By Beth Landman
For two decades, discerning New Yorkers have flocked to Dr. Paul Jarrod Frank. His offices in the West Village and on the Upper East Side have a full range of machines and therapies ready to address every beauty concern, including post-summer discoloration caused by UV rays, wrinkling and cellulite.
“Anything that will really improve texture, scars and wrinkles requires a little bit of downtime,” he notes.
A great option to combat wrinkling, according to Dr. Frank, is energy-delivered microneedling, employed by such devices as Vivace and Morpheus. Small microneedles inject heat via radio frequency into the skin at various different layers (three sessions are suggested).
“This allows us to get deeper into the skin where collagen building happens without damaging the surface, so the recovery tends to be a little quicker than with lasers,” he explains. He recommends these machines not only for the face and neck, but also to improve fine lines and texture on the arms and above the knees.
“People have spent the summer looking at themselves in bikinis and skirts, and they wait until the fall to deal with the things that bother them,” he observes.
For cellulite and dimpling, Dr. Frank believes bio-stimulation treatments work best. “I use very dilute forms of a filler like Radiesse to correct dimples and smooth the skin,” he says. “This is best done when the weather is cooler because It can cause bruising for a week or two, but the results last about a year to a year and a half.”
And, of course, the biggest issue to be dealt with after a summer of fun is sun damage. Lasers work best, but it’s wise not to plan any major social activities for a few days following treatment. “There is always a little no-pain, no-gain when it comes to reversing sun damage,” says Dr. Frank. “We used to use different lasers separately, but now we combine a few in one treatment, which makes it more time- and cost-effective.” He likes to use the Fraxel Dual, a non-ablative laser that eradicates brown patches, and the VBeam Prima for more vascular issues like red spots and broken capillaries. “They not only make us look better, but have been proven to decrease the risk of skin cancer,” he points out. “And, it’s like using Windex on glass—a great end-of-summer cleanup!”
1049 Fifth Ave., Suite 2B, New York; 132 Perry St., New York; pfrankmd.com