FACE TIME
Dr. Wendy Roberts knows she’s in the right place at the right time. “The Coachella Valley is unique in that it’s an older population, however, it’s getting younger. That’s a neat environment to work in and, for a dermatologist, very exciting,” she says, adding the array of technology available to her field is vast. “The toolbox is a big, big one. There are things from other specialties now that can be applicable to dermatology. I look into all the specialties and see what is trending, what’s the science, what’s safe and effective, and bring that to my patients so they’re always getting new things.”
The Stanford-trained physician, who opened her Rancho Mirage practice in 1994, credits long-time patients with driving her to develop the specialty concept of generational dermatology. “My patients were literally aging in front of me. I started thinking, ‘Wow, wouldn’t it be interesting if we could stop the aging process and intervene? What can I do as their dermatologist to help them not have spots on their skin or not have so many wrinkles on the face?’ ”
Roberts began taking a proactive approach to addressing individual patient needs, focusing on actually preventing the issues a patient may be predisposed to or showing signs of, while working to improve overall skin health, which, in turn, affects how the skin looks. “There are things we can do for our skin at an earlier age that will put us in a really great place in those older decades,” she says. “You literally can take a person back 10 to 12 years, putting it all together, going into the tool-box, and creating a personal plan.”
While Roberts dedicates a lot of her practice to cosmetic dermatology, she explains that beautiful skin and healthy skin are one and the same and focuses on preventing patients from not just needing cosmetic surgery, but also, hopefully, skin cancer surgery. “If I can … identify the skin at risk for skin cancer and treat that skin and get it to be healthier, then, guess what? That skin cancer may not occur.”
“My patients were literally aging in
front of me. I started thinking, ‘Wow,
wouldn’t it be interesting if we could stop the aging process and intervene?’”Dr. Wendy Roberts
VIDEO: Dr. Wendy Roberts talks about practicing in the Coachella Valley for over 20 years.