ZO Skin Care Q&A
What are the differences between ZO Skin Health, Inc.’s products and what Obagi Medical Products offers?
Dr. Obagi: OMP’s products were good products for their time, but today I believe that they are outdated. I conceived and brought to market the original Obagi Nu-Derm® System more than 25 years ago based on then-current skin health principles (Correction, Stimulation, and Bleaching and Blending). However, these principles, that served physicians and patients very well for many years, are no longer sufficient or suitable for everyone. We have discovered in the last ten years the negative effects of inflammation and glycation, the need to enhance skin strength and increase skin ability to resist the negative effects of many external and internal factors, and the need to enhance our skin’s ability to repair damaged skin DNA.
These are our new objectives that need to be incorporated within the old principles to widen the benefits of skin health restoration and expand existing treatment protocols (not only to treat skin problems, but to prevent them). All of these new discoveries and principles are reflected in ZO® Skin Health and ZO® Medical products.
OMP produces the Obagi Nu-Derm® System and disease-specific systems of products (Obagi CLENZIderm®, and Obagi Rosaclear®) and anti-aging products (Obagi ELASTIderm®). But with our ZO® Medical products I have incorporated all of the agents and ingredients necessary to achieve the same results as the disease-specific systems through well-defined and easy to follow protocols while restoring skin health at the same time. This results in a more flexible product line, better treatment, and happier patients.
Are there other new skin health treatments on the horizon that you are excited about?
Dr. Obagi: Yes! I’ve mentioned anti-inflammation. We’ve learned that sun, diet, and certain medications can create strong inflammation in skin. This inflammation leads to the disturbance of cell function and causes the skin to self-destruct. We have ingredients in our products that help mitigate inflammation triggers and we will continue to add more of them to both ZO® Medical products and ZO® Skin Health products.
We also know that skin gets thinner and weaker as we age. Essentially, the cells go to sleep, even when there are no medical problems. Older people, for example, experience double and triple the skin damage as younger people do when they are exposed to sun, make-up, irritants, or moisturizers. We’ve established the concept of “Stabilization”– meaning that we want to increase skin strength with age to make it more tolerant. As we look into the future, we are dedicated to constantly studying skin health and exploring new big ideas like these to help patients and doctors.