While you were out soaking up the sun this summer, you were getting more than a nice golden tan and catching up on some Vitamin D. Turns out, excessive sun exposure can lead to imperfections that last way longer than a tan: wrinkles and fine lines, pre-cancerous patches of skin, darkened regular and acne scars, sun spots, and more. Thankfully, it’s not too late to turn back time on sun damage: the Fraxel Laser is THE standard when it comes to laser skin treatments, and it’s the perfect treatment to get your skin back on track from the summer.
What’s the science behind it?
No, it’s not surgery. It’s actually a type of non-invasive laser skin resurfacing treatment used to heal and rejuvenate your skin. What makes Fraxel remarkable is the fact that it uses your body’s healing mechanisms to give you better skin—it’s completely natural. The Fraxel Lasers work by penetrating the skin, stimulating collagen production under the skin while resurfacing the upper layers of skin. The resurfacing triggers your body’s regenerative properties, so the next layer of skin that grows in will be younger, smoother, and fresher.
Fraxel lasers are actually known as fractional lasers, because it’s a laser that only treats a fraction of the skin. It uses thousands of these microscopic columns of lasers that can reach different depths to specifically treat only the problematic tissue, and because of that, your recovery period is going to be markedly shorter than with other types of lasers.
Results
I know what you’re thinking: there’s no treatment this simple that can be that effective. Actually, Fraxel Laser is unbelievably quick without sacrificing gentleness and results: it only takes about 15-45 minutes. It’s so fast you can even do it during your lunch break. Patients usually get the best results after 1-5 treatments and results start to show after 1-3 weeks. Remember that this treatment uses your skin cells’ natural growth, so it will really depend on how fast you heal.
What does Fraxel treat?
- Fine lines and wrinkles
- Acne, surgical, and trauma scars
- Age spots and sun spots
- Melasma – patches of brown skin on the face
- Actinic Keratosis – pre-cancerous, scaly, crusty patches of skin
What’s the Fraxel procedure like?
The first step is cleaning your skin. After that, you will be given a numbing agent or a local anesthetic to help with any discomfort. Then, a device will be gently glided over your skin, where your laser treatment will use “smart scanning” to evenly distribute the laser treatment. It’s that simple!
If this seems like something you need to see for yourself, contact the offices of Dr. Erika Sato to learn about the benefits of the Fraxel Laser from a board-certified plastic surgeon.