The Centre, P.C. - Plastic Surgery Blog

How Lasers can Rejuvenate the Skin - Friday, November 07, 2008

The goal of all skin rejuvenating procedures is to stimulate the skin to replace old cells with new, tighter cells throughout the skin's epidermis (surface layer) and dermis (middle layer).

Collagen and elastin are two fibrous proteins which weave together in the dermis, forming a supportive matrix for the skin's surface. With aging, the production of new collagen and elastin cells slows down. The matrix weakens and forms little gaps, and this contributes to wrinkles.

What is a Laser?

Lasers are lights that are man-made for specific purposes. They are classified according to the medium used to make them: gas lasers, solid state lasers, semi-conductor lasers etc. Each type of laser has a specific wavelength, corresponding to a specific color. The light travels in a parallel, directional fashion unlike a flashlight, for example, which scatters light. Lasers can be pinpoint-tiny in their focus because they keep their light waves coherent.

How the Skin Laser Works

Medical lasers are cooler and do not harm the body. For skin rejuvenation, there are five types of lasers used. We use a pulsed carbon dioxide laser, which is infrared (invisible beyond the red end of the color spectrum). It targets water in and between the skin cells. In pulses of less than one millisecond, it vaporizes water with its heat, never burning because a millisecond is so short.

It is passed over the treatment area with a certain amount of overlapping each pass until the entire area is stimulated.

Recovery

Recovery time depends on how deeply the laser work was done. There will be some redness and puffiness and the skin will peel, sloughing off many more cells than it normally would have. In that process, scar cells and over-pigmented cells are discarded and replaced with young, tighter cells. This makes the skin smoother and more evenly-colored. Fresh surface cells rise to the top layer and increased collagen and elastin production strengthens the supportive matrix.

The end result is skin that is more youthful, more refreshed and less marred by sun damage, wrinkles or scarring. Depending on the exact type of work done, several treatments in a series may give the best results.

To learn more about laser skin rejuvenation please contact our office. We will schedule a personal consultation for you where you can have all your questions answered.