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  • IPL Photorejuvenation Decreases the Appearance of Sun Damage
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Heather Graham: Hi, I'm Heather Graham, medical educator, also known as a laser babe, and we're here today with Dr. John Martin in beautiful South Florida with Antonio, a 39 year old Latin male, who's had a lot of sun exposure - he works in the construction industry, and he lives in a sunny climate. And, he's had some sun damage and a little bit of acne scarring. And he's the kind of a person who can't take a lot of time off work, but would like to improve the quality and the health of his skin. So I'm interested in what you're going to be doing with him today Dr. Martin.

Dr. Martin: Well, one of the things, that bothers Antonio, is he definitely has his demarcation line here. He said that in construction he wears a hat, so that the lower part of his face would be a little bit darker than the forehead. And he has a pretty sharp demarcation line here. So, what we're gonna do is a little intense buzz-light treatment. And what that would do: he still has, actually, some active acne, so that will help with that. Help to shrink the pores down. It will help to decrease the pigmentation that he has on the forehead, and just help to rejuvenate the skin. He also has some vessels here and along his nose, and it will help to decrease the appearance of the vessels. Now, he's recently started using sun block, and we're gonna..., he will continue with that, which we would strongly recommend, especially here in South Florida. And I would also start him on some sort of retina, or retinol program, just to get the skin turning over a little more rapidly, and also to help with any acne break outs that he'll have.

Heather Graham: After we do this treatment today, how long will it be, before we see a little bit of improvement in his skin?

Dr. Martin: Well, he'll see some fairly rapid improvement in the pigmentation. What should happen is some of his darker pigmentation should actually get very dark, and then just flake off. And his skin should just be more even in color, and in tone. And then, as time goes on, he'll see continued improvement in the appearance of his skin.

Graham: And the retinae, on an ongoing basis, is going to give him ongoing improvement?

Dr. Martin: Yes, definitely will help with the skin.

Graham: That's great. It's nice to be able to do all these things in one appointment, and I have to take a lot of time off work, or take time out of a busy schedule. And do you have any concerns about the fact that he does have Latin skin, that has been exposed to the sun quite a bit, so it's a little bit darker?

Dr. Martin: Well, what we're going to do is use a longer exposure time, so it will go a little bit deeper, so that we will not be using the same exposure time, that we would use on someone with very, very fair skin. It will leave it a little bit longer, and it helps to decrease any problems with the pigmentation, any burning of the skin, that could occur.

Heather Graham: Let's talk about skin type a little. On the Fitzpatrick's scale of one to six. I'm gonna put my face next to Antonio's, and we can talk about the two different skin types.

Dr. Martin: Okay, one would be the color of this paper, so Heather's about 1.1, or a 1.5, and I'd say Antonio is probably a 4, 4.5?

Heather Graham: Yes, I would agree, I would agree. Historically, we haven't been able to use some of these treatments on patients, who have both skin in that type range, and who also have this amount of photo exposure, or what we would call sun tan. So...

Dr. Martin: Right. And some of that, especially with this intense pulse light treatment, the palomar has a super cool hand piece, so this is cooling the surface of the skin. Before we had this, what would happen is the skin itself would often blister, because the skin was heating up too much, the epidermis.

Heather Graham: Yes.

Dr. Martin: And, even though we're trying to treat more deeply now, this keeps the skin cool, and then we're treating the deeper layers instead. But you can actually do it much more safely than we used to.

Heather Graham: Wonderful, so we're gonna get a lot of bang for the buck today - we're gonna be treating active acne, smoothing out some acne scarring, getting rid of some excess pigmentation, and dealing with these vessels. All with the IPL, all with one treatment. That's really nice. Okay. Thank you.

Dr. Martin: Alright.

Heather Graham: Let the games begin. Dr. Martin is using this cooling roller here, that helps make the skin a little bit more comfortable, in addition to this cooling function of the hand piece. So, it's a lot more comfortable, than procedures we were doing two years ago.

Dr. Martin: And it has a safety factor, keep the skin cool while you're doing this.

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IPL Photorejuvenation Decreases the Appearance of Sun Damage

Dr. John Martin treats a Latino male who endures regular sun exposure in his job and presents with acne scars and some ongoing acne. The Intense Light Pulse treatment, or IPL, is a great way to smooth away these noticible imperfections.