Advantages over other facial peels without surgery
Lasers offered a clear advantage over other methods of skin resurfacing – they can produce targeted beams of light which can be directed at a very small specific area of dermal tissue on the face or body without damaging surrounding tissue. The heat destroys the blemish and triggers a healing response speeding repair and raising levels of collagen production.
Mechanical means of skin resurfacing are much more crude – chemical peels and abrasion at the deepest levels burn off surface skin over the whole area of application. They can help with age spots for instance but will have no effect on spider veins nor can they produce any skin tightening effect.
The advantages of laser over other resurfacing methods (deeps chemical peels and dermabrasion) include greater precision, less bleeding and discomfort and, possibly, shorter recovery time.
A laser peel is an invasive aging treatment without surgery
A laser peel is always done with an ablative laser and involves removal of the top layer of skin. The most often used ablative lasers are either the carbon dioxide (CO2) laser or the erbium:YAG laser.
You may be offered a laser peel for relatively deep wrinkles and skin blemishes. The CO2 laser seems to be better at treating deeper facial lines but the downside is greater discomfort, downtime and recovery. Laser resurfacing is done on a whole face basis or quite frequently on the skin around the eyes and mouth to treat deeper wrinkles in these areas. It is very common for a laser peel to be done at the same time as a face lift or other procedure to give the best possible result.
A laser peel may sound like an easy option for facial rejuvenation but it isn’t. It is an invasive technique and you need to find the best aesthetic facial surgeon you can with experience of doing many similar treatments. A heavy handed operator who passes the laser too many times over an area of your face or sets the beam of light too deep can cause damage which may be very long lasting.
Even with the best surgeon you can find – proper after care is important after a full skin peel. You may have a bandage over the whole area. If not you will have to wash your face and apply a special ointment several times a day. You’ll need to be extremely careful of the sun and wear a high SPF sun block with both UVA and UVB protection every day.
Scabs may form, and last for about 10 days. After that skin redness may persist for several weeks, or longer. The redness gradually lightens to pink, and then to a lighter, more natural color.
