Sorry I've been out of the box for a couple of weeks. Selling a house, preparing to move, AND the 4th tend to eat up the time. Back to it today though and we're going to talk about your complexion. It's easy to find great looking skin when youth is on your side. How does she do it??
I have a few suggestions. We start with good skin care and recommend Obagi products for damaged skin and Skinceuticals for good skin to maintain. The next thing we do is laser treatments. We like to pre treat with retinols and lightners to calm down the dark pigmented areas that occur from sun and hormones....why??...because treating these areas without pre treatment can cause them to recur with a vengeance. Pre treatment is not a guarantee that they won't come back but it significantly reduces the problem.
The next thing we do is recommend laser treatments or IPL. The laser we use is the Cutera XEO. For people that have significant sun damage, fine lines and wrinkles from the sun, and pigment issues, we use the Pearl laser. The Pearl does a number of things well. First, it helps eliminate skin discolorations. It helps to create a more uniform skin tone and color. It helps reduce rough patches that occur from solar injury and it can help reduce fine lines and wrinkles. Treatment take about an hour using topical anesthesia, some mild oral sedation and the Zimmer which blows cold air on the treatment areas. Recovery time for most people is about 4-5 days until make up can be used to cover the healing skin. The skin will stay pink for a few weeks after treatment and gradually get to the uniform color you expect. Remember that laser treatments take time. We are stimulating new collagen formation and it doesn't happen over night. It takes several months. The newer lasers are less destructive too, so, be prepared to need more than one treatment months apart. The results are worth the time though.
We like to maintain, after the treatments, with continued good skin care and peels. We use low concentration glycolic acid peels that can be applied periodically at home to keep the skin looking good.
For pigment issues only we use IPL. This is Intense Pulsed Light that targets specific colors in the skin, brown spots and red hues. These treatments, also called photo facials, are effective in causing brown spots to disappear and red areas to decrease. These treatments also take about an hour with topical anesthesia and the Zimmer chiller.
To recap:
1. Good basic skin care to heal, maintain, and protect.
2. Pearl laser treatment to rejuvenate the skin color and texture.
3. Photo facials with IPL for those with pigment issues only.
4. Continued good skin care and sun protection.
5. Periodic maintenance with peels if needed.
There you have it! The Total Body Surgical plan to keep your skin young looking and vibrant. Our goal is to make you look good.
Don't forget our specials on breast augmentation, lap band, hair removal, liposuction, and toe nail fungus treatments.