Janet Allenby, MD - Dermatologist in Delray Beach, Florida

Eva Sheie (00:03):
Whether you're trying injectables for the first time or making a change to a new provider, the more you can learn about who your injector is before you're in the chair, the better that appointment will be. You're listening to Meet the Injector.

Eva Sheie (00:17):
My guest today live in Miami is Janet Allenby and she's board certified dermatologist here in town and she is the founder of Body Squad and Allenby Cosmetic Dermatology. Welcome to the podcast.

Dr. Allenby (00:30):
Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Eva Sheie (00:33):
Now we've met before, actually one of my favorite meeting stories between I met your marketing director, Bridget first, and she walked up to me on the street and we became very quickly good friends, work friends. You have a really innovative practice and I'm excited to hear more about that. So why don't you just give us the overview.

Dr. Allenby (00:54):
It's funny you don't think it's innovative when you're actually doing it, but thank you for saying that. Well, okay, so I've been in practice for about 30 years as a dermatologist and probably about eight years ago I was like, okay, I really love aesthetics and I am not really, when you start thinking about aesthetics versus medical, you just start adding up, what am I doing on the medical side? What am I doing on the aesthetic side? And you're like, wow, I'm spending so much time on silly stuff, prescriptions, all these other things that just take up a day if you're practicing medicine. So I decided, you know what? Let's do the aesthetic route. And I did not look back. It has been just a wonderful, wonderful life and I've just been so blessed to have fantastic people in my life, whether it's my employees, my people like Bridget, who you met.

(01:45):
I really have been so fortunate the patients, and it's kind of funny because my medical colleagues will go like, oh, how do you do aesthetics? The patients are such a high maintenance, and I'm like, these are the coolest people. I have met so many fantastic people, which helped me innovate my practice. So most of my practice stem really more from, I was very strongly into facial aesthetics. Again, I grew up as a cosmetic dermatologist. It wasn't a field when I started and well, what happens is I'm kind of following my own trends. My face is falling apart as I'm aging and it is the natural progression, and then your body starts falling apart. So that's where body Squad came in and I was like, it's at the same time technology was catching up to these needs and that was kind of how I've been happily enjoying my day-to-day.

(02:40):
I go to work on Monday and it's my weekend for me, like this is so fun, I can't wait to go back. So I really have been very lucky because I have a tremendous amount of patients. So with that kind of patient load, you really get to kind of experience things maybe others are not able to get. Sometimes when you have a lot of experience in a field and you have a lot of reputation, the companies do come to you with things earlier than they will with others. So I really have been very fortunate in making strong relationships across the board with pretty much everybody in aesthetics and it's patient-centric, it's not because I am a representative of those companies, it's more to really make sure that the patients are well taken care of and is this something that's going to deliver them a better service? So I don't marry myself to any one company and I think that's really a huge thing that is important in our fields is I'm married to my patient, not to the companies, and I really, it's a team effort. Even my entire staff, it's a team effort from the person who you talk to on the phone when you're making an appointment to the nurses that are bringing you in, everybody's invested in it, they all just enjoy it and it's something that brings everybody great joy every day. So that's my, I guess innovative practices.

Eva Sheie (04:00):
I'm trying to imagine you looking around like, okay, I'm doing this, but knowing that there's a cosmetic practice everywhere you turn in this market all over south Florida. So at some point I wonder if you said, here's how I'm going to do it differently, what did that look like?

Dr. Allenby (04:17):
Wow. I don't pay attention to other people and I don't know if it's good or bad, honestly, but I really think that I know there are great people out there and actually those are my colleagues that I talk to and those are the ones that I can learn from. So as far as that goes, the level of wow out there is not where I would love it to be and I want to be the wow. So I'm always trying to strive to make sure we're the wow first. And there has always been some sort of competition, but I think if you practice to the level that is higher than the normal standard in the community, I think everybody would be successful that way, personally. I am always kind of looking of what's in the future. I'm a future looker. I definitely live in the present, but I'm watching the future to say, Hey, this is where we need to go.

Eva Sheie (05:08):
So you sound like you're a bit of an early adopter, maybe a cautious one, but you have this very long dermatology foundation that you probably, I'm putting words in your mouth, but I think you probably make your decisions with all of that expertise behind it. You're not just picking any one new thing. How do you look at these new technologies and decide what you're going to take on?

Dr. Allenby (05:35):
You're correct on some degree of that. I will say, okay, so again, I get presented with a lot of different options and the ones that are too good to be true are usually too good to be true. And it's kind of like, I don't want to be a smoke and mirrors doctor. This is not snake oil. It has to have some real data behind it. So when I really do look at something, I will maybe sit on it for a couple years. I may not go, Hey, and that's kind of the cautious part, but when I know something is right, I don't hesitate to go forward with it. Like Ellacor, I watched it for about four years, got it about not quite a year ago, started using it and wow, I am so impressed. There's definitely a learning curve with it and you have to really learn how to use the device, but it is incredible. You can really utilize it if you're having people who don't want to go for surgery or can't go for surgery, this is a device that I think will really help people out.

Eva Sheie (06:34):
I've heard that it's great around the mouth where nothing can touch that area?

Dr. Allenby (06:38):
You know, when you're thinking about, okay, and I kind of always reflect what do I want? I am in my later fifties looking, Hey, do I need a facelift? Okay, I don't want a facelift, so what do I do? And when you're thinking, Hey, if I'm going to get a facelift, they're going to change the shape of the trajectory of your face. That concerns me a lot. I don't want to look like a different person. I think most, I'd say 98% of the people that walk through do love how they look. They just want to look fresher. I don't really want to change the way I look other than I don't want sagging jowls and the mouth area really is not well treated with a facelift unless you're doing laser or some sort of resurfacing procedure. So I kind of find that the Ellacor is something that yes, you can really remove tissue in that mouth zone.

(07:28):
I see shortening of the upper lip, the jowls are going away under the chin is going away, and it is definitely you got to pick your patients, but maybe you do one or two of 'em. We do tend to treat it fairly aggressively. If you're going to do it, do it. Don't waste your time on this one. And you do have some downtime with it, but you really, like you said, it's something that is treated in an area that was not treated before. Personally, I think that you're going to see in 10 years from now, people that get facelifts will have this at the same time because it is a totally different procedure that we've ever had. It's not heat. You definitely have some downtime, like I said, you have some red discoloration afterwards. Now the other thing too with this is that I think you kind of have to be with a practice that has a lot of tools to help you recover.

(08:17):
I've done the Ellacor myself, my staff has worked with me on it and I had to laser out some of the red, and it's kind of like more of a red discoloration. The blood vessels come to the surface as we call it hyperemia, and it's not the hyperpigmentation you see with a heat related thermal burn like you're going to have with a CO2 laser. So I do peels afterwards. So there's a lot of support around it, but if I don't have a facelift and I don't have to go through a changing of my face, to me that's huge. Now I do kind of use it off label in different areas, maybe around the eye area. I can really reduce that and kind of lift the eyes up a little bit. So it's pretty awesome.

Eva Sheie (08:54):
My hypothesis here, since I've only heard plastic surgeons talking about it, is that you know skin really well, you know what skin is going to do and how it's going to behave and that might make you have an approach that's slightly different.

Dr. Allenby (09:07):
I think they definitely marketed the device, well because the dermatologist came up with it. So they definitely are marketing more towards dermatologists. They don't really even know the plastic surgeons so much. And I know there was a couple that were, but there's one in Palm Beach that was kind of in the trials. You're a hundred percent right. I have so much aftercare that I've been trying, I mean, I actually found a really awesome exosome and I think it cut the healing time in half. Personally, the red that I had the first time I did it, I look like I was two weeks out by the time I got to one week. So it really is cutting down the downtime and you're still going to have downtime, but you can recover quicker.

Eva Sheie (09:49):
It really says something that you've done this to yourself twice. Twice?

Dr. Allenby (09:53):
And for those who know me, I actually have really nice skin and for me to go disrupt my skin is definitely, it's got to be worth it.

Eva Sheie (10:02):
What other technologies do you have that you're excited about or not excited about?

Dr. Allenby (10:07):
Other technologies, other things as far as facial aesthetics, I think there is a little bit of filler fatigue going on out there. And it's not the patient's fault, it's just we have maximized how much filler we should put in a face. And sometimes we need to actually remove some filler, whether it's our own patient or somebody else, and we shouldn't penalize patients for them coming to us and having an overfilled face. They didn't inject it usually themselves. I think there's probably a couple of kooks out there that might, but it is something that one, you don't penalize people. You don't charge 'em crazy numbers to get it out, and you start reshaping the face back to a normal attractive look. I do like, there is a Renuva, it's kind of like a Sculptra for fat. It's kind of like you put it in and it stimulates fat growth and I do like it if you use it in really small quantities, cuz it does last a long time. It's almost like an implant. You put it in, but it doesn't change, like if you had a really margarita night, you had too many nachos and margarita and you're swelling up, you don't have the problem with the swell like you do with the hyaluronic acids. So it kind of is a nice softening. And when you look at younger people, their fat pads are more continuous to the back of the face. You can really make someone look a lot younger. When you look at somebody older and they look very segmented out and you see a lot of hollowing, they might want to look skinny, but it kind of looks skeletal and it is not an attractive look. It doesn't look young, it just looks skinny. So you're trying to help people reach their most attractive look. I still use tons of threads.

(11:42):
I love Sculptra still. So all these other alternatives to hyaluronic acid, and we still use hyaluronic acid, don't get me wrong. And I think we are kind of in a better phase for lip filling now, where before the lip fillers were just so hard. You put a filler in that you're putting in your cheek, you're putting into your lip, and yeah, it's going to project and look crazy. So the softer fillers for the lips. I don't do a lot of under eye, I probably do more above the eye if I'm going to fill that area, more brow fill than I do under the eyes. Under the eyes can get a little bit lumpy maybe later, six weeks later you're like, that kind of looks a little puffy there. So then we end up having to bring it down. But it's kind of like having that partnership with your patients so they're comfortable saying, Hey, I don't like this, and they come in and you work it out and you learn from it.

Eva Sheie (12:34):
It might be a hard question to answer, but how do you build a relationship with a patient that enables them to feel like they can come back and say, I don't like how this looks. That's not an easy thing to do.

Dr. Allenby (12:48):
That's a good question. I treat people like we're friends and I try to have that kind of relationship with them anyway. I know what's going on with their life, even if they're new patients, I want to know who they are. It helps me understand how we're going to make them feel better about themselves ultimately what we're doing. So I think just having, and I'm very straightforward. When somebody comes and asks me for my opinion, they may not like what I hear. I am not really good at sugarcoating, unfortunately. I wish I was a little bit better at that one. And I'm kind of to the point of this needs to be changed because in my mind, I'm going through a checklist of, okay, if we do this, this, this is going to look fantastic. And then I get excited. So I think they know that I am there for them and I keep them in the loop even as I'm injecting. I'm like, look at this. Do you like it? Is it something that you're liking? If you don't like it, and I keep saying, if you don't like it, we can change this. Don't feel like you have to just,

Eva Sheie (13:45):
You open the door.

Dr. Allenby (13:46):
Yeah.

Eva Sheie (13:48):
So is this what you're known for, is this honesty? Do people come in saying, I heard you tell the truth, Dr. Allenby?

Dr. Allenby (13:54):
I actually do hear that. Yeah, I hear that. I think that people know that I have their best interests at heart, and every so often you'll have somebody who thinks opposite and it's just like, then they really missed what the conversation was. And you're never going to get along with everybody. Sometimes personalities clash. Sometimes there's different goals in mind. My goal versus their goal, and honestly, my goal is to make them look good. And it's never about how much is this person going to make me. I want them to look good, but sometimes I think they're so fearful that we're out for a dollar. They think that that's the direction. And sometimes because they're so afraid to do stuff, they haven't done anything. So when you tell 'em a lot, they're like, and you can also say, if you see that look on their face and that look, you can just say, Hey, I'm giving you the whole picture and we can do this in segments, and we'll just segment it and try to get their priorities, what there's important to them, and maybe sometimes their priorities are wrong and you're like, you're going to look so much better if we start with this and then we go to that.

Eva Sheie (14:56):
Baby steps.

Dr. Allenby (14:57):
Baby steps, especially for the newbies. Most of my people come in and just don't even, they're just, do whatever you need. Make me look good. Okay. Which it's kind of harder, honestly. I like to hear a little more input from them. I want to know what they're feeling.

Eva Sheie (15:14):
I think aesthetics is such a great thing for mental health because when you look good, you feel good. And I don't know that that rule is ever going to change.

Dr. Allenby (15:24):
I don't think it will. No. It does feel good to look good. And I call it the second look. I mean, that is one of the things I talk to patients about because of the way humans see, you don't see a lot. You're just seeing only what the eyes are focused on. So when somebody gives you a second look, I mean, thank God, it's hopefully for a good reason for giving you the other second look. Maybe not so good, but you want a second look. You want somebody to notice you. And that's kind of what we're doing all this for, is to be noticed at the end of the day, to be part of the pack and to be recognized. And you're like, Hey, yeah, hey, you look good.

Eva Sheie (16:01):
It's funny, I actually thought you meant when you look at yourself the second time in the mirror, did I really like that? Yes, I did really like that. You can second look yourself.

Dr. Allenby (16:10):
I like it. But you have to second look at things because our brain is, we have a very narrow vision scope. So if somebody, I call it our little Rodeo Drive in Fort Lauderdale is Las Olas. So I'm like, if somebody gives me a second look, I know I did something right here, unless I look absolutely crazy, who knows? I could be, and I'm delusional. But otherwise, I think especially in our field where this has a high premium to it, it's even more important. Again, like I said, I think people just want to be noticed and yeah. Oh, I think my first look in the mirror is inspect everything like the magnifying mirror. Look, I hate doing that, and I actually will have my staff intervene on me. We're all guilty unless we had a hologram of ourselves. We're seeing such a different image.

(17:00):
And even the pictures I take of people, the staff takes, we're showing them six views of their face before we even see them. They're looking at their face from so many different views. I want them to see what people are seeing because ultimately that's, even if they say, I'm doing it for the mirror, the only people I truly believe do it for the mirror are like 95 year olds, and they just want every little wrinkle gone. And it's like if you don't do that, you just ruin their life. You have to just fill for the mirror on that person, but everybody else, it's not. And when you change their life by filling them for how people see them, and they really start encountering the feedback from people, people will tell 'em, wow, you're looking so healthy. You look so pretty. And it's putting them into proportion. It's putting them back into shapes that imply young, healthy, and we know those little tricks. That's kind of the years of experience of learning. This really works. This doesn't work. You can make someone look super unattractive and old by putting too big of lips on them. They're putting them so out of proportion.

Eva Sheie (18:08):
Very true. Yeah. So you said six angles. You're using TouchMD, right?

Dr. Allenby (18:12):
Yeah.

Eva Sheie (18:13):
And do you use that for all your photos?

Dr. Allenby (18:14):
Oh yeah.

Eva Sheie (18:15):
And do you have the Snap Pro now?

Dr. Allenby (18:17):
Yep.

Eva Sheie (18:18):
Okay. Tell me how you're feeling about this. This is a bit of a tangent.

Dr. Allenby (18:21):
We've been using all this forever. This is our EMR system. And so for those who don't know, an EMR system, it's kind of how we use for our medical records, because everything we do,

Eva Sheie (18:32):
You use TouchMD for all of them?

Dr. Allenby (18:33):
Everything, which is, and they're kind of trying to go EMR, but I think we're writing their EMR systems for them, basically because we have all our consents in it, we have all our photos in it, we have all of our phone conversations in it. We have the registration, everything you could think of. So really for us, it has been a fantastic tool forever. It has developed over time, and I'll tell you weekly, we still struggle with the best photos. For the first half of this year, we had a photo booth and I'm like, it's still not giving us the pictures that I think are representative. So we took 'em out. Now we're going back to the rooms and doing them with the, everything's a black screen unless you have the visia, which is a lot of work for one, it's very expensive, and to really have a dedicated area, I just find it very hard and difficult. If I were doing plastic surgery, I think you have to do it that way, but for injections, and you're taking pictures probably every month or every couple months, you just kind of are wanting to see what's going on, what's changing, what's working, what's not working, is something working too well.

Eva Sheie (19:46):
One of my favorite things about TouchMD is that I can go back in time and see how much better my face looks.

Dr. Allenby (19:53):
Yes.

Eva Sheie (19:54):
So there's pictures in there from 10 years ago now, and I look younger and better than I did 10 years ago.

Dr. Allenby (20:00):
Isn't that amazing?

Eva Sheie (20:00):
Wild.

Dr. Allenby (20:01):
I know. I think people don't really give themselves credit, and that's one of the things that, it goes back to the mental health part of this is people, when they're looking good, they don't really give themselves that little, Hey, I look good. And they need to, and that's, we try to talk them through that because we want them to see that about themselves. And it's not all about the looks. Hey, you look good, be good, be a good person. At the end of the day, it's a package. Everything is just like we're doing multiple procedures on your face, your body, your person is a multiple thing.

Eva Sheie (20:36):
Tell me a little more about your team and who's working with you every day.

Dr. Allenby (20:41):
Wow. I have just spectacular people, and I have two different offices. The Allenby Cosmetic Dermatology is more kind of the extension off of it was medical derm at one point, and so we kind of still have a little bit of that flavor, but it still seems more like a medical office, where Body Squad is more of a very gender neutral, very service oriented, kind of a little more spa feel to it. So it is a very interesting dynamics in each office where in the practice that I work most often is actually Allenby. I'm really with more, I have the front staff people getting everybody in greeting. Then I have my MAs who really have a ton of responsibilities. They're kind of the caretaker for the patient the whole time. They're their advocate. They're coming to me like, Hey, can we do this for the patient?

(21:35):
I'm like, of course. They also do a lot of my non, I call provider stuff, like our radio frequency is done by them. They can do the ultrasound products, which is soft wave and Ultherapy. They have a lot of ability to help guide a patient with their skincare. I have a skincare specialist who comes in and gives the whole, this is a good package, and she older than I'm, I'm not going to say she's older, but she looks fantastic. And because she's been doing skincare, it just shows consistency. I've had staff with me for 20 years. Then they are just my family, my family away from my family really. It's, I am so lucky to have a great staff that people see. And then I have the staff that people don't see, people that work with my social media. Bridget, who she kind of comes and goes.

(22:28):
She's actually more patient oriented and Body Squad, but she is somebody who's behind the scenes putting together some of these fun events that we're doing. If we're working on how are we going to reward patients, we have some things coming up. She's the one who's behind the scenes getting everything done. I have back staff that people never actually see. So I really have such a great crew That's more the Allenby office, the Body squad office, most of the girls kind of are dual purpose. They kind of are doing patient care and they're doing a lot of the administrative work. It's more of a niche office, so they're kind of more limited to the amount of things that they're responsible for, but it becomes very extensive because I have more responsibilities.

Eva Sheie (23:13):
And then who is your team at home? Don't you have a dog?

Dr. Allenby (23:15):
I do. And she's not here with us today. I kind of thought she'd be barking the whole time. I have a 4-year-old, four pound Yorkie who, her name's Allie. She's my little copilot. I adore, adore her, she's just she was a blessing. Honestly, she was from my last Yorkie. My last Yorkie passed away at 16, and I just happened to go into this abandoned pet place that I had been giving to. I was like, oh, I can get to stop by there. Place wasn't the nicest little place. I'm like in there, I'm like, oh, there's this little two pound mess. And I'm like, oh, who is that? They're like, oh, this Yorkie got abandoned. It was abandoned. And it was probably because she ran off. She ran off and she had every worm, mite,

Eva Sheie (24:01):
Oh, no.

Dr. Allenby (24:01):
Her eyes were closed shut, they were just so crusted up with gunk, and I'm like, oh, I just lost my Yorkie. And they're like, okay, go away, lady. And I'm like, I'm a Yorkie mom. I could be a Yorkie mom for her. And so I had to go through all the process of getting vetted out. And I really think my last Yorkie sent her to me, because it was just like the likelihood of getting a Yorkie at a four pound. She's like four years old and she's four pounds, so they don't have those ever. And she's just such a personality.

Eva Sheie (24:30):
She was meant to be yours.

Dr. Allenby (24:32):
Aww, she totally, and she's the personality of a lion. She is just like, I'm going to protect you mom all the time. But she's actually, in the last couple months, she's kind of mellowing a little bit. I don't know if her teeth are going bad. I got to go get her checked, but she's really, she's getting a little more gentle natured.

Eva Sheie (24:51):
Does she ever go to work with you?

Dr. Allenby (24:53):
Oh, every day.

Eva Sheie (24:53):
Every day.

Dr. Allenby (24:54):
Yeah. She's there. We are pretty dog friendly in the office. We definitely, I do have patients who bring their pets with them, and as long as we're staying clean, I'm fine with that.

Eva Sheie (25:06):
Did you grow up in Florida or were you from somewhere else?

Dr. Allenby (25:10):
Yeah, I am from New Mexico originally. I know's, it's kind of weird spot.

Eva Sheie (25:15):
Don't hear that very often.

Dr. Allenby (25:15):
No, nobody ever does. I don't you get out of New Mexico usually. So my family's from New Mexico and my mom moved off to Oklahoma. My dad moved to Chicago and I kind of split up time growing up there. Ended up more in Oklahoma. My mom was there, went to college there, Oklahoma State, went to, started medical school in Oklahoma and then, okay, I'm one of those, came to spring break in South Florida things.

Eva Sheie (25:40):
Oh, that's how it happened.

Dr. Allenby (25:41):
Went to spring break. I'm like, I'm coming here. This is fun. Okay, from Oklahoma to here, come on. That's an easy choice. So ended up here in, that was back in 1989 is how long I transferred medical school and came down here and never left.

Eva Sheie (26:00):
The rest is history.

Dr. Allenby (26:01):
Yeah, that is, yeah, I wouldn't leave.

Eva Sheie (26:04):
It's a great story. And it's Oklahoma both, well I don't know about New Mexico as much as Oklahoma. It's a good place to be from?

Dr. Allenby (26:11):
Yeah. The nicest people you'll ever meet. I mean, when I got here, I was like, hi to everybody, and they're like, who is this weirdo? Here you don't say hi to people unless you're looking to get robbed or something.

Eva Sheie (26:22):
Really? It;s like New York, New York south. Don't look.

Dr. Allenby (26:25):
Yeah, this is just South New York for sure.

Eva Sheie (26:28):
Oh, that's sad. I know Seattle's like that too.

Dr. Allenby (26:31):
Really?

Eva Sheie (26:32):
Yeah. I had gone from Texas to Seattle and I was like,

Dr. Allenby (26:35):
Texas is the same.

Eva Sheie (26:36):
I'm here. Hi.

Dr. Allenby (26:36):
Right.

Eva Sheie (26:37):
And people just look at the ground. Why is she talking to me?

Dr. Allenby (26:41):
I know. Yeah. I feel sad for them because my whole life seems to be about wanting to make people feel good about themselves, so if I can see them smile, that makes me happy.

Eva Sheie (26:55):
Yeah, you're in the right place.

Dr. Allenby (26:56):
Yeah.

Eva Sheie (26:57):
If someone's listening today and they want to find out more about you or come visit you at the practice, where should they look for more information?

Dr. Allenby (27:03):
Wow. Allenby Dermatology. Instagram is a great place. We put a lot out there. We're on Facebook. We have for Allenby Cosmetic Dermatology and Body Squad, and we have TikTok. We have podcasts out there. We have pretty much any social media platform. If you look up Allenby Dermatology or the Body Squad, you will find information on those.

Eva Sheie (27:26):
I'll put all those links in the show notes to make it easy.

Dr. Allenby (27:29):
Thank you. Appreciate that.

Eva Sheie (27:31):
Thank you so much for joining us today, Dr. Allenby. It was good to catch up.

Dr. Allenby (27:35):
Yeah, it was so good to chatting.

Eva Sheie (27:37):
There's no substitute for an in-person appointment, but we hope this comes close. If you're considering an appointment with this provider, be sure you let them know you heard them on the Meet the Injector podcast. Check the show notes for links, including the injector's website and Instagram to learn more. Are you an aesthetic injector or do you know one? You can be a guest on Meet the Injector. Book your free recording session at meettheinjector.com. Meet The Injector is made with love in Austin, Texas and is a production of The Axis, theaxis.io.