More Than a Doctor – On Being a Teacher

Doctor and Teacher

If you’ve been a patient in our office, you may feel like you just went to “skin school”. Dr. Pilest has always embraced the concept that people want to understand why they’re experiencing wrinkles, sagging, blotchy skin or veins. An educated patient is an empowered patient because prevention is a powerful tool in maintaining healthy skin.

It’s agreed that teaching something to someone else makes you better at it yourself. Very often in the process of showing or explaining what you have learned yourself, a better solution or improved process comes to light.

Professor Pilest / Student Pilest

After  more than two decades of walking alongside new Dermatology residents at UCI’s School of Dermatology, Dr. Pilest knows a few things about the power of teaching – and learning.

“The school brings in students from everywhere. The backgrounds, cultural differences and array of medical school experiences bring fertile topsoil to the growth of medicine.

It’s impossible to count the times a resident’s question has led us all to focus on finding a better answer than the one that was standard and in place. Challenge creates growth.

Those scenarios ultimately make for better care for patients, extended research for the field and higher capabilities of the doctors.”

His association in a teaching capacity is one that Dr. Pilest embraces with great enthusiasm. In demand at his dermatology practice in Irvine, he is equally in demand with the residents who take away pearls of wisdom from his nearly 40 years as a board certified dermatologist and training physician.

“It’s invigorating to speak to a room full of physicians who are either just entering the field of aesthetic medicine or expanding their services. We all have a variety of experiences that benefit one another. Sharing makes us better learners, better listeners and better doctors. No one knows it all!”

Cosmetic dermatology has leaped to the forefront in medicine. Dr. Pilest refutes the idea that cosmetic procedures are all about vanity – beyond the idea of “vanity”, the typical patient simply wants to feel better about himself or herself.

Vanity or something more important?

Self-image is an important factor in leading a successful life – both in business and on personal levels. Dr. Pilest knows that a laser treatment or a filler of even a simple injection of Botox may seem like an act of vanity, but in reality can have profound effects on supporting a healthy level self-confidence.

“Making a difference is what brought me into medicine. I love teaching. I love knowing that the young doctors under my wing will have the ability to literally change people’s lives through their skills. I love the patients who comes back beaming because their skin is clear, their worry lines smoothed and their sense of self elevated in what can be very challenging life situations. That’s the big picture – and the one that counts.”