This place treats patients as if the are a mere inconvenience. Beware if you 5-10 mins late, good chance you will not be seen. If you 15 mins late you will NOT be seen, however they are happy to reschedule. Slagel needs to decide if he is a going to run a dematology practice or a beauty spa, doing both is not working. As far as the nurses, they are by far the most rude, careless, inconsiderate, and ridiculous I have ever encountered. This post doesn’t stem from a single appointment, this is over the past 7. Do to the treatment, it would have been harder to get another appointment with someone else than to deal with the snobs at this practice. Also, regardless of what your appointment is for, don’t waste your time to ask the doctor to take a quick look as something outside your appointment details. You will have to schedule another appointment for that, so they can milk you and your insurance for more. Also, just because you specifically ask to see Dr. Slagel, the odd are you will see one of his two NPs., so don’t waste a month longer to see him..... don’t worry they will wait till you are in the office to let you know you will be seeing a NP.
I had the SmartXide DOT Therapy with Dr. G. Anthony Slagel, a Dermatologist in Fayetteville, Georgia. I was told I would see 30-40% improvement in mild acne scarring, which I thought was a low expectation to begin with, but I went forward with the procedure. My total down time was 30 days of wearing makeup to camouflage redness and grid lines. During the consultation, a 7 day downtime was emphasized as a selling point for this procedure. The office esthetician, Michelle, commented, post procedure mind you, that 30 days was a more realistic expectation for downtime. I was told that the collagen would rejuvenate over the course of 3 months post-procedure, and I would see my optimum and final best results at the three month mark post-procedure. It has now been 4 months since my procedure, and I see minimal, if any improvement in my acne scarring. My pores are just as large as before, and my crows feet would have been as obnoxious as ever if I hadn’t had Botox (read further). I took copious amounts of before and after pictures. Dr. Slagel uses the VISIA complexion Analysis Report as a patient report card before and after the procedure. The report said I improved post-procedure by 6-7% across the board, including in the texture category, which was my main concern. However, I was unable to see any difference whatsoever. Even their best-case numbers show that it wasn’t worth the $1100 and 30 days of downtime. Not worth it at all. This office really plugs Tretinoin Cream, specifically the Obagi Tretinoin Cream and the entire line of Obagi products. The esthetician continually stressed the importance of my using the Tretinoin as soon as possible after the DOT procedure, and as often as tolerated. I don’t remember when she wanted me to start the cream post-procedure, because I already determined I wasn’t going to use it until my 3 month final visit when I would have the final results of my SmartXide DOT Therapy skin. I wanted my results to be truly a result of the DOT procedure alone, and not the Tretinoin Cream. The Tretinoin Cream is so emphatically emphasized post procedure, that at one point I asked Michelle why wasn’t it recommended to me that I pass on the SmartXide procedure, and just use the cream exclusively. It seems to me I would have saved $1,100 and perhaps had comparable results, I said. Michelle just told me how great I looked without answering the question. As far as the bedside manner from this office—I can’t recommend them. Dr. Slagel speaks to you like you’re a 4 year old child that can’t begin to understand the complexities of his work. His esthetician, Michelle, is only slightly better. Furthermore, I saw the doctor for perhaps a total of 20 minutes for the procedure itself, 15 minutes for the pre-consultation, and 5 minutes for the 3 month post-procedure follow up. It seems it is industry standard for the doctor to show himself/ herself to the patient for the bare minimum amount of time, zipping in and out of the office, and then for the office staff to handle everything else. This was especially unsettling to me post-procedure in all my red and grid-line glory to only see the esthetician. Yet another reason that I can’t recommend either this DOT procedure, or this office, is that at about the 6 week post-procedure mark, when I had determined that my results were pathetic, to put it mildly, I opted to get Botox (from this office) around my eyes for the crows feet that were as obvious as ever. No one from the office ever said, “You really should wait until your three month final visit to see how well your crows feet have improved.” I was signed up for Botox in an instant. Is this an admission that the DOT procedure isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be? This was my first Botox experience. I left the office with one black eye and was told to wait up to 5 days for the Botox to take effect. After 5 days I had an awkward, distorted smile. I waited until my 3 month DOT follow up visit (6 weeks after the Botox) to ask why the Botox only worked in some places, and not others. The doctor looked me over and said something to the effect of now he knows where to place the needles next time, and we’ll get it “next time.” So 3 months of looking like something was wrong with me when I smiled. And no, there wasn’t a next time with this doctor. I now know why some people state that Botox injections made them look like a freak.
