Dear Dr. Seckel, I am one of the first baby boomers (60) in need of a good skin resurfacing on my face and around my eyes, I have checked out Fraxel Thermage and portrait plasma and cannot make up mind as to what procedure to use, I need little down time as I am a working person with not a lot of time to spare and also one that I can rely on to give me a better look. Thank you M
Dear M,
If fresh skin and wrinkle removal is what you want then forget Thermage and Fraxel–they are non-ablative deep treatments. You want skin surface ablation and deep skin exfoliation and new collagen production–ablative laser skin peel, surface treatments. I use the LaserLyte Peel–also called the AciveFX laser skin peel–down time is truly 4-6 days-no more. You probably will need 2 treatments spaced 3-4 months apart.
The profile plasma is also good-but new and I have had only a brief experience with it–to get a good result you will need a “high energy” treatment with the plasma machine which can give 10 days or more down time.
These new ablative laser skin peel treatments are effective for wrinkle removal but with much less downtime and fewer complications than traditional laser resurfacing. Laser skin rejuvenation technology has improved dramatically in the past two years.
For more information on laser skin rejuvenation and non-surgical facial rejuvenation read Save Your Face or contact me.
Boston, Massachusetts