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Scars |
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| Who is a good candidate? |
Any one with scars, whether depressed or elevated, keloids or wrinkles is a good candidate for the treatment. |
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| What is involved in the treatment? |
The treatment usually involves application of a local anesthetic ointment before the treatment. The non-ablative treatment is not very painful, but cool packs after the treatment will be provided for use. The ablative treatment can be painful, if the objective is to treat deep scars or wrinkles, and patients may appreciate additional anaesthetics.
Non-Ablative treatment usually involves only one pass. Non-Ablative treatment may involve several sittings for effective treatment. |
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| How long does the treatment take? |
The treatment does not take very long. Treatment times vary by the amount of area that needs treatment. A whole face may take upto 1 hour. It must also be remembered that a local anesthetic is usually applied to the area before treatment. This anaesthetic takes about 45 minutes for optimum action. |
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| How often does it need to be repeated? |
Most patients can be helped with only one treatment. Some patients, who have very deep or thick scars, may need more sessions. If more sessions are necessary, this can be done on a monthly basis. Sometimes, more than one laser may be combined to give optimum results. |
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| What is the after treatment care? |
After treatment, your doctor may prescribe to you some medications for both local applications, and some tablets for taking orally. Generally, it is important to keep the treated area moist, in the immediate few days after the procedure using a good moisturizer, or Vaseline, for example. Later, it is advisable to use a good sunscreen for several weeks after the procedure, as advised by the doctor.
Ablative skin resurfacing involves a relatively long period of after treatment care. Generally, the face is raw and oozes fluid for the first few days. Later, the face is usually red for the next 2-3 weeks. Colour matching with the regular skin takes about a month. In some cases, it may take longer.
Non-Ablative skin resurfacing is much more benign. Generally, the skin develops a dark crust 1-2 days after treatment. The crust falls off after a couple of days, and the skin colour returns to normal. In rare cases, there may be some delay in the skin colour returning to normal. |
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| What are the likely difficulties and complications? |
Complications are related to the type of treatment undergone. Ablative skin resurfacing has a higher side effect profile than non-ablative skin resurfacing. Side effects with ablative skin resurfacing can include transient hyper pigmentation in some cases, and in rare cases, hypo pigmentation. With non-ablative skin resurfacing, the side effects profile is much lower, and may include, in rare cases, transient hyper pigmentation and hypo-pigmentation, which can be easily masked with make-up. |
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