Hi everyone! I am Dr Amel from City Skin Clinic, welcome back to our channel!
Today we're going to talk about Obagi Nuderm. This is a professional, prescription skincare
system and it's specifically designed to target aging, so severe and moderate signs of aging,
as well as hyperpigmentation and melasma. This is a system that you can only get by prescription
from a doctor and it's something that we have incorporated into our virtual skin clinic. In
today's video I’m going to speak to you about, go through what causes aging,
and why this system works to target it and how we can incorporate this into your skin care
plan. What causes skin aging? So by skin aging we mean the obvious things that we see, which is loss
of skin elasticity, fine lines and wrinkles, as well as loss of volume in the face. Skin
might also have signs of sun damage, pigmentation, there might be uneven skin tone.
All of those things contribute to aging skin. Our cells, as you know, will age naturally
anyway with time and with skin, what that means is that the skin cells produce less collagen,
much less elastin, so skin loses its plumpness, its firmness, its elasticity, because the collagen
and elastin hold up the skin and they give it a lot of its physical characteristics.
At the same time, the layers of the skin become thinner, so that may lead to crepey looking
skin, very thin skin and again, that's a product of aging. There's also, usually,
a reduction in the blood supply to the skin and blood supply is really important in terms of
moving immune cells, it's important for delivering nutrients and oxygen as well as
taking away waste. So with a reduced blood supply, you also get a reduction in
healthy regeneration, which contributes to that overall effect. There are things that
exacerbate skin aging and make it worse and the biggest one in all types of skin is sun,
and specifically sun damage. The UV rays from the sun
will accelerate skin aging, they'll cause damage to the skin and that makes the
appearance of lines and wrinkles as well as pigmentation spots, sunspots are what
they're called, and even worse, potentially this damage can lead to skin cancer. So,
before you consider any treatments for skin aging, the biggest thing to do is protect your skin from
sun damage and the earlier you start, the better, but it's never too late. Wearing SPF 40 or more
every single day, even when it's cloudy, will go a really long way towards protecting your skin
and slowing down skin aging and making it less bad. There's absolutely no point in
trying anything more without doing that basic, because you really need to halt the aging.
And then, of course, there are things, you know, you can't stop aging itself, but there are things
you can do to slow down or reduce its effect on things like your skin. Obviously, having a
healthier and balanced diet, exercise, drinking lots of water, these are things that we know help,
but the biggest one, as I mentioned, is actually wearing SPF. So the science, as I mentioned ,
of skin aging, fine lines, wrinkles, pigmentation, uneven skin tone, these are things that the Obagi
Nuderm kit, in moderate to severe cases of skin aging, it's designed to target this. It's also
designed to target moderate to severe cases of hyperpigmentation. I have, in a previous video,
explained in some detail, and I’ll leave a link to that video below, what hyperpigmentation is. So
aging and sun damage are one cause of it, but there are other causes like acne,
so post inflammatory processes, and obviously sun damage is a big cause of
melasma and that kind of hyperpigmentation. This kit is great for these purposes as well.
In the Obagi Nuderm system, there are two types of systems and which one we prescribe depends on
you and your skin. There is a hydroquinone-based one and an arbutin-based one.
Both of them are ingredients that help regulate melanocyte activity and so
reduce hyperpigmentation and even out the skin tone, so that it normalizes with the
rest of your skin. That's the main thing that these two products treat.
Most people are most likely to go on hydroquinone, unless they have any contraindications so it's not
appropriate for them, or they have very sensitive skin, there are medical reasons or an allergy,
and they can't use it, then we would prescribe the arbutin. This is something we speak
with our patients and discuss it, because it's important to understand the limitations and
capabilities of each treatment. The arbutin
bases kits take a little bit longer to work, so if hyperpigmentation is the main problem
and there is no medical contraindication, there is no allergy, we would tend to
discuss with patients about, perhaps, a hydroquinone-based kit. But again, they both
work on that side of things, which is the hyperpigmentation and that's usually evident in
skin aging as well as in sun damage and the other causes of hyperpigmentation that I mentioned.
Then a part of the kit also contains an exfoliant and in terms of exfoliation, that's really
important to resurface the skin, to remove the old, dead layers, so that you can get a much
smoother surface to the skin and help eventually achieve that glow for the skin. Both kits
have Exfoderm, which is a combination of alpha hydroxy acids and they help regenerate the skin
by resurfacing it. There's also cleansers and toners, which soften the skin itself
and help improve the penetration of the products. And then a moisturizer, that again,
helps nourish and stimulates the skin cells to turn over more. Both these kits, we generally
will prescribe them with tretinoin in many cases. Tretinoin is a retinoid and tretinoin will
also help with reducing hyperpigmentation, it also helps resurface skin cells and,
on top of that, it helps improve vascularization. In times when tretinoin is maybe not ideal for
a patient, there are some times when either the patient has very sensitive skin,
or they're on a certain treatment, then perhaps retinol, which takes much longer and it
is less effective in terms of over the same period of time, but we may encourage retinol use instead,
to get some of those effects. So again, this is a discussion that we have and it's part of
the treatment plan. The Obagi Nuderm kit itself is composed of seven products so,
a cleanser, a toner, then we have the Exfoderm which is an exfoliant,
we have the either hydroquinone or arbutin based products, there's two of them, to use
day and night, depending on the plan that we put you on; there's also a moisturizer
and then an SPF as well that really helps to protect this, and this is the
most important thing we always discuss with patients, if you're not going to use SPF,
then these systems are not worth it, because what you're doing is putting all that effort,
only to then go out in the sun and have it reversed. So, it's really an important component.
The kit itself is great, but it does require commitment. You typically will start
to see some improvement after the first 6 weeks, which is the time it takes for the skin
to regenerate and turn over. Then, most people will need to continue on the kit for at least
12 to 18 weeks, some people may need up to 24 weeks. We don't prescribe it for longer than that
and by then, we're usually dealing with really intense,
extreme cases of skin aging or hyperpigmentation and again,
how long you may need is something that we discuss with our patients before they start the treatment.
For this and all of our Obagi products, we offer follow-up at set intervals, just to see
how people are getting on, we advise whether you can increase the frequency of certain products
or reduce it, depending on how your skin is reacting to it. It's a living process and it's
very fuss-free, but there are little points of intervention just to really make sure
that what you're using is entirely optimized for your lifestyle and also for your skin and
the results that you want to get from it. After you finish the Obagi Nuderm system,
we then tend to give advice. So you can definitely go back to using over-the-counter products and
we have a range of different products that we can recommend, that we're big fans of. One of these
might be The Ordinary skin products, or John Kenneth, there's just so many different
fun brands that we love that we also think are quite effective. Again, we aim to
have this as something that is manageable for the patient. Some people might say,
I was happy to use 7 products to get what I want, but I’m really not looking for a longer
skincare routine so we drop that to two or three necessary products a day. And again,
it's up to people where they get these from, we just give general advice as what's available and
that's a fun thing about skin care, there's so much choice now, it's just being directed as
to what's going to work for you and that's all part of our treatment journey. So, that
being said, in terms of takeaway, this is a great system if you are looking at treating moderate to
severe signs of skin aging or if you're looking to target moderate to severe hyperpigmentation
or combination of these. It's a fantastic system that most people will need a 12 to 18 week
treatment course, some people may need a little bit longer but no more than 24 weeks. It's
a bit involved, but you're in charge of this and we alter the use of the products
according to what your skin needs. It's a really nice system and it works. These are
great ingredients with lots of clinical trials behind them.
In terms of where it sits with our treatments, we see this as part of a whole. A lot of our
patients may opt for this, but then they also will choose to have Botox or fillers
according to their timeline, so it doesn't preclude you from doing this, but it's really
important to optimize your skin. In cases where this kit is needed, it gives a great
boost and it massively enhances the results of Botox and fillers or Profhilo, or any of the other
treatments. It works quite nicely in that group and then once you have the results, they're there
for you to take care of them. You don't have to repeat this afterwards, which is great, as long
as you maintain and you take care of your skin. Anyway, I hope that helps give you a little
bit of an overview with Obagi Nuderm and why I’m such a big fan of it. If you have any questions,
please leave a comment below and I’ll answer it. I’ve also left some links to our website,
which give you a bit more information about our virtual clinic and Obagi Nuderm, as well
as skin aging and hyperpigmentation. Don't forget, before you go, to hit the like button and
subscribe to our page and hit the notification bell. Until our next video, see you!