You searched for a skin doctor in BGC and the list came back mixed. Dermatology clinics, aesthetic clinics, a hospital department, and a few places whose names give nothing away. Nothing on that list tells you which one to walk into.

The choice between a dermatologist or aesthetic clinic depends on what is sitting on your skin and what has to happen to it. Here is what each one is built to do, which conditions we treat at VMA in Taguig, and which ones we send elsewhere.

What a dermatologist or aesthetic clinic each does

A dermatologist is a doctor who completed residency training in diseases of the skin, hair and nails, then passed a specialty board. In the Philippines that board is the Philippine Dermatological Society. The training runs the whole range, from a rash on a newborn to a skin cancer, and it includes the part that needs a laboratory: removing a piece of skin and sending it to a pathologist who examines it under a microscope.

An aesthetic clinic is built around a narrower job. Doctors there treat the skin conditions that respond to in-clinic procedures and prescribed topicals, and they run the devices, meaning lasers, ultrasound and injectables.

The two overlap more than most patients expect. Acne is a medical condition and a cosmetic one at the same time. So is melasma. Both are treated in dermatology clinics and in aesthetic clinics, and a patient with either can do well in both.

The difference shows up at the edges. One edge is anything that has to be tested. The other is anything behaving in a way nobody has named yet. The dermatologist or aesthetic clinic question is decided at those edges.

The skin problems that need a dermatologist

Some conditions settle the dermatologist or aesthetic clinic question on their own. We are an aesthetic and skin health clinic, not a general dermatology practice. That sentence is on our consultation page and it is there because it saves people a wasted trip.

Psoriasis, chronic hives and nail disease are better handled by a dermatologist. So is a rash that is widespread, or one that keeps changing character, or one that has not responded to the obvious things. So is anything needing surgery or hospital care.

And so is any mole that has changed, for a reason worth its own section below.

None of that is modesty. A condition that needs months of systemic medicine, dose adjustments and laboratory monitoring belongs with the doctor whose whole week is that work.

The skin problems we treat at VMA

Acne is the most common reason people come. Active breakouts, congestion, and the kind that clears and returns. We treat the acne before the marks it leaves, because working the other way round spends your money on a surface that is still being damaged underneath.

There is a number behind that order. Tan, Kang and Leyden surveyed 1,972 acne patients across 120 practices and found that 43 percent already carried scarring. Sixty-nine percent of the scarred patients had only mild or moderate acne on the day they were examined, and the gap between the acne starting and the first treatment that worked was one of the factors that raised the odds of scarring (Journal of Drugs in Dermatology, 2017).

Read that gap plainly. The delay is the part you can change.

We also treat acne scars and marks, which are two separate problems that need separate answers. Melasma and pigmentation, which we manage rather than cure, and we say so at the first visit. Sun damage. Sensitive and reactive skin, which is often a damaged barrier rather than a disease, and often improves by taking products away.

Eczema and dermatitis we treat here, and if it is widespread or it will not settle we say so and refer you.

Hair loss we work out before treating. Androgenetic thinning, shedding after illness or stress, and the scarring types all look alike in the mirror and need different answers. The scarring types cost you follicles permanently while you wait, which is the reason we do not guess.

Then the minor procedures: moles, warts and skin tags. Mole and skin tag removal start at ₱6,000, wart removal on the face and neck at ₱10,000, and plantar and genital warts at ₱6,000. The final figure is quoted at the consultation, once we have seen the size, the number and the site.

Moles, and why removal changes the question

Dr. Erika Velasco looks at every mole herself before anything is done, and decides which ones are safe to remove here. Some moles are plainly settled and have looked the same for years. Those come off with the laser, usually in one visit.

Laser removal destroys the tissue. Nothing is left for a pathologist afterwards. That is a fair trade on a mole we are sure about and a poor one on a mole we are not, and it is the whole reason the assessment comes before the price.

The eye is a coarse instrument for this work, and there is published evidence on how coarse. Argenziano and colleagues trained 73 primary care doctors in Barcelona and Naples, then had them assess 2,522 patients with skin lesions, with expert dermatologists re-examining every case. Judged by eye alone, the doctors correctly flagged 54.1 percent of the lesions that warranted specialist review. With a dermatoscope, a lit hand lens that shows the pigment pattern below the surface, the figure rose to 79.2 percent (Journal of Clinical Oncology, 2006).

Those numbers are why our threshold to refer sits low. A mole that has changed shape, colour or size, one with a ragged edge or uneven colour, or one that bleeds or itches without being knocked, we leave alone and send to a dermatologist who can take it off properly and have it tested.

Choosing between a dermatologist or aesthetic clinic in BGC

Most people arrive at the dermatologist or aesthetic clinic question with one specific thing worrying them, and that thing is the answer. Two questions sort most cases.

Has it changed? A patch, a lump or a mole that looks different from how it looked a year ago wants a doctor who can test it. Start with a dermatologist.

Has it been the same for years, and you want it treated or gone? Acne that keeps returning, brown patches that arrived after a pregnancy, a skin tag that catches on a collar. A doctor-led aesthetic clinic handles those every week.

If you cannot tell which of the two you are in, book whichever you can get into soonest and ask them to be straight with you. A clinic willing to say “this one is not ours” has told you something useful about the rest of its advice.

How the first visit runs

You sit down with a doctor. We look at your skin, ask what it has been doing and for how long, and what you have already tried. Then we tell you what we think it is and what we would do about it, including the parts we are not certain about and what would make us certain.

You leave with a written plan and a price, and you decide at home. Nothing is sold in the room.

A skin consultation with a physician is ₱1,500, and it is waived if a procedure is done the same day.

How this fits with the rest of our protocols

If the answer turns out to be a lesion, the whole decision is written out in our guide to mole removal in BGC, and the service detail for each type sits on our wart, mole and skin tag removal page.

If it is acne, the marks left behind are covered in acne scar treatment in BGC. If it is pigment, start with the best treatment for melasma in the Philippines, which explains why the patches keep returning in this climate.

And if you are still weighing up clinics generally, our checklist for choosing an aesthetic clinic in BGC lists the questions worth asking before you book anywhere. What a first visit here covers is on the skin health consultation page, and every figure is on the price list.

The honest part

Three things before you book anything, here or anywhere.

One. Deciding between a dermatologist or aesthetic clinic matters far less than being seen by someone who will look properly and say what they see. The title on the door is a poor guide to that. The willingness to refer you away is a better one.

Two. You can pay our ₱1,500 and be told to go somewhere else. That happens, and it is a real outcome of a real assessment, not a failed visit. The fee buys the looking and the plan.

Three. The waiting costs more than choosing the wrong door. Acne scars while you research. A mole that has changed does not settle down on its own. Six weeks spent deciding is six weeks the skin spends unattended.

If the dermatologist or aesthetic clinic question is still open for you, the quickest way to close it is to have the skin seen. You can book a consultation or read more about our doctors on the About page. The full menu of services is at velascomedical.com. We are at G/F Inoza Tower, 40th Street, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.

For the underlying science, you can browse the peer-reviewed literature on PubMed’s indexed studies on skin lesion triage and referral accuracy.

This article is educational and is not medical advice. Please consult a qualified physician before starting any aesthetic treatment.

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Frequently Asked Questions

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Ask a doctor to look at it in person before you settle on which kind of clinic you need. The looking is the step that answers the question.