Glowing skin is one of the secrets to looking and feeling your best. As a vital component of overall health, skin is your body’s largest organ. Yet it often takes a beating. Sun exposure, environmental factors like pollution, and diet may all wreak havoc on the appearance of your skin. Lasers can be a fantastic procedure for improving both skin tone and texture. I offer my Long Island patients the full array of Sciton® laser treatments. Figuring out which laser is right for you is always going to come down to your individual needs as well as your tolerance for downtime.
Understanding Lasers: Ablative vs. Non-Ablative
All lasers use energy to “damage” the skin. Your body’s healing response to this wound is to produce more collagen. As the underlying foundation of skin, collagen supports, lifts and plumps. It’s one of the reasons why it’s often referred to as the fountain of youth. Unfortunately, your body begins to produce less collagen after age 25. Lasers are an easy, safe, and efficient way to help combat this natural aging process. They can generally be divided into two camps based on the wavelength of energy used. These are:
- Ablative
- Non-Ablative
The former removes all or a portion of the surface of your skin in order to treat textural issues and pore size. Extremely effective, it also requires more downtime for healing as the damaged skin will need time to “slough” off. A non-ablative laser actually penetrates deeper, but since it doesn’t damage the surface of your skin, the recovery time is less.
Sciton® HALO Combines Ablative & Non-Ablative Wavelengths
The Sciton® HALO laser is unique in that it combines both ablative and non-ablative wavelengths, allowing it to literally target the full range of skin issues such as:
- Fine lines & wrinkles
- Sun spots
- Hyperpigmentation
- Redness
- Pore size
- Acne scars
- Mild skin laxity
Not only can Halo do it all, but it requires less downtime that the Sciton® Ablative laser. The other advantage of Halo is that it is customizable. We can adjust the beam placement and depth of the wavelengths depending on how much downtime you are willing to tolerate. Incredibly precise, the Halo delivers safe, consistent, and comfortable results.
Sciton® Profractional Laser
One of things that I’ve always appreciated about plastic surgery is that it is a field that adapts quickly. Patients told us that they want procedures to deliver a powerful punch without so much downtime. The Sciton® Profractional Laser is an Erbium:YAG laser that does exactly this. Like the Halo, it is customizable in terms of the ablation depth as well as the treatment size. But instead of removing the entire surface of your skin, this laser ablates narrow channels that jump start your body’s healing response without damaging the surrounding tissue. This is why it entails less recovery time. You may need more than one treatment to achieve your final result, but many patients find this trade-off to be well worth it.
Lasers Are Incredibly Versatile
Lasers are a real workhorse procedure. Incredibly versatile, a laser can treat almost any area where there is skin including the:
- Neck
- Hands
- Arms
- Face
- Chest
- Legs
As discussed, the Sciton® line of lasers are completely customizable in terms of the depth of the wavelengths and the temperature. This is what makes them so safe, efficient and comfortable.
BBL & Moxi Lasers
BBL or Broad Band Light is another energy based device that comes with a variety of hand pieces and 9 different wavelength filters. A single pass can be great for improving the overall appearance of your skin while multiple passes with individualized wavelengths can correct:
- Broken blood vessels,
- Pigmented lesions
- Skin flushing
- Tightening of mild skin laxity
Sciton® Moxi is designed for subtle skin rejuvenation and “prejuvenation”. It’s ideal for younger patients who want to stave off the early signs of aging, and for older patients who want to help maintain their results from another non-surgical or surgical procedure. So, if your skin is not giving off that healthful glow, schedule an appointment to come in and discuss lasers. It’s a procedure that can put that spring back in your step in no time.
To find out more about lasers, or any surgical or non-surgical procedure with Dr. Mark Epstein in Hauppauge, Long Island, contact us today or call 631-689-1100 to schedule a consultation.
