Cosmetic Surgery Procedure, Laser Resurfacing

One popular use of lasers in cosmetic surgery is the practice called Laser Resurfacing. According to cosmetic surgery rancho cucamonga centers, laser resurfacing is a technique used during laser surgery wherein molecular bonds of a material are dissolved by a laser. It is used for the treatment of wrinkles, solar lentigenes, sun damage, scars, stretch marks, actinic keratosis, and telangiectasias or "spider veins". It's a popular cosmetic surgery procedure because it can be used in conjunction with liposuction. The skin may be wrinkled after fat is removed and laser resurfacing can help tighten and smoothen skin over the new contours. So how is this done?

Process of Laser Resurfacing

Laser resurfacing is usually done with an Er:YAG 2940nm wavelength or CO2 10,600nm wavelength laser. Complete resurfacing was first done with a CO2 laser. More commonly now, a laser resurfacing is done with a fractional laser. The term fractional pertains to the method in which the laser light is transferred. Tiny pinpoints of laser light are used to deliver the laser to the surface of the skin in only a fraction of the area. Several hundreds or thousands of pinpoints may be used per square inch, leaving healthy skin in between the ablated areas. This is intended to allow more rapid healing and less risk.

One of the newest types of laser resurfacing used by cosmetic surgery rancho cucamonga centers are Radio Frequency (Syneron Matrix RF), Erbium (Er:YAG) Fractional (Sciton Profractional) and CO2 fractional (Fraxel Repair) lasers. These were developed to remove skin more precisely, layer by layer, using very short pulsed light energy or continuous light beams that are delivered in a scanning pattern to remove thin layers of skin with minimal heat damage to the surrounding structures.
Other Forms of Skin Resurfacing

Skin resurfacing can also be performed with a plasma based device instead of a laser. At least one manufacturer of such a plasma device claims "It's the only treatment proven to generate new skin - at the fundamental levels - for as long as a year after treatment". However these claims do not have supporting evidence published in a peer reviewed medical journal, and have not been verified by any independently funded studies. Superiority to laser-based devices remains an open question.
Risks of Laser Resurfacing
According to cosmetic surgery rancho cucamonga specialists, CO2 laser resurfacing has been shown to have an increased risk of hypo pigmentation and scarring when compared to the erbium lasers. This is due to the high degree of coagulation and thus heat production that occurs as a nature of the Co2 wavelength. Both Erbium and Co2 fractional systems have a better safety profile than lasers of the past.