Treatment Guide to Fractional Laser Skin Resurfacing

If you can imagine how photos are altered digitally in pixels so that the good parts remain unchanged, that's how fractional laser skin resurfacing works. This highly customized treatment focuses on far more specific sub-areas within a problem region on the body while bypassing other sub-areas that do not need to be treated. Every tiny lesion, for example, can be erased without harming the healthy skin in between. Unharmed skin tissue then assists treated skin in regenerating new cells.

Fractional laser skin resurfacing is ideal for wrinkles, acne scarring, freckles, sun spots, melasma. Pricing runs from $300 to $2,000. Fraxel SR of Reliant Technologies was the first fractional laser device cleared for use by the US FDA but others have come along such as Pixel Perfect of Alma Lasers, Lux 1540 of Palomar Medical Technologies, Matrix RF, SmartSkin CO2 of Cynosure, DEKA Smartxide DOT, Profractional from Sciton, Active FX of Lumenis. During and after treatment, which lasts for 30 to 45 minutes, prolonged sun exposure and any AHA or Retinoid cream must be avoided.

Laser skin resurfacing is an ablative means of restoring the surface layer of the skin. Beams of light use heat to put pressure on the body to form new skin by devastating the epidermis. Areas once hollowed out by age lines and acne or darkened by lesions will be evened out, resulting in an instant face lift. However, the aggressive treatment has side effects like swelling and discoloration, which requires some recovery downtime.

Laser and IPL (intense pulsed light) devices, also used for venous treatments like thread vein closure, provide laser skin rejuvenation down the concealed layer of the skin. Non-ablative and less aggressive, it puts a strain on the dermis to form new collagen without touching the epidermis. Downtime is less but results are not as radical, often leading to the wrong notion that resurfacing has minimal effects. In contrast, fractional laser skin resurfacing makes use of thousands of dots per square inch - a fraction - of laser light to provide intensive results with shorter downtime, combining the best of both worlds yet at similar prices.

Dimitrie Meran is an observer of laser-vein-removal.com/fractional-laser-skin-resurfacing.php Fractional Laser Skin Resurfacing. Please visit her site at laser-vein-removal.com laser-vein-removal.com for more information.