Interview with Peterson Pierre, MD on Beauty and the Biz
Dr. Pierre is a board-certified cosmetic and medical dermatologist in Thousand Oaks, CA.
Known as “The Gentle Injector”, he’s been interviewed by Good Housekeeping, NBC News, Huff Post, MSN, Yahoo Lifestyle and others.
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Location: 77 E Rolling Oaks Dr # 207, Westlake Village, CA 91361
Phone: (805) 262-9068
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Transcript:
Beauty and the Biz
Interview with Peterson Pierre, MD on Beauty and the Biz
Catherine Maley, MBA: Hello, welcome to beauty in the biz. I’m Catherine Maley, your host and today’s special guest is Dr. Peterson Pierre. Dr. Pierre is a Board-Certified dermatologist practicing both medical and cosmetic dermatology. Now he’s completed his medical training at Stanford University School of Medicine, where I might add he met his wife and a mother of his two children. And he’s also author of several scientific articles, abstracts as well as a textbook chapter. Now Dr. Pierre opened the peer skincare Institute in 1000, Oaks, California back in 2004. So, he’s been around for a bit. Now, Dr. Pierre dralso been interviewed by many of in the media such as good housekeeping, NBC News, HuffPost, MSN, and Yahoo lifestyle just to name a few. Now his patients call him a gentle injector, because they love his talented use of Botox and wrinkle fillers without pain. And they also love their non-surgical, natural results. So, Dr. Pierre, welcome to beauty in the biz.
Peterson Pierre, MD: Thank you so much, Catherine, for having me.
Catherine Maley, MBA: Sure. So, let’s just start out by how in the world did you become a dermatologist?
Peterson Pierre, MD: Well, it’s interesting, you know, when I was about seven years old, I decided I wanted to be a physician. But at that point in time, I had no idea that dermatology even existed. In fact, I didn’t discover dermatology until my second year in medical school, where during a week of classes that they focus specifically on dermatology, and that was my first introduction. And I loved it, it was pretty much in love at first sight, because the specialty is so visual, everything is easily accessible. And you can do a lot of different things in dermatology in one particular given day, I am treating acne, then I go to the next patient, I’m cutting out a skin cancer, I go to the next patient who has some wrinkles. And then I’ve got another patient where I’m doing some laser treatments, it’s really fantastic that way, the other great thing about dermatology as well, is the fact that I can build all these relationships. And so, I have patients that I’ve seen throughout junior high and high school, and then they go to college, they graduate and get married now I’m seeing their children, I see their parents. So, it’s really amazing to be able to have that multi-generational relationship, and to be able to make such a positive impact in people’s lives
Catherine Maley, MBA: Good for you. And I like the variety of that because that’s true, then if I knew you as a patient, I could you know, you now and next year and next month and for 10 years after that, and then I mean, it goes on and on. So Exactly. I do want to touch on COVID-19 only because that is been the conversation that we’ve been having for the last couple months. And during this taping, I believe what is your situation there? Are you opened or closed, What’s your situation?
Peterson Pierre, MD: Well, we’re open down here in Southern California, they’re starting to relax things a little bit. You know, during the COVID-19 period, we were open with very reduced hours because what I realized I had patients who needed somewhere to go, they would have a problem. And if I was not available, they would have to go either to urgent care or their emergency room. And in fact, I had a couple of patients in that situation. And unfortunately, once they got there, they were told Well, you need to go see your dermatologist. So, we were still open seeing very few patients, but helping people nonetheless, who had issues that really only a dermatologist could address. Now that things are starting to relax a little bit and I think people are starting to feel more comfortable and slowly they’re starting to trickle in, we still have reduced hours and but we’re seeing a few or more patients as the week go by.
Catherine Maley, MBA: And have you put a lot of safety precautions in place?
Peterson Pierre, MD: Absolutely. I think in this particular scenario, obviously, this is something we’ve never faced before. So, it’s better to take the necessary precautions regardless. Because obviously I want to protect my patients, I want to protect my staff, I want to protect myself and my family. So, what we do, we wear masks, everyone in the office does, I don’t really make it mandatory for the patient, although that is available and we sanitize a whole lot more than we used to. I mean, obviously this is a medical environment, we were always sanitizing even before COVID. But now we have special breaks every 30 minutes every 60 minutes, where we wipe down services, door handles and the lights and we do the absolute best that we can to minimize any chances of infection and patients who are extremely concerned because I have you know, I’ve got patients who are not concerned at all. I have patients who are so concerned that they don’t want to leave their home and then I have people in between. So, for those who don’t want to leave their home at all. we’ve adopted telemedicine like a lot of different for doctors out there, so I offer that as an avenue as well.
Catherine Maley, MBA: Oh, that’s fantastic. And I also noticed you have like a pay online thing. So maybe they keyed and check out online now.
Peterson Pierre, MD: Definitely. So, we have a lot of options there, too. I think during this time, I’ve spent some time working on the practice. And that’s one of the things that we’ve implemented electronic payment, so patients can actually go online and pay their bill. And we also have a texting feature where we can text them their bill, and they can just click on the link and pay automatically. So, it’s International, sort of like that contactless payment.
Catherine Maley, MBA: Got it. I absolutely love that. One thing that has come out of this is all of us stopping and looking at what do we do, physically that we could have been doing digitally? And, and what can we do to save time and a lot more convenient? And I can I just love some of what’s happened.
Peterson Pierre, MD: Absolutely, I think one of my focuses for the practice has been to automate and digitize. And we’ve definitely moved in that direction.
Catherine Maley, MBA: For sure. So, I want to talk about the fun part of your practice, which is the cosmetic side and I have been partaking in, in services forever. And I can’t get enough of this stuff. So why don’t you just talk about some of the favorites and procedures that your patients love?
Peterson Pierre, MD: And you look amazing, by the way? Oh, thank you. So, I think the procedures in general patients want something, obviously, that’s effective, and that has very little downtime, and they look natural. Most of my patients, that’s what they’re after, they’re not really looking for a transformation and looking like someone else. And they want to look the way they did a few years ago. So, for that I specialize in minimally invasive procedures. So, we have Botox, which has been around for a long time. And I would say that’s probably maybe one of the top three best inventions in cosmetic treatments happened.
Catherine Maley, MBA: While you’re talking, I want to show some of the slides so people know what you’re talking about. Sure. Let’s look at so let’s look at these. So, Botox is your first step.
Peterson Pierre, MD: Yeah. So, this patient, it was a 35-year-old married lady with a couple of kids. And I was very bothered by her appearance, because she’s very expressive facially, and she would sort of brown and raised her eyebrows at the same time, which would also flatten her eyebrows, and she really disliked that. So, she came to see me and we did a little bit of Botox in between the brows and touched up the forehead. And you can see in the after picture, there are a few things that are really remarkable. Number one is in the after picture, she’s frowning. So those frown lines where we lines are gone. Number two, she’s raising her eyebrows, she has complete movement of the brows, but there are no wrinkles there. And number three, I’ve been able to restore that beautiful arch to her eyebrows, which she had been missing. So, she was the real. And usually, I tell patients that if you wait a long time to have Botox done your first reaction after having it the first time will be Why did I wait so long? It is so amazing. And there’s no downtime. I go right back to my regular activities. Within a week or so. I’ve got a complete transformation. I look better, I look more youthful. I look more rested. And to me, it’s a no brainer. I can’t wait to go back and get my Botox done. Right. How about the next one? So, my second favorite thing is fillers. Now the one thing that people are not aware of as we get older, and typically patients start to think about older when they hit their 50s or later. But what happens once we hit our early 30s. And our bodies start to decrease production of collagen, hyaluronic acid and elastin. And that translates into dry dove in fine lines and deeper wrinkles. And those are the types of things that really can only be addressed by replacing what’s been lost. So, the vast majority of fillers on the market right now are based on hyaluronic acid, which is a sugar our bodies make on a regular basis, very natural. And we go ahead and inject either fine lines or wrinkles. So, in this lady’s case, she’s got the nasal labial folds, which are basically the lines that come from the nose to the corner of the mouth. She’s got the marionette lines, which are the lines that come from the corner of the mouth down to the chin and makes her look sad and makes her look tired. And just a few minutes of doing an injection and we’ve been able to turn back the clock a few years and again, minimal discomfort, minimal downtime. I think the main thing with that is that the result really depends on the skill of the injector, because you can have the same exact paint and give it to 10 different people and you have 10 different results. So, it’s really important to pick the right injector to give you the look that you’re after.
Catherine Maley, MBA: That’s a really good point. I personally have been around long enough to have experienced a really bad injection And I’m not saying they’re bad injectors, they’re just not experienced or skilled or trained. And then I’ve had really good results and huge differences. Okay, how about this one?
Peterson Pierre, MD: So here we’ve got another example of the loss of volume. So rather than having a line or lines like the previous patient, this lady still looks great. But if you look at the cheek area, you can see that it’s flat, it’s starting to have some depressions, I think her cheek bone itself is still pretty good. But if you look underneath the sort of a hollow happening there. If you look closer between the cheek and the nose, there’s definitely a hollow there as well. And a lot of that’s genetic. And a lot of that has to do with time. And so that tends to make you look older. Obviously, that’s not anything that anyone is after. And that’s something they want to correct. Very simply with fillers. My particular favorite one for this is a filler called Juvéderm Voluma reinjected right down onto the bone and lift that up and provides fullness into the hollowed areas, and we’re just restoring the youthful contour that she had a few years ago. So, in the before picture, you’ll see sort of that white line near her cheek, that’s the O g curve. And so, you can see it’s not much of a curve, it’s almost a straight line at that point. But in the after picture, you have restored the natural youthful contour, which is exactly what we’re after, when you look at her and you can’t necessarily say oh, this lady has had something done. And what you’re looking at is, wow, this lady looks really good. And you can’t necessarily know that she’s had anything done without that before picture. And that’s really what the bulk of my patients are after. They want a natural look. They don’t want the treatment to announce itself. They just want people to be attracted to their beauty. And that’s what I do.
Catherine Maley, MBA: That’s so true. And then how about this one? This is a new favorite, huh?
Peterson Pierre, MD: Yes, I think lips in general. Obviously, that’s one of those things as you get older, the lips start to shrivel up, which then in turn can lead to those little lines around the lips, those dreaded smokers’ lines, even though you may never have smoked. And I think in the past few years as well, this has gotten popular with millennials because they want that power. I think a lot of that has been driven by social media. Now, this is the one area that I see quite frequently abused. Because I’ve seen some lips that in my professional opinion look absolutely terrible. You can tell within two seconds, and that not only have they been done, they’ve been grossly overdone and completely out of proportion with the face. And it looks comical, which sadly, I don’t think is what most patients are after. But unfortunately, I think there are a lot of injectors out there that may have that opinion that if a little is good, more is better. So, the key thing with lips, there are a few things. First thing, there’s a certain proportion that you want, between the upper and lower lips, because you never want the upper lip to be much bigger than the lower lip. Although there are some individuals who are born that way. For the most part, that’s not something that you should be seeking in a cosmetic treatment. Number two, and I think this part is grossly overlooked. Your lips should always be in proportion with the rest of your face. If your lips are too big, and you have a small face that simply doesn’t look natural. So, you have to address the lips themselves. But the lips are not in a vacuum. They have to be in harmony with the rest of the face and have the proper proportions so that you can look your best. And no one is saying oh yeah, I know what she had done. And they’re just looking at you and saying, oh my goodness, she looks at me.
Catherine Maley, MBA: Very nice, very nice. Now I want to switch over to lasers because I know you have a whole bunch of them in your practice and what can they do for patients?
Peterson Pierre, MD: Well, lasers are really very versatile. I think the main things that I’ll use lasers for are pigmentation which is something that bothers a lot of patients, whether it’s pigmentation from the sun, whether it’s pigmentation from melasma, or what have you, it’s fine lines and wrinkles and pores and tone and texture and we’ve got lasers to address all of those things. Now we’ve got lasers that have very little downtime, like the clear and brilliant and then we have other later lasers that have more downtime like steel tube resurfacing. So, this patient right here has some melasma you can see in the before picture on her cheeks at her forehead. 100% of patients who have melasma are bothered by it. melasma is triggered by the sun and by hormones and by heat. So, I universally will start Patients like this on some hydrocodone. But for faster results. For better results, we’ll add a laser like the clear and brilliant. Now this is the most popular laser in my practice simply because it works and it has very little downtime. And the pain is minimal. I always do some numbing cream, but I have patients who do it without any numbing at all. The treatments quick and your skin is red, maybe for a day or two. And the very first thing you notice your skin is soft and smooth. I had one patient who had it done. And most of my patients tell me Oh, my husband never notices anything. But this one patient told me that her husband was the first person to notice. And he said to her honey, your skin is so smooth. And that was after just one treatment. And she was hooked from then on.
Catherine Maley, MBA: This is one of my favorite procedures. I get it quite regularly because I’m a redhead, I get so much redness in my eye. And it drives me nuts. And I look like I’m watching him like blushing all the time. And this one’s been great. I’m not getting any downtime from it. Like it’s a little, maybe like a day or so. But nothing unusual. Like I could easily wear my makeup over it. And it’s so funny because people will say, Hmm, you look really good. And a lot of it. Yeah, it’s a really good subtle one that I actually have added to my repertoire as a regular maintenance kind of thing.
Peterson Pierre, MD: It’s a great maintenance treatment.
Catherine Maley, MBA: And then how about this one? No, this one’s serious. This is resurfacing.
Peterson Pierre, MD: Yeah, so this definitely is the other extreme for people who need more correction. So, with the clear and brilliant, it’s great for maintenance, it’s great for a little correction for pigment and things like that. But for someone who’s a little bit older, has a lot more sun damage, deeper wrinkles and things of that nature and you definitely are going to need something a bit more aggressive. So, carbon dioxide co2 laser resurfacing is the gold standard for that, that can help with fine lines, deep wrinkles, and brown spots, pores, texture, all of that. But the flip side to that is it does have downtime; you’re typically looking at about two to three weeks of redness. Usually after the first week, you can wear makeup, you can go back to your regular activities. But to have that redness go away completely, you’re looking at about two to three weeks. But this is one of those treatments that when you’re done with it, it’s a wild result. So, you can see what this lady even though in the after picture, she’s still a little bit pink. You can see those lines above her lip are virtually gone. And you can see even her nasal labial folds have improved. Now she still needs a little filler to correct that completely. You can see the hollow under her eyes has improved. And also, there she could do a little bit better with some filler. As you can see the glow to her skin has been restored. So, this really is a very satisfying treatment.
Catherine Maley, MBA: Well, if you can afford the downtime, it really does turn back the clock.
Peterson Pierre, MD: Absolutely
Catherine Maley, MBA: Amazing. And then for the finale, because we were talking about a lot of face procedures. And what’s another big issue that we women have, and I call it and that’s where it’s at. So, he has a solution for that. And boy, we all have some fat that we don’t want most of I mean 99% of us. So, what do you think about CoolSculpting?
Peterson Pierre, MD: I love CoolSculpting. Now, I was not one of the early adopters. This is the 11th year that CoolSculpting has been out Oh, so it is tried and true. But I did not start right away because there were some complaints that I had heard from some of my colleagues from some of some patients who had had it done elsewhere. And so, I was a little resistant but when they redesigned the machine A few years ago, that’s when I jumped on board because all those issues that my patients had been mentioning were addressed all the issues that my colleagues had been mentioning were addressed. And it’s really a phenomenal treatment. It is the single best noninvasive fat treatment that we have anywhere on the planet. Over 8 million treatments have been done worldwide and it works. There is no downtime. You can go right back to regular activities and one of my absolute favorite parts about this treatment the results are permanent.
Catherine Maley, MBA: Nice and what areas can you treat because it used to be pretty much like– the tummy is almost all of us have like tummy issues or– what other areas?
Peterson Pierre, MD: Yeah, this treatment is very versatile and you can treat that fat underneath the chin, the jowl area and you can do the bra fat front and back. You can do the arms and you can do the stomach the love handles, I like to call them the hate handles because who loves those, you can do the outside of the thighs, the inside of the thighs and even an area above the knee. And then there can be a little pocket of fat and some people between the buttocks area in the thighs that’s known as the banana roll and that area can be treated as well. Once the CoolSculpting freezes the fat cells, it destroys the fat cells and the body will flush out the fat No, the fat does not go to a different part of the body, which is a common misconception. Your body just flushes it out. And those results are permanent, those fat cells are gone, and they will never come back.
Catherine Maley, MBA: That is good to know. All right. And by the way, everybody I’ve given? Well, I can, of course, Dr. Pierre to give us something because I’d love for you to go to a consultation with Dr. Pierre. He’s really lovely. And all of your questions would be answered with him. And if you’ve watched this, if you would just when you call, or email or dm just mentioned that you’ve seen this, and you’ll have a free virtual consultation with Dr. Pierre, almost just like what we’re doing here. So, I highly recommend you take advantage of that, because he normally charges $100 for it. But during this special time, he’s done. He’s offering that as a free virtual consultation. By the way, Dr. Peter, what kinds of questions should people be asking you at their consultation, to know that they’re going to get a good result, something that they expect and reaches the results that they’re looking for?
Peterson Pierre, MD: Well, I always start every single constant consultation with the mirror, because I see things. But the patient may not be concerned about some of the things that I noticed. So, I always start with the mirror, tell me the top three things that bug you. And we start from there. And so, I always want to address whatever it is that is on that top three list. Because in my opinion, even though something I think can be easily addressed. If that’s not a concern for the patient, then there’s absolutely no reason for the patient to spend any money on that. It just doesn’t make sense to me. Yes, I can correct it. But if it doesn’t bother you, why waste the money on that? Let’s focus on the things that bother you. So, then I’ll usually go over multiple different treatment options for whatever that concern is. And we’ll go over the downtime issues and number of treatments that may be required and the timeline for those results, and how we can maintain those results in the long run any side effects, pricing consideration, so I really address everything. And then sometimes I’ll make some suggestions, such as you know, you’re treating this particular area. But have you considered this? Because this would really improve the harmony of your entire face, you may be focused on, let’s say the frown lines in between your eyebrows. But did you notice that when you make that facial expression, you also crinkle your nose and you have those lines on the side of your nose that are known as bunny lines. If we treat that, then you’ll have that harmony, because what will happen sometimes in people who are experienced and can pick up these things, if you try to frown, and Don’t frown, but then the bunny lines are there, that’s somewhat of a giveaway that you’ve had Botox. And a lot of people don’t care about that, which is fine. But if your goal is to do it on the download, so no one knows what’s going on. But it’s my job to point that out to you, so that we can give you the result that you’re after.
Catherine Maley, MBA: Funny to mention the bunny lines, because it’s a really big deal for me. And most of the injectors Don’t even mention it. I say, did you do the bunny lines? Yeah. Because it really– you’re absolutely right. You know, especially as women do, though, you fix one area, and then the next area pops up that we focus on. So please just get it all to stop. That’s right. So once again, I want you to give Dr. Pierre a call or dm or email or a text or however you all communicate in today’s world. He is offering you a virtual consultation for free. It’s normally $100. And Dr. Pierre, how where can they find you online?
Peterson Pierre, MD: Multiple different places, you can go to our website pierreskincare.com. And even on our website, you can book a virtual appointment if you like. You can find us on Facebook, Pierre Skincare, you can find us on Instagram at pierreskincare. We’re pretty much everywhere.
Catherine Maley, MBA: Nice. This is the last question just for fun. What’s something that we don’t know about you?
Peterson Pierre, MD: Well, most people don’t know that I spent a good portion of my childhood in Haiti. So, my parents are originally from Haiti. I was born in New York. And when I was about seven years old, we moved there for 10 years. So, I did my elementary, junior high and high school there. But once I graduated high school, I moved back to New York City and pursued my college education, and then came out to the wonderful West Coast to do my medical and dermatology training.
Catherine Maley, MBA: It is so interesting. How much sticker shock was it to go from Haiti to New York, actually the other way around New York, Canadian and Haiti back to New York.
Peterson Pierre, MD: Yeah, it was definitely a shock for me because I had no idea what was going on at the time. I remember vividly that day that it happened. I was supposed to go to school. And my mom was saying we’re going on a trip and I thought, yeah, but how can we go on a trip when I need to go to school and so we hopped on a plane here. I am totally foreign country; I don’t know the language. And I remember my first day in class, I was completely clueless until they were doing math because, well, numbers are pretty universal. I could do that, by gradually, over time, learn the language. And it was a difficult transition for me. But being such a young age kids adapt pretty quickly. But my heart was always in New York, I always longed to come back. And during the summers, we would visit New York. Every year, I would think, Oh, this is the year we’re actually going to come back and it wasn’t. But once I got closer to graduating high school, I made it clear to my parents that I have no future in Haiti, I need to go back to the States. And I’m essentially going to do it with or without you. So, then they decided, yeah, it’s probably time to do that. And so, we moved back to New York, and I continued my education there.
Catherine Maley, MBA: Yeah. But then you ran off to California.
Peterson Pierre, MD:
I did. Well, so the thing is, when I was applying to medical school, I had actually decided to go to the University of Pennsylvania, which is a phenomenal school. My mom was thrilled because it was only a couple hours away. And then I got a call from Stanford. And they said they were I had never been to California before. They were doing regional interviews. So, they were coming out to New York doing interviews, it was pretty close to my job at the time, I was doing research at a lab in the heart of New York City. And so, I decided to go and do the interview. I didn’t think a whole lot of it. And then a couple days later, they said Congratulations, we were going to offer you admission, and we’d like to fly you out to California to visit the campus. And I thought, wow, there’s absolutely no way I’m going to turn down that offer. So, I hopped on the plane, never having been to the campus. I was thinking, Well, I’m going to enjoy my time in California. I am going to the University of Pennsylvania. So, this will be a free trip. I can’t lose by the end of the weekend. And I thought to myself, I would be an absolute fool to pass this up. You know, they picked me up from the airport and drove me up palm drive. And if you’ve ever been on campus, once you hit palm drive, it’s over. It was April. I mean, it was snowing back in New York. It was a beautiful day there. And the people were so nice. I love everything about it literally, for me was magical. And there was no way I was going to give that up. And I didn’t and my mom was really heartbroken. Because it’s a you know, 3000 miles away. But that I would say is one of the top three best decisions I’ve ever made. And I would do it all over again in a heartbeat.
Catherine Maley, MBA: Good for you. I assume the other one is your wife.
Peterson Pierre, MD: Yes. Sanford has been good to meet a number of different ways.
Catherine Maley, MBA: –to move on your part.
Peterson Pierre, MD: Yeah, definitely.
Catherine Maley, MBA: All right. Well, thank you, Dr. Pierre. Everybody, please go meet with Dr. Pierre. If you gave a virtual consultation with him, please take advantage of that. It’s a free consultation. It’s $100. And so, check him out. Check him out on Instagram or Facebook or go to his website pierreskincare.com. And thank you so much for your time.
Peterson Pierre, MD: Thank you so much, Catherine, have a great day
