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DR. PATRICK BITTER
10,000 Physicians Trained, 600 Lectures, Key Opinion Leader Medical Aesthetics, World-Class trainerPatrick Bitter, Jr., M.D. is a board-certified dermatologist specializing in non-surgical treatments to improve skin health and delay aging and anti-aging medicine. He is the founder of Advanced Aesthetic Dermatology and maintains medical practices in Los Gatos, CA and Beverly Hills, CA. He graduated from the University of California with highest honors in Biology. He received his medical degree from Stanford University School of Medicine. He completed his dermatology residency at Stanford University School of Medicine in 1986.
Dr. Bitter is regarded as the pioneer in the use of pulsed light technology for skin rejuvenation. He is the developer of the acclaimed FotoFacial procedure using pulsed light to rejuvenate aged skin. He has authored several groundbreaking scientific papers on the use of pulsed light for skin rejuvenation. He is a sought after lecturer and teacher and has taught over four thousand physicians worldwide in the use of pulsed light.
Dr. Bitter has been featured as a celebrity dermatologist on ABC’s Extreme Makeover. He is a member of several professional societies including Fellowship in the American Academy of Dermatology and the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine. Dr. Bitter has been a consultant to the medical laser device industry and to nutritional and anti-aging companies.
Dr. Bitter is proud to be the dermatologist for the San Jose Sharks National Hockey League Team. He is also a former USA Triathlon National Champion and two-time Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon finisher.
DR BITTER WINS 2018 MALE DERMATOLOGIST OF THE YEAR AWARD
Dr. Bitter took out the award for Male Dermatologist of the Year at the MyFaceMyBody Awards USA 2018. Stars and the elite of America’s Aesthetics Industry lit up the red carpet at the MyFaceMyBody Awards USA 2018 the ‘Oscars’ of the aesthetics industry. Held at the iconic Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Los Angeles. Leaders in aesthetics, VIP’s, press and celebrities gathered from across the United States for this industry night of nights.
The Global Aesthetic Awards celebrate and honor those at the pinnacle of the beauty business. Dr. Bitter was selected from hundreds of applicants from across America to win the coveted title of Male Dermatologist of the Year at the MyFaceMyBody Awards USA 2018.
DR BITTER WINS 2018 MALE DERMATOLOGIST OF THE YEAR AWARD
FROM IRONMAN TO WORLD-RENOWNED DERMATOLOGIST TO BEAUTY INDUSTRY PIONEER
As a young medical student at Stanford University Medical School in the early 1980s, Dr. Patrick Bitter Jr. competed in the first ever Hawaiian Ironman Triathlon in Kona, Hawaii with his father. The two became the first father and son to compete in and finish this grueling endurance event that challenges an athletes’ physical and mental abilities.
Little did Dr. Bitter know at the time that his desire to do the extraordinary and his courage to push beyond the limits of his peers would define his future career in dermatology.
Ten years into his dermatology career in Los Gatos, CA, Dr. Patrick Bitter Jr. was introduced to a brand new technology from a company that had just been approved for use in the United States to treat leg veins. As a leg vein treatment, Intense Pulsed Light, or IPL as it was known, failed to make unsightly leg veins disappear. In fact, the early IPL treatments often resulted in rectangular skin burns that left undesirable marks and scars.
Because of the high rate of skin burns and the often less than satisfactory results the dermatology community at the time became very negative on this new technology. At major dermatology and laser medicine conferences some laser experts were even going so far as to condemn the use of IPL, believing there was no place for this “bad” technology in dermatology and cosmetic medicine.
The year was 1998. Working with this same IPL technology that was frustrating and disenchanting to his colleagues, Dr. Bitter Jr. discovered a far more useful application of IPL than treating leg veins.
The story that led to the birth of the FotoFacial procedure has been a story highlighting the three elements that are so common to most scientific discoveries and medical breakthroughs; part careful observation, part passion and part serendipity.
DR. BITTER’S PASSION TO CREATE HEALTHIER YOUNGER LOOKING SKIN
Motivated by his passion to help his patients have healthier and better-looking skin, Dr. Bitter was not deterred in trying this new and complex IPL technology in a novel method. Coupling the good fortune of having access to one of the world’s first IPL devices in his clinic in Los Gatos, California and careful observations of his patients treated skin, Dr. Bitter conceived of an entirely new application of IPL and a whole new area of light-based skin rejuvenation was born that would revolutionize skin treatments in doctor’s offices and medical spas around the world.
He discovered that if he used IPL on the entire face and did a series of treatments, his patients’ rosacea dramatically improved. Moreover, his method of using IPL worked better than any other rosacea treatment available at the time.
Starting with his patients suffering from rosacea, a condition of the face characterized by redness, flushing, and pimple-like breakouts that affects millions of Americans, Dr. Bitter began treating not just spots like his colleagues, but the entire face.
Dr. Bitter’s innovative use of IPL also made everyone’s skin clearer, healthier, and younger appearing. Compared to the other laser treatments that were available in the 1990’s, the FotoFacial (TM) procedure was a major breakthrough. People could see their skin look clearer, healthier and younger without the prolonged recovery time and discomfort of laser treatments and chemical peels. The big appeal of the FotoFacial procedure that made it an immediately popular treatment was people’s skin looked better with essentially no downtime even after the first treatment.
Additionally, treated skin looked like younger people’s skin, not overly smooth and shiny like laser treated skin. The FotoFacial (TM) procedure became popular with men as well because they could improve their skin without looking like they had anything done.
It would have been easy to have kept this breakthrough procedure to himself, but Dr. Bitter knew it was too good and too important to not share it with the world.
PIONEER AND INNOVATOR OF THE FOTOFACIAL (TM) WITH IPL
In 1998, Dr. Bitter made the first ever presentation of the FotoFacial (TM) procedure at the International Dermatology Conference in Athens, Greece. In 2000, Dr. Bitter published the landmark scientific study, Demonstrating the Efficacy and Safety of the Fotofacial Procedure, in the Journal of Dermatologic Surgery. The big advances of the FotoFacial procedure were a method of improving aged and sun-damaged skin in a consistent predictable manner without the downtime of other laser procedures, or the complications of other methods.
To read some of Dr. Bitters various publications, please click here.
Since 2000, Dr. Bitter has published dozens of articles and scientific papers on the FotoFacial procedure, given more than 400 presentations, and trained more than 8,000 aesthetic practitioners around the world, including some of the most prominent dermatologists and plastic surgeons in the world. He has starred as the celebrity dermatologist on the hit series “Extreme Makeover,” and personally treated a number of Hollywood celebrities. Dr. Bitter himself has personally had nearly one hundred IPL and BBL treatments over twenty years. His skin looks better at age 63 than when he was twenty years younger.
Since introducing the FotoFacial procedure, Dr. Bitter has continually improved upon the original technique, making the procedure more comfortable and effective. The FotoFacial procedure using Broad Band Light that Dr. Bitter performs in his practice each day, and teaches around the world, is the most advanced and effective method for skin rejuvenation with light yet.
It is estimated that more than 20,000 IPL and procedures are performed each day in the US alone.
In 1998, Dr. Bitter was the only person performing the FotoFacial procedure, and there was only one company making a medical IPL device. Today, more than 30 companies make light-based medical devices, and virtually every medical spa in the world offers some version of Dr. Bitter’s original FotoFacial procedure. From his offices in Los Gatos and Beverly Hills Dr. Bitter has launched a procedure that has changed the way skin is treated around the world, helped millions of people have better skin, profoundly impacted aesthetic medicine and the beauty industry and pioneered new uses of light energy.
It is safe to say that few dermatologists have had a greater impact on the world of aesthetics than Dr. Bitter.
According to Dr. Bitter, Broad Spectrum Visible and infrared light has become so useful and important not only in aesthetic medicine, but also for health and wellness, and anti-aging. A well-trained light practitioner has an almost magical ability to make skin clearer, smoother, brighter, and younger appearing. According to Dr. Bitter, new discoveries of the benefits of light treatments for our skin and health will continue to be made. Dr. Bitter is pioneering several new uses of IPL.
Using a newer version of IPL called Broad Band Light (BBL) he has been able to reverse skin aging, cure Rosacea, clear acne, fade scars, improve wrinkles, tighten older saggy skin, heal painful muscles and joints and contour bodies without surgery.
It takes a remarkable visionary to imagine that the same IPL we tried to use so unsuccessfully to treat leg veins twenty years ago would become a technology that virtually everyone can benefit from. In 2018, Dr. Bitter’s contributions to dermatology and the aesthetics and beauty industry were acknowledged when he was voted Male Dermatologist of The Year by MyFaceMyBody Global Aesthetic Awards.
Dr. Bitter continues to be an avid athlete competing in several triathlons each year. He is the proud father of five children and four grandchildren.
ADVOCATE FOR CONSUMERS TO IMPROVE SKIN HEALTH AND APPEARANCE
According to Dr. Bitter the practice of aesthetics is an art that requires an artistic vision, good hands, a fine touch, much practice and a clear understanding of what each patient wants. He is concerned that with so many people wanting to practice aesthetic medicine that the focus on aesthetics has been lost to the focus on generating income. He is also concerned that much of the teaching new entrants into aesthetics receive is being done by non-physicians that are inexperienced, poorly trained or just simply lacking in the skill needed to practice the art of aesthetics.
Dr. Bitter is a passionate advocate for consumers interested in improving their skin and appearance.
He sights the poorly done filler results with over filled lips and faces as seen all too commonly in the United States as an example of aesthetics being done by people who have no business practicing aesthetic medicine.
Dr. Bitter’s desire with his wife is to empower consumers with proper and accurate information about aesthetic treatments to help guide them to choose the right procedure for them and to learn how to avoid the practitioners that are clueless about beauty procedures.
Dr. Bitter is excited to be invited and looks forward to his role as a contributor to the aesthetic publications. He looks forward to publishing future articles on : How light can improve your sex life with the ManUP and LoveTyte Procedures, How light can improve wellness with the HealLYTE procedure.
He also enjoys sharing his years of expertise on skin tips for life long healthy skin; three key questions everyone should ask before a laser or injectable procedure, and how to choose the right aesthetic procedure and practitioner.
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