Five years ago Dr Bruce Williamson and his wife started SkinSmart Medical after moving his lasers from his skin cancer practice to his new cosmetic premises across the road. He catches up with Professional Beauty to talk about his thriving Balgowlah business.
Tell us about SkinSmart:
“I have worked in skin cancer medicine for nearly 30 years, which enabled me to become very skilled in treating sun damaged skin and minor skin surgery. I have always been very interested in lasers and light so about 12 years ago I bought my first fractionated laser and then with additional education, interest and skill I purchased another six lasers and many other similar devices; radio frequency, plasma, IPLs, ultrasound and more recently an Onda Coolwave Machine. My wife manages the practice and is my main therapist doing the hydrafacials, IPLs and many of the lasers treatments.”
Your staff?
“We have two wonderful part-time receptionists and a part-time female doctor who work with us. Our female doctor, Ruby, does the MonaLisa Touch Laser treatment.”
How do you stay motivated?
“Unlike skin cancer medicine where there is little change, the cosmetic and laser medicine areas are constantly changing, innovating and growing which makes it such an exciting industry in which to be involved. I enjoy the conferences and find them both educational and inspiring.”
Why do your clients love SkinSmart?
“As I have a strong background in treating skin, our clients enjoy being able to have all areas treated at one clinic – relax, refill, rejuvenate and reposition without surgery; lumps, bumps, warts, tags, moles sweating – you name it – if they are non-surgical skin concerns, we can help with most of them.”
What are the most popular treatments?
“Evening out skin tone with a combination of laser and light treatments to help reduce rosacea, dark blemish or pigment and raised lesions. We use a combination of treatments to do this depending on the patient concerns.”
Tell us about education and training?
“I enjoy watching youtubes, presentations or podcasts, reading articles or reviews, keeping current by reading colleague comments on our closed facebook forum, or comments by patients on websites like RealSelf. I attend a couple of conferences each year and attend industry presentations as well as those arranged by our professional college.”
How has technology influenced the clinic?
“We would not have the kind of clinic we do without laser, light, radio frequency and other technologies. We unfortunately have lagged behind in the social media space, so we are making that more of a focus for this year.”
What are SkinSmart’s future plans?
“Up until now we have not had any devices that have treated fat. We recently bought an Onda Machine – a European machine which is very new to Australia. This is an innovative way to treat fat and we are hoping to be able to offer our clients one more thing to keep being a one-stop-shop.”
SkinSmart’s top 5 treatments:
Tailored wrinkle relaxing injection treatments
IPL
Fractionated laser resurfacing
Vascular treatment
MonaLisa Touch
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