Is laser skin resurfacing a good skin care treatment?

This would depend on what you are trying to treat - fine lines, deep lines, acne scarring, skin laxity, heavy eye lids, large pore size. There is no laser or treatment that addresses everything so thus most physicians treat in combination of procedures.

Professional advice for laser skin resurfacing

At Celibre, we believe, like Dr. Beraka, very strongly in laser resurfacing using the Sciton Profile Erbium laser. The 2940 nm wavelength is pefect for resurfacing to the exact depth (approximately 80 - 120 microns) that leads to excellent outcomes for wrinkles and acne scars with minimal redness and peeling (approximately 5-7 days). We also know that there are myriad laser options on the market, and trying to differentiate between them is very difficult at best for most consumers. Your best option as a consumer is to find a friend who has tried some form of laser resurfacing and see what they think. If their condition is similar to yours, you might just have a match. We also agree that whichever practitioner you choose, you should make sure that you get to see before-and-after pictures of similar patients. There are many practitioners in the industry who are not documenting their outcomes because they are not compelling. Stay away from those types of facilities.

The pros and cons of laser skin resurfacing

Laser resurfacing can be tricky because the more aggressive you want to be, the more potential there is for side effects like permanent lightening of the skin (hypopigmentation), darkening of the skin (hyperpigmentation), scarring, or a lot of downtime.

If I told you that we were going to improve some of those lines and that infection and other side effects could happen, you won’t be able to go outside for a couple weeks, and you won’t be able to socialize for a couple weeks, is that something you’re interested in doing?

Originally it was the CO2 laser that was used, now they’re doing some other things that are not quite as dramatic, called Fraxel. They’re not going as deep as the CO2 laser and typically are not as effective as a CO2 laser. So they’ll take you so far, but not as far as a CO2 resurfacing might be. They’re sort of playing on the same theme that people want some results, there are varying degrees of results, there are varying degrees of aggressiveness, and then what do you want as far as downtime?

People want great results and minimum downtime. And we’re trying to balance that, but you get what you pay for as they say, and that’s always a balance of what I’m trying to figure out with a patient.

Initially, I used a lot of the agressive resurfacing lasers, but the downtime was just too much for people. Now I find that we’re doing more lower-dosage lasers. Low-dosage lasers offer some improvement for some of the finer lines.

So its really that combination approach.  We’re not going too deep, there’s less chance of infection and side effects, and it’s good for some of those mild to moderate wrinkles, but it’s not going to touch the deeper wrinkles, like some of the more aggressive techniques would be.

Guidelines for laser skin resurfacing

• This really depends why one is considering laser resurfacing. You want to make sure that your expectations are realistic and that resurfacing is appropriate for your skin care concern.

• You want to make sure that you see a board certified dermatologist or plastic surgeon, and you have had an appropriate consultation and you feel comfortable with their recommendations.

• Additionally, if possible, you want to see before and after pictures of their work. The main thing though, is to make sure that resurfacing is appropriate.

Laser skin resurfacing for eye wrinkles

Laser resurfacing is a great procedure for improving wrinkles in the lower eyelids. Tiny wrinkles, which appear in the lower eyelids, can be reduced with laser resurfacing or medium depth peels.