Better Skin at Laser Speed

With summer just around the corner and the heat quickly rising, many of us are thinking about how we can protect our skin from UV damage. For most adults, the real problem is that the damage they sustained years ago is making its way to the surface. We like to blame the natural aging process for the development of spots and splotches on the skin, for fine lines and wrinkles, large pores, melasma, and rough texture. In truth, exposure to sunlight may have just as much to do with these problems as anything else.

We cannot go back and relive childhood with the knowledge we now have about sun damage. However, we can do something about premature aging. In our Lake Charles office, we use CO2 fractional laser resurfacing to refine the skin quickly and with minimal downtime.

Isn’t Laser Skin Resurfacing Harsh?

Laser skin resurfacing has been around for quite some time. CO2 lasers are effective at refining the skin through surface ablation and deep heating. Fully ablative laser skin resurfacing obliterates the entire epidermis and part of the dermis. We can see how this sounds harsh. In the general sense, as CO2 resurfacing was done in the past, it could be. Our patients don’t have to go through aggressive tissue vaporization to achieve outstanding results. To efficiently stimulate the remodeling of protein structure beneath the skin, we utilize a fractional laser technique.

Fractional laser skin resurfacing still uses powerful CO2 laser energy but it does so in a gentler manner than fully ablative treatments. Our fractional carbon dioxide laser device emits pinpoints of light rather than a singular beam. These streams of light penetrate the outermost layer of the skin and create microscopic channels in the dermis. It is in the dermis where fibroblast cells produce collagen and elastin, the proteins that keep skin firm and elastic. By breaking up light into tiny points, the device minimizes the extensiveness of ablation to a fraction of the overall surface. The bridges of intact tissue further stimulate a rapid healing response by “helping” the skin that has been treated.

Laser skin resurfacing can help you manage your aging process effectively. After your sunshine-filled summer, schedule a visit at our Lake Charles, LA office for your treatment.