Is Laser Scar removal the Answer?

If you have a scar you know that it is a very unpleasant reminder of a very healthy body reaction which is created when your skin repairs itself after a surgery, infection, accident, or inflammation.  Scars come in many sizes and shapes.  They just may start out as appearing very red and very thick and then as time passes they fade in both color and size, yet they never completely disappear.

With technology today, scar laser removal has advanced greatly.  Laser scar removal has become a very common procedure that can be performed right in your medical esthetic clinic.  When utilizing this type of procedure the appearance of scars is reduced significantly and even possible erased (this depends on how severe the scarring is).  The three main types of laser scar removal are:

Laser Resurfacing – Also known as Ablative

This procedure requires a laser that removes the top layer of your skin that where the scarring is.  This high-powered type of laser also will penetrate the middle layers of skin in order to smooth and tighten it.

Laser resurfacing procedure can be done in a and on average usually takes anywhere from one to two hours of your time.

There are two types of lasers that are used for this particular procedure, each of which has their own set of pros and cons.

The first laser is the CO2 laser, this very powerful laser penetrates very deeply and is used when the scars are deeper and thicker.  As a result, the recovery time from this procedure is around two weeks, it can also be very painful.

The second laser is known as the Erbium:YAG laser it is considered to be less powerful than the CO2 laser and is mainly used when the scars are shallow.  When this laser is used during the procedure the recovery time is cut in half and last about a week.

Non-Ablative Laser Resurfacing

During this type of procedure an infrared skin laser is utilized in order to heat up the inner layers of skin while it does not touch the surface layers of the skin. This procedure promotes collagen growth as well as the production of new skin cells that will take the place of the damaged skin cells which are creating the scar.  This procedure takes much less time to perform just fifteen to thirty minutes each time, and the recovery time is also much less.  On the other hand, due to the fact that it takes time for new cells to generate it will take much more time before you actually see results.

Fractionated Laser Resurfacing

During this procedure tiny light beams are utilized to penetrate very deeply in the skin.  This procedure help stimulate collagen growth in order to produce new skin cells.

Using this procedure is less invasive and requires very little to no recovery time at all.  Many patients experience minor swelling and/or redness that fades away in just a few days.  While this procedure is less invasive it also does not produce the same results as laser resurfacing.