Our skin expert Dr. Buder-Bakhaya 
We are pleased to have Dr. Buder-Bakhaya as an expert at our side, with whose help we can provide you with reliable and valuable tips as well as background information on various skin topics.
Dr. Buder-Bakhaya, please introduce yourself briefly to our readers.
My name is Kristina Buder-Bakhaya. I was born in Dresden in 1982, am married and have two sons. I like to travel, play music and keep myself fit with hiking and swimming.
What do you do for a living? What qualifications have you had?
I am a specialist in dermatology, venereology, and allergy. I completed my medical studies at the Technical University of Dresden, in Boston (Harvard Medical School) and New York (Mount Sinai School of Medicine). Subsequently, I received my doctorate in Dresden on the subject of psoriasis, after that I went to the University Dermatology Clinic in Würzburg for residency training. I was active in clinical research and wrote scientific publications and also patient information materials. After my residency, I moved to the University Dermatology Clinic Heidelberg (National Center for Tumor Diseases). Since 2018, I have been working in a dermatological practice in Mannheim, Germany, where I cover the entire spectrum of dermatology and allergology as well as aesthetic dermatology.
You are a dermatologist. What exactly does that mean? What does a dermatologist do?
As a dermatologist, I treat patients from birth to old age with all diseases of the skin. This includes the therapy of all skin diseases externally and also internally, operative dermatology, especially with the therapy of skin tumors, laser medicine as well as aesthetic dermatology. In addition, as an allergist, I am responsible for allergies that affect the skin but also the upper respiratory tract and the eyes.
Why did you choose this area of expertise?
During my studies, I was initially interested in internal medicine, especially rheumatology and endocrinology. However, after a few internships, I was very taken with dermatology, as I also needed a lot of knowledge about internal diseases, but in addition, many other aspects such as tumor therapy, surgical dermatology and allergology were included in the work spectrum.
What do you particularly like about your profession? What makes the profession as a dermatologist so exciting?
First and foremost, I appreciate the thematic diversity of my specialty. In addition, I enjoy working with patients, take them and their problems seriously and try to provide comprehensive information about their disease and the therapy. A great advantage in dermatology is that patients usually see or feel their disease themselves and come to me with a concrete wish: appearance-free, healthy skin. Therefore, I can make many patients happy when the skin problem disappears or at least becomes invisible under therapy.
I also appreciate the variety in my profession: from treating healthy people, for example in skin cancer screening or in aesthetic dermatology, to treating chronically ill and skin cancer patients.
What are the daily challenges in your job?
Many skin diseases are genetically determined and therefore cannot be “treated away”, but can only be brought under control by continuous therapy. It is crucial that doctor and patient pull together and understand each other, even if it is difficult and the therapy is not immediately successful. The challenge is also to motivate patients to “stick with it”.
What do your patients deal with on a daily basis? What problems do they come to you with?
The most common inflammatory skin diseases in the doctor’s office are atopic eczema in all its different manifestations, hand eczema, psoriasis, rosacea (couperose), bacterial, viral and fungal infections. Many skin-healthy patients come for skin cancer screening, i.e. to check their moles and prevent the development of white and black skin cancer. If I find something suspicious during skin cancer screening, I remove it in an outpatient surgical procedure under local anesthesia. Benign, disturbing skin changes can often be removed gently with modern laser procedures. Another steadily growing area is aesthetic dermatology with botulinum toxin and filler treatments as well as chemical peels.
