Contact & consultation

Arranging an assessment

Outpatient appointments are booked through the hospital on the numbers below; international patients can ask for Michael Yu. Bring a list of your current medicines, including anything that affects clotting, any previous skin treatment and when it was given, any history of cold sores, and a written description of what bothers you. If you have been offered a plan elsewhere, bring it: reviewing a plan is a legitimate reason to book.

What the assessment establishes

How deep the problem sits, which is the finding that decides between the two options here. That is judged under good light rather than from a photograph: pigment is examined by its depth and its response to stretching the skin, wrinkles are judged at rest and on movement, and textural scarring is assessed separately. Your skin type and any tendency to pigment change after injury set the risk of treatment and the depth that is safe. So does any history of cold sores, which changes the antiviral plan, and any medicine or condition that slows healing or makes the skin fragile.

Asking about the plan

Ask how deep the proposed treatment goes, and what the shallower alternative would and would not achieve. Ask what the healing will look like day by day and how long the redness is expected to last, how a further session would be priced, and what would be done if the pigment changed. Ask about antiviral cover and about sun protection. And ask what would make this the wrong treatment for your skin — a clinician who answers that specifically is assessing you rather than presenting to you.

Before you commit

No decision needs to be made at the first appointment and no treatment is required by any calendar. Take the plan away, read it against the guides on this site, and come back with questions. A discount that expires, or pressure to book before an assessment is complete, is information about the clinic rather than about your skin.