If not here is the Interview.
Max Power
We have Dr. Michelle Parsons, M. D. in here from Renove Medical Spa. And that is located in Rehoboth Beach on 416 Rehoboth Avenue. And let me give you the website in case you want to check it out while we're talking here www.renovemedspa.org Good morning, Doctor. How are you this morning?
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
Good morning. How are you?
Max Power
I'm doing splendidly. So tell us a little bit. How long has this spa been around? When did you open?
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
Initially when I was here, I was working in emergency departments in the area and then I decided to start doing this. It was in about 2006 that I started doing this in Rehoboth.
Max Power
Oh, so you're not just run by night type of place. You've been around for a while?
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
Yes, absolutely. Probably the first in the area to do something like this.
Max Power
Oh, awesome. So what makes you different than other spas?
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
Well, one, it's a medical spa, and it's a term maybe some people aren't familiar with, but it was something coined back around that time, around 2005. And it kind of denotes that we do some treatments, medical treatments that are more health and wellness related and trying to get away from the strictly cold, cool, clinical aspects of medicine and make it a little bit more warmer, and welcoming. So the term medical spa was coined then, and we continue to use that.
Max Power
So it's not just to come in, get a facial, get a massage, and head on out. You can do a lot of other things there, correct?
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
Yeah. And mostly it's medically driven. So medical procedures.
Max Power
So like lip fillers and Botox, Coolsculpting, which I'm very interested in.
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
Right. Most people think of Botox and laser treatments, oh, okay, I get it.
Max Power
So what makes you guys different than the other spas in the area? Why would somebody I know, or even me say, well, I think I'm going to take a look, I'm going to go to Renove?
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
Well, one, I think if you're looking to have medical treatments, aesthetic treatments, you should be looking for the person who has the most experience and the best training in the area, and you should be looking for someone who has that. And for the most part, that is going to be physicians, medical doctors who are trained to work with their hands, study anatomy, know the complications, and also have been doing it for a long time. So that's what I would look for. In our area we do have several physicians who do this, several of the plastic surgeons, dermatologists and myself. And I think that's what is very important.
Max Power
Okay. And I see you have a plethora of non surgical services. So first let's start off one by one. We'll touch on them real quickly because this is only a half an hour show. We could talk for hours about all this stuff. You have Botox. Let's go with Botox and lip and face fillers. We'll put those together because that's just the whole face type of thing. So what do you offer there?
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
Sure. So when people think about Botox and fillers, they may not know the difference between the two. And they don't have to know the difference between the two if they come in. You just need to tell us what your concerns are. Like. This bothers me. I don't like when I see lines around my eyes. I don't like the way my mouth looks. You don't have to know what you need because we know that and we will talk to you about that. So Botox is something that relaxes muscles. So if you are frowning a lot, that's an area that we can inject with Botox and it relaxes those frown muscles and that's where people get those elevens, those deep lines in the forehead. And Botox softens those lines because by making those expressions you are making those wrinkles, I guess over and over again. Maybe 500, maybe 1000 times a day. It's like a sheet of paper. If you crease it, that crease remains. But with Botox that area can relax and the skin heals and the lines and wrinkles will go away after a period of time.
Max Power
I would think that you would want a doctor doing this for you. But I know there are spas and maybe some places where a doctor is not doing this to you. Correct? Is that what makes you guys better than them? Right.
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
Correct. So there are places that have, I would say, not the training of a physician. And Botox itself is a highly potent medical substance. It's a pharmaceutical that can only be ordered by those who have a license in the state of Delaware to order it. And there are always potentially complications which we see from time to time from other places and we need to correct it. So again, you're looking for training and experience.
Max Power
So if there's not a doctor in the place you're getting Botox from, you can probably assume they got it illegally and it's probably not good stuff.
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
I would like to think that doesn't happen, but it's possible that that could happen.
Max Power
Okay, that's good enough for me. That's a good answer. I guess you would say a good example of Botox and lip filler and face fillers or whatever you call them is the Kardashian.
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
So a lot of people come in and they do have concerns about their lips, but the first thing they'll say is literally, I don't want duck lips.
Max Power
Or they might mention, I don't want the Kardashian treatment.
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
Yes they say that specifically. And I always say we need a sign in our office with a duck on it with a red line through it. We do not allow ducks. So it's just a matter of, again, using the right product and injecting correctly so that the look, looks as natural as possible while restoring what the person lost and addressing what their concern is.
Max Power
I just saw this and I'm very curious. What is microneedling?
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
So we call that collagen induction therapy with microneedling. And I wish we didn't say microneedling because it scares a lot of people.
Max Power
Kind of freaky.
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
Yeah, but that's what it is, Microneedling. And we do have a device that has small needles that penetrate the skin to where the collagen is. And that controlled injury is what stimulates collagen to heal and repair your skin. So again, can soften lines and wrinkles that bring back elasticity to your skin, especially that thin, creepy skin around your eyes or your mouth or really anywhere. We treat neck, chest, hands, arms.
Max Power
So it basically does the same thing Botox does, but it's different process.
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
It is a little bit different because we can treat areas where there isn't movement, say the area, the skin above your knees or your inner arms. That gets a little creepy. That's not an area that Botox would be helpful. So we repair the skin differently and we use the collagen induction therapy with Microneedling.
Max Power
Let's talk to the serious stuff. We're talking weight loss and we're talking about getting rid of that little chubby belly extra spare tire you have. So she has two ways. You got weight loss programs and then you have the Coolsculpting. So let's start with your weight loss programs. What do you have with that?
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
Okay, sure. So obviously we see a lot of people who are interested in losing weight, especially this time of year. Basically it's nutritionally driven. People just need to be educated on the foods that they're eating, what's contributing to their weight gain, and how they can lose weight by changing the way they eat. And it's very effective. The people who come back and are losing weight, well, I always ask them, what are you doing? How is it working for you? And they usually say, I did what you told me to do? So 80% of our weight loss is through dietary changes. So some people think, Well, I just need to exercise more. But if you don't address the food that you eat, it's just not going to work. So the first thing we'll do is tell people this is the healthiest way to eat. There's numerous ways of losing weight, but I like to tell them the healthiest way to lose weight. And people may or may not like it, but it's really pretty much eating vegetables and some lean protein, like chicken breasts and fish, and preparing it in a healthy way.
So not deep frying it, not cooking your vegetables in olive oil or other cooking oils and just steaming, baking, microwaving your vegetables, adding little vinegar, salt and pepper, and then your chicken breast and fish. And if you eat like that, that's the healthiest way humans could eat, and probably the best way to lose weight.
Max Power
Okay, I had a doctor, like, maybe six or seven years ago that said you need to stop eating white foods. Does that make sense to you? Because it didn't make sense to me. I'm like chicken's white?
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
So when they say white foods, they mean like starches, like rice, potatoes, bread, pasta, and those are starches that just have a lot of calories.
Max Power
But isn't rice a little more healthier for you? Because you don't see too many fat Japanese people, do you?
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
Yeah, all these foods are healthy for you, so even potatoes are healthy. Bread, carbohydrates, It is what you put on them and the quantity.
So you can lose weight, literally, eating anything you want. And I give that option to people as well. You can lose weight eating pizza and donuts. It's just a matter of quantity. If you had one slice of pizza and one doughnut a day, you would lose weight. Now, I'm not saying this is a healthy way to lose weight. It is not, but it is possible.
Max Power
But you got to be active, too. You can't just sit around.
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
Being active is so important for so many variety of reasons.
Max Power
Yeah. Okay, now to the good stuff. I'm so interested in this Coolsculpting thing. I saw something like one of those long commercials that they had on about it or something, and you just freeze the fat away. I guess that's the lazy way of getting thin. But you should probably, once you get it done, start getting active and start eating right to keep it off, because it'll come back, right?
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
So Coolsculpting is amazing. It is not necessarily a weight loss program, but if there are areas of stubborn fat, and we all have them, most of us will carry fat in our low abdominal area. And I've seen people who are very skinny, they've lost a lot of weight. Their arms, legs look great, but they still carry that abdominal fat. And that is an area that's perfect for Coolsculpting. It's non invasive. It's just an application that we apply externally. It freezes the fat without damaging the skin so you don't get frostbite. But once the fat cells are frozen, they don't survive that process. They die, and your body reabsorbs the fat over time.
Max Power
That's pretty cool. If I had more money, I would do that. I'm sure. It's pretty expensive. It never comes back?
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
It's considered permanent. Like liposuction is permanent. Of course, if you were to gain 10-20 pounds, it is possible the fat comes back.
Max Power
So you'll get new fat.
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
Yeah. If your body really likes to store fat there and you gain weight again, yeah, it can go back. But it's usually never as bad as it was before. And we can always treat it again.
Max Power
Because my body likes to store fat right in the middle, right in the stomach. I quit smoking in like 2013, and I've gained like 50 pounds since then. I was like 161, 170 when I quit.
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
That happens.
Max Power
Anyway, I might be looking into that. So that's pretty awesome. I'm sure everybody's heard of these Botox parties. Let's talk about Botox parties. Tell us a little bit about them.
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
Okay, so Botox parties. So a Botox party is when a practitioner, and it's usually not a physician, a practitioner is having an event, a party at someone's home, and they are treating a group of people. It could be ten people, 15 people. And typically, like any party, there's alcohol, food involved, things like that. And it is difficult for that practitioner to really adequately give a good treatment to a patient. These are medical procedures. So when we see someone, and especially if someone's new as they would be at a party, we talk to them, evaluate them, we create a medical record for them, and then we do the treatment for them. If you're at a party with lots of different friends talking, and they usually talk over each other as telling their friends what to do, it's difficult to establish a true doctor patient relationship with somebody at an event like that. Plus, you don't really have the setup that you typically need. Instead of using a medical chair, you might be trying to do this at someone's sofa or a chair. So it's actually very difficult to do as well. And the people who do these parties are people who typically have the least experience.
So when people ask me, oh, can you have a party for my friends? I'm like, yes, we can do a Botox party. Make an appointment at my office, and you have a party right there.
Max Power
May is Botox month, and that is 20% off?
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
Yes. So every Mother's Day in May, we offer 20% off our Botox, and we have it every back to school September and every first of the year January. So that's when most people need their Botox. And that's when we decided to offer that discounted to encourage people to get it when they need it.
Max Power
I've got two more things we want to talk about laser treatments for, like skin tightening, reducing wrinkles, spider veins and all that stuff, and hair restoration. Tell us real quickly about those.
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
Okay, so I guess hair restoration is something we offer for men and women who have Alopecia or thinning hair or either male pattern baldness, which women can get as well. We'll evaluate hormone levels because hormones are often involved in hair loss and imbalance of hormones, and we can offer things to men and women. It might be something like Finasteride or Propecia, but we also do platelet rich plasma injections into the scalp to help again stimulate the regrowth of hair follicles that have been dormant for a time.
Max Power
It's pretty awesome that you can bring hair back.
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
It does. It works well.
Max Power
You use to just have to spray your hair on. And the laser treatments real quick.
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
So we have a variety of laser treatments that are applied to typically facial skin, especially along the jawline, around the eyes, to get a brow lift under the neck, the neck area, chin area. And some of these are non invasive. We even have one that uses ultrasound ultherapy. It's a very, very good skin lifting, skin tightening treatment with zero downtime, you come in, have the treatment, you leave, nobody knows you had anything done, and you start to see the tightening begin over the next few weeks.
Max Power
All right. And if you call Renove Medical Spa. And you mentioned WGMD you'll receive 20% off your first service. I'm sure there's something we've talked about that you would want to do.
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
We're right on Rehoboth Avenue, 416 Rehoboth Avenue. If you were going towards the beach, and you go around the circle where the lighthouse is, we are the third house on the right. It's a little two story yellow house. And we have parking right in front. We have patient parking two spots, and we have a driveway that patients can park in. So we're very cognizant. There may be some meters, but we help out everybody with meters, even with some quarters, because a lot of people do need assistance with that. But we do have some designated patient parking as well.
Max Power
All right. And the website is www.renovemedspa.org, and the phone number is 302-227-1079. We're just about out of time, so is there any last words you have?
Dr. Michelle Parsons M.D.
No, I just welcome anybody to come over if they just have a concern. They'd like an evaluation. The evaluations are complimentary, and we can give you advice. And if you decide to move on, we can do that as well.
