Few people want to look older than they are, but the effects of time catch up with everyone. On your face that can mean wrinkles and fine lines as your skin loses elasticity, discoloration from exposure to the sun and other elements, or scars due to acne and other conditions.
There are many solutions offered to renew and refresh your skin, often by creating uniform damage to your skin, stimulating your body’s natural healing ability and generating new tissue as part of the healing process. One way to activate this controlled healing consistently over a wide area is through laser resurfacing, a technique that harnesses the power of light energy to help you look your best.
Your body’s healing powers are remarkable. Think about minor cuts and scrapes you’ve had over the years that healed seamlessly, with no sign of the original injury. Your body can renew all layers of skin tissue, but only when it interprets the skin to be damaged. Being dissatisfied with signs of your skin’s aging simply isn’t enough to generate new tissue.
Laser resurfacing creates conditions that simulate damage and trigger your body’s healing responses. This is sometimes called collagen induction, where tissue in your skin’s middle layer is warmed enough to trigger tissue replacement.
When we use a laser system to warm the middle layers while leaving surface skin intact, it’s called nonablative laser resurfacing, one of two types of this cosmetic procedure.
When changes focus on renewed collagen tissue, you can expect an overall improvement in skin health. The collagen layer holds moisture and nutrients for the surface skin, so fresh stores of these can nourish and refresh. Collagen also provides underlying support for the epidermis, the outer skin layer.
Some wrinkles and lines exist because of voids in the collagen layer. Older skin is less elastic and more prone to collapse into these voids. An advantage of nonablative laser resurfacing is that its changes are internal. There’s little recovery time and few signs that you’ve had work done.
It is not, however, as effective at clearing severe skin problems. For that, ablative laser resurfacing may be the answer.
In addition to warming and regenerating the dermis, or middle skin layer, where collagen resides, ablative laser treatment also affects the epidermis. This causes your body to directly renew surface skin tissue as well as its deeper layers. You not only gain the nourishing benefits of new collagen tissue; it soon supplies a fresh, new skin layer, after healing from the ablative laser treatment is complete.
Wrinkles, age spots, uneven skin tone, acne scars, and sun damage are all within the scope of laser resurfacing benefits. Ablative laser treatments do require recovery time so that your skin can heal and renew itself.
Rick J. Smith, MD, and our team at his practice are skin renewal specialists who can deliver the results you’re after in your skin care pursuits. Call our office or request an appointment using the online tool to schedule your initial consultation today.
