Aesthetic Patient Screening and Alopecia Care Tip

Glynis Ablon, MD, a dermatologist and associate clinical professor at UCLA, shared highlights from two lectures she delivered at Fall Clinical 2026. Her sessions, Evaluating the Aesthetic Patient and Treatment of Alopecia, covered consultation, screening, and documentation in aesthetics, plus diagnosis, early intervention, and the pipeline in hair loss.

Consultation as the Foundation of Aesthetic Treatment

She described the patient consult as the starting point for aesthetic care. It covers the patient’s history, motivation for seeking treatment, prior aesthetic procedures, keloid history, and herpes simplex virus (HSV) history. Clinicians must meet patient expectations while keeping those expectations realistic, she said.

“The consult is the most important part of your treatment,” she said.

Screening for Body Dysmorphic Disorder

She recommended screening every patient for body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) before treatment. She noted BDD may sometimes be hormone related, so clinicians should consider perimenopause or menopause in female patients and refer to a hormone specialist before planning any treatment.

“You really do want to screen every patient for what’s called body dysmorphic disorder, and it’s really a lot more common than clinicians realize,” she said.

“You will have happier patients, you will be happier, and the practice will be better,” she said.

Documentation and Informed Consent

She advised being systematic and documenting everything, including informed consent and clinical photography. She said the goal is objectively good or great results, with patients who come back and send their friends.

Diagnosing Multifactorial Hair Loss

Turning to alopecia, she emphasized making the correct diagnosis before starting treatment. She described hair loss as multifactorial, with a genetic component plus epigenetic influences including hormones, nutrition, inflammaging, and stress. She recommended a careful history, examination, photography, and targeted labs, with biopsy planned if the diagnosis is unclear.

Early Intervention and Combination Therapy

Because hair loss has more than one cause, she recommended starting early and combining modalities for the best possible outcome. She also stressed counseling patients on the timeline for response.

“It takes a good six months, six to 12 months, to really see dramatic results and know if your treatment options are really working,” she said.

Hair Loss Treatment Pipeline

She said her practice is conducting clinical trials of new medications expected to become available relatively soon. Agents in development include topical antiandrogens, JAK inhibitors, stem cells, and exosome products.

“The pipeline is exciting and we have more evidence growing and we are seeing new treatment options come available,” she said.

She said she is looking for data to guide these options and expects a lot of exciting things ahead.

For more coverage from Fall Clinical, click here