 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
  |
||
 |
 |
   |
|
How much will it cost? The fee for laser resurfacing can be located in the suggested fees . Please call my office for an accurate price quote or make an appointment for a personal consultation to discuss your specific concerns. My suggested quotes include professional fees, anesthesia fees, operating room costs, laser use fees, house calls, before care and after care. They do not include hospitalization costs, prescriptions, home nursing care, preoperative history and physical examination, laboratory costs, or pathology fees. If you compare prices, make sure that you consider all these costs. In addition, laser resurfacing requires some time off work for a safe recovery. I require complete payment two weeks in advance of all cosmetic surgery. What can I do about my sun damaged and wrinkled facial skin? The combination of aging and sun damage leads to fine skin wrinkling, color changes, and superficial skin lesions. Laser resurfacing surgery freshens the face by removing the outer layer of the skin and allowing new skin growth to rejuvenate the face. Will this improve acne scarring? Smoothing and tightening of the facial skin will improve acne scarring. Laser resurfacing under magnification can selectively improve acne scars by thinning and smoothing the skin around individual acne scars. Will it reduce the risk of skin cancer? No one knows if laser resurfacing will decrease the risk of facial skin cancer. Theoretically, if all the superficial precancerous lesions are removed, there may be a reduced risk of skin cancers. This remains to be proven. Neck treatments are not possible because of possible slow cervical skin healing. Also, the neck is outside the normal aesthetic facial units and any treatment edge will be prominent. Neck tightening requires either a facelift or a necklift. How is this different from a chemical peel or dermabrasion? All resurfacing techniques remove the outer layers of the skin. Controlled scarring tightens and smoothes the skin. The difference is how the outer layer of skin is removed. Dermabrasion uses a mechanical means to sand the skin. Chemical peel relies on organic acids to coagulate and slough the skin. Finally, laser resurfacing vaporizes the skin using a carbon dioxide laser. How many layers of skin will be removed? There are only two primary layers of skin, epidermis and dermis. The dermis nourishes the epidermis while the epidermis protects the dermis and its contents (our body). Laser resurfacing removes the outer layer (epidermis) of skin. This exposes the unprotected dermis, which subsequently heals via epidermal regeneration. Will I ever be exactly the same on both sides? It is normal for the face not to be the same on both sides. Surgery can reduce these differences but not eliminate them. It will be necessary for you to adjust to some facial asymmetry after your surgery. What are the risks of laser resurfacing surgery? There are risks with any surgery. Infection, excessive bleeding, abnormal scarring, poor healing, slow healing, skin loss, changes in skin sensation, muscle or nerve injury, although uncommon, can occur with any surgery. Fortunately, most problems that result from such complications are correctable with additional surgery. The most serious problem associated with resurfacing is infection. Usually this is a virus infection. If this is complicated by bacterial infection, severe scarring can result. Changes in skin color can also detract from the result. You must understand your risk of complications completely before you choose to have a laser resurfacing. Can I have laser resurfacing after taking Acutane? Acutane reduces the healing capacity of the skin. I recommend that you wait a full two years after stopping Acutane. Even then there is a small increased risk of slow or poor healing after laser resurfacing. Will cold sores affect the results of surgery? Cold sores can affect the entire face after resurfacing treatments. This prolongs skin redness with possible slow healing and scarring. To reduce this risk, it is necessary to take some kind of antiviral medication (Zovirax, Valtrex) for three days before surgery and fourteen days after surgery. Laser resurfacing cannot be done if there are active cold sores on the lips, face, or mouth. Will it affect the skin color? Even though the skin is pretreated for six to eight weeks with hydroquinone, there is still a risk of changes in skin color. If the skin is treated sufficiently to correct wrinkles, lightening of the skin can occur as a result of normal changes in the skin. These changes are more apparent if you have a darker skin tone (Asian, African American, and Native American). They are also more noticeable if you have sun damage of the untreated neck. Can people of color have laser resurfacing? Darker skin color when treated with resurfacing has a greater risk of obvious changes in skin color at the edges of treatment. Native Americans, Asians, and African Americans must proceed cautiously with laser resurfacing because of this possible skin color change. Other techniques like light to medium chemical peels and microabrasion are better choices for these people. The face is divided into aesthetic units. Sectional treatments can be done provided an entire unit(s) is treated. The reason is that natural division lines separate the units. These lines camouflage any changes in skin color and/or texture. During laser resurfacing, a few hairs will be vaporized with the skin along the hairline. These will grow back as the hair follicles are not affected. I have heard about so many bad things on television, is it safe to have laser resurfacing? There are always risks with laser resurfacing. When severe complications are combined with inexperienced surgeons, poor results can occur. I believe that laser resurfacing can be done safely with a high degree of patient satisfaction. Serious problems are usually related to slow healing as a result of infection and/or smoking. Most poor results can be improved with additional surgery. What can you tell me about this new technique that I saw on television? Everyone in America wants the latest in medical care. This is not always the best medical care. At times media presentations will leave out critical information about potential complications, quality of result, and FDA regulation. I am open minded when it comes to new technology but I would rather not use my patients to try out the newest techniques. Recent advances in laser resurfacing many new lasers. These claim to give the same result with less redness after surgery. Many of these are so new that it is not possible to determine if they will live up to their claims. I still believe that the pulsed carbon dioxide laser gives the most consistent results. For general health reasons, I recommend that all my patients stop smoking. It is clear that smoking increases your risk for developing all sorts of cancers. Breathing problems like emphysema and circulatory problems including heart attacks are also linked to smoking. Smoking also reduces blood flow that can result in skin loss during the healing period. This problem can ruin the results of your laser resurfacing and lead to revision surgery. It is always best to stop smoking. There are other choices when it comes to laser resurfacing. These include facial rejuvenation surgery (facelift, forehead lift, and eyelid surgery), collagen injections, fat graft injections, Botox injections, dermabrasion, chemical peels, acceptance of a deformity, and changes in makeup. Always understand all your options before having laser resurfacing. What additional procedures can I consider that will enhance the result? Surgeries can be combined to yield dramatic and complimentary results. For safety reasons, I recommend the length of surgery be limited to six hours and no more than two areas of the body be treated at the same time. Laser resurfacing is frequently combined with other facial rejuvenation surgery (upper eyelid surgery, lower eyelid surgery, forehead lift, and laser resurfacing), facial liposuction, buccal fat pad excision, facial implants, hair restoration, and nose surgery. Am I a good candidate for laser treatments? This is a question that can only be answered after a personal consultation. Laser resurfacing is suggested to patients with multiple fine to medium wrinkles of the face. Patients with irregular facial color and superficial skin lesions resulting from sun damage can also consider it as well. It improves sagging of face skin, jowls, and prominent lines near the corner of the mouth somewhat. There are other things to consider as well including psychiatric conditions, life stress, medical illness, obesity, and motivation. You should be a healthy nonsmoker, within twenty pounds of your ideal weight. Major life stresses (i.e. grieving a death and divorce) must be absent in your life. The ideal candidate is motivated by internal desires to look better. How many times can I have laser treatments done? When laser resurfacing is done, the skin (dermis) is thinned and changed. For these reasons, I recommend that laser resurfacing only be done once. I strongly discourage any sun exposure that would damage the skin again. This is not a treatment for continued sun damage.
|