The number of patients seeking beauty treatments has decreased after the lockdown imposed in March 2020
According to a top Kolkata-based dermatologist, with online face-to-face interactions becoming commonplace, dermatologists are seeing a sudden spike in the number of patients following the slowdown in the initial months of the pandemic.
“Aesthetic procedures like Botox and laser hair removal took a hit last year because no one really bothered to go to the doctor because half the face was always covered. But now with everything going online, from classes to business meetings to social events, people are again realizing the importance of mask-free facials and the number of patients going for beauty treatments has increased,” Dr. Kaushik Lahiri, a professor and senior consultant dermatologist at Apollo Gleneagles Hospital.
rampant use of steroids
According to him, the number of patients seeking beauty treatments dropped soon after the lockdown imposed at the end of March 2020. “The lockdown prevented most people from accessing a qualified dermatologist, which actually led to an increase in self-medication and rampant use of steroids. I have also published an article on this topic with my students dermatological therapy,” said Dr Lahiri.
After a prolonged downturn, the turnaround began in December 2020 and peaked in March 2021 before the arrival of the second wave. “From June-July, beauty clinics are busy again,” he said, adding that more than half of his patients are now suffering from hair loss – one of the after-effects of the COVID-19 infection.
“Telogen Effluvium” [scalp disorder causing hair loss] This is happening after the COVID infection which I have not seen in my three decades of practice. This appears to be a global phenomenon. People are experiencing an alarming degree of hair loss after about 8-10 weeks of infection and this continues for 12-16 weeks or so,” Dr Lahiri said.
“But like hair loss experienced after childbirth or typhoid, it is also a temporary phenomenon and affected people should get their lost hair back with proper treatment,” he said.
Skin manifestations related to COVID-19
According to him, COVID-19 is also known to cause other skin problems such as hives and rashes like measles. “Other peculiar, rare COVID-19-related cutaneous manifestations that cannot be pigeon-holed into the classification proposed by our group include erythema multiforme-like eruptions, pityriasis rosea-like rash, multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children, anagen effluvium and A. Pseudo-herpetic type of Grover’s disease. The spectrum is still incomplete and it is expected that new entities associated with this transition will be seen,” said Dr Lahiri.
He said that initially there was a lot of apprehension about procedural dermatology which required close contact between doctor and patient. “There was no face-to-face procedure. Now we’re doing everything with both doctor and patient wearing masks. I haven’t worn a tie or a blazer in more than the last 16 months – only surgical scrub, mask, gloves and A surgical cap,” he said.
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