Hi guys!! Happy Wednesdayyy~ Have you ever been to the dermatologist? In my 24 years of life I never had! I didn’t have the opportunity or luxury to honestly but I’ve always wanted to go!
Last week I had my first appointment at the local dermatologist and i was PUMPED! Being so into skincare, I had huge hopes! I was imaging it being just like the Korean dermatologist I see online, with the amazing treatments, peels, analysis by doctors~ whoo!
So I get to my appointment, fill out all the forms and wait. The nurse called me in after waiting 10 minutes and sat me in the doctor’s room- she went over my basic info and then said:
“you’re here for a general appointment correct?”
“yes!”
“okay so you’re here for a full body scan and check”
“………WHUT. I’m sorry, a what??”
“a full body scan?”
“where I take off my clothes and he looks at me??”
“yes”
“uhhhhhhhhhhhhh…….. I just wanted the doctor to look at my face! I don’t need him to check my whole body!”
“oh okay, well we don’t have to do the full body scan if you don’t want”
“…yeah I’d rather not please”
YEAH. THAT’S WHAT HAPPENED. I was so shook- like what?! I JUST went to the obgyn a month ago, I do not want a replay of that.. jeez.. I was so taken aback. I was not told of this when I made this dermatology appointment!!! The lady on the phone just asked what I wanted and I told her nothing special, just to look at my acne and see if I’m in good shape! Lord.. lol
So what did the doctor’s room look like? Kind of similar to any other’s doctors office except there was a skin machine on the wall, skin cancer pamphlets on the table and posters on the walls asking me to seek out botox and chin fat removers. Plastic surgery related stuff basically~
So after the initial shock went away the actual doctor came in. He was nice but legit as soon as he walked in the door and shook my hand, his eyes were scanning my face at lightning speed. He asked me basic questions about my skin, if I had acne growing up, where on the body, things like this. I had hormonal acne and primarily on the face~ I also mentioned that recently I had a few zits and my face was red all day long because I was super stressed from work so I made the appointment. That’s when the doctor looked at me and said “You do not have acne- you have rosacea“. MIC DROP. I always suspected I had rosacea but I never had any confirmation from a professional. My face is pretty pale so the redness was always obvious and embarassing.
He gave me a pamphlet on rosacea and told me there are 3 levels to treating this-
- Topical treatments- prescription cleansers and creams
- Ingestible treatments – prescription pills
- Laser treatments.
For the laser treatments I asked what are some negatives of doing this and he said if done wrong, the laser can end up similar like a really bad sunburn-but this is if an inexperienced doctor does it. Another negative of this treatment is that it could have no effect at all to my rosacea. He said this is the worst for him because he feels bad the patient spent all this money for a ineffective treatment. Laser just didn’t seem like something I wanted to do, I don’t even know if I believe in laser so I told him let’s just start with step 1~ He gave me a prescription for the cleanser and face cream and told me to use it twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon~ He also gave me a coupon and said it should only cost $50 each- if the pharmacist says it’s $250 then use the coupon…
WHUT. A FIFTY DOLLAR CLEANSER?! Nope. At that point he lost me as a patient and as a believer. I can afford this doctors appointment but I cannot afford the aftermath. He wanted to see me again in one month to get a new prescription and see how my skin was doing. If it did not improve then he wanted to move on to the prescription pills. I already spend a fortune on my skincare routine and I feel the doctor didn’t give a flying fack about me or my skin. The appointment was done in 4 minutes and I didn’t feel any better after it. Just blehh….
All in all it was nothing like I expected and I don’t intend on going to see the dermatologist again in the U.S. When I go to Korea, yes. But here no. I felt like my doctor was very cold and “You have this condition. Here. Solve it. Bye.” He didn’t ask what I wanted to what I was comfortable with or anything like that. Maybe I was expecting too much, maybe it’s just not for me. Either way I canceled the prescription and didn’t book another appointment.
Have you guys ever had a bad doctor’s visit? Lemme know in the comments below!!
Until next time guyss!
P.S! Have you seen my new video yet?! @hunnyy on Youtube! or click here to see my bunny!!
xoxo, Hunnyy
I understand you. When i was 23 years old i had severe acne and i couldn’t find a good affordable dermatologist. At the end i did a lot of research and tried products from brands like Avene and La Roche Posay and at the end it worked for me. Also i learned that diet has a big impact on skin, weather and hormones as well. Hope you’ll find the best products for you 😉
Aw thank you so much!! glad to know im not the only one who was disappointed in my dermatologist lol!
I went to see a dermatologist back when I was in high school and I pretty much had the exact same experience. A cold, uncaring doctor. Only mine actually didn’t know what was wrong with my face. They prescribed me a bleaching soap that burned my face and made my skin peel. To make it worse, there was not even the slightest improvement in my acne or the hyper-pigmentation yet all the collars of my shirts and my face towels were all stained with bleach! I never went back. That ONE experience has influenced how I feel about dermatologists across the U.S. point blank period! I’m sorry you had such a bad experience too.
A full body scan?? Why would they ever need to do that at a dermatologists? Smh.
OMG a bleaching soap?!?! Ive never even heard of that?! are you okay??
Yes! I’m fine now but it sucked while I was using it!
Aww. I’m sorry this happened to you. Maybe when you muster up the courage again, you can see another dermatologist. I had the fortune to see a dermo at the age of 23. He prescribed a 10$ cleanser, a 3$ acne cream and asked me to use any broad spectrum sunscreen with ceramide and at least spf 30 in it. Oh and yeah, he asked me too stay off soy, whey, too much sugar and processed food since it was increasing my inflammation. What you could do is “Research ingredients on the stuff he gave you and find cheaper alternatives.”
Oh that’s such a good idea!!! I think I’ll do that! I’m glad you had a really good experience with your dermatologist🐴🐴🐴