What is Laser Resurfacing?
Laser resurfacing is a cosmetic procedure that uses lasers to improve the appearance and texture of the skin by removing the damaged outer layers and stimulating collagen production. This technique can address various skin conditions and imperfections such as acne scars, dark circles, wrinkles, and sun damage.
Am I a Good Candidate?
- Fair to Medium Skin Tones:Typically respond well to laser resurfacing with a lower risk of pigmentation changes.
- Dark Skin Tones:Can be treated but require careful consideration and expertise to avoid complications like hyperpigmentation or hypopigmentation.
- Fine Lines and Wrinkles:Especially effective around the eyes, mouth, and forehead.
- Acne Scars:Both ablative and non-ablative lasers can significantly improve the appearance of acne scars.
- Sun Damage and Age Spots:Laser resurfacing can reduce pigmentation and improve overall skin tone.
- Non-Smokers:Smoking can impair healing and reduce the effectiveness of the treatment.
- No Active Skin Infections or Conditions:Conditions like eczema or active acne should be treated before undergoing laser resurfacing.
- Understanding the Procedure:Awareness of the treatment process, including potential discomfort and recovery time.
- Following Post-Treatment Instructions:Adherence to aftercare guidelines provided by the practitioner to ensure optimal healing and results.
Benefits:
- Effective in minimizing the appearance of fine lines, especially around the eyes and mouth.
- Enhances skin smoothness and firmness, giving the skin a more youthful appearance.
- Reduces the depth and visibility of acne scars, leading to a more even skin surface.
- Addresses sun spots, age spots, and other pigmentation problems, resulting in a more uniform skin tone.
- Promotes the natural production of collagen, which is essential for maintaining skin elasticity and firmness.
- Offers significant results with less invasiveness compared to surgical procedures.
- Different types of lasers (ablative and non-ablative) can be tailored to specific skin conditions and patient needs, allowing for personalized treatment plans.
- Non-ablative treatments require little to no downtime, making them convenient for individuals with busy schedules.
- Leaves skin looking brighter, healthier, and rejuvenated.
More Details:
At Skin Experts, our team, led by Dr Touma, a laser surgeon and reference in the field, uses lasers to treat many difficult conditions precisely and safely. Our advanced experience with lasers allows us to go farther than most laser users, and is one of the skills that separate us from general dermatologists. Just like a paint brush, we use different lasers to remove red vessels and pigment or resurface skin, no matter how delicate the area, or the age of the patient is. Common conditions like acne, dark circles, eyelids wrinkles are some of the difficult conditions we regularly treat with laser.
Laser resurfacing removes the damaged top layer of the skin and stimulates collagen synthesis to reveal a healthier-looking shining skin. There are two basic types of laser resurfacing: ablative and non-ablative.
Ablative
Ablative laser resurfacing is done to precisely reverse sun damaged skin, remove deep scars from surgery, accidents or acne, or to reduce deep lines, especially around the eyelids and mouth. The laser is performed with topical anesthesia, and is followed by some redness, bruising and swelling for 3-5 days. The results are more dramatic than the non-ablative laser or any chemical peel, and because of the deeper penetration there is dramatic firming of the skin in addition to the impressive surface improvement.
Non-Ablative
These lasers are preferred for its no-down-time, firming of fine wrinkles, skin laxity, stretch marks, pores, and treating soft acne scars. The laser emits an intense beam of light to heat the underlying dermal layer of the skin without directly affecting the top epidermis layer of the skin. The treated area may be red for 1-2 hours and needs to be protected from sun for a few days. The outcome is new production of collagen, the matrix of the skin, and improvement of the skin texture and fine lines and the rolling scars of acne. Using the appropriate lasers, we have also been able to achieve dramatic results for laxity, stretch marks and loose skin of the abdomen. Our favorite area to treat is the eyelids, that often show significant tightening in a single session.
We recommend a series of 3-4 treatments of 2-4 week intervals in order to obtain the desired result. Patients are asked to refrain from smoking, follow high protein diet, and apply a vitamin C serum. All skin types including patients with dark skin can be treated with this modality.
