Laser Skin Resurfacing

Hi, my name is Barbara. I’m a physician assistant at Sand Plastic Surgery, and I just wanted to hop on today and talk a little bit about overall skin health and how we can support our skin as it ages, to help reduce fine lines and wrinkles, pigment changes, reduce any scarring from the past related to acne or injury, and then also to just help rejuvenate overall so that as we age whatever modalities you’re using we can supplement them by ensuring that your skin is supporting them.

So a couple of different things that we wanted to talk about today is skin resurfacing. So there’s a lot of different ways to do skin resurfacing.

Over time we’ve developed more and more technologies that are becoming more specific to different concerns and they’re becoming safer, better quality of treatment. And so I’m really excited today to talk to you about ablative and non-ablative treatments. So we carry about four or five different lasers here at Sand Plastic Surgery.

Hybrid Laser

Some of my favorite ones combine the modalities of ablative and non-ablative therapy. And what that means is that you are getting ablative treatment, which is actually taking some of the top layers off. So you’re really working on removing some of that dead, old stuff, working on really rejuvenating and reducing fine lines and wrinkles and some of that top pigment issue.

But at the same time, we’re treating to a deeper level with heat. This injury – is what it is – helps stimulate collagen and elastin to come in and rejuvenate the area. So you can get tightening of the skin, reduction in some of those deeper scar and acne scarring from hopefully the past, aren’t still struggling with acne, and if you are, let us know.

But they can go in and use both modalities to rejuvenate and refurbish almost so that you can have new glowing look but also reduction in some of those aging things that can become apparent over time to everybody. Don’t worry. You are not alone. So That’s one way that we look at treating them.

Erbium Laser

Another device that we have in the office is the Erbium laser, which is wonderful.

It is an ablative only therapy, but it is highly tailorable to everyone’s needs. So you can change the depth that you’re using this therapy to. Which can help with just a quick over the weekend downtime resurfacing, or looking for something that’s really going to get into some of those deeper lines, maybe some really deep acne scarring from years before.

That type of laser takes a bit longer to recover from because we’re taking off so many layers, but it gives amazing results. You can see just a turning back of the clock with that type of laser. So that’s a more in-depth laser, but also gives you greater results based on how much, how deep you’re going into the tissues.

Where do I start?

All of our lasers in office do require a consultation with a health care provider. So myself, Brittany Martin, who’s our nurse practitioner here, or Dr. Sand, who does some of our really deep laser resurfacing. That consultation appointment is really just discussing with you what you’re looking for, like what you want for results so that we can tailor it, but also looking at the safety profile what would be the best option for you?

Some skin types are safer with different lasers, or if you have some sort of underlying medical disease, like is this the right fit for getting you the results you’re hoping with a safe safety practice profile, just things to consider. So we like to really sit down, go over all of that. Also discuss thoroughly, like what this looks like as far as, getting ready for the laser. What do you need to do beforehand? What do we need to do beforehand? And then what the appointment will look like and what your recovery will look like. So we like to have a really thorough conversation with our clients regarding that whole process. So that you feel very informed and we know that we’ve given you all the information we can give you.

What is the procedure like?

And then after that, we would have you schedule your laser appointment and we would see you back that day. We do an hour long topical numbing in clinic and then following that we do have some other comfort modalities we can offer if you need them. They include but are not limited to a sedative, Pronox, which is nitrous oxide that we can utilize during the procedure, or we also use like a cooling device that really helps with comfort as the laser’s working.

So there’s multiple options of things that can be done to assist in that process and help it make it a more pleasurable experience. But that’s part of the things we tailor ahead of time, so we know what to expect. The actual treatment time for this procedure, whether it’s, the combination ablative, non-ablative, or just the full-ablative laser, about 30 minutes total.

And then following that, we help with some of the cooling. Your face is pretty warm for a couple of hours afterwards. And then most of my clients have said after that, it just feels tight and a little itchy as it’s starting to heal. But that is a longer process, depending on which which modality you go with.

So our laser recovery times can be anywhere from four days to three weeks, depending on the depth of that and what we’re trying to target. So it’s just something to be aware of.

What are the benefits?

Our combination, non-ablative and ablative laser, the best benefits I see are just like an overall skin rejuvenation. It’s one of our lower downtime lasers.

Most people can do it on a Thursday or so, and then about four days later, they’ll have some pigment things, but really you can get back to activity, which is really nice. It is definitely going to give you the glow. Can help with fine lines and wrinkles and overall some skin tightening, which is wonderful.

It does help bring some pigment to the surface and your body breaks that down and then it goes away. So we’re working on fine lines and wrinkles, reduction of pigment in the skin, and then overall skin rejuvenation, just bringing in all that collagen and elastin and some tightening. So those are the focal points, I would say, of that laser.

It can help some with acne scarring. I do believe that our fully-ablative laser at deeper depths can target that a little bit better. So that’s something I always really like to clarify with people.

Benefits of the full resurfacing laser. Like I said with this one, the fully-ablative resurfacing laser, you can go from a weekend downtime to several weeks of recovery depending on the depth that you tailor that to.

And it really depends on what you’re trying to target. So benefits of that, you can just go from lots of sun damage, wrinkles, all that kind of stuff to baby skin, depending on what your end goals are and how much improvement you’re looking for. So that definitely is going to again, treat the pigment, the fine lines and wrinkles.

And then that one can be a more aggressive treatment for some of the deeper scarring, whether that’s related to trauma, or acne, or any other type of injury. So just something to consider on that end. But definitely like I’ve seen some of our clients go from feeling like their skin ages them 10 years to looking like they lost 10 years off their actual age.

It’s been a, a really, really great tool to have at our office to help people get to where they feel that they’re beautiful.

Learn more…

So if this is something that you’re interested in learning more about, if it’s something where you’ve been looking in the mirror and thinking, gosh, I just really wish there was some way to treat this scar, these wrinkles around my mouth that are stubborn. Or you’re looking at pigment issues that you’ve tried other things on and they just aren’t working, then this might be the right option for you. So we’d love to see you and talk about it. Our phone number here for scheduling an appointment is (509) 324-2980, or you’re welcome to email us at info@sandplasticsurgery.com and we’ll give you a call to get things scheduled. It’s been a pleasure chatting with you today. And if you have any other questions, you can always hit me up on Instagram @BarbaraSandPA