What Is Laser Resurfacing?

[mybodyparts]

Laser resurfacing (or laser peel, laser rejuvenation, laser surgery), is the act of using a carbon dioxide (CO2), erbium, pulse dye or other laser to remove wrinkles, discolorations, age spots, and sun damaged skin or stimulate your body's fibroblasts to "grow" collagen to treat the wrinkle from within. The laser is passed over the treatment area to eradicate wrinkles around the eyes and mouth or anywhere you have unsightly lines, hyperpigmentation or blemishes. Lasers are an effective way to remove those superficial lines that make you appear aged. Plus, laser resurfacing is a considered a safer, less invasive procedure say than deep TCA peels or Dermabrasion. However, laser resurfacing is not for everyone.

Resurfacing with a laser is considered ablative (such as CO2) and non-ablative lasers (NLite) are basically thermescent fibroblast stimulators that treat a wrinkle from the inside out rather than literally removing it. Ablate literally means to "remove" [: to remove esp. by cutting, abrading, or evaporating]. Non-ablative being that there is no "resurfacing", per se, but rather the heat-induced fibroblast stimulation to thicken the underlying collagen structure. With ablative lasers, the skin surface will appear red and weep afterwards as the top layer(s) has been removed. With the non-ablative there is little downtime, perhaps just a little swelling or pinkness.

[dani1]

Which is more expensive--non-ablative or ablative?