How many laser treatments to see improvement in your skin?

June 30th, 2009

Generally speaking, the more risk the more rewards when consideringLaser Resurfacing. Co2 lasers can be varied in a number of ways to increase or decrease the aggressiveness of the treatments. Fractional co2 laser resurfacing has less downtime but has less results. This approach leaves healthy skin in between treated skin so that the healthy skin can help the treated skin rejuvenate. This speeds up the healing and decreases the chance of complications. The results are less significant.

For more significant results, a more aggressive approach can take more layers of the skin and can go deeper to take away more significant wrinkles. The healing period is much longer and the chance of complications are more, but the potential for greater gains is more possible. These lasers improve the skin by decreasing wrinkles, removing superficial pigmentation, decreasing pores, and tightening the skin.

The more aggressive approach will need less number of treatments. The less aggressive approach with less results will need more treatments to get more results. With the most aggressive co2 resurfacing you may not need to get treated for another 8-10 years.  If you want to improve sun spot and red spots then IPL or other lasers can be used to improve them and typically it can take from 4-5 treatment to get satisfactory results.

Dr Young is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

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Best treatment for under eye pores and wrinkles.

June 30th, 2009

Generally, you can go up to 3 mm away from your eyelid margin to treat wrinkles around your eye with Laser Resurfacing.  In this case it will be beneficial to have eyeshields to protect your eyes.  When you get really close to the eyelid margin you will put your eyelashes at risk.  Even if the laser doesn’t hit it directly, you can have the plume singe the eyelashes.  There are some that think the eyelashes do not grow back as long.

My experience has been with Deep FX.  This can tighten up your skin but may need multiple treatments to get the results that you would like.  Traditional co2 lasers can tighten up your skin in one treatment but you will have a week or so downtime.

The other way to improve the wrinkles is to volumize the area. It can be done especially in the lower eyelid and upper cheek area to bring back the youth that you used to have.  Instead of cutting tissue away you add the volume that made you look young long ago.

Dr Young is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

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What to do for a raised burn scar on the forehead

June 30th, 2009

If it is raised you could consider Laser Resurfacing but with dark skinned individuals the risk of complications is little more. I would excise your scar and close it possibly in a geometric fashion to break up a noticeable line and then consider resurfacing in less aggressive means. You can consider fractional resurfacing to decrease the complications. This can be done and with the surgeon he will hold your hand through the whole process and do his/ her best to make sure that you are happy.

Laser resurfacing, chemical peels, and dermabrasion all do essentially the same thing, they take off the top layers of the skin removing pigment, wrinkles, scars, tighten pores, and tighten skin.  The hair follicles are where the source of skin cells come from and these cells eventually resurface the skin and rejuvenate the skin.  When the scars are removed the cells from the hair follicle, deep within, resurfaces the scar with new skin making the scar appear better.  Sometimes certain scars need other techniques such as excision and reclosure and other subcision techniques to more fully improve the appearance of the scars.

Dr Young is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

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What is the difference between active and deep fx co2 laser resurfacing?

June 30th, 2009

Laser Resurfacing can treat the more superficial elements of the skin like superficial wrinkles, pigmentation, and scars. Deep fx stimulates more of the deeper tissue to cause the skin to contract and shrink to increase the tone of the skin and create more collagen within the deeper layers. They can be done together for less downtime and more results.

With just Active FX, you will get more subtle resutls and less down time; when you add Deep FX, you get more tightening while keeping the down time less. Deep FX creates a strong laser that penetrates deeply while Active FX is more superficial with less penetration. Especially for people with darker skin, this modality is ideal!

Dr Young is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

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Laser skin resurfacing part of good skin care?

June 30th, 2009

Laser Resurfacing are great for cosmetic and medical reasons. If you are interested in improving your wrinkles, pigmentation problems (like sun spots, etc), the size of your pores, your skin texture, etc laser resurfacing can be a great option. It can make a huge difference in your appearance for the better. These are things or areas of improvement that really only resurfacing can do in a significant way. Skin care with cosmeticeuticals can only minimally improve your skin. Some skin care lines at the doctor’s office can do a little more than the products that you get at the cosmetic counter.

You might not know this but resurfacing can also improve your skin by reducing the number of cells that are bad as well. So from a medical standpoint, it can be beneficial in reducing your chances of acquiring skin cancer. This is done when you remove your more superficial layers of skin through resurfacing and receive more refreshened cells from deeper within your hair follicles when these cells “resurface” the skin that has been removed. These newer cells typically have much less DNA damage and hence less bad mutations that lead to cancer and this has been proven in scientific studies.

Dr Young is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

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Laser resurfacing, downtime, what kind of results with different settings

June 30th, 2009

Laser Resurfacing can be done with as little downtime as you desire to the most downtime and most results. Very simply, more risks can lead to more results and vice versa. For more superficial results, all you have to do is turn down the energy on the laser and decrease the density that the lasers create with their spots that remove skin.

Lumenis makes the Active FX system and this is the most versatile system out there and can be tailored to fit almost any person. There are an almost infinite amount of combinations that can be carried out to fit the person. Superfiicially, 50-75mj of energy, density 1-3, with cool scanning and one pass can give you a downtime of 2-3 days or less. Turning it up to 80-100mj of energy, with a density of 4-5, and 2-3 passes can give you a downtime of a couple of weeks to months depending what you think creates downtime for you. Redness can occur typically when you get more aggressive and can stick around for months. But severe crusting and swelling usually fades in 1 week with the more aggressive approaches.

Laser resurfacing are great for cosmetic and medical reasons. If you are interested in improving your wrinkles, pigmentation problems (like sun spots, etc), the size of your pores, your skin texture, etc laser resurfacing can be a great option. It can make a huge difference in your appearance for the better. These are things or areas of improvement that really only resurfacing can do in a significant way. Skin care with cosmeticeuticals can only minimally improve your skin. Some skin care lines at the doctor’s office can do a little more than the products that you get at the cosmetic counter.

You might not know this but resurfacing can also improve your skin by reducing the number of cells that are bad as well. So from a medical standpoint, it can be beneficial in reducing your chances of acquiring skin cancer. This is done when you remove your more superficial layers of skin through resurfacing and receive more refreshened cells from deeper within your hair follicles when these cells “resurface” the skin that has been removed. These newer cells typically have much less DNA damage and hence less bad mutations that lead to cancer and this has been proven in scientific studies.

Dr Young is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

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Best Laser for Asian Skin

June 30th, 2009

Asian skin and other ethnic skin varieties are more likely to develop sun spots vs wrinkles. This is in contrast to caucasians. This predilection is related to varying degrees of skin color. People of color typically have different risks when it comes to anything done on their skin. They are more likely to get darker after any manipulation of their skin so you have to be very careful with ethnic skin.

In general, I approach Asian skin conservatively. Laser resurfacing can be done, but the settings have to be less aggressive. Laser Resurfacing is an excellent laser for Asians because you can tinker with the settings to fit the particular person and avoid complications and increased downtime. For Asians, I typically decrease the setting and stay on the less aggressive side and usually rely on repeated treatments to get the same results.

Dr Young is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

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After 3 laser facials still see fine lines around the mouth.

June 30th, 2009

This patient had treatment somewhere else and I was just answering a question for this patient.

WithLaser Resurfacingit takes time for the collagen to repair and help decrease more wrinkles or so most people say. In my experience, the results that you get the first month is likely the most noticeable and after that the results are more subtle with the “naked eye”. When done on a more aggressive scale, you will notice more improvement more early on such as a month or two. 12 months is a little long in my opinion to notice much more difference. In terms of the lip lines, you might want to approach it more aggressively with the laser. Dermabrasion can also work wonders here.

In addition, you may want to consider plumping up your lips. A lot of the lip lines are created due to a loss of volume in the lips and the area around your mouth. Fat Transfer and fillers are great at creating this volume in the long and short term respectively.

I refined an amazing volumizing procedure called “the YoungLift”.  This is an innovative technique that volumizes your face to bring out the younger and natural you without looking like you had something done.  This is not a facelift and requires no incisions.  Only pinpoint puncture sites are used and these heal imperceptibly.  The YoungLift can be done without general anesthesia and without drains, and large bandages.  You also have a lot less downtime and discomfort compared with traditional facelift procedures.  Dr Young employs the very best techniques from around the world into one volumizing procedure and he uses his internationally acclaimed understanding of facial beauty to create the youthful volume you once had. The YoungLift techniques can help with filling up the lips as well.  You can great results with fat injections in the lips.

Dr Young is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

Posted in Fat Transfer / Fat Injections, Fillers / Facial Fillers, Laser Resurfacing, Lip Augmentation / Lip Fillers / Lip Injections / Lip Reduction / Lip Grafts / Lip Advancements / Fat Injections of the Lip, YoungVolumizer | Comments Off on After 3 laser facials still see fine lines around the mouth.

Erbium laser on silicone injected skin and is it safe

June 30th, 2009

There are studies out there that the use of lasers and other Facial Fillers are safe. Although silicone injections are not prevalent in the US, this same principle applies. The lasers and Intense pulse light do not penetrate deep enough to effect the fillers including silicone fillers. Silicone fillers are also more resilient than other dermal fillers such as restylane, juvederm, etc. In general, with silicone injections it is hard to predict what will happen with any procedures done in this area of silicone injections.  Any increased inflammation could lead to a foreign body reaction and possible rejection of the silicone and hence problems with this.

Consulting a Board Certified Facial Plastic Surgeon would be something that I would recommend. We specialize in the face and are highly qualified to help you with this.

Dr Young is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

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Hypopigmentation after a Chemical Peel on a dark skinned individual

June 30th, 2009

Hypopigmentation from a nullabout a month ago is a little early for permanent hypopigmentation. This condition can and usually shows up months later. If this is permanent there are some special treatment light systems that can help with bringing back the pigmentation. But these do not always completely help the pigmentation. Some others have attempted skin grafts with siginificant recovery and problems. I would wait to do anything extreme. I would consider topical skin medications to possibly cut down on the inflammation if there is any. This will help with the inflammation continuing to hurt the melanocytes and preventing their migration into the skin areas.

Consulting a Board Certified Facial Plastic Surgeon would be something that I would recommend. We specialize in the face and are highly qualified to help you with this.

Dr Young is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

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