Cons of laser skin treatments near Isle of Palms SC · Side effects such as temporary swelling, irritation, and hyperpigmentation · Limited downtime required · Long-lasting. If you have very dark skin, some laser skin treatments near Isle of Palms SC may cause swelling or discoloration after treatment. It's worth noting that deeper skin tones can also lead to keloid scarring. If you're a person of color, laser skin treatments near Isle of Palms SC could cause hyperpigmentation or scarring. Technically, IPL (intense pulsed light) treatments are not lasers, but they are often used to treat several of the same skin problems as lasers.
The technique uses light energy to focus on a particular skin color. It can be used to help repair scars, sun damage, stretch marks, acne, rosacea, birthmarks, and hyperpigmentation, as well as to remove unwanted hair. Almost any type of laser therapy can cause burns, scarring, dispigmentation, eye injuries, and infections. These complications are the result of selective photothermolysis and, in some cases, can even be used for the doctor's benefit, for example, to reduce hyperpigmentation in melasma. When a laser acts on a chromophore, the molecules absorb energy and heat the surrounding tissue.
To reduce the risk of complications from excessive thermal injury, many lasers use pulses that last less than the thermal relaxation time of the target tissue, which is the time needed for the tissue to cool down to the reference temperature. The goal of selective photothermolysis is to provide enough energy to destroy the chromophore without damaging the surrounding tissue. It follows that surrounding non-target tissue can therefore be injured by overheating. Burns can result from prolonged pulses, excessive fluence (the amount of energy supplied to the target area) and inadequate cooling.
The risk of burns is greater for lasers that use a continuous beam rather than a pulsed or fractured one. Newer devices reduce the risk of complications by emitting beam pulses in a range of milliseconds to nanoseconds, using multiple fast bursts almost continuously, or using extremely short pulses with high powers to allow a adequate thermal relaxation. Hyperpigmentation and hypopigmentation after laser treatments are comparatively common complications, with hyperpigmentation occurring most frequently. The risk of dispigmentation is greater in people with darker skin (Fitz Patrick type III-VI) or who are excessively tanned.
It can be reduced by avoiding sun exposure before and after laser treatments and by using a fractional laser delivery system or cooling devices. However, ironically, overuse of cooling can cause inflammation and also cause hyperpigmentation. Hyperpigmentation may be due to the accumulation of extracellular melanin due to the destruction of melanocytes or to increased melanin production due to post-treatment inflammation. As such, it doesn't usually last more than three to four months.
Usually, the best way to treat hyperpigmentation is with topical 4% hydroquinone, a whitening agent, but it can also be treated with chemical surface peels or cosmetics. It is also useful to avoid exposure to sunlight; for this reason, it is best to avoid laser facial rejuvenation, especially full field ablation, during the sunny summer months. Burns are caused by overheating of the tissue due to excessive heat generation or insufficient cooling. Proper patient selection and conservative environments reduce the risk of adverse outcomes.
Testing the configuration on a small area of skin two to three weeks before the main treatment also reduces the chance of developing complications; this technique is frequently used in laser hair removal. During treatment, an indication of excessive fluence and, therefore, of excessive heating is the graying of the tissue, which is more evident during non-ablative vascular treatments, in particular pulsed dye therapy for erythematous lesions or scars. If graying occurs, the procedure should be stopped and the settings and cooling systems reevaluated. Most laser devices have fail-safe systems that prevent more energy from being supplied than the settings indicate, even in the event of a malfunction.
However, a laser can supply less energy if it malfunctions, which can cause the rating to adjust to incorrect settings and, subsequently, cause excessive fluence once the device has been repaired. For this reason, it is essential to apply conservative adjustments in the first treatments after a qualified technician repairs the laser. When burns occur, bleeding crusts and ulcerations may appear several days after treatment and may be warning signs of additional complications, such as scarring and dispigmentation. Excessive overlap of treatment areas can cause burns and dispigmentation, but too much space between treatment areas can cause visible areas of untreated skin to appear.
Scars and dispigmentation may appear weeks or months after treatment. Proper technique and conservative adjustments are essential to reduce risk of burns. When using a vascular laser, it is important to keep in mind that more erythematous lesions have higher concentrations of chromophores (oxyhemoglobin) and, therefore, will absorb more laser energy than less erythematous lesions; therefore, lower settings are effective for treatment. Likewise, lower adjustments are recommended when treating an injury with the underlying bone, such as on the forehead or orbital border, because energy will reflect back into the bone and go back through the target tissue.
In addition to adjusting power supply settings, several cooling devices, when properly used, also reduce the risk of skin burns. Burns that follow laser therapy can be treated with immediate cooling and then with mild emollients and topical steroids to promote re-epithelialization. Antibacterial prophylaxis for laser rejuvenation is controversial. If an infection is suspected, the culture threshold should be low, but it is rare that antibiotics are routinely prescribed before laser rejuvenation.
Because of the risk of scarring, antibiotic treatment should be initiated promptly if a bacterial infection is suspected. Empirical antibiotic treatment should include Staphylococcus aureus, such as doxycycline or trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, but ciprofloxacin may be necessary if the cultures reveal the presence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Laser therapy basically involves delivering controlled heat to the dermal or epidermal layers of the skin. When the equipment is faulty or the professional is inexperienced, there is a risk of burns on the facial surface.
If an incorrect laser treatment method is used, scars may also remain. For example, some laser therapies aren't recommended for people with darker skin tones. Laser facial treatments are an excellent tool for treating acne scars, wrinkles, sunspots, spider veins, or redness. However, you should be careful when it comes to this procedure so as not to obtain unsatisfactory results.
Lasers work by creating controlled damage to stimulate healing, but subjecting the skin to too many treatments in a short period of time can cause excessive irritation, prolonged recovery, or even complications such as scarring. If the skin tends to form high keloid scars, it is possible that thickened scars that extend beyond the original wound, laser rejuvenation is not the best option for you.
If you have fine lines or wrinkles around your eyes, mouth or forehead, superficial scars from acne, or skin that doesn't respond after a facelift, then you may be a good candidate for laser skin rejuvenation.
The most recent version of CO2 (fractionated CO) laser rejuvenation uses very short pulsed light energy (known as ultra-pulse) or continuous beams of light that are emitted following a scanning pattern to remove thin layers of skin with minimal heat damage. Laser facial treatments are a popular and innovative way to take care of the health and appearance of the skin.Laser skin rejuvenation, also known as laser exfoliation, laser vaporization, or lasabrasion, removes skin layer by layer with precision. While lasers themselves don't emit ionizing radiation and on their own aren't dangerous to pregnant patients, pregnancy-related hormonal changes can increase the risk of pigmentation changes, irritation, and unpredictable scarring. When offered by a trained technician, laser treatments offer long-term solutions for skin problems, such as pigmentation problems, hair removal, etc. Laser treatments are a great way to rejuvenate your skin, but you should still be aware of potential side effects.
The symptoms of a laser injury include a bright flash of colored light and, sometimes, a click that coincides with the activation of the laser. As LASER light waves (light amplified by the stimulated emission of radiation) are, by definition, collimated (parallel), coherent (in phase) and monochromatic (single wavelength), the technology is excellent not only for very precise surgical applications, such as removing vocal cord injuries under a microscope or correcting the curvature of a cornea, but also for attacking only specific tissues and tissue types, such as hair follicles or telangiectasia, due to their unique chromophores. Because of the comparatively high risk of HSV reactivation after perioral laser rejuvenation procedures, antiviral prophylaxis is recommended for 7 to 14 days after surgery. Depending on the device being used, fingerprints that match the tip of the laser may be visible.
Surgeons should selectively choose candidates for laser therapy and should not perform elective procedures on excessively tanned patients.
