Trish
Hello listeners. It’s Trish Hammond here from the Transforming Bodies podcast. And today, I’m joined by Dr. Lina Vargas. We’re at the NSS on the Gold Coast, and Dr Vargas is being a KOL for Sciton Australia. And today, we’re gonna talk a little bit about… Well, first of all, has she got into the institute, but also what she’s doing here. So welcome Dr Vargas.
Dr Vargas
Thank you, Trish. Thank you for having me, such a pleasure.
Trish
It’s been so delightful spending time with you. So tell me, first of all, tell us a little bit about you, like, how did you start being a doctor? And then when you did, how did you decide to get into the field that you’re in?
Dr Vargas
Yes, I am originally from Colombia. I went to medical school back in Colombia and then moved to the states. To Ohio to train as a vascular surgeon, and that is my passion for treatment of vein disease. So I opened my private Lumina Vein Aesthetic Institute in Windermere, Florida back in 2018. And for us, having those patients who are looking for aesthetic treatments for their legs, especially for vascular issues, that’s what most people come to me for. I was doing sclerotherapy, but then I needed to do treatments of vascular lesions, like little capillaries, cherry, little cherry lesions, redness, everywhere else on the body that I couldn’t address with Sclerotherapy only for the legs. I was needing to find a device that would allow me to do that. And at that point, I found Sciton. Sciton is an amazing company. They make incredible devices. They are backed by science, backed by research, and I realised that I could do so many more things with this device. I got Clear V for treatment of vascular lesions and then I got a fully loaded JouleX, which essentially opened the doors into everything else aesthetics. And from there, it’s has been literally an exponential growth to where we are today, where we offer essentially every possible treatment in aesthetics that’s currently available and everything in a non invasive very sort of natural, but at the end of the day, what’s most important for me is doing it in a holistic way, where we are able to offer every kind of treatment to our patients so they don’t have to. They can just stay where they’re comfortable within our practice.
Trish
So like a one stop shop.
Dr Vargas
Yes. Yes. So being able to treat the body, treat the face and the beautiful thing is now not just about aesthetics, right? It’s all about wellness and being healthy and living longer. So being able to incorporate all of those things is just a beautiful thing.
Trish
So basically, you started off and we’re drawn to treat people for vein issues. And because of the technology that you bought, you realise that there was a wider scope and people were asking you for that. So you’ve gone from veins to doing a whole plethora of aesthetic procedures, which combine the whole wellness of the whole body.
Dr Vargas
Correct. That’s that’s perfectly, yeah, that’s exactly what describes kind of what our path has been and where we are today.
Trish
Yeah, fantastic. And tell me, I know that you’ve just recently been Well, you are the opinion leader here in Australia for the new heroic device. Can you I mean, I’ve seen it in action and I’m freaking blown away. But can you tell us in like plain English what is this device and what it treats and tell us a bit like the things that you’ve been sharing with me and everyone else. Can you tell us on this podcast?
Dr Vargas
Of course. So BBL stands for broadband light. With this treatment, we can address multiple skin concerns like pigment, like sun damage. We can also address vascular lesions like rosacea, again, broken capillaries anywhere on the body. We can treat all sorts of things and we can actually achieve anti-aging and reversing skin cell damage with this treatment. So think about iPhones, right, how every year a new one is released because the technology keeps getting better. So BBL has been around for quite some time. But over the years, Sciton has really worked with the research and development department to make this laser and light treatment even better. So we had – we went from doing single pulses, kind of like moving little by little on the skin, delivering this important energy to address these concerns. To being able to do it in motion. Okay? That advancement happened around four years ago, 2020. And so we went from going from a pulsing step by step towards a were moving and gliding over the skin. This was called HERO. Okay? High energy rapid output. So we went from doing a treatment that was a little bit spicy like every single one of those pulses patients were feeling them to now doing much lighter pulses as we glide back and forth on the skin. That made it safer, easier, and more comfortable. So now fast forward 2024, we have the latest version, which is HEROIC. So it’s hero with intelligent control. This device is so smart. It literally has blown everyone’s minds. We’re still being able to do the same treatment in motion in a very uncomfortable way. But now the device itself is actually the brain. The device is essentially what’s guiding when the pulses are delivered, how fast and where? Because as humans, we tend we’re we’re not perfect, not even the most highest trained practitioner is able to deliver those perfect pulses every single time. And for those of you who are not aware, sometimes if we don’t put those pulses next to each other in the right way, we can leave areas that are untreated. So we would have gaps. Of skin that looked untreated and imagine if you could imagine just like stamping over the skin with areas that were treated and areas that were not. Now we don’t have that or over treating, meaning that we pulsed twice or three times over an area, that can be dangerous as well. So now in order to make these treatments safer with the patient in mind, they came up with this way to have the device take control of that. So that the practitioner regardless of their level of expertise can deliver a beautiful, even safe treatment time after time. So that is just an incredible advancement. There’s literally nothing like it. And now we can do treatments whole body treatments in a matter of minutes, whereas before it would take hours with that potential of having stamping, striping, burns. Now it takes the guesswork out of the person who’s doing the treatment regardless of their experience level. And it allows us to just have those consistent, beautiful treatments that are safer every single time.
Trish
So basically, because I’ve seen it done before where you see people and they have like stamp marks on their body and they’re spaced apart. And then sometimes there’s a gap and sometimes it’s not because that comes down to I guess, user error or the fact that you’ve gotta hold something for a long time and get all the right spots and and all that. So that’s exactly what you mean, isn’t it?
Dr Vargas
Correct. Absolutely. It’s just if you think the body is not flat anywhere and if whenever we’re trading areas that are curved and narrow, think of your shoulder or your upper arm trying to really get that perfect coverage is really difficult. It is really really hard. Even for someone who’s very experienced. And so now, these device is able to essentially, it’s almost like think like it has skin positioning system, which is like a GPS. So when the device and the handpiece link, they connect, they’re talking to each other, the device is getting data on where the handpiece is at all times. It can sense if it’s going fast If it’s going slow, it can sense if it’s stopped moving, then it’ll stop firing. If it’s moving at an angulation, if it’s a flat or a curved surface. And it is literally taking all of that data real time and making decisions on how and when to put the pulses. So with that, we significantly limit the chances of having those spots. Yeah.
Trish
It’s funny because I saw yesterday when it was being shown how it was used. And the device just stopping it. It said you’re going too fast. It’s too fast. So it has to stop it then. And what about in that? Because I know it’s got different little not handpieces, but what’s the end bit on the handpiece? So I’ve got all different sizes for different spots. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
Dr Vargas
Absolutely. So those are called filters. So the way I think about BBL, again, broadband light, when we fire, if we don’t have a filter, it’s going to fire many different wavelengths of light. Right? The way I think about it or how I explain it to my patients is thing as if you had an army of soldiers all with different guns and they’re all firing at the same time. Super hazard. It’s not, you know, there’s nothing consistent about it. So when we are performing treatments, like I was already saying, we treat, let’s say, pigmentation. Pigment sits at a specific depth on this under the skin. Vascular lesions, they sit at a different level. And so whenever we’re trying to address specific things, we use different filters so that the light gets to that specific level where we want it to go, to be able to be effective. So each device comes with a multitude of filters so that and we can use them, we can interchange them very easily because, obviously, someone can have rates and can have browns and can have we can want to achieve core general analysis in simulation and antiaging. We can actually treat acne. So we can actually kill the P acnes, which is a bacteria leads to acne. It’s it’s very superficial on the skin. So when we want to do a treatment for acne, We’re gonna use a four twenty filter, which is very superficial. If we want to treat pigment for most people, it’s superficially five fifteen filter, vascular five sixty, skin tightening, we go deeper. Five ninety, six forty. So we have all those different filters, and so it’s like going back to our army. Okay. We are only going to select the ones that have the right gun, let’s say, to take down a target that is going to be best addressed with that specific gun. Okay? That’s what the filters do. We don’t we don’t just fire light without filters because it is it’s not going to help us in any way. We have to use the right tool and that filter allows us to select the perfect wavelength to achieve what we’re doing to do.
Trish
So basically so that’s why when someone – because I’ve I’ve struggled with this long time. So that’s why when someone buys that one device, they can treat a whole lot of different things because they’ve got this filter for this, this filter this. So you use the same device, the same handpiece, you just put the different filter on for the different issues that people have.
Dr Vargas
Absolutely. And and that that is one of the reasons why BBL is such an incredible product. It is able to address so many different so absolutely just one device, one handpiece, gives a practitioner the ability to treat essentially pretty much anything on the skin. And so it is a really nice initial device for someone who is just starting out or you know, wants to address all of these conditions, you don’t necessarily need to go out there and get a multitude of different devices. You can go with one that will allow you to do many things at the same time. Literally just by popping out that filter and putting the next one in. It literally takes less than a second to do that.
Trish
It makes so much sense. I do know that they’re not inexpensive devices because they’re quality devices, they’re going to cost the money, but at least you know that you’re going to get the results you’re gonna get people coming back, you’re gonna get a high quality result for your clients, and that’s what people want these days.
Dr Vargas
Absolutely. I mean, when I talk about these devices, I I I look at them literally as they’ve been leased out there. And so when my patient comes to tell me that they’ve had an IPL somewhere else, I tell them at that very core, sure it’s the same thing, but it’s almost like if you get on a highway with a very old Ford or Toyota versus you go on the highway with a Bentley or a Ferrari. They’re both cars you know, at the core but they do not compare. They’re on totally different levels. And so this technology BBL now with HEROIC is just, oh my gosh, so many, like, light years ahead where there’s nothing that comes even close. So absolutely, it is a device that is not it’s expensive, but just like a Bentley is expensive. There’s so much that goes into it. And when we’re talking about aesthetic treatments, the most important things in my mind are safety and efficacy. And I know I am getting that from that device. A lot of the other IPL devices, you can burn people, you can stump stripe or simply not get your results because they are not engineer the right way to achieve those results. And so I would never hesitate to invest in the technology and for practitioners who may be considering a device like this. And wondering if it’s worth the investment. It’s all about patient education at the end of the day. Patients when they understand why the treatment may be more expensive to maybe something else. They may have been quoted somewhere else or maybe a treatment that they’ve had before. It totally makes sense. You are investing in safety and you are investing in a treatment that’s going to deliver the results you want and a treatment that is comfortable. There’s no other device that’s as comfortable as this one is and as fast. So you are investing in this treatment for a multitude of reasons that again, once patients learn about it, clients learn about it, they are there’s no hesitation.
Trish
Yeah. That makes so much sense. And, you know, because I’ve always thought lasers for the face. But I know that BBL actually, in fact, a lot of the site on you know, components, I guess, for one of a better word or handpieces. They do different parts of the body. Can you tell us like like what about like, what other stuff on the body? Like like because I’ve seen someone actually have their whole body done in thirty minutes or something like that, like the whole body being laser. So why would someone do or what is what would it be about their skin that might need that?
Dr Vargas
So it’s essentially, we’re aging. We are getting exposed to the sun. You in Australia, mine patients and myself in Florida. We are exposed to the sun year round. And all of those things actually lead to skin that is thinning, losing the collagen, it’s getting a little lax. And then we see pigmentation, sunspots, sun damage, and even, yes, vascular lesions throughout the body. And so we can apply the same treatment as much as we do it on the phase, which is probably the most common area as this technology gets faster, easier and more comfortable. We are expanding now. We’ve always been able to do body treatments, but it’s just that it was tedious for their practitioner. And uncomfortable and also tedious and potentially dangerous for the patient if they were to end up with striping and gaps and areas of untreated skin. Now that we overcome these limitations, we want those same benefits that we’re getting on the face we want them on the body. I mean, we’re going to the beach. We’re wearing strapless dresses and we want, you know, our face, our neck, our chest, and our arms. To look the same. We don’t want to look young in our face and our neck and then our hands and our arms show our age. So now this really gets me excited because we can do the same treatments to have a very uniform result. All over the body, and we can do it like you’re saying. I mean, doing a whole body in less than thirty minutes is like insane, like unheard of. So Why would you stop at the face and the neck when you can get those same anti aging correction of texture of pigment? Of sun damage and achieving skin taping. We can do a skin taping on the body. We can stimulate collagen and elastine we can make that skin on elderly people that’s thinning out. That tends to bruise more easily just because it’s so thin. We can pump it up by simulating collagen and elastin and literally going through this anti aging process so that it doesn’t brew as much. That is it doesn’t look as thin and crappy. We can achieve those same results in the body with this device.
Trish
I need to like with that because like that really interests me. Is there an age limit for that? Like like, is there, you know, do you stop when you’re a certain age? Or how does that go?
Dr Vargas
Oh, no. Absolutely not. There is no age limit, and so we can treat patients. Yeah, there’s no age limit. Anyone, anyone can benefit from this treatment. I love when my patients started early because they are on board and they understand the importance of being proactive. It’s easier to prevent than to correct, right? And we know that we start losing collagen at age twenty twenty five. It’s just that we don’t really start noticing until our late thirties, forties, and then, you know, thereafter, but if you can start replenishing those that, you know, that collagen on your skin and you can start fighting the sun damage, it it’s just going to be so much easier instead of fully correcting much later down the line and then your skin is we’re slowing down that aging process. And so I love when patients start early, but we get patients all the time that are you know, thinking that maybe they’re too old. They asked me am I too old to do this? And literally, there’s no age that you cannot get this treatment done. What’s your oldest patient? I have a patient that’s ninety six, and she is this Swedest, Swedish patient. At the end of the day, age is just a number, right? And it’s more, you know, how mentally you see yourself and you perceive the world and what your attitude is towards life, I think, because we, you know, I have patients who are much younger and their attitude is just, you know, it’s almost like they’re not excited. They are, you know, for whatever reason. I mean, we go we all go through ups and downs, but I just love my early patients who are just, you know what? I want to enjoy life. I want to look good while I’m still here. And so, yeah, So it’s it’s just beautiful.
Trish
Well, I I’ve actually noticed myself with with them with them well well, actually, my my my husband’s parents. They’re Australian, grew up in the sun and stuff like that. And his father, as he’s got older, has got those dark spots and all that, and and they are the perfect candidate to get that sorted before it gets worse because it doesn’t actually get better as you go along at all.
Dr Vargas
It just continues to get worse. And so like we were saying, it’s easier, the earlier you start, the easier, but we can still even if someone has a lot of sun damage, it’s just gonna, you know, take patience and this is these are not things that we achieve in one visit or one treatment. But yes, it’s not going away. We’re not getting younger the sun is here to stay and those keep, you know, getting worse over time.
Trish
So And and last little question, because I know that you know, you’re talking about the filters, but I noticed yesterday that when they replaced those things, not with the numbers on them, which I guess is the different filters, but there’s a little circle one and there’s different like, what what are those called? Like, and what why are they different? Because I because I saw him doing someone around the nose area with a really tiny little thing because, of course, a big square of that zap shoe is not gonna work in that little corner of your nose. Can you Tell us about that because I was like, that makes so much sense. Why would you treat the nose with big squares not gonna get it? But, yeah, tell us about that.
Dr Vargas
Yeah. So those are called adapters. So the device comes with a bunch of adapters, which is really cool, and you literally explain it so perfectly. So The handpiece itself has a sapphire crystal, which is what comes in contact with the skin and delivers that light. But if we are trying to treat small areas like literally you were just describing on the side of the nose, or if we’re treating the face specifically has so many curves, it’s definitely not flat and it’s small compared to other areas in the body. Using that large adapter, which is a fifteen millimeter by forty five millimeter. If you guys can imagine that rectinol is sort of like large for if you’re working, let’s say, around the eyes or the nose, it’s going to be very hard. For us to have really good contact with such big piece of crystal. And so those adapters come to help us be able to do those treatments in smaller areas just very, like, fine and literally fine tune these treatments. So we have a square adapter where it is a fifteen by fifteen millimeter square, so we use that a lot around the face. It seems to be like the ideal size for the face. But as you are noticing, there are some round applicators that are of three different sizes that we can use to treat, same on the face, very specific pain point lesions so that we’re not delivering more energy than that’s necessary. Right? We can really very precisely target specific lesions with those little adapters. And the beautiful thing is they’re magnetic. I don’t know if you saw that. So we can literally pop them out, get the new one on. So you if you’re treating a face, for example, and you’re doing A lot of times we like to do what’s called a base pass, meaning that we are going to deliver that light treatment all over the phase. But then we move into more of a corrective phase where we want to address whatever little sunspots, broken capillaries may be rosacea, our patient may have. So then that’s where we would pop the smaller applicators on. Sorry, adapters on, so that we can be very precise in what we want to achieve. And we can do it in a very fast way.
Trish
And and just on that and just the last point because I know you’re really busy, but I wanna ask you, so I’ve had an IPO done years ago and it freaking hurts. But when I had my BBL, I think because it goes because of the the way that it’s held or whatever it’s It’s fast, but it’s a whole lot less paint. Like, you don’t have those where you jump six feet as soon as they do one shot and that goes on that torture goes on until that small part of it. Yeah. So, like, tell us a little bit about that or explain it to people easily for me.
Dr Vargas
So yeah. When and with traditional IPL, you’re literally right. It’s almost like rubber bands. Every single zap is so spicy. Because it is delivering. So in order for us to achieve, let’s say, get rid of a sunspot, we need to deliver our next amount of energy. Right? So but we’re delivering that one hundred percent of that energy in one pulse. So I think one being one single strong push. Okay? Like, boom. That feels like a rubber band. It’s very spicy. So now when we went from doing it one by one step by step, and we transitioned into that motion. Okay? We are going to go over that area multiple times. We’re just coming back and forth gliding over an entire area. So at the end of the treatment, we are going to have delivered that same X amount of energy, but only we will have broken it down into much smaller pulses. Okay? Instead of delivering all the energy in one punch, we’re breaking it up in smaller, smaller, smaller punches that accumulate as we are gliding back and forth back and forth over the area. At the end of the day, we’re going to end up with the energy that we need. But we’ve just broken it down into smaller punches, smaller pulses that are way more comfortable. So it means you go over it more than once.
Trish
Exactly. Got it. Because I’ve had that done and I was like, I’m never doing this again. So I was really scared to even do a BBL because I I know what that that experience. Yeah. It was true traumatized me.
Dr Vargas
Yeah. You’re not alone. I mean, so many people have had mean, they have PTSD from IPO treatments in the past, and they definitely don’t want to go back. So when they learn that with BBL hero and heroic, we’re actually not doing a static treatment pulse by pulse. But instead, we are doing a very comfortable treatment while we glide the applicator back and forth going multiple times over the area. That we’re working on. It’s just it’s a game changer because you’re never gonna feel that intense pulse anymore. It’s always going to be broken down into much smaller easier punches that are very comfortable yet.
Trish
And look, I could talk with that, but I do wanna ask you one more question. What about post treatment? Like, what does the patient do post treatment? Because sometimes you go and they’re like, yeah, yeah, no worries. You’ll be right. And no one tells you what to do after you’ve had a treatment. Can you tell me what you recommend to your clients to do after treatment? Because Florida would be similar in to Australia. So similar.
Dr Vargas
Yeah. The and it’s not just the aftercare with PBL. The preparation prior to a treatment. Yeah. It’s very important. So out of all the light and laser treatments, I mean, we always want to be conscious about sun exposure, always. But whenever we’re having treatments with light or laser, we want to prevent any sun exposure as much as we can prior to the treatment. But definitely, following your treatment, we want you to be very conscious about sun exposure. And so that, for me, in Florida, for example, I cannot tell people to stay out of the sun. I mean, that would be like hide inside your house.
Trish
We’re not gonna listen. No.
Dr Vargas
Yeah. I mean, it’s not gonna happen. It’s completely unrealistic. So what I do try to explain is that unfortunately, if we get sun – if we have had sun exposure prior or if we get sun exposure after treatment, like close to where you had your treatment, you can have issues with pigmentation. So you can have your skin may react differently. You can have more spots, you can have pigmentation or you can have hypo pigmentation where we pull out more pigment that we wanted. And so we always want to be very careful with that. And so what I tell my patience is to be mindful. The most important thing is wearing sunscreen religiously, and it’s not just once in the morning, you have to reapply throughout the day, especially if you’re in the water, especially if you’re sweating. How often? So at least at least every two hours, but they won’t yay. Perfect. Yeah. At least every two hours, and just every time, you know, if you’re at the beach or the pool, just reapply when you come out. And then just using hats using clothes that are SPF that have SPF protection. And just avoiding that direct sun exposure. So, you know, if you have to go from a to b, I mean, do it. That’s where the sunscreen and the protective clothing coming to play, but seek for the shade, avoid finding yourself in a situation where you’re where you’re under the sun. So I always tell my patients, you know, you’re home, you think you’re fine, and then you say you’re gonna run to the mailbox and back, and then you’re running out to the mailbox and you run into your neighbor. And you guys start talking for thirty minutes, forty minutes and you just literally expose yourself. So it’s just being mindful about those things, especially prior and after a treatment, and that’s usually about a good at least a month, if not two. Like, we just we never want to play around with having hyperpigmentation or hyperpigmentation It’s it’s it’s not fun. And so it’s very important. It’s just easier to be cautious.Be mindful about your sunscreen, seek for the shade and avoid any direct sun exposure as much as you can.
Trish
Yes. Well, that is me. I basically, I have a sunblock when I go for a walk, I have a little bum bag. I have a little sunblock in my bum in my bum bag. I have a sunblock in my car. So every time I put my seat belt on, I put my sunblock on. I have a sunblock in my hand all the time. And over the years, the more treatments that I have, like, I believe, like, my skin looks better. Like, my skin looks better now than in my I’m gonna say now that I’m sixty, my skin looks better than when I was in my forties. There’s no doubt about it.
Dr Vargas
I absolutely agree with that. I and my patients, that’s literally what they notice. And it is not something that you’re gonna notice immediately, you’re not gonna notice it at a month, but it’s in the long term when you remember how your skin was and how it is. And where it should be had you not done those things and just followed kind of like that natural aging process, it is it becomes so important I it in my mother-in-law. I mean, she is she freaks out with the sun. Like, I have never met anyone who’d like, it’s just hats, you know, like she drives with these little, like, sleeves. Literally, it’s just a sleeve and it comes across the back. Just because when you’re driving, that is like one of the places where you get the most sun. So she’s like, so crazy about this, but I look at her skin and I’m like, yes. That this is why this is why we do what we do. And she’s very good with her skincare products that I’ve recommended, and she does get her treatment. So she’s definitely on our routine. BBL, and she loves Halo. So she does her Halo. Yeah. Who doesn’t? I am addicted to Halo. She does her annual HALO. She usually waits until October or November, which is winter starting for us. And her skin is, oh my god. I I I can only pray that my skin looks like that when I when I get to her age. I it’s just unbelievable. Yeah.
Trish
It’s true because I I’m like, I’m blessed with good skin too. But you have to look after it if you wanna maintain it and stuff like that.
Dr Vargas
Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. You may have good genes. I know they have good genes. I say it on my husband. I mean, he’s oh gosh. He’s 46, but he’s never he’s always like he has all of this facial movement that I’m like, oh, I could totally bowdoxim, but he has no wrinkles. Yeah. Like even though he has, like, that much motion, I literally cannot, like, I haven’t even, like, suggested it because he doesn’t need it and he’s skin. I mean, it it’s so good. So I know they have good genes, but it’s – that alone is not going to protect you. If you are – you have sun exposure, everything else, you know, free oxygen radicals from, you know, the environment and, you know, everything else, definitely, what you eat, your internal, you know, kinda your internal system just what you feed, your body, your water, your hydration. Right? All those things come into play. And, eventually, it’s gonna catch up to you.
Trish
That’s true. I’m so proud of myself. I have I had not had one lolly this weekend. I think I’ve mixed you over Nick as a Muscular. Well, look, thank you so much for joining us. That’s been so interesting and so insightful, and thank you for breaking it down to make us really easy for us to understand as well because sometimes I hear all these things, I see all these things. I’m like, why is that so it’s been great that you’ve been able to explain them to me in plain English.
Dr Vargas
No. No. It is my absolute pleasure. I am so passionate about this, and I take very long, you know, very long time with my patients explaining this kinda the same conversation that we just had today. So I’m just happy to share all of these with you.
Trish
Amazing. So if anybody’s listening to this from Florida, tell us quickly where you are and where we can find you.
Dr Vargas
Okay. Well, in Orlando, Windermere is just west of Orlando a greater Orlando area. So if you guys are ever coming to Orlando, coming to see Mickey, going to Disney World, I’m I’m literally twenty minutes north. That’s where we are.
Trish
Amazing. Thank you so much for joining us. Have a great day.
Dr Vargas
Thank you. You do the same.
