Laser Resurfacing
What Is Laser Resurfacing?
When we think of the skin that is youthful, what words come to mind? Plump, smooth, uniform color, minimal pores. What we do in aesthetic practice is perform treatments to rejuvenate the skin to the younger undamaged cells.
Years of unprotected sun exposure, inevitable aging, heredity, and hormonal changes as we age can all cause skin irregularities such as wrinkles, fine lines, and brown spots on the face and body. Stretch marks and acne scars are also examples of textural irregularities, pigmentation changes such as freckles, sunspots, or visible blood vessels or redness affect the “tone” of the skin.
Laser resurfacing can provide a more uniform overall skin tone, increase collagen, and achieve a healthy glow that is characteristic of younger skin.
What Is Lutronic Ultra?
The Lutronic ULTRA Laser is a non-ablative fractional resurfacing laser. Ultra is the most powerful thulium laser in aesthetics, offering you a quick and comfortable treatment for melasma, sun damage, acne scarring, pigmentation, texture, and tone, with remarkable results.
This innovative device is quickly gaining popularity among patients seeking visible results with minimal discomfort and recovery time.Our patients appreciate how gentle it is, as it effectively improves hyperpigmentation, melasma, sun damage, fine lines, tone, and texture—and it can be used on all skin types and all year long.
What Does Non-ablative Mean Exactly?
Ultra is a non-ablative laser, which means, it delivers heat into the skin through thousands of tiny, deep columns known as microthermal treatment zones. The heat stimulates collagen growth and aids in regenerating new, healthy skin without injuring the top layers of skin. As new skin cells are produced, your skin will appear brighter, tighter, and smoother, giving you a more youthful appearance.
What Concerns Can Lutronic Ultra™ Laser Treat?
The Lutronic ULTRA™ Laser can be used anywhere on the face and body. It offers many benefits, including:
- Managing Melasma
- Minimizes fine lines and wrinkles.
- Diminishes brown spots.
- Improves acne scarring.
- Lightens stretch marks.
- Rebuilds healthy skin.
Am I a good candidate for Lutronic ULTRA™?
Lutronic ULTRA™ is an entirely customizable treatment for anyone struggling with melasma, sun damage, acne scarring, or fine lines and wrinkles thanks to its various intensity settings.
Unlike most laser treatments, Lutronic ULTRA is suitable for all skin types and colors, including tanned and dark skin tones, and can therefore be used at any time of year.
What should I expect during Lutronic ULTRA™ treatment?
The Lutronic ULTRA™ resurfacing laser is a simple rejuvenation treatment that takes about 30 minutes. Your experience will be determined by the laser setting recommended to address your skin concerns. You will feel warmth/heat during the treatment, which may result in a flushed appearance overnight (which resolves itself the next day).
What’s recovery from Lutronic ULTRA™ Laser like?
The downtime associated with the Lutronic ULTRA™ resurfacing laser is minimal. Downtime ranges from a few hours of mild redness and warmth, similar to a sunburn, to several days of flushed skin.
You can resume normal activities and apply mineral makeup 24 hours after treatment. Skin will feel dry and have a sandpaper texture for the first 5-7 days after treatment.
The old skin cells are flaking away, making way for the new cells the laser treatment has produced.
How many Lutronic ULTRA™ Laser treatments will I need?
Lutronic ULTRA™ produces noticeable results after just one treatment.
The number of treatments required is determined by the patient’s specific skin goals; typically, 2-4 treatments, one month apart, are best to improve imperfections. Many people find that 3+ sessions per year can help them maintain their treatment results.
Treatment of melasma often requires 6-8 sessions. Melasma requires management, our dedicated providers will ensure you are set up with the best home care, which is included with your treatment package. During our Melasma Ultra treatments, we add tranexamic acid topically after the microchannels are created. Several studies have shown that topically applied TXA is effective against melasma.
How long will the results from Ultra last?
The first treatment will produce visible results, with full results appearing 3-6 months later as collagen levels increase. The results are often long-lasting, as long as you protect your skin with SPF and follow a good skin care regimen. Maintenance treatment sessions will help you maintain your youthful appearance indefinitely.
What Are My Options for Skin Resurfacing?
Following a consultation with your provider, the specific type of treatment that will best address your concerns is determined. To achieve great results, most skin treatments necessitate a series of treatments and a multi-modality approach, (including home skin regimen). Most importantly, the patient must commit to continuing to protect his or her skin for the results to be long-lasting.
The methods of skin rejuvenation and resurfacing that we use at Lasting Beauty are:
- Chemical Peels – a variety of acid peels are used in various combinations to remove damaged outer skin layers (safe for all skin types).
- Lasers and Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) Treatments – used to remove discoloration and/or tighten sagging skin.
- Fractional Laser Treatments (Ablative Lasers) – removes portions of outer layers of skin to smooth lines and wrinkles.
What Laser Options Are Available to Me at Lasting Beauty?
The platform we chose to treat many skin conditions is called the Quanta Evo from Cartessa. The Light EVO, is a sophisticated platform that feature Italian engineering and the ability to customize pulse-laser specifications and configurations. The Light EVO series includes several laser wavelengths, which allows the provider to treat almost every skin concern:
- Erbium handpiece- 2940 laser resurfacing, fractionated ablative
- Nd: YAG 532 nm- focused on reds, facial vessels, smaller spider veins
- IPL- 550W to treat reds/browns
- Alexandrite 755 nm- workhorse for laser hair removal, can also treat brown spots
- Nd: YAG 1064 nm- Deeper laser down to the dermal level, this will help stimulate collagen, tighten pores, this is also called Laser Genesis. This wavelength is also used for hair removal, and other conditions, in darker skin tones.
What Is Fractionated Laser Resurfacing Treatment?
Fractional Laser Treatment is just that, a fraction of the surface of the treated area is left intact, while a portion of the skin is treated. The skin left intact can support the treated skin and allows for faster healing versus a fully ablative laser resurfacing treatment (which usually requires 14 days of intense appearing skin in which you would probably want to avoid social activities). Fully ablative treatments also usually require an antibiotic to be ordered, fractional laser treatments do not.
What Will I Expect During My Laser Resurfacing Treatment?
During your consultation, we will review any past laser treatments, your current skin regimen (we will instruct you to avoid any acids, retinols/retinoids prior to your laser resurfacing treatment. We will ask if you have a history of cold sores (if so, we will order you a preventative medication, as to not aggravate that virus). On the day of the treatment, you can opt to numb for 30 minutes prior for your comfort, we will take baseline pictures prior to your laser resurfacing treatment, we will review any further questions you may have. The skin is cleansed, goggles are placed over your eyes. You will hear a “vacuum” type machine, called a smoke evacuator, to keep the environment clean and prevent debris from falling back onto your treated skin. The laser portion of the treatment can be see in the video below.
What Kind of Downtime Will I Have With Laser Resurfacing Treatment?
To remove years of sun damage, pigmentation, or skin that is dull, we can customize the level of treatment. That means we can go gentle (downtime of 2-4 days, pinky/red, tight, slightly rough surface to the skin. Alternatively, we can dial it up which accomplishes the end results faster but can require 7-10 of the skin changes (red, tight, flakey, rough surface). Our medical grade (Alastin) skin care product line will help heal faster, so we suggest you “pre-condition” your skin prior to your treatment, and afterwards we will advise you to use healing treatment serum (calm and moisturize).
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Before and After Treatment
