description: 
Josephine is the Navy's only dermatologist serving the entire Pacific Northwest. Her patients are active-duty service members, dependents and retirees of all ages with a variety of skin conditions. Today, she uses a laser hair removal treatment on a petty officer suffering from pseudofolliculitis barbae.
youtube_id: 
FUhvJpwhGgY
image: 
Josephine pointing to patient's pseudofolliculitis
transcript: 

NGUYEN: The best of my job is, people come in with a wide range of knowledge about their skin. Some people know all about gentle skin care; other people are like, “I don't even know what moisturizer to use.” So it’s exciting for me to be able to see where patients are at, and then imparting them a certain amount of knowledge and then having them come back and continue to layer knowledge. Hi, good morning, how are you?

PATIENT: Good morning, how are you?

NGUYEN: Good to see you again.

PATIENT: Good to see you as well.

NGUYEN: Petty officer is here to treat PFB, or pseudofolliculitis. Because of the thickness and curliness of the hair, when the hair gets cut, it curls back into the skin and causes a keloidal papule, or a scar. So this is extremely tender, painful and itchy and cosmetically disfiguring. So we’ve found that use of the laser hair removal to target the hair follicles to actually decrease the thickness in the caliber of the hair. How did you feel the last treatment went? No side effects?

PATIENT: No, ma’am.

NGUYEN: OK, so maybe we can be more aggressive then. So the hair bulb, which is below the skin surface, is the target, and that’s where the origin of the hair is from. And — so you’re not destroying the hair itself — you’re trying to target the origin of the hair, which is the bulb or the bulge. I currently serve as the sole Navy dermatologist for the Pacific Northwest. Because of the Military, I had the best dermatology education in the country, and I want to ensure that I take great care of my patients. So I teach them how to take care of themselves, and then they come back to me to fine-tune their regimen.

doctor: 
Josephine Nguyen, M.D.
columns: 
Wide
Time: 
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01:30 PM
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02:00 PM
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03:00 PM
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04:00 PM
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Navy Dermatologist: Treating a Variety of Patients

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