OBJECTIVES: The objective of this research was to characterize the use of cosmetic dermatology products in patients seen at specialty dermatology networks in the United States (US).

METHODS: Patients from 6 dermatology networks within the OMNY Health Dermatology Database with a cosmetic treatment from 2013-2021 were included. Demographic characteristics were tabulated at the first cosmetic treatment. Cosmetic treatments were defined as a treatment in one of the following categories, excluding those utilized for medical purposes: fillers, neurotoxins, laser surgery, and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection. Secular trends in the percentage of patients with cosmetic treatments were described by calendar year.

RESULTS: Across all years, a total of 147,628 patients with cosmetic treatment were identified among approximately 4.6 million patients with procedure data from 2013-2021. Distributions of gender (87% female), race (89% white), age (27% ≥ 61 years, 71% 21-60 years, 3% ≤ 20 years), and region (57% South, 26% West, 16% Midwest, 1% Northeast) were tabulated for patients with cosmetic treatment. Across all procedures data, patient percentages ranged from 0.6% to 0.9% for fillers, peaking in 2018, and from 0.8% to 1.5% for laser surgery, peaking in 2013. Neurotoxin use increased from 1% in 2013 to 2% in 2021. PRP use was negligible over the observation period.

CONCLUSIONS: Results provide insights into use of cosmetic products among patients in specialty dermatology networks in the US. Neurotoxin use increased, while fillers and laser surgery utilization displayed more variability over time. As new cosmetic products are developed and introduced, future analyses would be helpful to understand uptake of these products among dermatology patients.