the more sun exposure you get in your life and the greater risk of developing skin cancer, and so it has become the most common form of cancer in the united states, each year there is more skin cancer than the combined incidents of breast, prostate lung and colon cancer over the past 3 decades ore people have skin cancer more than all the other cancers combined. One in 5 Americans will develop skin cancer in the course of their lifetime. The 3 major types of skin cancer are melanomas, Basal Cell Carcinoma and Squamous cell carcinoma. Melanoma is the most deadly form of skin cancer, it is the number one killer in young people under the age of 30, and is commonly found in younger adults between 25 to 29 years old. From 1970 to 2009 the incidence of melanoma increased 800 percent amongst young women and 400 percent among young men. One person dies of melanoma every hour.

Coming up next hot summer fun but also with a possibility of skin cancer – what you need to do and know. Well it is a hot weekend and plenty of sunshine and sun bring which in turn can also affect whether or not you can get skin cancer now no matter what your skin type is white yellow brown black – skin cancer can affect anyone. My next guest is a dermatologist and special guest who specializes in early detection and treatment of all forms of skin cancer – I would like to welcome Dr. Christine Lee of Walnut Creek East Bay and Skin Care center incorporated – I guess one of the first questions I have to ask you is – since we hear more about protecting ourselves from skin cancer are skin cancer cases are more prevent or less? It has become much more prevalent and common – we are actually in the middle of the largest skin cancer epidemic ever in history – is that in the united states or around the world or any particular portion of the – especially in the united states – one in 5 people in the US will let skin cancer. Wow I would think for years we have learnt how to take care of ourselves – by using lotion and staying out of the sun during peak hour – that we would be more careful but it doesn’t t sound like it – people re more aware of it and certainly people are wearing sun screen more unfortunately sunscreen also has its limitations and we don’t want to discourage people from using it – infact you have to wear it, it’s better than nothing. A lot of people are thing in they can stay out in the sun longer because they are wearing sunscreen and that is actually making it much wore for all of us because the real intention of sunscreen is to prevent us from getting sunburnt and used to be that someone got sun burnt and they realize they need to cover up and go inside now you are not sunburnt and you think oh I can lay out in the sun longer and that is actually why people are getting more sun damage okay so we think it will protect us so we go out more yes that is one of the things people stay out longer. So I have to say when you go through the photographs they are rather graphic of the cancer so you might want to turn your head or turn away  but we re going to talk a little bit  about the signs of skin cancer – so this is a chart and what does this chart show – that chart shows us the A B C D E’s of detecting melanomas which is the most dangerous form of skin cancer and A – for asymmetry, B – border, C is for Colour D is for Diameter, and E is for Evolving. So those are sign that you look at for when you look for skin cancer – when you are looking for yourself and people have any different lesions, brown spots, mole very common this will help you at least have a starting point. Let’s take a look at the photos we have. So what does this show? This actually shows a melanoma – oh! So does melanoma change from case to case or is it just like this?  No infact if you see something like this you are probably going to have a very bad outcome – unfortunately people think oh if I have – if you saw this you would say oh I am in trouble I have to go and see the doctor – usually that is too late – definitely is asymmetrical and it is pretty dark – when one has melanoma lie in this case just that one spot? Usually it can arise out of a preexisting mole and then literally overnight it would start having or it could get bigger darker or start bleeding – then you have to call your dermatologist right way you should not wait for it to look like that picture – you should try to catch it early –that is a very  advanced case. Okay let’s look at this – this is a little bump on someone’s forehead and you can very easily mistake that for a mole or even a pimple. Basel cell carcinoma often starts off by looking like an insect bite or it can look like a zit and they are pink little bumps – the difference is if you have a pimple it is probably going to go away – skin cancer will persist and continue to grow – this will not go away. Wow! That lesion is very advanced squamous cell carcinoma. So is it the dark brown spot we are looking at or the entire red? Well the whole leg is it – the skin cancer often times if they start to grow the skin around it and also start to change. Okay what is this one? That is also a Basel Cell Carcinoma. So Basel Cells Carcinoma is what I understand as least lethal? Correct. It is the least dangerous – normally does not cause death – and people who have it – very treatable especially when caught early it is not going to cause a huge scar even. These do not spread so people don’t die for those. And this one is? That is a melanoma. So a little dark spot that is oddly shaped and I would say this is a relatively advanced – because of the size? Yes it could sometimes from the moment a melanoma appear it can be very aggressive there are slow grown in cancers and there are fast growing caners.

If you want to get movie star slim, ultra sound is the next hot thing – a bay area company using the technology to melt fat. ABC7’s health and science reporter Caroline Johnson has more. This is a specific type of high intensity focused ultra sound developed to generate heat as it enters the body and doctors say that heat effectively kills the fat cells. Watching her walk down the street few people would describe Brittney as heavy. But this sales professional who asked us not to use her last name says she has a problem area. I feel as if I am wiring a spare type around my body. Today she is hoping to lose up to an inch off her waist line without surgery. Instead she is being treated with a newly improved device called liposonic. Walnut Creek dermatologist says the system use high intensity focused ultra sound to melt away fat cells. Sometimes you hear the snap crackle pop it sounds literally like fat sizzling. She begins by marking number target points on Brittany’s stomach since the ultra sound delivers heat she needs carefully track which sections have been treated and for how long. The only requirement is that you have to have at least one inch of fat. Okay so here we go. Once the procedure is mapped out – Dr. Lee delivers preset pulses of ultra sound for each target in the order that they are marked. She says some patients will feel a light stinging sensation. Some parts of the body you feel a little bit more than others, then the system will expose the extreme techniques of Liposuction that requires surgery to remove fat, but Dr. Lee says since Liposonic can be used to treat wide areas of the body the overall results are more noticeable than more noninvasive options. Patients have been getting one inch on average of fat los, and Brittany’s results have ben slightly better. A few weeks after we taped her procedure. Her measurements showed a lot of nearly 2 inches round her waist. A reduction most visible in the area that is commonly known as the love handles. Dr. Lee says the full benefit take about 8 to 12 weeks. As the body flushes out the dead fat cells. And so as long as you have an inch there we can treat it. And the treatment results have been astounding. Sessions typically cost between 1500 to 3000 dollars. The main side effect is light bruising which can last for about 2 weeks. I am Carolyn Johnson – ABC 7 News

Now Call Kurtis undercover investigation into medi-spas. Some women go in for quick beauty treatments and end up burnt or even scarred. Tonight Kurtis exposes concerns that people performing these procedures may not be qualified to do so. And we are talking about treatment like Botox and laser hair removal happening in salons, medi-spas even dentist offices. The industry is 7 times the size it was a decade ago, but some doctors are blowing the whistle on what they call a danger. They are quick procedures, than to make you more beautiful. I literally had black eyes – but who is performing treatments at medi-spas? You don’t want the doctor doing I because he doesn’t do it like we do. Have they done it correctly? It was burning I was terrified – you could end up scarred for life. Thy can kill people. Careful not to burn a batch of cookies, they are not done yet. Carmella Takacs, the medi-spa she went to was just as cautious with her skin during her laser treatment, all of a sudden I could see all these marks from the laser just burn marks – because the nurse who was supposed to remove her wrinkles turned to laser too high scarring her face casing excruciating pain – I was afraid to go out of the house I was crying and depressed. This is the injection site – Tammer Pierce went to a Roseville medi-spa for Botox but instead she said the nurse injected her with a different type of filler leaving her with 2 black eyes and a swollen face that lasted weeks. The doctor I went to after said I could have lost both eyes. In both medi spas doctors names were attached to the centers but no doctor was present that day – many of these places are operating without ever having a doctor on cite. Board certified dermatologist Dr. Christine Lee says don’t be fooled by a doctors name on the door at a medi spa or a brochure – because they may just lend their names to the clinic to collect a pay cheque. She says in many cases nurses and aestheticians are performing these procedures and warns that this is what can happen – this omen ended up with stripes burned across her face after a laser treatment went wrong. this woman with burns all over her back – how a bad Botox injection caused nerve damage forcing this patient’s eye shut for an entire year, and this woman ended up with an infection on her face. The harm could last with someone forever. We went undercover to see how was on duty at 3 medi-spas in our region, at each location our producer posing as some on who wants laser hair removal and Botox is told no doctor is here. Instead nurses do the procedures, infact listen to his nurses response. So now when it comes to both Botox and the laser hair who does that? Does a doctor have to do that? Nope, no you don’t want the doctor doing it. Because he doesn’t do it like we do it. She and a nurse at another medi spa said patients will meet the doctor first although it may happen through a web cam. You’ll see him or you might see him through the computer screen, might see him in a room just depending on the day and time. How often should a doctor be in these procedures? Regularly. Trisha Hunter with the American Nurses Association of California says that no state agency is adequately watching over medi-spas. We license barber shops, why wouldn’t we license medi-spas. She argues that nurse are properly qualified to carry out these treatment as long as a doctor is within reach. But she says the California medical board has never defined proper supervision – whether the doctor must be on site within a few miles or even just a phone call away – you think the medical board should have established that by now? Yes I do, absolutely think they should have established that by now. What is taking so long? I really don’t know – I know that the clarifications are coming. The state medical board is now posting regulations for laser treatments. Saying a doctor must be immediately available defined as contactable y electronic or telephonic means without delay, interruptible and able to furnish appropriate assistance and direction though out the performance of the procedure. Based on the definition you gave a doctor could be available through email in Europe. A doctor could be available through email in Europe – yes. A lot of this is going to be on the physician to exercise judgment. It doesn’t go far enough for Carmella who wishes a doctor was there the day she was burned. After years of follow up treatment her scars have finally faded to the point where make up covers them. Tanner live with what appears to be a permanent pimple on her face. This red spot here is permanent. Something both women we think would never have happened if a doctor treated them. I just hope that other people that go that they have learned enough from all these people who have been burned to make sure they have seen a doctor. The medi-spa where she was treated is out of business. The nurse who treated Tanner has moved to a different salon now by law, a doctor must own 50 percent of any medical spa in the state of California and they must have a standardized procedure for the nurses. Besides that the medical board says it is not their job to dictate how doctors run their practices that is so eye opening especially those web cams – what is up with that? Exams with those does the medical board allow it? They have no guidelines on web cams whatsoever so doctors have started to do with the technology and the medical board has not waited. What should people do when they see a report like this before going to one of these spas – you know there are a lot of questions asked. The questions I would ask is – who owner the place, will I see a doctor, who’s doing the procedure, what is their training, will a doctor be there that day? If not what happens if there is a complication? And also the medical board has some stuff they have listed on this as well – were going to post that on CBS.com well based on what they do there it looks like the wild wild west into many situations – they are relying on doctors to run their practices. Great report Kurtis thanks.