What 2025 Brought to the Table in Dermatology, With Mark S. Nestor, MD, PhD

At the 2025 Fall Clinical Dermatology conference, session presenter Mark S. Nestor, MD, PhD, presented a talk titled ‘What Did 2025 Bring to the Table in Dermatology?’

Nestor, known for his work as the director of the Center for Cosmetic Enhancement and Director of the Center for Clinical and Cosmetic Research in Aventura, Florida, spoke with the HCPLive editorial team about his session. He was asked specifically about takeaways from the talk at this conference.

“My area that I'm discussing is about esthetics and regenerative medicine, basically,” Nestor explained. “...Things have changed, and in 2025, actually beginning in 2024, because the use of hyaluronic acid fillers for replacement or for enhancement has really gone down significantly. I think the reason for that primarily is social media, that people don't want to look weird. For a long time, people were getting overfilled and looking weird, and I think that has gone down significantly.”

Nestor highlighted his view on what he described as a big uptick in collagen stimulation use among patients in the aesthetic dermatology space.

“There's actually a really interesting study…published looking at the issue of the genetic blueprints of what is happening,” Nestor said. “And one of the things that's very interesting is that there's an uptick in collagen, not only collagen, but also adipose tissue, when you're using [Poly-L-Lactic Acid]. I think the idea of rejuvenation basis of it, not only creating volume, but creating improvement in the skin quality. That can come from both the inflammatory aspects, but it also seems to come now from the fat rejuvenation that's coming from that perspective. So that's the issue from fillers, from a toxin. Toxins are still the number one injected aesthetic product.”

With more and more indications, Nestor highlighted the glabella injection as being a notable example of a popular injection.

“But this has expanded, in that we're talking about TMJ, a lot of dermatologists are treating for the male region, [which is important, as well as the improvement in the quality of the skin,” Nestor said. “From that perspective, headaches. But what's interesting is, a lot of our patients are getting the benefit, especially when we treat the gabella of the psychiatric benefits of that. It's been shown dramatically to reduce depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric issues, but on the positive side, when people have the glabella injected…the idea is that people feel more positive, and the people around them respond more positively because they're not frowning at them. This is actually a response that's been tracked to the amygdala.”

Nestor also spoke about the recent development of devices in the dermatology field.

“We have all sorts of devices,” Nestor explained. “We have tightening devices. I think a lot that has gone on in 2025 is back to basics, because resurfacing, whether it's the fractional or through [Carbon Dioxide (CO2)] and Erbium, has upticked again, because people get long-lasting, significant improvement with that. But studies at Harvard…have also shown that it significantly reduces future skin cancer. So it's benefiting in a number of different ways, from that perspective. There are tightening procedures. We have non-ablative and ablative procedures. Then we have the non-cosmetic things like acne, for which lasers seem to work extremely well.”

The quotes contained in this summary were edited for the purposes of clarity.

Nestor has reported serving as a consultant for Revian.

References

1. Fitzpatrick RE, Rostan EF, Marchell N. Collagen tightening induced by carbon dioxide laser versus erbium: YAG laser. Lasers Surg Med. 2000;27(5):395-403. doi: 10.1002/1096-9101(2000)27:5<395::AID-LSM1000>3.0.CO;2-4. PMID: 11126433.

2. De Boulle K, Fagien S, Glogau R, et al. Treating glabellar lines with botulinum toxin type A-hemagglutinin complex: a review of the science, the clinical data, and patient satisfaction. Clin Interv Aging. 2010 Apr 26;5:101-18. doi: 10.2147/cia.s9338. PMID: 20458348; PMCID: PMC2861845.