Laser resurfacing

The state of a person’s skin can affect how the world sees them. Glowing, vibrant skin may make a person seem happier, more alert and ready to face the day.  While dull, acne-spotted, wrinkled or scarred skin may make a person seem tired, unhappy or even unapproachable.

What does your skin say about you?

Dignity Health Medical Foundation’s Plastic Surgery Centers can help get your skin in tip-top shape, allowing the world to see the real you.

• Wrinkle reduction: Sciton laser treatment improves texture and helps correct skin imperfections like visible wrinkles and scars.
• Acne and acne scars: Sciton treatment will lead to collagen remodeling, proliferation of active fibroblasts, and reduction of sebaceous gland activity reducing the occurrence of active acne and improving acne scarring.
• Phototherapy (broad band light): pulsed light energy delivered by the Sciton laser gently heats the upper layers of the skin, coagulating tissue to restore the skin to a more youthful appearance.  It eliminates many of the fine vessels that cause redness and can treat unwanted pigmented lesions.

• Hair reduction: laser energy from the Sciton is absorbed by hair follicles and converted to heat, injuring cells at the base of the follicle, effectively reducing unwanted hair.
• Spider veins: the Sciton laser is utilized for fast and effective treatment of spider veins.

During your treatment, your skin will be cleaned and your eyes protected with safety shields. The physician will position the laser hand piece above the skin and will hold it in place as the computer-guided scanner moves the laser beam around the treatment area. Depending on the size of the area being treated, the procedure usually lasts from 15 to 45 minutes.

The comfort level of laser resurfacing varies from patient to patient and depends largely on the depth of treatment. For shallow treatments, the procedure is often tolerated with the use of a topical anesthetic. For deeper treatments, your physician may administer oral or intravenous sedation.

Immediately following the procedure you may experience redness and a sensation like a sunburn. Swelling may also occur in the treated areas. Your physician will advise you on the specific after-care treatment recommendations, which may include analgesics, cleansing and application of an ointment to keep the skin moist.