Dr. Thomas Bender with Advanced Dermatology and Skin Care Centre- May 2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
This is News Radio seven to ten WNTM. Uncle Henry
here once again on Ask the Expert with Board certified
dermatologist doctor Thomas Bender with Advanced Dermatology and Skincare Center,
a forefront dermatology clinic. Advanced Dermatology and Skincare Center has

(00:28):
a team of board certified dermatologists with locations of Mobile, Daphne, Baymonette,
and Northwest Florida. You can find out more about the
doctors and the services they provide at the website Advanceddermclinic
dot com. That's Advanceddermclinic dot com. You can go to
that website and make appointments. You can also call two

(00:50):
five to one six three one thirty five seventy. That's
two five to one six three one thirty five seventy
to make an appointment or ask a question with a
Advanced Dermatology and Skincare Center. This interview with doctor Thomas
Bender was recorded at his office in Providence Park in Westmobile.
Dr Bender, how are thanks going at Advanced Dermatology and

(01:13):
Skincare Center?

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Absolutely lovely, Thank you, sir.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
So glad to hear that. Now we've got lots to
talk about. Questions from listeners. Before we get to all
that stuff, let's talk just a moment about how it
is to get an appointment at Advanced Dermatology and Skincare Center.
School being out for the summer, this, I guess, is
a great time to bring your kid for a check
up or bring them for specific reason.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
It is, and you know, of course, we always work
hard to make sure that we have great access to
dermatologic care. We have at this point, I think you
know eighteen providers, including a large number of board sertified
dermatologists and most surgeon and certified physician assistants and nurse
practitioners who are standing by to make sure patients can
get in timely fashion.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Very easy to make an appointment. You can go to
Advanced Dermclinic dot com. You can make in the appointment online.
You can pick the provider calendar pomps up and lets
you know what days appointments are available. It's as convenient
as it's ever been. It is so advancederm Clinic dot
Com for those appointments, or you can make a call
to Advance Dermatology and Skincare Center. Before we get to

(02:20):
questions from listeners, doctor Bender may is Melanoma Awareness Month,
and for people who have not heard you talk about
melanoma before, just wanted to give you an opportunity to
tell people why do they need to know about melanoma?

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Well, I mean, first and foremost, melanoma is one of
the scariest things in dermatology. It can really harm and
even kill a patient. So that's why everyone's always trying
to make sure that patients get checked early and if
necessary often. You know, we have a lot of patients
that are fair skinned, a lot of patients who are
out in the sun, a lot in South Alabama, in

(02:58):
the Panhandal Florida, you know, all of our area that
we're taken care of, and we just want to make
sure they're being checked because if you're being checked, we
can find these things early, and our goal of courses
make it where it's just more of an annoyance having
to get it treated, and it doesn't, of course affect
someone's life anyway. If you're having to go and see
medical oncology and have to have a lot of medications
and maybe even go out of town for your treatment

(03:21):
for whatever reason, you know, and then God forbid, we
lose a patient or someone to that disease, and I
taught to patients with family members and other places that
didn't get checked on a regular basis and die of melanoma.
So we're really just trying to prevent patients from dying
from melanoma.

Speaker 1 (03:36):
Now, melanoma, there are several types of skin cancer that
you've taught us about on this radio show. When you're
examining a patient, does melanoma look different to you? Can
you tell by looking at it yourself that it's different
from the other cancers.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
What I use in what works extremely well. If there's
a variation in color, which means multiple colors in the
same lesion, If there's you know, irregularity in the shape
of the lesion, and then they talk about it being
six millimeters or greater in diameter, I don't even really
pay attention. If they have the first two, then we
generally will do a biopsy and we find a lot

(04:16):
of early mountanomas, you know, kind of you know, subscribing
to that philosophy. And it's also kind of because some
patients have numerous spots that kind of fit that bill.
You know, they have a genetic predisposition to melanoma and
atypical looking moles. So with those patients when you're looking
at their back for example, and this is why you
know online one picture doesn't work because you have to

(04:37):
see the whole palette. You have to see the whole
body to be able to see. Okay, so we've got
a whole back full of irregular looking moles. So then
it becomes which one of these looks more irregular than
the rest of them. And I always say to patients,
you know, which one's kind of announcing itself, and those
are the ones that we would want to sample. And
sometimes those come back as just a severely atypical mole
which needs to be removed because we know those are

(04:57):
increased for usk to become a melanoma or a melanoma
insight to an early melanoma.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
And uh, now we've got I had several listeners, I
guess coincidentally emailing in this month asking about skin cancer
and skin cancer checks. So instead of going to each
of those individually, uh, just the basics. How often should
someone get checked out for skin cancer?

Speaker 2 (05:21):
Well, once a year is the standard. And then if
you're someone with pre cancer responsor you're someone with a
history of skin cancer, that could be anywhere from four
to six months, So you go from you coming once
a year to coming you know, two to three times
a year.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
Okay, And and the exam itself, what is it like
being checked for skin cancer? How does that go? Well?

Speaker 2 (05:41):
You know, when I first started the practice, if you
if you read the textbooks, you know they want to
get a patient in a gown and in their undergarments,
and of course we'll get everything. Well, a lot of
patients don't want that, so we're kind of like the
old commercial I think it was, was it Burger King?
You know, we try to let the patient have it
their way.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
That yes, what that is the the old Burger King jingle?
Have it your way exactly.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
So we do that here and let patients, Hey, do
you want to get in the gown. We'll look at
every everything from head to toe. Do you want to
just for men, take your shirt off, we'll look at
your upper body for ladies, you know, at least at
least let us look at all the exposed areas. So
I like to look at all the exposed areas, so
the arms, the neck, the face, you know, your back,

(06:21):
in the lower legs. Every time I see a patient,
and then whatever else that they think we should look.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
At and because it is Melanoma Awareness month, let us
know what are the consequences of not getting this addressed.
Talk about what happens with melanoma when we don't catch
it quickly enough.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Well, I mean, it spreads really fast, you know. That's
why you know, you see all the everything people talk about.
Compare with squam of cell and basil cell carcum of
the skin. It spreads very very quickly, and so we
have to be on top of it because it can
kill a patient. It's one of the scariest things that
I mentioned in dermatology now saying that you know, and
I remind patients about basil sell and screaming cell. Now,

(06:58):
if you blow those off, if you get diagnosed with one,
or you just let it sit there and don't get
it checked for using. I mean, I've had patients come
in and they basically let it sit there until they
just absolutely could not ignore it anymore. And they've got
this huge area that's affected and you know, it's bleeding,
and it's just something that I'm like, you know, how
long has this been there? And it's been there a

(07:19):
couple of years. I'm like, no time, like ten, you know,
and unfortunately, if basil cell a scream as cell spreads,
is very little can be done. So it goes from
being an extremely curable cancer We're talking about a ninety
five plus percent cure rate, which is awesome with cancer,
to being almost can't cure it because once it spreads.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
Okay, so get those skin cancer checks at Advanced Dermatology
and Skincare Center. So doctor Bender questions from listeners that
have been emailed in Before we get to that, I've
got a question, and I apologize for doing this, but
a couple of weeks ago I got married, so I

(08:01):
and you're looking shocked. She is from this country. This
is not a scheme where they're trying to get into
the country. I'm married an American and she has dermatology
questions every time I do this show. So if you
don't mind, I'm going to start with my wife's question.

Speaker 2 (08:16):
Sure no and congratulations, Well.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
Thank you very much. She is worried about having sagging
skin around her neckline and her neck So can you
tell my wife what can Advance Dermatology and Skinned Center
do to help her with what she perceives is skin
hanging around her neckline or her neck.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
Well, I mean skin, laxity, fine lines, and wrinkles. You know,
we have two different procedures we can do for that,
and one, of course is r IF microneiling which helps
with that, and then another is CO two laser. Now,
if we're talking about fat, you know, then of course
we do cool sculpting to get the fat going first,
let it contract some and then use r IF microneiling

(08:58):
into or CO two LA to start to tighten that area.
So a lot of times I tell patients it's not
just about treating the neck. We probably treat the face
as well, and we treat both of those who have
a much better result.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
Okay, and our F micro needling. What is our F
micro needling, So essentially what we're doing.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
Our F stands for radio frequency, So it's gold plated,
small little needles, barely feeling if you believe that. When
they put that hand piece on your face or wherever
we're treating, and then they push a button and those
needles heat up underneath the skin, and when you deliver
that heat deeper in the skin, it causes collagen regeneration.
And so that's what helps with laxity and finlines and wrinkles.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
Okay, that was the wife question this month for Doctor Bender.
I thank you for allowing that, Doctor Bender. Of course,
now from listeners, if you'd like to get a question asked,
email me Uncle Henry at iHeartMedia dot com. That's Uncle
Henry ad iHeartMedia dot com. Our first question is from
Emily and bayer Lebattery. She writes, my sixteen year old
daughter has acne that's hurting her self esteem. Over the

(10:03):
counter products not working. What treatments can you offer for
severe acne? And are they safe for all teenagers?

Speaker 2 (10:13):
Well, so the answer is yes, we have a lot
of you know, safe medications generally the age of twelve
and up. We can use this about whatever we want
to use, you know, and I think that we need
to take a look. Depending on how severe it is,
we might be able to fix this with topical treatments,
we may need some oral medication to add to it.

(10:33):
And for the most severe cases, we have access to acutane,
which of course requires lab work, but you know, that's
certainly something that we're not scared to use if we
need to. Because if you don't take care of that
in a very you know, early fashion, then what you
run the risk of scaring, so you basically want to
let us take a look at as soon as possible
to make sure we can prevent obvious. We're trying to

(10:55):
prevent scarring right now.

Speaker 1 (10:56):
And this is about a sixteen year old daughter. Do
you do you see acne cases younger than that, like
around twelve?

Speaker 2 (11:04):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (11:04):
Yeah, we do.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
And I don't know if it's because of different hormones
as far as you know what we're eating things in
our diet in twenty twenty five, but we have seen
it in younger children. Fortunately not very often though, but
you know, there are things we can do even for
children younger than twelve. It's just most of the companies,
when they go and get medications approved, they just don't

(11:26):
don't do it below the age of twelve.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
All right, Next emails from Carlos and Spanish fort Carlos strikes.
I'm a runner and sweating seems to make my exema worse.
It's itchy and uncomfortable. What can I do to control
my exema, especially during exercise.

Speaker 2 (11:44):
Well, you know a lot of folks start itchy when
they first get heated when they're starting to exercise, so
usually that can happen early on and then go away. Now,
if it's something that happens every time you exercise and
it's real annoying for you, can certainly take a clariton
in the morning and any histamine that will help with that.
So that's actually something called colinergic articaria. And as far

(12:07):
as your skin getting irritated when you're sweating and exercising, yes,
I mean, you know it can happen because it's happening
to you, But there are some things you know you need.
As soon as you've done exercising, come in, take a
take a gentle shower, and then we can do some
medicated creams to help with any area that's itchy and
and flamed after the fact.

Speaker 1 (12:25):
All right. Next email is from Mike. Mike emailing from Mobile,
and we've gotten a version of this question over and
over again from listeners. Mike writes, I work outdoors all
day and get a lot of sun exposure. I know
sunscreen is very important, but I need to know how
often to reapply it and is there a special brand

(12:45):
I should use? Thank you?

Speaker 2 (12:48):
So, LTMD is my favorite. It's the one thing that
survived since I started the practice. When I brought the
first product in that's what it was, which of course
made sense because we recommend sunscreen all day long and
it's one of the few things that's still here, so
over fifteen years later, nothing else is better than l
to MD sunscreen. It rubs in clear, It protects you

(13:09):
very well. The only part of the secret you have
to use is you've got to put it on about
forty five minutes before you start sweating. So you put
it on, you know, when you're still in the air conditioning,
knowing you're going to go out, whether you're fishing and
playing golf, you're working in the yard, going to your
kids ball games, whatever, and you know you're gonna be
out there for extended period of time. Now, I always
encourage folks to have the spray. You know, a lot

(13:30):
of times patients still don't reapply. In an ideal world,
you could reapply.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
But it's hard.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
You know, if you're sitting there sweating in Lower Alabama
June July August, you know trying to apply sunscreen is
not going to work real well. So you do the
little spray. Just do the best you can. But usually
you're not gonna burn even if you don't reapply. If
you use the lt MD and you put it on
forty five minutes before we start sweating.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
Okay. Next email is from Jessica and Westmobile. Jessica writes,
I have sun damage from my younger years, lots of
round spots and uneven skin. I've heard you on the
radio talking about lasers. How many laser sessions would I
need to see improvement for my sun damage?

Speaker 2 (14:13):
So, you know, we use the IPL a good bit
for sun damage, you know, on the face and other
parts of the body, and you'll see improvement after one treatment.
But generally we like to tell patients one to three treatments,
you know, depending on what probably by for example, in
the arms, you know, just the contour of the arms
is such that you can't get every spot with one treatment,
you know, it's a rectangular hand piece, of course, and

(14:35):
so you know, I think that patients, I tell them mentally,
commit to at least two treatments and you may need three,
But it really depends on what you're trying to accomplish,
and of course their budget, you know, how many treatments
that they end up having. And there's other things to
do in other parts of the body, like on the
face that maybe there's a fading cream we could use.
And of course before you do this, you've got to
commit in your mind also to wearing sunscreen. You know,

(14:58):
I always tell patients, don't your hard own money on
expensive procedures if you're not going to start with some
new habits as well.

Speaker 1 (15:05):
Okay, and now the next email is related to this
similar it's from Ashley in Daphne. Ashley writes, I'm turning
fifty and I would I want to look younger without surgery.
Are there treatments like lasers or fillers for sagging skin
and fine lines? And what would the downtime look like?

Speaker 2 (15:29):
You know, everything's going to take a combination of treatments.
You know, whether we do CO two, which is the
gold standard, fewer of those, but still you know several
over time, and time has been you know, two or
three treatments can be over three months, or two or
three treatments can be over five years. You know, it
depends on the patient's goals if they can have some
four or five days of downtime with that laser, and

(15:50):
of course the cost, and then we also mix in
or if micro needling. The neat thing about it is
it's also helping to do those things, but very downtime,
maybe a day of redness or swelling, you're not really
down much at all with that treatment. So those are
two things we talked about that earlier that helped a
lot with fine lines, wrinkle, sun damage, you know, the

(16:12):
browns as well, and skin laxity.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
Next email is from Mark. Mark didn't tell us where
he is writing from. He says, my sister has ciriasis.
It's been hard for her to manage. What are the
newest treatments for csariasis? Uh? Is there anything that can
really help?

Speaker 2 (16:32):
So we have so many great treatments for crisis. We
don't have enough time on the show for me.

Speaker 1 (16:37):
To go over this is good news for his sister.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
Then, yeah, I mean, you know, when I first started,
you had topical steroids, which if you've got crius all
over your body, I mean, go look with that METHATRECS eight,
which worked and was inexpensive. But of course she had
to have a liver biopsy after one and a half grams,
which you know, everybody exactly look at me, just like
you're looking at me right now. You know, if I
looked at you and said, hey, this will work. But

(17:00):
it's kind of a chemotherapeutic agent, and at one and
a half gram's total in a few years, we've got
to a liver bopsy to make sure your liver's okay.
That kind of nixes that one. And then light therapy
which requires you to come into the office a couple
times a week and increase your risk of skin cancer
over time. So, thank goodness, probably about two thousand and
seven ish, you know, we had our first biologic and

(17:20):
now we have I mean literally ten plus great medications.
You know. Some of them are an injection each month,
some of them are injection every three months, and they're
going to clear your c riasis. You know how many
times does a doctor look at you and say, no,
I'm going.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
To clear this.

Speaker 2 (17:34):
That is great news, so you know, and the other
thing is a lot of them also have indications for
stoatic arthritis, so they'll also decrease inflammation caused by crisis
and the joints, which is also critical because if you
don't get that taken care of and you're having any
joint pain that's due to csiriasis, that'll wear your joint
out where it has to be replaced at some point.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
Okay, next email is from Stephen Stephen, also writing from mobile.
Stephen writes, I'm considering laser hair removal for my back.
Does it hurt? Is it truly permanent?

Speaker 2 (18:09):
Well, we'll start from the end of your question. No,
it is not permanent. It's semi permanent. So once you
get it clear after four to six treatments, about a
treatment every two months, then it's a treatment every year
to keep it perfect. You know, there are some patients
who are taking hormones and doing some other things and
they may need more than one treatment, maybe two treatments
here to keep it perfect. But the laser basically can

(18:29):
treat the hair in one part of the hair growth cycle,
which is about fifteen percent that are treatable at any
point in time, which is which is the reason it
takes five to six I mean we've got the best
possible hair move laser. I mean we're probably on our
four generation luminous hair move a laser, and this one
is more efficacious. You know, it works better as far
as getting the hair gone, and it also is a

(18:50):
little less uncomfortable, so we can definitely help. We like
the hair to be close, you know, so you have
to have the hair shaved. If you can't dne anybody
to do that, we can do it for you, but
we want it in the follicle. The hair has been
the follicle, so you can't whax, you can't pluck anything
like that before you have laser hair removal.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
We've done this show for over ten years, doctor Bender.
This is I think is the first time somebody's emailed
in about hair removal from their back a mail. Do
men do this? Do you have a lot of men
show up for this?

Speaker 2 (19:19):
Look now on wo men show up for that? I
mean cause some of my good buddies you know, come
in for that, and it's like listen, man, I mean,
thank you, and you've got you remove the rug, you know,
and and they get a little bit of friendly, especially
if they have teenage and older daughters. Oh I mean okay,
they just they just wear them out about the rug
on their back.

Speaker 1 (19:37):
Okay about that.

Speaker 2 (19:39):
Finally, you know, I mean the kids turn around, you know,
we try to coach them up, you know, when they're kids,
and then when they get a little bit older, they
love to give us a hard time as parents.

Speaker 1 (19:47):
So hey, Our final email here for the program is
from Diane. Also in mobile UH. And this kind of
ties into UH Melanoma Awareness Month. She writes doctor Benda,
I had a severe sunburn as a kid, and I
worry it might cause issues later. How does childhood son
exposure affect skin cancer risk as an adult? And is

(20:10):
there anything I should do now?

Speaker 2 (20:13):
Never too late to start doing the right thing. So
that's the first thing we want to say. And of course,
you know, if you're getting a bunch of burns as
a child, of course that's gonna come back to haunt
you later on in life. But I mean, look, I
tell patients all the time. You know, I did my
dermatology training a little bit later. You know, I was
in the military. I had a military commitment and you

(20:33):
couldn't go to dermatology about of med school. Plus I
wasn't really exposed to it, so your general surgery. And
then while I was working in primary care up at
Maxwell Montgomery got to spend some time with dermatologists and
love what he did and what he was doing for
patients really fit my skill set. But you know, all
that being said telling y'all all that about my career
is that when I was in my dermatology training. So

(20:56):
I'm married we'd had one child, had our second children training,
I was like, Okay, I'm gonna die of melanoma. Everything
I'm reading, everything I'm seeing, And I did everything wrong
for the first thirty years of my life. I mean,
when you're a kid growing up in South Alabama, I
think we had to wear a shirt to church in
school and that was it. And there was no good
sunscreen we were growing up either. I mean, you know

(21:16):
people say that and that is true. I mean, I
think we had a Hawaiian Tropic SPF four, you know,
was our best sunscreen at one point in time, and
if you wore that, you got made fun of because
we just didn't know about it back then. So I
think that, you know, if you had some some burns
that are memorable burns as a child, yes, it's going
to give you an increased risk, but that's all the
more reason to start doing things right.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
Today, you've been listening to board certified dermatologist doctor Thomas
Bender with Advanced Dermatology and Skincare Center, a forefront dermatology clinic.
Advanced Dermatology and Skincare Center has a team of board
certified dermatologists with locations of mobile Daphne, Baymonette, and Northwest Florida.

(21:58):
You can call them make an appointment at two five
one six three one thirty five seventy. That's two five
one six three one thirty five seventy. Or you can
visit the website ADVANCEDDERM Clinic dot com. That's advanceddrmclinic dot
com