The best treatment option for resurfacing moderate-to-severe sun damaged skin utilizes the Carbon Dioxide laser. The laser seals tiny capillaries and lymph vessels, decreasing post treatment swelling. Additionally, the laser can be programmed to reach a predictable depth. The regenerating skin is smoother, more uniform in color, more elastic and thicker. The collagen fibers actually tighten, resulting in a mini-lift to the face. Another added and very important benefit to laser resurfacing is the removal of pre-cancerous skin lesions (actinic keratosis).
Laser resurfacing is not painful, but it will require a recovery period of ten days to two weeks, in which your participation is necessary. By the end of your second recovery week, hypo-allergenic make-up can be worn. Most people are comfortable returning to their daily social activities by two weeks. Following the immediate post operative period, your new skin will be thin and have a pinkish hue, however, over the next three months as it thickens your wrinkles will continue to diminish as will this color. To maintain the healthy benefits of the regenerated skin, patients should dedicate themselves to an extended skin care program. Sunscreen is mandatory in the postoperative period and probably a good habit to continue. Our certified estheticians, who are skin care specialists, will advise the best long-term treatment program for maintaining your new, healthy skin.
The best candidate for laser resurfacing is a physically healthy man or woman who is realistic in their expectations and interested in improving the appearance of facial wrinkles and sun-damaged skin. The procedure may be performed in a hospital, an outpatient surgical center, or in a surgeon's office-based facility, and can take anywhere from a few minutes to one and a half hours to complete, depending on the size of the area treated. Local anesthesia combined with sedation is most often used, though more extensive resurfacing procedures may be performed with general anesthesia. The potential risks associated with laser resurfacing include the following: burns or other heat-related injuries, cold sores, infection, lightening or darkening of the skin,
and scarring.
|
