Dr. Anais Aurora Badia

While she was training for her residency, Dr. Anais Aurora Badia spent about a year and a half planning to open her own dermatology practice.

That was 20 years ago.

Two decades later, Florida Skin Center is still going strong with no signs of slowing down any time soon.

Originally from Miami, Badia saw that at the time there was a big need for dermatologists in Southwest Florida.

She’d call ahead and find out that appointments were six months out.

“And there weren’t a lot of female dermatologists at that time,” she said. “And no pediatric dermatologists. And not a lot who were bilingual who also spoke Spanish.”

Before opening Florida Skin Center, Badia called patients to schedule appointments while she was in school in New York.

It paid off.

On her first day, she already had 13 patients in the books.

Fast-forward 20 years later and Florida Skin Center has offices in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Lehigh Acres and Punta Gorda.

The Fort Myers office is at 13691 Metropolis Ave. and the Cape Coral location is at 4037 Del Prado Blvd., S.

The practice specializes in things like mole removal, a full body skin exam, pediatric dermatology, acne treatment, eczema treatment, scar removal and more.

Badia’s favorite part about what she does is that she gets to make a difference in a patient’s life.

“Dermatology is a very visual field,” she said. “It’s nice to make an impact really quickly. If I have a patient with a bad rash or eczema, something that’s impacted them for a long time, to be able to say a week or a couple of months makes a difference to where they feel significant relief.

“Just helping people with a condition they’re having, making an impact visually for them,” she said.

This could be something like helping a teenager with their self-esteem.

Badia also enjoys solving challenging cases.

“Something someone has struggled with for a while, to be able to find answers,” she said. “(It) gives me lots of satisfaction to be able to make that breakthrough to where they find the answer.”

Skin cancer is one of the most common types of cancer. About one in five people will develop some type of skin cancer.

And the Florida heat doesn’t help.

“It’s not necessarily life threatening,” Badia said. “But it’s a pretty high statistic.”

That’s why it’s important to come in and get a skin check.

“We really can look at them in detail and detect things at an earlier stage,” she said. “The sooner we take care of it, the better.”

Florida Skin Center can also help with hair and skin issues like hair loss and fungus of the nails.

For a full list of services, visit its website at www.floridaskincenter.com.

Badia enjoys working with patients in general.

The staff at Florida Skin Center is known for going above and beyond for their patients.

“We try to put ourselves in their situation,” she said. “Whether it’s facing a challenging insurance issue or having a challenging situation or having trouble with whatever it is, we do go out of our way to really fix the problem for them.

“We are grateful people are there and we try to show it.”

Badia said it’s meant a lot to be part of the Southwest Florida community for the past two decades.

“I feel so grateful that the community accepted me,” she said. “It just seemed like a perfect fit. I was able to raise my family here. It means something really special to be part of a community that really has embraced me.

“And I loved to give back to them because I’m so appreciative of everything.”