Resurfacing
“For someone with a lot of skin damage—discoloration, wrinkles, prominent pores (pores are also affected by the sun)—the first thing is resurfacing,” says Dr. Waldorf. Resurfacing, generally, works by “promoting collagen regeneration and skin renewal,” explains Dr. Lee.
“For this age group, I combine the two wavelengths of the Fraxel Dual for non ablative fractional resurfacing with the Q-switched Nd:YAG laser for the darkest distinct pigmented spots (lentigines) and the Vbeam vascular laser for redness and visible capillaries,” says Dr. Waldorf.
“People who do yearly fractionated laser treatments of the face, for sun damage and collagen formation, end up with better-looking skin than those who don’t,” says Westborough, MA facial plastic surgeon Min S. Ahn, MD. “There is no question it helps make your skin look younger after 40.”
More specifically, Huntington Beach, CA dermatologist David Rayhan, MD says fractionated CO2 laser skin resurfacing gives his “patients the biggest bang for their buck. If they’re willing to tolerate a little downtime, this treatment literally erases wrinkles.”