Daxxify and Botox^® are highly effective dynamic wrinkle treatments offered at Comprehensive Dermatology Center of Pasadena. Our practitioners use both options to smooth expression lines and refresh facial appearances, but each is unique in how long results last, how they are formulated, and how they may fit your lifestyle and cosmetic goals. Understanding these differences can help you decide whether a tried‑and‑true option like Botox^® or a longer‑lasting treatment like Daxxify is best for you.

What Are Neuromodulators, and How Do They Work?

Neuromodulators such as Botox^®, Dysport, Xeomin^®, and Daxxify are injectables that relax specific facial muscles to address dynamic wrinkles caused by fascial expressions. By reducing muscle contractions in areas like the frown lines, crow’s feet, and forehead, these injectables smooth etched lines and help prevent deeper wrinkles from forming.

At Comprehensive Dermatology Center of Pasadena, our experienced clinicians customize dosing and injection patterns to your facial anatomy to achieve a smoother and younger skin appearance. Treatments are non‑surgical, require little to no downtime, and we can combine with other cosmetic dermatology services for comprehensive rejuvenation.

How Does Botox^® Help Smooth Wrinkles?

Botox^® Cosmetic is an FDA‑approved neuromodulator that temporarily softens moderate to severe expression lines by slowing or stopping muscle movement that causes wrinkles. It is commonly used around the eyes, brows, forehead, and other high‑movement areas to create a refreshed, rested appearance while not affecting your natural expression.

At Comprehensive Dermatology Center of Pasadena, Botox^® is part of a full injectables menu that also includes Dysport, Daxxify, and dermal fillers for volume restoration. We will evaluate your skin, movement patterns, and goals to design a treatment plan that fits your age, skin quality, and desired level of correction.

When Is Botox^® a Good Choice?

Botox^® may be ideal if you:

• Prefer a well‑established treatment with a long safety record.
• Want to “test drive” neuromodulators with results that generally last a few months at a time before committing to a longer‑lasting option.
• Are interested in combining Botox^® with fillers, laser rejuvenation, or skin care products for a full anti‑aging plan.

How Is Daxxify Different from Botox^®?

Daxxify (also called Daxi) is a peptide‑powered neuromodulator designed to treat frown lines and other dynamic wrinkles with longer‑lasting results than traditional neurotoxins. It employs the same active ingredient found in other injectables but is formulated with a unique peptide stabilizer – without human or animal byproducts, making it the only vegan‑suitable neuromodulator.

Researchers have proven Daxxify can smooth frown lines for up to 6 to 9 months in many patients, which is often 2 to 3 times longer than earlier neuromodulators. We also use it as an off‑label treatment in other areas for appropriately selected patients, based on your medical history and cosmetic goals.

How Does Daxxify Work on Skin and Wrinkles?

Like Botox^®, Daxxify works by blocking nerve signals to specific facial muscles, softening expression lines created by repetitive movement. Its advanced formula also includes peptides and nutrients that support collagen production and skin hydration, which can gradually improve skin texture and elasticity over time.

Benefits of Daxxify at Comprehensive Dermatology Center of Pasadena include:

• Smoothing of dynamic wrinkles and frown lines.
• Longer‑lasting results, often up to 9 months for many patients.
• Fewer treatment sessions per year—often as few as 2 visits.
• Vegan‑suitable formulation with a peptide stabilizer and no human or animal byproducts.

How Do Daxxify and Botox^® Compare?

Daxxify and Botox^® are each available at Comprehensive Dermatology Center of Pasadena and can be optimal choices for your aesthetic needs depending on your goals, schedule, and comfort with newer vs. established treatments. A personalized consultation helps determine which neuromodulator aligns with your personal goals and how each can fit into a broader anti‑aging plan.

Daxxify vs. Botox^®: What Are the Key Differences?

What Are the Pros and Cons of Choosing Daxxify?

Daxxify’s primary advantage is convenience. With longer‑lasting results you can schedule fewer office visits, while maintaining smoother skin for more of the year. If you prefer a vegan‑suitable injectable Daxxify is your choice.

However, because all neuromodulator results are temporary but not reversible, longer duration means that any unwanted effect – such as asymmetry or eyelid heaviness – can take more time to wear off. For this reason, Comprehensive Dermatology Center of Pasadena emphasizes careful dosing, gradual treatment planning, and administration by board‑certified dermatology specialists and experienced injectors.

When Might Botox^® Be the Better Fit?

Botox^® may be recommended if you:

• Are having your first neuromodulator treatment and want a shorter initial duration.
• Prefer to fine‑tune your look over several shorter‑acting sessions before transitioning to a longer‑lasting option.
• Are combining neuromodulators with other services, such as laser rejuvenation or chemical peels, as part of a staged treatment plan.

How Can You Decide Which Long‑Lasting Neuromodulator Fits Your Goals?

Your best path to choose between Daxxify and Botox^® is through an in‑person consultation where we evaluate your facial anatomy, expression patterns, medical history, and timeline. During this visit you can discuss how quickly you want to experience the benefits, the time between each session, and whether longer duration or maximum flexibility is your top priority.

Key questions to consider include:

• Do you want a long‑lasting neuromodulator that can reduce your number of yearly visits (Daxxify), or do you prefer the flexibility of a shorter‑acting treatment (Botox^®)?
• Are you primarily concerned about frown lines, or do you want broader treatment of multiple expression areas?
• Are you interested in pairing your neuromodulator with dermal fillers or skin rejuvenation for more comprehensive facial balancing?

Schedule Your Neuromodulator Consultation Today

To explore Daxxify vs. Botox^® in more detail and design a plan tailored to your goals, you can schedule a consultation directly through the Daxxify page or the Botox^®, Dysport, Daxxify overview, or request complimentary consultations for cosmetic treatments in Pasadena.

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Dear Valued Patients,

We are happy to announce that we are now open for all medical as well as cosmetic services! We want to welcome you back to in-person medical dermatology appointments, and let you know what we are doing to keep you, our providers, and our staff safe and healthy as the COVID-19 protocols continue.

We are following state-of-the-art enhanced sanitation and social distancing guidelines, including:

• regularly sanitizing treatment rooms and all common surfaces
• requiring our staff to wear masks
• providing hand sanitizer in all areas
• removing magazines from waiting areas
• escorting patients directly to treatment rooms to allow social distancing in waiting areas

Please call or email to schedule an in-person appointment with your regular provider for treatment of your medical dermatology needs. To minimize time in the office and contact with our staff, we will collect your co-pay information over the phone prior to your appointment.

On the day of your appointment, please …

• Arrive on time and come alone. (If you need to be accompanied by a driver or companion, please let us know.)
• If you are early for your appointment time, please wait in your car until it is time to come in.
• Wear a face covering to enter the building and our office.
• Maintain 6 ft of social distance in the elevator and waiting area.

Please do not come in if you are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath, rash, or loss of sense of smell/taste, or if anyone in your household has these symptoms. We will gladly reschedule your appointment for when you’re feeling better.

Telemedicine is still available! If you’d prefer to stay home, you can still call us to schedule a remote care medical appointment with your provider, via your cell phone, tablet, laptop or home computer.

We will continue to stay in touch with our monthly newsletter and with frequent special offers on skin care products. We’ll share the best information on keeping your skin healthy and beautiful even while everyday routines are suspended.

We are grateful to be able to continue to offer you exceptional care. Please stay safe and healthy.

Thank you for your loyalty,

Comprehensive Dermatology Center of Pasadena

The post Important Update appeared first on Comprehensive Dermatology Center of Pasadena.

Interested in learning more? Schedule a consultation or call us at 626-793-7790.

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So it comes as something of a shock that this month the publishers of Allure, a leading fashion and beauty magazine, announced that they’re banning the term anti-aging from their editorial copy. Huffington Post quotes Allure‘s Michelle Lee on the thinking behind the change:

“Whether we know it or not, [the term is] subtly reinforcing the message that aging is a condition we need to battle — think antianxiety meds, antivirus software, or antifungal spray,” wrote Editor-in-Chief Michelle Lee on Monday, adding, “Repeat after me: Growing older is a wonderful thing because it means that we get a chance, every day, to live a full, happy life.”

Allure is putting its cover where its philosophy is, with a September issue featuring ageless cover woman Helen Mirren. (Of course, if we all aged as gorgeously as Dame Helen, maybe we wouldn’t be so anti-!) But the magazine isn’t content to police their own editorial team. Lee is issuing a challenge to all of us to rethink the way we approach aging, to think of it as something we do naturally, beautifully, gracefully, not an enemy in the mirror to vanquish.

Huffington Post points out that the idea that beauty comes in all shapes, sizes, colors, and ages — by now a standby of fashion — has yet to catch on in the beauty biz:

Fashion has slowly but surely done a better job at being more inclusive and accepting of race, size, and age. The beauty industry has been a bit slower on its feet. Plus-size model Precious Lee previously pointed out that beauty advertisements exclude models over a certain size, for example, despite the fact that women of all sizes can wear makeup.

At Comprehensive Dermatology Center of Pasadena, it’s our motto that healthy skin is beautiful skin — at any age. Though we’ll continue to use the keyword anti-aging to describe many of our cosmetic treatments and products, the only aging we’re dead-set against is premature, preventable damage to skin that causes early wrinkling, sagging, and spots and can lead to skin cancer. Otherwise, we’re here to help you live gracefully and beautifully every year of your life.

What about you? How do you feel about the term anti-aging? Share your comments with us on social media, or talk to our cosmetic consultant Mary Lou Brimecombe today about protecting and reclaiming your own ageless beauty.

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Here, from an alert issued by the American Academy of Dermatology, are a few of the summer skin issues you might be facing soon — and how to keep them from putting a damper on your fun in the sun.

You know already about the importance of using adequate, correctly applied sun protection, so we’ll skip that one for now. But remember, a painful sunburn isn’t the only consequence of going without sunscreen. Unblocked UV exposure ages your skin rapidly, causing invisible damage to skin’s underlying resilience. And that same damage triggers skin cancer, which can range from the merely unsightly to the deadly. So slather, slather — preferably using one of the wide range of EltaMD sun protection products we carry.

Acne breakouts are more common in summer, triggered by sweat mixing with oils and bacteria on your skin. The AAD recommends these preventative measures:

• Blot sweat from your skin with a clean towel or cloth. Wiping sweat off can irritate your skin, which can lead to a breakout.
• Wash sweaty clothes, headbands, towels, and hats before wearing them again.
• Use non-comedogenic products on your face, neck, back, and chest. The label may also say “oil free” or “won’t clog pores.”

Our own CDCOP Acne Treatment Kits contain solutions to fight summer skin breakouts, including easy-to-carry wipes for your workouts.

Dry skin can occur even in the hottest, most humid weather, especially as we age. Spending time in icy air-conditioning or in chlorinated pools are two typical culprits. The AAD recommends showering in lukewarm, not hot, water and applying a non-greasy moisturizer frequently during the day. A tinted, moisturizing foundation with UV protection, like Revision’s Intellishade, can be just the thing for looking and staying cool, moisturized, and protected.

Folliculitis is a truly annoying summer skin problem. Occurring when the follicles (pores from which body hair grows) of the skin become irritated or infected, folliculitis causes itchy, red bumps that look like little pimples. The American Academy of Dermatology recommends:

• Immediately after your workout, change out of tight workout clothes like biking shorts, and shower.
• Stay out of hot tubs and whirlpools if you’re unsure whether the acid and chlorine levels are properly controlled.So many people get folliculitis from a hot tub that there is actually a condition called “hot tub folliculitis.”
• Wear light-weight, loose-fitting clothes when it’s hot and humid.

To learn more about how to prevent other summer skin issues, see the full article from the AAD. And it goes without saying that we at Comprehensive Dermatology Center of Pasadena are here to help you with prevention products and a full range of dermatology services to keep the fun in your summer!

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But another thing we know and you know is that men fight using sunscreen even harder than they fight asking for directions — which is why rates of skin cancer overall, and melanoma in particular, are generally higher in men than in women.

Recently at the lifestyle website Aleteia, a man dared to cop to this deadly habit, and to offer some suggestions about how to get your guy to use sunscreen. Carey Dyer ‘fessed up this way:

It’s not the concept of sunblock that we don’t like. We realize (on some level) that avoiding skin cancer is actually a really good thing, after all. The truth is, we men aren’t fond of the slathering. Women rub all manner of goops and creams all over their bodies on a daily basis. For guys, even if it’s for safety reasons, rubbing something greasy on our skin feels like we’re putting on makeup. So instead of acquiescing to the invisible protection of sunscreen, some men choose the fashionable summer outfit of long-sleeved shirts, complete with a wide-brim head covering that rivals the one worn by Curious George’s “Man with the Yellow Hat.” Or we go without.

Dyer got some advice by crowdsourcing female friends, and came up with these 7 tips to make a better match between sunscreen and your guy:

• Offer to apply it for him.
• Remind him of the benefits.
• Place the product where he won’t forget it.
• Find a non-greasy option.
• Ask him to consider others.
• Recommend a multi-use product.
• Finally, there’s the “ask forgiveness, not permission” option, as a last resort: “I use a spray version with which I can catch the back of his neck before he can say no,” says Mary Ball. “It’s like shooting at a wasp’s nest. Spray and run!” (Read more about each suggestion here.)

At Comprehensive Dermatology Center of Pasadena, we see the results of UV damage to unprotected skin every day, as our physicians diagnose and treat skin cancers of all types with specialized tools such as Mohs’ surgery. But we’d much rather head off skin cancer before it begins, with intelligent sun protection. We carry a full line of the most effective sunscreen products, formulated to meet the needs and preferences of every woman — and man. Contact us today for a recommendation, or stop by and bring your guy!

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A new study from the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) reports that scarring, especially in visible areas like the face, can be a significant factor negatively affecting quality of life. Whether it’s the scars or marks left behind by acne, or a healed excision or wound, many people are self-conscious about scarring.

A scar forms when the collagen structures underlying the skin are disturbed by trauma like a wound or inflammation. If the trauma stimulates too much collagen, a raised scar appears above the surface of the skin. If collagen is depleted by the trauma (as it sometimes is with acne or chicken pox), the scar left behind is pitted or sunken. People with darker skin can have a different response to skin trauma, with acne leaving marks (unwanted pigmentation) instead of pitting, or even minor trauma resulting in the hypergrowth of collagen forming thickly raised scars called keloids.

As the new study’s director notes:

“While some may consider scarring to be a cosmetic concern, it can really affect patients’ psychosocial health,” says board-certified dermatologist Joseph F. Sobanko, MD, FAAD, an assistant professor of dermatology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. “Physical appearance plays a major role in how people relate to others, so scarring that alters physical appearance — even if some would characterize it as minor — can have a negative impact on patients’ quality of life.”

Conversely, the study found that treatment to minimize scarring went a long way toward improving patients’ quality of life. It’s fortunate, then, that dermatologists now have so many ways to deal with scarring. In most cases, your doctor will talk in terms of minimizing or remodeling the appearance of the scar, because there is no treatment that will make a scar completely disappear (without creating another scar in the process).

Steroid injections or pressure packs can help flatten raised scars.

Dermal fillers can be injected into pitted scars to raise the surface of the skin.

Chemical peels, dermabrasion, and laser remodeling can improve the appearance of acne scarring.

In some cases, surgery may be used to address scarring (such as that left behind by Mohs micrographic surgery) to offer better cosmetic results.

If you have very sensitive skin or a tendency to form marks or keloids, see your dermatologist for special evaluation, as many of the treatments that help with ordinary scarring will make these conditions worse.

The American Academy of Dermatology study does not recommend over-the-counter treatments (creams or lotions) as these have not been shown to be effective. Your dermatologist can recommend makeup that helps conceal scars and skin care treatments that will help prevent or minimize post-procedure scarring. Scars should always be protected from UV radiation with a full-spectrum sunscreen.

Contact us if you have questions about how we can help you minimize scars.

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Using featherlight strokes of a special instrument, the aesthetician painlessly “planes”–or gently shaves away–the dead skin cells on the surface that muddy your glow. The exfoliation exposes new skin cells and promotes healthy skin cell turnover. It also removes fine facial hair, or “peach fuzz,” without causing nicks or stubble. The results are baby-soft smoothness, tightened pores, and a natural Georgia-peach glow no matter what your skin tone.

Dermaplaning Before and After

Dermaplaning is suitable for all skin types, but it’s an especially great choice for those who want exfoliation without the effects of deeper microdermabrasion. If you have sensitive skin, deal with acne or rosacea, or are pregnant, this gentle polisher is your friend.

For a full spring makeover, combine dermaplaning with one of our luxurious signature facials, which include a customized mask, treatment serums, and a light peel. A bonus: the treatment helps your skin absorb skin care products better for more lasting results.

April is a great time to schedule your dermaplaning treatment with our aesthetician, Sandra. This month only, Comprehensive Dermatology Center of Pasadena is offering a 20% discount on all spa services. Contact us today to take advantage of these great stress-relieving savings in this taxing month!

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What is retinol, anyway? In its natural state, retinol is a compound your body makes from Vitamin A. It contributes to the turnover of old skin cells and the production of new ones, keeping skin firm, resilient, and healthy. But production of natural retinol slows over time, and is affected by UV exposure. As we age–beginning even in our 20s–retinol depletion contributes to wrinkling and thinning of the skin, making it more susceptible to sun damage. Skin cell turnover slows, resulting in dullness. Fortunately, by the 1960s scientists discovered ways to synthesize retinol outside the body, and decades of research have shown that topical application of synthetic retinol is a great way to reverse the signs of skin aging.

Who should use retinol products? Because retinol products are available in such a wide variety of strengths and combinations, there’s probably a product for you no matter what your age or skin type. In your 20s and 30s, use retinol proactively to maintain skin’s resilience. It is also very helpful in the treatment of stubborn adult acne. By your 40s and beyond, retinol products can help you stay ahead of, or even reverse, signs of aging like wrinkling, lines, undereye darkness, and sun damage.

How does retinol work? At root, retinol is an exfoliator, helping skin slough off layers of dead cells. It also stimulates healthy cell production, not just on the surface but also in the deeper levels of skin’s infrastructure, where collagen and elastin are produced. Retinol works by drying–which is why you need good advice on choosing the formula that’s right for your skin–yet, paradoxically, promotes a healthier glow and firmer, more resilient skin.

When should you apply retinol products? Because UV radiation breaks down retinol, the best time to use retinol products is as part of your nightly skin care routine. Apply retinols on a schedule and in a manner recommended by your skin care practitioner, after cleansing and before moisturizing. A full-sprectrum sunscreen–a daily necessity for everyone!–is especially important while using retinol products.

Which retinol products are right for you? Retinol, whether used alone or as an ingredient in combination skin care products, is available in a variety of strengths. Over-the-counter products usually contain the mildest forms–buffered formulations like retinyl palmitate. These are fine for young or first-time users, or people with very sensitive skin, but they will not have the same effects as stronger concentrations. Higher-end cosmetic products and prescription formulas contain higher percentages of unbuffered retinol, sometimes in combination with hydrating ingredients like hyaluronic acid to balance retinol’s drying effects. Retinoids, a stronger Vitamin A product, may be prescribed by a dermatologist for certain skin conditions, but have more side effects than retinol.

Need more info or advice on choosing the right retinol products for you? Call or email our cosmetic consultant Mary Lou to set up your free cosmetic consultation today. We carry a variety of high-end and physician-formula retinol products, including best-sellers from SkinMedica and others.

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