Skin Resurfacing

Skin Resurfacing

Am I a good candidate?

Skin rejuvenation and resurfacing procedures can be laser, intense pulsed light treatments, and chemical peels of various strengths.
 
Laser resurfacing can improve the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles of the entire face, or those that develop in specific regions of the face, such as the upper lip and around the eyes.   Careful consideration of your natural skin color and type will determine the treatment best suited for you to minimize the risk of developing additional pigmentation or loss of pigmentation.

Resurfacing, whether with cosmetic pharmaceutical agents available in the medical office or a surgical procedure like a full face laser resurfacing addresses the fine line wrinkles, mottled skin tones and roughened textures from aging or sun damage.  This is a spectrum or array of approaches that are individualized to the individual needs of the patient.
 

What does the surgery do?

A chemical peel or laser resurfacing is done to localized areas of the face or to the entire face.   The latter requires a general anesthetic. The former is oftentimes done combined with other facial aesthetic operations, such as a facelift or blepharoplasty. It removes the surface layer of the skin so therefore requires one to two weeks of recovery.
 

What does it not do?

Lasers or peels do not reverse the aging gravitational changes of the face like loose skin in the neck or jowls in the cheek, nor the overhanging skin and bags of eyelids.
 

What can I expect afterwards?

Whether peels or lasers, the result requires some type of superficial injury to the skin and its resultant healing which contracts, smoothes textures and homogenates color within the structures of the skin itself. It is therefore like recovering from bad sunburn.  It is basically a type of thermal or chemical injury to the skin. It takes a good week for the surfaces to heal, and several more weeks for normal skin color to return from a very pink color. Makeup can be applied after the first week, making going out in public possible. The results are often very dramatic and are very long lived, and seldom is it necessary to repeat the procedure, even after many years.

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