Advanced skin assessment
HomeTreatmentsAdvanced skin assessment
Every skin is different and outcomes vary between patients. An assessment records what your skin is like on the day and sets out your options. It does not promise a result.
Why start here
A treatment chosen before anyone has looked properly at your skin is a guess, however well informed it is, and most people arrive at a clinic holding one.
Sometimes the guess is right. Sometimes it is a reasonable guess at the wrong thing, and the money and the recovery time go into a treatment that was never going to suit that particular skin.
An assessment turns the guess into a starting point. Your skin is photographed and measured, a registered medical practitioner goes through what he is looking at with you, and the conversation about treatment happens after that rather than before it.
The scanner
The clinic owns a MedSkin Scanner. It photographs your skin under a set of different lighting conditions and records a series of measurements from those images.
What it produces is a record: images and numbers, taken the same way each time, so the same measurements can be repeated at a later visit and compared against the first set.
The images are then gone through with you by Dr Valente. The scanner records; the interpretation is his, and it happens in front of you rather than in a report you are emailed afterwards.
01
Measurements of the skin surface, recorded from standardised images rather than estimated by eye.
02
How colour is distributed across the area photographed, recorded as a measurement that can be repeated later.
03
Readings taken from the skin surface at the time of the assessment.
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The same area photographed under several lighting conditions, so features that are hard to photograph under one are recorded under another.
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Counted and measured from the images rather than described in general terms.
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Everything above is recorded and kept, so a later assessment measures the same things the same way and the two can be compared.
The scanner measures and records. It does not tell you what to do about what it records. Anything that needs medical attention is dealt with separately, as a medical matter, and not as part of a cosmetic plan.
Who reads it
The equipment is the same wherever it is installed. What differs is who is reading it, and what they are allowed to do next.
At The Skin Wellness Hub your assessment is overseen by a registered medical practitioner, who reviews your medical history, asks about your medications and your health, and can act on what that history says. A treatment plan that ignores your medical history is not a plan.
Dr Pedro Valente
Registered medical practitioner, MED0001201428Specialist general practitioner (FRACGP), with substantial experience in non-surgical cosmetic proceduresThe Skin Wellness Hub, Gledswood Hills NSW
Dr Pedro Valente founded The Skin Wellness Hub to bring medical oversight to skin health and aesthetic care. He graduated in medicine (MBBS) from the University of Tasmania, has been a registered medical practitioner since 2007, and holds specialist registration in general practice as a Fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (FRACGP).
Being doctor-led means every treatment plan here starts with a medical history: your health, your medications, and anything that changes which treatments are appropriate for you. That is the difference between a clinic run by a doctor and one that only has a doctor’s name on the door.
This page was reviewed by Dr Valente in September 2026
Your assessment is a team process. Your scan and skin analysis are with one of our dermal therapists, and a doctor reviews your medical history before any treatment plan is set. Your skin treatments then continue with the dermal team, working together under Dr Valente’s clinical direction. Your plan and notes are shared across the team, so whoever you see knows your skin and your history.
Step by step
01
You describe what you have noticed and what prompted you to come in. Your medical history, medications and anything you have had done before are taken.
You leave this step with: the question written down properly
02
Your skin is photographed and measured with the scanner, under standardised conditions so the same measurements can be repeated later.
You leave this step with: a recorded baseline
03
Dr Valente goes through the images and measurements with you, in the room, and explains what he is looking at and what he is not.
You leave this step with: an explanation, not a report
04
The options are set out, including the option of doing nothing, and a plan is written for you with what comes first and what can wait.
You leave this step with: a written plan
The output
The assessment is only worth having if you leave holding something. You are given a written plan, and it is yours whether or not you book anything with us afterwards.
Afterwards
Some of the options discussed are below. Which of them comes up for you, if any, depends entirely on your own assessment. Nobody is treated on the day of a first assessment.
An injectable gel placed in the dermis, registered to promote tissue restoration and improve the appearance of the skin.
Controlled micro injury to the skin surface, given as a course rather than a single appointment.
A cleansing and hydrating treatment, often used to prepare skin for something else or to maintain it between courses.
A non injectable option, generally used alongside other treatments rather than instead of them.
Radiofrequency energy delivered through the surface of the skin, discussed for the appearance of skin laxity.
Important information
Outcomes vary between patients
An assessment records what your skin is like on the day and sets out your options. It does not promise that any treatment will produce a particular result. What is realistic for your skin is discussed with you in the appointment.
Photographs and surface measurements of your skin, taken with equipment the clinic owns, followed by a conversation with a registered medical practitioner about what has been recorded and what your options are.
Nothing is injected and nothing is applied to your skin, so the appointment does not carry the risks an injectable treatment carries. What it does carry is worth knowing before you book.
Make-up is removed from the area first, so bring what you need to put it back on. A sequence of photographs is taken while you sit still, which takes a few minutes, and the surface readings are taken at the same appointment. Most of the appointment is the conversation rather than the scan.
You go back to your usual day straight afterwards. There is nothing applied to your skin to wear off, nothing to keep clean and nothing to follow at home. What you take away is the written plan, and what to do with it is set out in it.
What an assessment produces is a record and a written plan. It describes your skin on the day it was measured. Skin changes, so the record dates, and when it is worth being measured again is discussed with you rather than stated as a general figure here.
It does not tell you what any treatment would do for you. That is discussed at the consultation for that treatment, in relation to your own assessment, and no particular outcome is promised.
Most adults who want a plan for their skin worked out from their own skin rather than from a general recommendation.
It is not suitable, or is better moved to another day, if:
Bring every medication and supplement you take to the appointment, including anything you buy without a prescription.
Suitability for any treatment is determined at an individual consultation with Dr Valente, and any treatment plan follows that assessment rather than preceding it. Nobody is treated on the day of a first assessment.
The scanner photographs and measures your skin, and Dr Valente and the team interpret those images as part of your consultation. It is a record of your skin, not a test for any condition.
The images and measurements taken are health information and are held as part of your medical record. How that record is stored, who can see it, and how you can ask for a copy are set out in the clinic’s privacy policy.
Dr Pedro ValenteRegistered medical practitioner, MED0001201428Specialist general practitioner (FRACGP), with substantial experience in non-surgical cosmetic proceduresThe Skin Wellness Hub, Gledswood Hills NSW
Questions
Cost is discussed with you when you book, and the cost of anything that follows is discussed at the assessment itself, once it is clear what you would actually be having. We do not publish prices.
Allow around 45 minutes for a first assessment. Most of that is the conversation rather than the scan.
The scan itself involves photographs and surface readings, so there are no needles and nothing is injected. You sit still for a few minutes while the images are taken.
No. The plan is yours to take away, including to a different clinic if you want a second opinion. There is no offer attached to the appointment.
Come without make-up if you can, and bring what is listed under “Who it suits, and who it does not” above. If you have had a cosmetic treatment recently, bring the details of it.
Yes. Plenty of people come for the baseline and the explanation and do nothing further, or come back and be measured again later to see what has changed.
Dr Pedro Valente, registered medical practitioner MED0001201428.
Next step
One appointment, with your skin measured and a written plan to take away. Whether anything follows it is a decision for afterwards.
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