Beauty Doc Blog

Skin resurfacing is a wonderful way to bring your natural beauty back to the surface.  Skin resurfacing helps to smooth the skin’s texture by bringing even pigmentation, minimizing the appearance of wrinkles and reducing acne scarring.

A variety of techniques may be referred to as skin “resurfacing”.  The common bond they have have is removing the outer skin layers, which results in smoother, tighter skin after healing.  The skin removal process stimulates the body to form new collagen elastic fibers, which were broken down and lost during the aging process.

Popular resurfacing techniques include a laser peel and a chemical peel, which each process having its own benefits and complications.  A Phenol chemical peel is quite effective at smoothing skin.  When light energy provided by a machine, such as a CO2 resurfacing laser, it is referred to as lasering.  Which process is used depends on the patient’s skin time, the severity of uneven pigmentation, the depti of skin imperfections and the extent of damage from UV rays.  Patients will undergo a physical examination by a plastic surgeon to determine the right procedure for their unique needs.

Laser actually stands for the acronym “light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation”.  This generic word refers to many different kinds of lasers, which are too numerous to list.  Often resurfacing lasers are used by the majority of plastic surgeons for the treatment of both coarse and fine skin wrinkles, abnormal pigmentation, precancerous sun damaged skin and acne scarring.  This method is particularly popular because it is more controlled and precise than dermabrasion and deep chemical peels.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) resurfacing is used to smooth the skin by delivering rapid, short bursts of laser energy to the surface skin cells to vaporize them.  The pinpoint accuracy of this laser allows the plastic surgeon to remove one layer at a time to get rid of freckles, sun damage and brown spots while minimize wrinkles and stimulating the body to product new elastic collagen fibers to tighten the skin. The procedure can be performed as an outpatient or patients can spend a night in aftercare facilities.

Healing after a CO2 laser usually takes about 2 weeks and then makeup can be applied again.  Ointments are applied during the healing process and there is minimal pain.  Once healed, the skin has a flawlessly smooth texture and deep wrinkles are noticeably reduced.   Treated skin may be reddish for around 4 to 6 months then fade to a shade lighter than the surrounding skin.   While there are some risks, laser resurfacing offers one of the most dramatic rejuvenating effects to minimize wrinkles and get rid of embarrassing acne scarring.