Why did I decide to find skin doctors’ help?
I started having pimples at age 10. Huge hit on self-esteem with unkind teachers ordering me to wash my face in the middle of lessons as they found my oil-slicked face distracting. Nasty.
I thought there is no escaping my genetic fate as my mum has oily face even at age 50! So oily face + sweaty sports team training + didn’t-know-better tanning + vain-pot dirty makeup + overzealous aunt squeezing my pimples every weekend left me with many many pimples + A LOT OF PITTED ACNE SCARS.
Teenagers reading this: Acne is not to be feared, it will go away. Acne scars (I am not talking about post pigmentation brown marks but pitted depressed scars) will never fully go away. NEVER.
Do not let anyone (yourself included) to over zealously squeeze your pimples. You will spend the rest of your life spending countless money and effort trying to lessen the damages. No makeup will be able to cover the depressions. Foundation will just pool up inside.
You have been sincerely warned.
So back to the question to why I decided to find doctor treatments. Because over the counter treatments just does not work for super oily acne prone skin like mine. Period. Commercial products are mostly poorly formulated with exaggerated marketing fluff, contain obviously less potent active ingredient than prescriptions and yet, most of the time more expensive.\
I wish I knew about doctor treatments younger. Lucky you who have chanced upon my blog.
So why Niks Maple Clinic?
If you google around for cheap and good skin doctor clinics in Singapore, you will chance upon online raves of Niks Maple Clinic. In my opinion, the main reasons are because they are around for many, many years + they have their own Niks Pro salon product range + the main doctor Doctor Ong is nice + comparatively reasonable heartland prices.
At the point of time, I was a poor student. Hence, needless to say reasonable prices is a huge draw for me. I am with Niks Maple Clinic for around 2-3 years and below is my opinion of the skin treatments I’d received.
Review of Niks Maple Clinic
GOOD
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Heartland Prices
Though comparatively reasonably priced compared to Orchard skin clinics (like the one I will later go to), each visit will probably burn $100-$300 in your pocket depending on how much salon products/ prescription creams you take.
The doctor will often prescribe the whole set of Niks Pro salon products (cleanser, moisturizer, toner, etc) to you.
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No Product Pushing
But good for them, the doctors don’t really push their salon products. Meaning you can request not to take some of the products.
In my opinion, you can just settle for your cheaper drugstore cleanser and moisturizer. Important thing is to make sure your drugstore products are not too harsh. Oily skin people like me often go for the harshest products as we love the squeaky clean feeling thereafter. But this often backfires as acne-prone skin are extremely sensitive and all these harsh chemicals will just make your skin worse.
So thumb of the rule, you can settle for your own cleanser, moisturizer, etc. What’s important is the prescription creams you have been given (differin, tretinoin, etc.) as you cannot get those over the counter.
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Doctor Ong
The point of your visit besides getting doctor prescription creams, is to get professional advice from a doctor who understands your skin (as every skin is different) and have vast experience solving similar cases.
The main doctor that is highly raved online is Dr. Ong Fung Chin and I can understand why. She is nice, gentle lady who I estimated to be around 50 – 60s with baby soft skin! Talk about walking the talk. I feel very comfortable talking to her and she patiently explains skin conditions thoroughly even though there is a long queue of people waiting outside. All in all, a very nice motherly figure. And because there is so many acne sufferers waiting outside her clinic all the time, I feel confident that she understands how to solve acne issues
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Good value salon products
Niks have their own line of products which can be bought online at their website:Â http://nikspro.com/index.php?route=product/category. Buy $150 worth and there is free delivery. However, we cannot get prescription creams online. But with recent past consultation records, Niks allow us to go to the clinics to get prescription creams without queuing to see the doctors again.
I will say their 200+ Â product range is quite wide-ranging – there is even Niks camouflage cosmetics! According to their website Niks products are conceptualized and developed in Singapore and made in the finest factories in the United States and Europe.
Price-range wise, I will say it is quite value for money. Below I compare its most potent ingredient products (AHA, Vitamin C, Retinol) with Paula’s Choice (international acclaimed skincare brand):
Niks Pro AHA product: $59 for 50ml
Glycol 10% glycolic acid gel
*Similar Paula’s Choice product: $55 for 60ml
RESIST Weekly Resurfacing 10% AHA*Niks Pro Vitamin C product: $59 for 30ml
Anhydrous C20 Cream (20% by wt L-ascorbic acid)
Similar Paula’s Choice product: $68 for 20ml
Resist C15 Super Booster*Niks Pro Retinol product: $85 for 30ml
Retinol I –Â Â 1% pure stabilized retinol
Similar Paula’s Choice product: $76 for 15ml
Resist 1% Retinol Booster\As can be seen, the cost savings seem to be quite substantial! Only thing is that Paula’s Choice website really detail each ingredient + rationale behind each formulation pairing while Niks Pro just provide a brief description. I am not sure how different formulations might come into play. But since Niks Pro products are conceptualized and developed in Singapore, I supposed it is better suited for our skin type in hot and humid Singapore? I do wish Niks can provide more ingredients information for skincare geeks like us though.
Another issue I have with Niks salon products is that there seem to be no BHA products? As a super oily skin type, I prefer BHA (beta hydroxy acid, which is salicylic acid)Â over AHA (alpha hydroxy acid, such as lactic or glycolic acids)Â exfoliant.
For an oily skin girl like me, exfoliant are very important. Our skin naturally exfoliates copious amounts of dead skin every day but for oily, clog-prone skin, I will need chemical exfoliant to help the process of exfoliating daily buildup of dead skin. Otherwise, my skin will start to clog and there’s when all the blackheads, whiteheads and pimples start sprouting.
So why do I prefer BHA to AHA? BHA is oil soluble and preferred for oily skin, and enlarged pores, and can clear pores deeply by working inside the pore lining where clogs begin whereas AHAs are water soluble and are preferred for dry, sun-damaged skin due to their ability to enhance natural moisturizing factors within skin.
Not sure why Niks Maple product emphasize more on AHA than BHA. I guess I can just get my BHA fix from Paula Choice or Cosrx (Korea brand) and Vitamin C from Niks.
NOT-SO-GOOD
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Long Wait
Relatively cheap + good often means long queue in Singapore and this is the case for Niks Maple Clinic too.
Appointment is only accepted at Niks Maple Laser Clinic in Orchard (where laser procedures are done). Niks Maple Clinic in Tampines and Niks Maple West Clinic in Jurong East are walk-in clinics and you cannot make appointments.
For Niks Tampines, their opening hours are as such:
Mon, Tue, Thu & Fri: 9am-1pm, 2pm-5pm, 6pm-9pm
Wed: 9am-1pm, 6pm-9pm
Sat & Sun: 9am-1pm
Public holidays: ClosedAnd more often than not, you have to start queuing at 6-7am to get a number to be attended to a few hours earlier. This is especially so if you want to consult Dr. Ong instead of the other doctors. Check out the doctors’ roster here: http://nikspro.com/index.php?route=news/article&ncat=59&news_id=3
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Does not advocate pills taking
So why did I stop going to Niks Maple Clinic despite its heartland prices + nice Dr. Ong backed by online raves and long queues? Because at that point of time, Dr. Ong does not believe in pills taking – antibiotics/ accutane (though I heard from friends that some Niks doctors do prescribe pills now).
Her rationale is that pills does not treat the underlying cause, might make the bacteria stronger/ more resistant and might have side effects. I concur that too much antibiotics especially is not good as numerous studies have shown it will cause you to be less reactive to antibiotic treatments in the future.
However as I strongly suspect my acne issue is due to hormones and over-oiliness – pimples often pop out nearing my monthly periods and my face is oily enough to soak through 4 oil blotters each hour – I will really love to give pills a try. The Niks skincare regime seems to be taking too long to take effect (I was on it for around 2 years and am getting anxious).
VERDICT
Consultation fee $30 with reasonable priced salon and prescription products. I discontinued going there because I wanted to try pills medication at that time. However, it seems that they do prescribe pills now so I might consider going back there? Products aren’t amazing but then I do not seem to have experience really amazing skincare products before. Waiting time will be long for Dr. Ong but I guess other doctors should not be that bad? All in all, I am thankful for their no frills, reasonable priced good services.
Review of Subcision
WHY
At the point of time, Dr. Ong also recommended me to do subcision and laser treatments at their Orchard laser clinic
Singapore 238896
Mon – Fri: 9am-8pm
Sat: 9am-5pm
Sun & PH: Closed
PROCEDURE
Subcision is performed using a special hypodermic needle inserted through a puncture in the skin surface. The sharp edge of the needle is used to break fibrotic strands that are tethering the scar to the underlying tissue. The release of the fibrotic strands and new collagen deposition caused by wound healing leads to cosmetic improvement of the scar.
Detailed description of the procedure below:
- A tri-bevelled needle (number 18 or 20 gauge) or a Nokor needles inserted at an acute angle adjacent to the scar with the bevel upwards and parallel to the skin surface. Smaller gauge needles (25–27) may be used for small superficial scars and wrinkles.
- The needle is advanced through the dermis and moved back and forth in a fan-like motion. A snapping sound is heard as fibrous bands are transected in the deep dermis and deep dermal subcutaneous plane.*
- The needle is rotated 90 degrees and moved again in a fan-like motion through the dermal scar (fanning subcision).
- The needle is removed and squeezed circumferentially around the exit point to prevent large haematomaformation due to bleeding.
- Manual pressure is applied to the wound for several minutes.
*A common pitfall is to fan too deeply in a plane below the dermis
Pain-level wise, with fractional CO2 laser as maximum 10, this is about 7. Â It is not the excruciating pain of burning skin but it is afterall a thick needle poking around your sensitive face.
AFTERMATH
Bleeding patches where subcision is performed. After the site bleeding stops, there will be small black and blue marks which are actually desirable as the bruise fluid contains growth factors and wound healing factors that promote the new, native collagen and elastic fiber synthesis (neocollagenesis, neoelastogenesis) that
Since with subcision there is really not much cutting on the surface, recovery is pretty fast just that the black and blue marks will need some concealer for a few days.
IMPROVEMENT
For the first few days, when there is still swelling, the depressed scars are elevated making them look really good. Thereafter, it will go back to more or less the same depression but look less tethered to skin?
Supposed to have a few sessions of subcision spaced 6 weeks apart followed by laser to level things out. Unfortunately I started breaking out soon after. Scars treatment are not advised when you are still breaking out. Best to keep the acne situation under control first before attending to the scars. Hence I changed track to get pills from National Skin Center first and somehow forgot to go back!
Also Niks Laser Clinic as a no-frills place seem to be less advanced laser machines than expensive orchard clinics. Hence, for my laser treatment, I decided to go to Joyce Lim Laser Clinic for Fraxel Repair. I will write a review on that soon.
VERDICT
I am looking to do subcision again. Breaking up the abnormal bands of thickened, scar collagen accomplishes two things. First, it allows the surface of the scar to float to the surface. In addition, the tissue fluid that immediately fills the space following treatment contains growth factors and other wound healing substances that promote neocollagenesis, native collagen production, that allows for improvement and elevation of the scars. Between two to four treatments, spaced at six week intervals, are generally required to promote sufficient new collagen to achieve a satisfactory improvement. Since, the collagen produced is one’s own, the results of subcision are typically permanent.
Recently, I did some research and found out that the latest gold standard for subcision is to have a filler as a spacer. The notion is that unless something is placed in the area where scarring was cut, the scar will reform between the “sticky edges” as it does in all other surgical wounds. The filler can be PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma) or crossed linked HA (radiesse). Rule of the thumb: Use thick fillers for support, and thin fillers for filling fine areas such as the temples and tiny open pores.  Layered technique support for deep scars, and finesses for fine scars.
Hopefully, I will be able to find a Singapore doctor that is able to provide subcision with such filler space technique.
IMHO Beauty Analyst 
Appointment only.