The dermatologist won't see you now

Does that mean cosmetic patients are getting in the dermatologist’s door right away while those with medical needs are left to stew about their scary moles and painful rashes?

“I think in general most people who wish to come in for cosmetic procedures are put into a fast-track program,” says Schlessinger, who runs a dermatology and general cosmetic surgery clinic in Omaha, Neb., and is the founder of Lovelyskin.com, a skin-care and products Web site. “They can get in on short notice, rather than, say, a new acne patient which might take longer. In my practice, if you call up, you’re put in the same pecking order as a medical patient. But in some practices, it is easier to get in as a cosmetic patient than a medical patient. They reserve certain slots and the medical slots just fill up quicker.”

While there are doctors who spend 100 percent of their time on one side of the spectrum or another (including some high-profile cosmetic-only practitioners), 75 percent of the 1,100 doctors in the American Society of Cosmetic Dermatology and Aesthetic Surgery practice both medical and cosmetic dermatology, according to Schlessinger.

But attributing increasing wait times entirely to short-and-monetarily-sweet cosmetic procedures is a “common misconception,” says Dr. Alexa Kimball, an assistant professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School who’s studied dermatology workforce issues for years. Even if cosmetic procedures vanished tomorrow, you’d likely still have to wait to get into your dermatologist. Which may be the shape of things to come, she warns.

“Dermatology is the canary in the coal mine,” she says. “We’re struggling mightily both in dermatology and in medicine overall as to how we’re going to handle a shortage of physicians in the future. My own mom called last week and said she was having trouble finding a primary care physician. ‘Oh my god,’ she said. ‘You’re right. No one is accepting new patients.’”

Diane Mapes is a Seattle freelance writer and author of "How to Date in a Post-Dating World."

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