I don’t know about you, but how many infomercials will it take to realize that many of these products are simply silly? Just stay up late and watch your television or check out the back of your favorite magazine and you will be overwhelmed at the ingenuity of many so-called cures for all of those “little” skin problems that are the bane of our existence. Without medical merit, several products are now on the market making claims of improving our skin’s appearance and may do more harm than good.

Take for instance blackhead removal strips. Being a dermatologist, the idea of placing the equivalent of contact paper on the skin and ripping it off makes me shudder. The product sounds like it will traumatize the hair bulbs and skin glands, not to mention the probability of a good old-fashioned contact dermatitis (allergic skin reaction) to the adhesive in the tape. Check with your doctor about prescription products to treat blackheads and consider the Tweezerman No-Slip Skin Care Tool that is what the dermatologist really uses to extract already apparent blackheads.

Next, let’s look at the electrical stimulation masks on the market. Recently, the FDA stepped in stating that not only would a product of this nature fall into the medical device category (and most definitely should not be sold via infomercials), but that this type of device can do more harm than good. Wrinkles are not going to respond to electric shock therapy. Nor should someone go to bed looking like they just stepped out of Silence of the Lambs.

On the same vein, the use of these facial exercise machines and their counterparts, the facial exercise instruction videos/tapes/instruction books have no basis in reality as to how facial wrinkles are really created or respond. Deep facial wrinkles develop due to overuse of the facial expression muscles over time. It is sort of like building a bicep. So what do you think will happen as you work those muscles overtime, trying to prevent as well as fix wrinkled, sagging skin? They get BIGGER. That is why we dermatologists use Botox, to relax these muscles. Facial exercise program, definitely not a good idea.

Moving on to hair removal, who said it was a good idea to rip off hair? One particular product promoted on endless infomercials fails to tell you that in order to work, your hair has to be quite long. Doesn’t that sort of defeat the purpose? Ripping hair from the hair follicle can also lead to chronic battles with ingrown hairs, hair bumps and even scar tissue deep within the hair follicles. Hope that Vaniqa will prevent hair growth in the first place when it hits the market.

On an alternate note, do we really believe that nutrients, herbs and minerals will cause hair to grown on a baldhead? Search the Internet and there are endless websites devoted to this phenomenon. I’m sorry, but for now if you want to do something about hair growth, check with the doctor to see if Rogaine or Propecia are appropriate for you.

Cellulite is a tough one. Most women, at least 80% have cellulite, so get used to it. Remember those exercise belts that were so popular at the gyms? Besides jiggling our hips and thighs, and causing some itching, they didn’t do anything. Nor will any of the so-called hot supplements we have been encouraged to consume to help break down the cellulite.

The same goes for all of those theophylline-based creams that were so hot on the market a few years back. While theophylline is an active ingredient used for treating asthma, as far as cellulite goes, it simply holds water on the skin for a few hours, giving a plumper look to the skin. It has not benefit for truly treating cellulite. Assume the same for those products sold via commercials and advertisements.

Recently, we have been inundated with questions related to supposed topical products meant to erase the deep wrinkle lines about the mouth, commonly referred to as smoker’s lips. There is no such quick fix. These lines are deeply ingrained, have lots of muscular build-up associated with them and require procedural intervention to fix them. The best you can do to help soften them include heavy-duty vitamin A therapy such as prescription Renova or and concentrated glycolic acids at about 20% range. (Remember, you have to work up to this strength, and you never layer the 2 types of products at the same time.) Consider camouflaging the area with wax fillers to prevent your lipstick from bleeding into the crevices and making these lines more obvious.

Mainstream dermatology and plastic surgery communities typically adopt a product if it works well. We are always looking for great products to help improve our patients’ aesthetics. Not to mention having some medical documentation to back it up. I guarantee you, that if it’s not being promoted by these doctors, it isn’t the panacea you hoped it would be.