Fraxel Laser
Fraxel Laser Treatment
Youthful skin is smooth, plump skin without wrinkles, bumps, spots, scars. The pores are small, almost invisible. Over time, with continued sun exposure, gravity, repetitive muscle action, smoking, environmental toxins, a glycemic diet, weight fluctuations and hormonal changes, your skin begins to change. Lines develop, brown spots and broken blood vessels appear, pores enlarge, bumps and rough spots appear and skin develops a faint yellowish thickened stiff appearance. Light doesn't reflect as well giving a dull appearance with loss of glow. If you pinch it, it bounces back sluggishly as elasticity decreases.
When this occurs, laser skin resurfacing can help restore smooth youthful skin by reducing etched wrinkles, spots, bumpy surface, and enlarged pore size. Fraxel Laser Treatment improves mild to moderate wrinkles, sun damage, surface irregularities, blotchy pigment, age spots, acne scarring, surgical scarring, large pores, and stretch marks. Skin is smoother, less wrinkled and more refined with smaller pore size.
Fraxel re:store Laser Resurfacing
Fraxel re:store Laser Treatment (FLT) is a "fractional" treatment that treats a fraction of the skin at a time by creating thousands of deep, tiny treated channels in the skin surrounded by untreated skin. The natural healing process produces new collagen and healthy skin cells. It allows safer treatment with much less risk of scarring and permanent pigment change than older laser resurfacing methods, but requires more than one treatment to achieve best results.
Fraxel re:store Benefits
Fraxel re:store Laser Treatment fits in well with a busy lifestyle. More aggressive, single session laser treatments have a 1-3 week healing time and may have blistering, crusting, peeling and redness during that time. With Fraxel re:store healing time is significantly reduced; there is minimal downtime. Procedures are done in the office, and do not require general anesthesia or injection nerve blocks. Most patients return to activities the same day.
Fractional laser treatments were designed to allow treatment of other areas in addition to facial resurfacing. Skin on the neck, chest, arms and hands do not heal as quickly or as well as skin on the face after any procedure. More aggressive, single session laser resurfacing carries a significant risk of scarring and permanent pigment changes in these areas. Because the tiny treatment channels are surrounded by normal skin, these risks are significantly reduced, allowing eyelids, neck, chest, arms and hands to be resurfaced safely. By treating eyelids, neck and chest as well as the face, a complete resurfacing is achieved without demarcation between "old" and "new" skin, giving a uniform rejuvenated result.
About Fraxel re:store Laser Treatment
Fraxel re:store Laser Treatment— improves sun damage, mild to moderate wrinkles, large pores, bumpy skin, pigment problems, and acne scarring. Increases skin smoothness. In addition to the face, the eyelids, neck, chest, hands and all skin types may be treated.
Number of Treatments— usually 3 to 5 sessions, spaced 4 to 6 weeks apart.
Discomfort— surface numbing cream, oral pain or anxiety medications reduce discomfort.
Time to See Results— improvement starts to be visible in 1-2 months.
Duration of Results— much of the results are permanent.
Recovery Time/Side Effects— there is minimal downtime. Some patients return to routine activities the same day of treatment. Swelling and redness are the most common side effects, subsiding within a day or two. For 24 hours skin feels sunburned and will appear pink. Make-up can be worn to reduce pink color. Skin naturally bronzes over the next week and then is shed in a fine, powdery exfoliation.