Michael H. Gold, MD, is the founder and medical director of Gold Skin Care Center, Advanced Aesthetics Medical Spa, The Laser & Rejuvenation Center.

Michael H. Gold, MD

How to Deal With Cosmetic Complications in Dermatology, With Michael H. Gold, MD

 practice, cosmetic procedures have become an increasingly central element, with energy-based devices and other aesthetic interventions now being used routinely in a wide array of clinical settings.

However, dermatology clinicians know complications occur, even in the most experienced hands. A session, titled ‘Complications of Cosmetic Procedures,' was presented at the 

2026 American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) Annual Meeting

 by several speakers, including Michael H. Gold, MD, the founder and medical director of Gold Skin Care Center, Advanced Aesthetics Medical Spa, & The Laser & Rejuvenation Center.

“Everybody will see a complication,” Gold explained. “If you don't, the old adage is you haven't done enough. The issue is understanding that it is a complication early, working with the patient to make sure they understand you know what you're doing, and coming up with a solution that makes it get better fast.”

Gold described complications as not a matter of if, but when. His core message throughout his session was that the ability to recognize a complication early, communicate openly with those involved, and to move quickly toward a solution is what separates a manageable setback from a lasting problem. He described the vast majority of complications are reversible when approached properly.

Throughout his talk, Gold drew on his 35-plus years of experience, sharing a variety of examples from cases in both his own practice and colleagues with whom he runs complication panels throughout the year. Intense pulsed light (IPL) was highlighted as 1 unique focus. Gold described newer machines as having diminished the incidence of burns, blistering, and shifts in pigment, yet he added that the risks have not been eliminated completely.

Additionally, Gold cautioned clinicians in the dermatology space against cutting corners on device quality, describing less expensive machines as often less rigorously assessed. He also touched on the medical-legal dimensions of complication management, noting clinicians should consider informed consent, detailed documentation, and pre-procedure photography as essential.

For any additional information on complications, view the full video interview from AAD 2026 posted above.

The quotes contained in this interview summary were edited for clarity.

Gold reports relationships with multiple companies, including roles as a consultant (honoraria) for Acclaro Medical, Aesthetic Management Partners, Aesthetics Biomedical, Alastin Skincare, Inc., Allergan, Inc., Benev, Galderma, Hugel, InMode, La Mer, Mindera, MTF Biologics, Nutrafol, Pierre Fabre, Prescriber’s Choice, Revision Skincare, Rohrer Aesthetics, Sciton Inc., Sensus Healthcare, Sente Labs, SkinBetter Science, SkinCeuticals LLC, SkinMedica, Inc., Sofwave, Stratapharma, and VIOL. He has served as a speaker (honoraria) for Alma Lasers, Cutera, Inc., EndyMed Medical Inc. USA, Lumenis, Merz Pharmaceuticals, LLC, and Venus Concept. He is an investigator (grants/research funding) for Bausch Health, Leo Pharma Inc., Revance Therapeutics, Inc., Revision Skincare, and SkinBetter Science. He also reports stockholder status with Aerolase and stock options with Venus Concept.

Perez SM, Kennedy DJ, Landau M, et al. Implications of Dermatologic Disorders in Facial Cosmetic Surgery: A Systematic Review. Ann Plast Surg. 2026 May 1;96(5):404-412. doi: 10.1097/SAP.0000000000004731. Epub 2026 Mar 19. PMID: 41848703.

Gold M, et al. S051 Complications of Cosmetic Procedures. Session presented at: 2026 American Academy of Dermatology Annual Meeting; March 27–31, 2026; Denver, CO.

Videos

During this video interview at AAD 2026, Gold touches on key points made in his session titled ‘Complications of Cosmetic Procedures.’

Today, scar management is a critical yet often underappreciated element of dermatologic care, especially for individuals with skin of color, where differences in pigmentation and healing responses can raise the risk of hypertrophic scarring.

The value of tailored, evidence-based approaches to address both clinical outcomes and cosmetic concerns in such populations has been expressed more and more in recent years. In light of this , the topic was highlighted during the 

 in Denver in a session titled ‘The Art of Healing- Scar Management Strategies Tailored to Ethnic Skin.’

 editorial team spoke with Michael H. Gold, MD, the founder and medical director of Gold Skin Care Center, Advanced Aesthetics Medical Spa, & The Laser & Rejuvenation Center, who spoke about a variety of key insights from his session on scar management in patients with skin of color.

In the following Q&A interview, Gold highlights notable takeaways from his session on scar management at AAD 2026:

You presented on combining surgery and radiotherapy during the ‘The Art of Healing- Scar Management Strategies Tailored to Ethnic Skin’ session at AAD. Why did you feel this was a necessary topic to highlight for dermatology clinicians?

Scars are a big deal in my world. I've been working on, researching, and treating scars my entire career. I'm a medical doctor. I'm not a cosmetic doc, but they do biopsies, so they're creating a scar. They're cosmetic in some way because they want that scar to look good. But I deal with really bad scars. Many years ago, I wrote the first dermatology paper on silicone gel as a method, not a total treatment, but as a method to improve the appearance of scars. And we know with silicone, whether it's gel or sheets, we can flatten scars over time. Many times, they take the colors back to normal. And that's a great thing, right?

It's not the end-all be-all, but if you looked at the marketplace, there was one product that was around 30-some odd years ago. We have many now. So, as an adjunct to almost everything I do, I recommend that patients take home silicone and use it as one of the gels or sheets on their scars. When you take energy-based devices, we have lots of different things that we've gone through over the years to improve things. So we have fractional lasers, non-ablative fractional lasers. Ablative fractional lasers, microneedling with radio frequency, and other things like pulsed dye lasers and other vascular lasers. We use these to improve the appearance of scars and reduce their appearance.

 What else can you tell us about your experience in this area and the other highlights from your talk?

I spent a lot of my time over the last 20 years working with physicians all over the world, but especially in China, where we've really honed in on the techniques and how we can combine things together. Whether it's a fractional CO2 or a vascular laser. We can make most scars and most contracted scars…we can make their hands move.

You don't always need surgery for that. Laser surgery actually works for that. If you know how to do it, you have the right devices. The devices have gotten much better, and so we love using energy-based devices in scar therapy. I think the hardest thing is that somebody has a burn injury, and I'm going to tell them, ‘I'm going to take a laser, which is also a burn injury, to that scar.’ You have to explain it. You have to talk to the patient about why you're doing it, what it does, and how it works. But they work really well. Then on the radiation side, superficial radiation therapy, or just radiation therapy, was actually started by dermatologists, and we gave it away to the radiation oncology people.

Now we're bringing it back into dermatology. So in my office, and in many offices, we have radiation therapy. In our clinics, they have FDA approval for non-melanoma skin cancers and for keloids. The way keloids work, and if you cut a keloid, the recurrence rate, just cutting alone, can vary between 50 and 80% that's a lot if you do radiation therapy following the excision, and the way we do it is three consecutive days. We have published papers with others, and after one year, the recurrence rate is about 10% or less. That's pretty magical. So it's not for everybody, because we have to have the device right, and we have to make sure we're delivering the right amount of radiation.

This is superficial radiation therapy, and it's safe and effective. So, if I can take a 50 to 80% recurrence rate to 10. I'm really comfortable, right? And my patients are thrilled. So I love using radiation therapy. I do use it in conjunction with other things, like silicone gel and other things that I use, but my patients are really happy.

The quotes contained in this Q&A summary were edited for clarity.

Gold M, et al. F081 The Art of Healing- Scar Management Strategies Tailored to Ethnic Skin. Session presented at: 2026 American Academy of Dermatology Annual Meeting; March 27–31, 2026; Denver, CO.


Articles

Scar management in skin of color warrants tailored, evidence-based strategies given heightened risks of hypertrophic scarring and pigmentary sequelae. Multimodal care integrates foundational topical silicone (gel or sheets) with energy-based interventions such as fractional non-ablative/ablative lasers, RF microneedling, and vascular lasers to improve scar thickness, color, and function, including contractures. For keloids, superficial radiation therapy after excision—delivered over three consecutive days—can markedly reduce recurrence versus surgery alone, contingent on appropriate devices and dosing.

In this Q&A interview at AAD 2026, Gold highlights various tips and strategies for healing scars among patients with skin of color.

Scar Management Strategies Tailored to Patients of Color, With Michael H. Gold, MD

Acne remains one of the most prevalent and clinically consequential conditions in all of dermatology, representing the most common skin disorder seen in clinical practice and increasing in prevalence since 1990.

Against this backdrop, the condition continues to generate significant interest at notable dermatology conferences; the 

 editorial team spoke with Michael H. Gold, MD, the founder and medical director of Gold Skin Care Center, Advanced Aesthetics Medical Spa, & The Laser & Rejuvenation Center, who discussed his session at AAD: ‘Acne Boot Camp.’

The following Q&A interview highlights the team’s questions and Gold’s responses regarding takeaways from his session on acne treatments at AAD:

Following your session here at AAD titled ‘Acne Boot Camp’ session, we would like to know why you felt this was an important topic to present about to clinicians in today’s acne treatment landscape?

 So in the acne world, we have lots of medicines. They've been around for a long time, some new ones. We have great ways to treat our patients, but they take time. What I've always said over the years is that my patients want to be better yesterday. One of the ways I can add to this, it's not always by itself, is when you add in energy-based devices. We can make people better faster. It's always been my premise, and my way I want to approach things with my patients when it's appropriate.

Energy-based is in my world, and in most worlds, is strictly a cosmetic type of procedure, so it's cash based, and that changes the game in some ways. But if you keep the acne costs with the devices reasonable, and you deliver the results, then it becomes a successful part of the treatments. So that's why I do it, and I've been doing it for 25 years.

 We know in your portion of the session on acne treatment that you talk about lasers and light sources for acne. So what are some of the lasers and light sources you touch on?

We actually break it into two different categories. The [cutibacterium acnes] bacteria is important. It actually has porphyrin in it, and we can use the absorption spectrum of porphyrin to target the porphyrin. If we destroy the porphyrin in the bacteria, we destroy the bacteria selectively, and the acne gets better. So there's a variety of devices that work for that. That's one way to do it.

Then in the past few years, we've actually had selective sebaceous gland destruction with the device that devices that are at 1726 nanometers that actually targets the sebaceous gland. If you destroy the sebaceous gland, the acne gets better. Is it total control and is it total clearance? Not every time, but the results are pretty spectacular. So for both ways to do it, we get great results.

What do you feel are the biggest misconceptions about acne, if there are any currently?

 I don't know if there's a lot of misconceptions. I think that one of the things that we don't do well at is to actually think about and work with with and through the psychosocial aspects of acne when we see patients. That's my biggest thing. Now, I had really bad acne as a kid, so I understand it a little bit more, not that I had any psychosocial issues, but I see it. And we see it, so we have to be able to deal with it.

We're all busy, so when we're busy, that becomes back burner thing, right? But if you actually start talking to the patients and parents and all, you get a sense of how aggressive you sometimes need to be. That's when I'd like to start the conversations about energy based devices with my patients.

 Is there an earlier age at which you feel like that's important to begin using these treatments?

We treat people with acne with devices in their teens, so all the way up. So I don't and what I say to people in our community, you have to be very careful, because if you hurt a child, they're done. You're done with that patient. So we have to make sure that we do these things so that the pain part of this is minimal. There's always some discomfort when you use a device, but we have ways to make it virtually painless in most cases.

hat do you feel like the horizon looks like as far as acne treatments are concerned? Are you positive about the landscape currently?

think when we look at the future, we need more medicines, we need better medicines. We need targeted medicines, and I think we've gotten some over the years. I think that if you look at the dermatology community, acne is now on the back burner for many compared to psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, and all the other things that we're dealing with like HS, vitiligo, alopecia areata, and that's okay. But acne is a big part of every dermatologist practice, and it just is something that we have to take seriously, and we have to make sure our patients are getting better.

Zhu Z, Zhong X, Luo Z, Liu M, Zhang H, Zheng H, Li J. Global, regional and national burdens of acne vulgaris in adolescents and young adults aged 10-24 years from 1990 to 2021: a trend analysis. Br J Dermatol. 2025 Jan 24;192(2):228-237. doi: 10.1093/bjd/ljae352. PMID: 39271178.

Gold M, et al. F019 Acne Boot Camp. Session presented at: 2026 American Academy of Dermatology Annual Meeting; March 27–31, 2026; Denver, CO.

This Q&A interview with Gold at AAD 2026 highlights notable takeaways from his portion of the session titled 'Acne Boot Camp.'