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Laser
resurfacing (or laser peel, laser rejuvenation,
laser surgery), is the act of using an erbium,
carbon dioxide (CO2), or other laser to
remove wrinkles, discolorations, age spots,
and sun damaged skin or stimulate your body's
fibroblasts to "grow" collagen
to treat the wrinkle from within. The laser
is passed over the treatment area to eradicate
wrinkles around the eyes and mouth or anywhere
on the face that you have unsightly lines,
hyperpigmentation or blemishes. Lasers are
an effective way to remove those superficial
lines that make you appear aged. Plus, laser
resurfacing is a considered a safer, less
invasive procedure say than deep TCA peels
or Dermabrasion. However, laser resurfacing
is not for everyone.
Resurfacing
with a laser is considered ablative (such
as erbium or CO2) and non-ablative lasers
(NLite) are basically thermescent fibroblast
stimulators that treat a wrinkle from
the inside out rather than literally removing
it. Ablate literally means to "remove"
[: to remove esp. by cutting, abrading,
or evaporating]. Non-ablative being that
there is no "resurfacing", per
se, but rather the heat-induced fibroblast
stimulation to thicken the underlying
collagen structure. With ablative lasers,
the skin surface will appear red and weep
afterwards as the top layer(s) has been
removed. With the non-ablative there is
little downtime, perhaps just a little
swelling or pinkness.
I believe that
the best laser for resurfacing today is
the dual mode erbium laser. There is less
redness and less chance of hypopigmentation
in comparison to the CO2 laser.
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