Dr. Shanthala Shivananjappa

Dr. Shanthala Shivananjappa founded ShanthalaMD Laser & Aesthetic Center in Peabody, where she works as the physician. She holds an MD and is board-certified. She is Harvard-Yale trained. Her medical training covers anesthesiology and intensive care, and she took the Harvard Laser and Aesthetic Skin Course. Before moving into aesthetics she worked as a staff anesthesiologist at MGH, Yale and other Boston-area hospitals, and she was once an assistant professor at Yale. She holds academic and clinical appointments at Yale and Harvard-affiliated hospitals. She has over 30 years of medical experience. Her earlier anesthesia work included ultrasound-guided regional blocks and perioperative pain management. She started practicing aesthetic medicine after studying laser technology and non-surgical aesthetics. Her focus areas include laser coring with the UltraClear laser, including UltraClear Laser-Coring Boston, a procedure she performs herself. She also works with CO2 and Fraxel lasers, precision injectables, acne scar remodeling, skin tightening and regenerative aesthetic care. At a conference she presented a retrospective review of ten patients who received 2910 nm laser tissue coring for atrophic acne scarring in patients with darker skin. She plans 2910 nm coring for melanin-rich skin with the aim of limiting tissue injury, using its micro-injury pattern and adjustable coagulation, and she takes a conservative, precise approach to darker skin. Her training in treating skin of color has shaped her work, and Skin of Color education (@skinofcolorupdate) was formative in that learning. She speaks at international aesthetic medicine meetings, including IMCAS Paris, IMCAS Asia, IMCAS America and Dubai Derma. She is a member of the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery, where she has had poster abstracts accepted, and she has published perspectives on exosomes and wound healing in the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology. Patients come to the Peabody practice from the North Shore, Greater Boston and abroad. Consultations review case studies and set expectations, and she may advise against treatment when it isn't needed.