The Leonardo of Anti-Aging

The casual passerby on Green Street in Pasadena might not give the Thatcher Medical Buildings a second thought.

Even those who venture down its wood-paneled hallways would scarcely imagine that some of the highest-tech lasers in the country, and more of them even than those operated at USC or UCLA, are at work behind the paneling.

Manned by Dr. Robert B. Seltzer, Board Certified dermatologist since 1978, those lasers offer the promise of a luminescent fountain of youth to patients of Seltzer’s Advanced Laser Anti-aging Medical Center, where the good doctor combines his aesthetic sensibilities with cutting-edge technology to rejuvenate patients’ skin and, in essence, reverse the aging process. Seltzer cites demographics and economics as his patients’ motivations.

“We’re a youth-oriented society,” said Seltzer. “A lot of baby boomers are getting older but they are youthful, they’re still energetic, they work out and they’re in good shape, and they want to look that way. They want their face to match their outlook.

“If you look good, the face you present to the public reflects back how you feel emotionally. A lot of patients are re-entering the market. They have to look younger. They have to compete with a younger group. So I see a lot of patients, you know, mothers in their forties going back to work or men in their fifties switching jobs. They have to look their best.”

In order to help his patients fulfill their potential, Seltzer relies on his long trajectory as a specialist in cosmetic dermatology, and constantly updates his knowledge. And owning more lasers than either USC or UCLA’s dermatology programs doesn’t hurt either.

“I upgrade, I go to lectures, I teach, I read every journal. We teach through the laser companies, not through the university. The laser companies actually have doctors come out to us to instruct them. I have more lasers than either UCLA or USC in my practice. We have some residents from the residency programs come to my office to rotate through, to see some of the machines that the university doesn’t have. And in the greater LA area there are only between five and seven large laser clinics, that means having over 20 lasers. I have close to 30 lasers. We upgrade them all the time.”

Patient care doesn’t begin and end with lasers, however. Seltzer uses a combination of treatments to approach each individual’s needs.

He refers to four factors for an aging face: dynamic lines, loss of volume, laxity and epidermal and dermal change. Each factor receives different forms of medical attention.

“One is dynamic lines,” Seltzer said. “These are voluntary muscles, like frown lines, wrinkles on the forehead, around the eyes, and that’s using the botulinum toxin.

“The second is loss of volume. As we age we lose soft tissue and volume and bone. Then it’s using certain fillers of different types. Juvéderm and Restylane use hyaluronic acid, while longer acting Radiesse is differently configured, or a dermal stimulator like Sculptra to re-plump the skin longer term.

“Third, laxity. As we get older the skin gets lax. And we have radio frequency, not just lasers because lasers don’t penetrate deep enough. We use Thermage, and there’s a new machine that’s coming out that I’m going to be getting in mid-June to be trained on. I’ll compare the different ones. One may need more treatments but hurt less, the other may need less treatments but is more uncomfortable, so you want to give options to patients.

“And the next thing you’ll look at is epidermal and dermal change: wrinkles, broken blood vessels. There we use fractionated lasers, and for broken blood vessels we use photofacial machines, pulse dye lasers.

“So you really have to be an expert in how to evaluate the thing itself. And to also do the procedures: we do them day in and day out…We’re working five to six hours every day.” After evaluating and treating the aging face, Dr. Seltzer takes pains to educate his patients on how to maintain their results.

“You could take somebody who’s fifty and make them look early forties, late thirties,” Seltzer said. “Then you try to educate the patient on how to take care of their skin. So if someone’s spending a certain amount of money, I want them to maintain it and not need follow-ups.”

And the doctor walks his talk. He practices several anti-aging elements, including exercise, low caloric intake, non-smoking, minimal alcohol intake, adequate rest and meditation.

Dr. Seltzer repeatedly affirmed how much he loves his work, both verbally and through an irrepressible smile as he describes the job. He especially appreciates his patient response to looking better and younger. The marriage of an aesthetic sensibility with mastery of skill allows for him to achieve such results.

“Most of my friends are artists,” Seltzer said. “I think you have to have an aesthetic sense of what looks good. The gym where I train, there’s a lot of women from Beverly Hills. I think their fillers and some of their treatments look ridiculous. Their lips are too big, their cheeks look clownish. I just had a patient today who had bad acne scars, wrinkles, some tightening. I resurfaced his face for deep acne scars. And he told me today, people have just come up and said ‘You look so much better,’ and they don’t know why. It’s not people coming up and saying, ‘What did you have done?’ It’s more ‘You look better’ and they don’t understand why; you just look more youthful, and they can’t pinpoint it. That’s what I can do. The things that I do shouldn’t be so obvious that somebody says I did your lips or I puffed your cheeks, it should be that I did it in a way that aesthetically looks very nice but is not obvious. It’s the whole gestalt of it.”

After more than twenty years of practice, working with lasers about six hours daily, Dr. Seltzer has achieved a philosophical mastery of his art. His clinic is located at 960 East Green Street in Pasadena. For appointments or a complimentary cosmetic consultation, call (626) 449-3830, or book visit online at www.laserbeauty.com.