Should I get laser resurfacing?
As we often say, the key to receiving excellent results from cosmetic treatments is making sure that the treatment is customized to your needs and powerful without being over aggressive. For a procedure to be beneficial, flexibility is essential. If your doctor cannot tailor the procedure to your needs, it is likely to be either relatively ineffective or cause problems.
Forms of laser resurfacing are appealing to many doctors because they are easy to learn the public’s infatuation with lasers make the services easy to market. In fact, surgeons can be trained in a two-day course on how to use a laser while it can take two years of intense fellowship to understand the art and versatility of the chemical peel. The chemical peel is complex and adaptable, but after spending $150,000 on a laser, a doctor will want to recoup these costs and will have little incentive to offer laser resurfacing alternatives.
Superficial Improvements
There are several facial laser treatment problems, one being that you may pay a lot for an expensive technology that doesn’t make a meaningful difference in your appearance.
The cost of this expensive technology is passed onto you, the client, which is fair, but it can mean that results are disappointing when you consider the price you pay. For example, Fraxel laser treatments are considered very mild. They do freshen up your complexion but will you be disappointed with the results if you don’t make enough progress in tightening the skin or providing dramatic improvements?
Laser peels are also usually performed with an erbium laser, and they are considered so mild that the treatment is rendered superficial, producing results comparable to microdermabrasion. While this provides minimal improvement, the machine is still very costly, and you will have to pay a lot for this type of service. Fractional C02 laser resurfacing achieves results that are similar to light chemical peels and certainly much more effective than microdermabrasion. Again how you feel about the improvement has to be balanced against what you have had to pay for the service.
Side Effects from Overagressive Treatments
Deep CO2 laser resurfacing has fallen out of fashion because of the negative experience many have had healing from these treatments. Before considering such a treatment it’s important to understand the real risk that your skin will suffer from permanent depigmentation, and that the scarring caused by such treatments will likely affect the texture of your face. This is because the treatment depth needed to improve deep facial lines makes post laser resurfacing scars, particularly skin texture changes, relatively common. In fact these types of skin texture changes and skin depigmentation are so common that many surgeons think that this is the expected outcome of the service! This creates a permanent unnatural color change in the skin. Will this type of change be worth living with? For many younger individuals, the answer is no. However, some older women who rely on foundation to improve the tone of the complexion may find that it is not a problem to continue the use of foundation to add color to the face after deep CO2 laser and appreciate the improvement in facial lines.
Facial laser procedures began as a promising technology that some even believed would replace the time tested and reliable chemical peel, but now we are seeing that the technology has ultimately been a disappointment. In order to achieve line improvement with laser resurfacing, the unwanted treatment side effects are unavoidable. With other kinds of laser, we see that the laser peel is so mild that the improvements, for many, are not worth the financial costs. These problems can be traced back to the inflexibility of laser treatments making them suitable for treating a narrow range of complexion issues.
Laser Resurfacing vs. Chemical Peel
A chemical peel has the ability to rejuvenate your skin and restore your face’s youthful appearance through a carefully designed treatment plan. Chemical peels are truly an art form with many options that make your treatment customizable and safe, and they’ve been the preferred facial resurfacing method for much longer than laser treatments have been available. There is still a very small chance of change in pigmentation, but when we look at the chemical peel vs. laser treatment we see that the chemical peel is less likely to produce unwanted skin color and texture problems. However, due to the experience and level of skill needed to perform this procedure, only a very limited number of surgeons are truly qualified to perform these procedures
You need an expert in chemical peels.
Dr. Steinsapir is a considered a master chemical peeler who is able to custom-tailor a peel to your unique needs. He specializes in achieving natural results with little down time by using minimally invasive procedures like the chemical peel. It is his philosophy to approach your needs on an individual basis and then carefully plan your treatment. Because Dr. Steinsapir never standardizes cosmetic treatments into a cookie-cutter, assembly-line approach, he can help you achieve benefits that work just right for you. Please contact us today to learn more about how a chemical peel or another option can achieve your personal goals.
