For South Florida patients who want to know the secret to anti-aging, Aventura, FL dermatologist Dr. Bertha Baum has the right prescription. Emphasizing that less is more, she says her trusting clients often come to her and ask, “What can I do to look younger and less tired?” She shares that in these instances she will often employ a personalized treatment plan she calls the “collagen boosting cocktail,” for a youthful glow that makes her patients look years younger in just one visit.
The Three-Step Cocktail
“When you start noticing a loss of collagen and sagging skin, it’s important to approach the skin in all aspects,” she explains. “For superficial skin concerns like tone and texture, we target that with resurfacing lasers or sometimes microneedling. However, we don’t only want to address these textural changes that we can see on the surface, we also want to boost collagen production, so skin is stronger, thicker and smoother overall.”
Step 1: Resurfacing Lasers
To exfoliate and address years of sun damage, Dr. Baum says she’ll often use three different lasers at once. “If you’re a good candidate, I’ll do an IPL or BBL to target browns and reds. Then, I’ll either use an Erbium laser, the Halo or, depending on the need, a Fractional laser as a second layer.” She says to think of it as layering. “Once I do that second layer of resurfacing, I can then do one treatment of microneedling with radio frequency for tightening.”
Step 2: Improving Skin Quality
To further improve skin quality, Dr. Baum will often add an Aquagold or PRXT33 treatment. “Aquagold is a microinfusion of nutrients to the skin and it’s the perfect time to do that because they have open channels or microtrauma that we’ve created with laser resurfacing,” she says. “It’s a special cocktail I prepare of hyperdiluted neurotoxin to shrink pores, hyaluronic acid filler to plump skin and tranexamic acid for brightening. It’s a microinfusion and helps to boost collagen production.” The other treatment, PRXT33, is an Italian formula that is rubbed on the skin with a special massage. “It’s a TCA peel that has a special technology and a special patent with hydrogen peroxide and that allows the peel to penetrate into the skin without causing major peeling.”
Step 3: A Collagen-Stimulating Filler
During the same visit, Dr. Baum will then restore lost volume in areas using a longer lasting, biostimulating filler like Sculptra or Radiesse. “These types of fillers go deep for that stimulation of collagen, but also helping recreate the bone structure and fat pads that we lose over time.”
With this three-pronged approach, Dr. Baum says her patients get results that continue to improve over time. While these treatments can be done in combination at one visit, if patients prefer to undergo them separately, they can be done in that manner as well. “Because we’re encouraging more collagen production, that inside-out glow will get better and better as the weeks go on,” she notes. “My patients that are diligent about getting these collagen-boosting treatments every one to two years look great and do some reverse aging. They are a great example of why collagen production is so important.”
