Archive for the ‘Laser Resurfacing’ Category

Laser Mole removal and the care for the area after the mole is removed

Sunday, August 19th, 2012

The removal of moles with lasers mostly is done with the co2 laser. This will leave a raw area to heal. The best way to get the most optimal healing is to treat it like any resurfacing. We have a great cO2 laser resurfacing page that has links to help you understand the process. The first couple of days you need to clean the area every 1-2 hours so that no crusting develops and it stays raw and fresh. Contrary to what most people believe, you don’t want a crust there. The crust is actually food for bacteria and it will lead to a lot of inflammation and proliferation of bacteria. This page on Laser Resurfacing Post Recovery Care is more specific on this process.

Thanks for reading and visiting our blog

Dr. Young from Aesthetic Facial Plastic Surgery.

co2 laser resurfacing video for learning about Active and Deep Fx, as well as Total and Max Fx.

Saturday, August 11th, 2012

I always get asked these questions on what is the difference between these terms regarding cO2 laser resurfacing. Active FX is the superficial component that shoots wider spot sizes that are superficial in the depth of penetration into the skin. Deep FX is the deep component that shoots narrow beams that reach deeper in the skin. The Active FX treats the sun spots and the superficial elements of the skin like the fine wrinkles. The Deep FX treats the skin by tightening the skin. When you combine the two it is considered total FX. Both Active and Deep are fractionated and within a 1 cm squared spot size there are more tinier spot sizes that are shot within the 1 cm but they are not completely covering the 1 cm spot. There is healthy untreated tissue within the 1 cm spot size to allow the healing to be faster and your recovery faster. Max fx is when you use Active Fx and the 1 cm spot size is completely covered within and it is not fractionated. With Max I usually do 2 passes to get even deeper.

Here is a video to further help you understand:

Seattle Acne Scar Treatment Webpage Released

Monday, December 26th, 2011

We have made a new webpage on Seattle Acne Scar Treatment  on our website www.drphilipyoung.com. We added some new pictures / photos and some links to help people understand a little more about how we are treating scars that were created by Acne. We would also like to explain a little about our thought process when it comes to treating Acne Scars.

Acne is a process that can affect all layers of the skin. The process originates from the hair follicle. The hair follicle depending on the point of the growth cycle that it is in will have a certain length that it goes in the skin. At times, the hair follicle will be very deep and sometimes less deep. The point is that when acne erupts, the process can extend deep into the skin and affect all the layers even the area deep to the skin. When scars form from Acne, they also affect all the layers of the skin. So the scarring is really pervasive. That makes treating acne difficult as well. When it comes to excisions, acne scarred skin is less pliable and it doesn’t stretch as much. This makes for a more difficult time with healing. Better results are harder to achieve. So you want to heal your skin. We believe that you have to prep the skin before you actually do other things like excisions, subcisions, punch grafting, flap reconstructions, and deep chemical peeling.  We have a 3-4 step process that we like to do for people. It entails 1. tissue grafting, 2. more invasive work such as excisions, subcisions, deep chemical peeling, punch grafting, flap reconstructions, 3. More refinement, 4. co2 laser resurfacing and dermasanding. Our goals are to heal the skin first, treat the skin with more invasive procedures to get the scarred skin to the same level, repeating the second step until the goals are reached, then refining our results with a polishing technique that entails co2 laser resurfacing and dermasanding.

You can go through our webpages with this in mind to better understand what we are aiming to do.

Thanks for reading

Our team at Aesthetic Facial Plastic Surgery!

Healing your body and mind

Friday, December 9th, 2011

Once you have the procedure you waited a long time for, it is time to be patient and wait, again, for your body to heal.  Unfortunately, a surgeon’s scalpel is not a magic wand and healing will occur at different rates for different people.  You must allow yourself to heal and be aware it is natural to be impatient for the results and a little anxious because you often look worse before you look better.  Being aware this can happen will help you understand these normal feelings.

 

Sharing your experience with friends and family can help give you a support system during your recovery, but realize they may unintentionally make you question your decision with concerns during your recovery.  While you may think that you are looking pretty rough around the edges, we may tell you that you are healing beautifully.  Trust us.  We will share with you if there is a concern, so if we tell you that everything is healing normally, it is.

 

Your healing will depend on many things such as your general health, your willingness to follow instructions, and your mental attitude toward recovery.  While I can perform the surgery, I cannot “heal” you.  It is up to you to be an active participant in your recovery process to help your body heal the best that it can.  Following all of our instruction is very important, as is working with us to address any complications that may arise.  Even surgeries that are done exactly right can have complications during recovery.  It has to do with the human factor.  We are not machines and every person can react differently and heal differently even when the surgery is done exactly the same.  Every surgeon has unexpected results from time to time.

 

It is important you approach your surgery and especially your recovery with the mindset that we are a team, and you are an integral part of that team.  We must trust each other to be working for a common goal, your successful result.  As the surgeon, I enjoy my work and strive to achieve an ideal result during every surgery for every patient.  I have rigorous standards that my staff must meet in order to be involved in your care.  I am looking forward to working with you to achieve a great result and do not anticipate any post-operative problems.  I will do everything I can to make sure that you are happy with your result.

 

Dr. Philip Young, MD

 

We are releasing a new co2 laser resurfacing live video demonstration

Sunday, November 20th, 2011

We are releasing a new co2 laser resurfacing live video demonstration. Come see our new video and learn more about cO2 laser resurfacing. We also have very informative pages on laser resurfacing if you are planning to have this with your doctor that would be helpful in preparing for the pre procedure time period and after the procedure.

seattle co2 laser resurfacing

Laser resurfacing involves using a laser monochromatic light (co2, erbium) to remove the top layers of your skin. This action leaves the remaining skin cells located within the hair follicles to “resurface” the areas that have been removed from the laser resurfacing process. In that process you get a renewal of brand new skin over the treated areas. The healing that takes place (under cover) over the next year, leads to an increase in collagen production under the skin cells that tightens the skin layer and reduces fine wrinkles. This gives you an overall improvement to your skin. The lasering of the top layers also removes unwanted skin pigmentation issues, DNA damaged skin cells in the more superficial layers, and other damaged cells and tissue elements. The end results that is achieved is fresh renewed skin with more even pigmentation, decreased fine wrinkles, and more even texture.

Thanks for reading

Our team at Aesthetic Facial Plastic Surgery!

Ice picks scars and why I like subcision / fat grafting / with chemical peels question and answers

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011

This is what I wrote someone on Sept 28,2011:

 

Dr. Young,

Patient: I wanted to thank you again for your personable consultation the other day.  It’s never easy talking to a stranger about one’s insecurities, but you certainly made it comfortable enough that I am considering your recommendations.  Just a few questions I first need to ask.

Dr. Young: It was my pleasure.

Patient: Why did you choose the subcision with the chemical peel over other procedures? .

Dr. Young: I think that laser resurfacing may not fully cause those ice picks scars to come up to the level of the rest of your skin.  They (laser resurfacing / dermabrasion / Dermasanding) are better when the surfaces are more closely aligned. and leveled.  The chemical peel will get the ice picks to come up and the subcision will make them rise by stimulating from below.  Alternatively you can add fat grafting with the subcision for more of an effect. I would do the subcision / fat grafting first and then 1-2 weeks later do the chemical peels so that your skin is not too traumatized.

Patient: What are the alternatives?  And do they offer similar or less satisfactory results?

Dr. Young: You can cut around the ice picks and then raise them. This could help. They are more work though. You can add filler underneath them. You can excise a group of ice pick scars that are oriented in a pattern. You can do Dermabrasion but again resurfacing would be the last step. You can laser just the ice pick scars to get them to rise up (not as effective in my experience)

Patient: What are the side effects of these procedures?

Dr. Young: The side effects are mostly swelling, bruising.  Sometimes if you are too aggressive the scars could get wider but flatter. That is why I stage the subcision and chemical peels sometimes if the scars are deep and prominent and numerous.

Patient: How long is the procedure, and is it performed at the same clinic?  Do you schedule surgery on Fridays?

Dr. Young: The procedure will take about 1-2 hours. We can do Friday’s. We do the procedures here. We are AAAHC certified  here is a link http://www.drphilipyoung.com/aaahcplasticsurgery.php to our plastic surgery AAAHC certification page

You can see more of our Acne Scar Revision Before and Afters here.

ice pick scars tca cross

 

Thanks for Reading Dr. Young

active fx and its help with reducing skin cancer

Monday, June 6th, 2011

Active fx may reduce your recurrence rate for skin cancer. However, you should know that active fx is a fractionated approach and will get a percentage of your affected cells. Most of the studies on reducing the recurrence of skin cancer are based on complete resurfacing through either chemical peels or laser resurfacing. So, if you really want to reduce your risk of skin cancer I would suggest more complete chemical peels or laser resurfacing.  For Active fx, the term would be max fx and this would be more traditional resurfacing and riskier in some sense but safe in qualified hands and a person with experience.  We have a tremendous amount of information on our website on these subjects with a photo diary of someone who underwent this procedure. Here is a link to our Laser Resurfacing Photo Diary of Healing.

laser resurfacing healing diary

Thanks for reading, Dr Young

Dr Young specializes in Facial Cosmetic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

How do I get rid of back hyperpigmentation?

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011

This a question that I answered for a patient who had fraxel resurfacing for acne on his back and subsequently had significant hyperpigmentation on his back. He wanted to figure out how to get rid of it. This is how I answered his question, in short:

Intense Pulse Light, Medium depth chemical peels, fractional co2 resurfacing, skin care can improve back pigmentation. With Fraxel resurfacing the pigmentation could be at many different levels. More superficially, I would consider more aggressive skin care light lightening products (retinol, hydroquinone, hydrocortizone), 15% alpha and beta hydroxy lotion, at home glycolic peels.  Also for superficial pigmentation, lighter chemical peels 10-25% TCA (Tricholoroacetic Acid) peels, and active / deep fx could help.  For dermal pigmentation, active and deep fx could improve the pigmentation intense pulse light with varying filters could improve this, as well as different longer length lasers from 585-1064.  Dermal depths are deeper and not accessible to most superficial treatments.

Here is a video on intense pulse light.

intense pulse light video

here is a photo diary showing the recovery from Intense Pulse Light:

http://www.drphilipyoung.com/seattleintensepulselight.php

Hope this was interesting

If you ever want some questions answered you can always email me here.

Thanks for reading, Dr Young

Dr Young specializes in Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

Accutane is generally a contraindication to any resurfacing

Wednesday, December 29th, 2010

This is a question that I answered for someone concerned that their doctor was going to put them on Accutane and then employ dermarolling to improve some acne scars. Here is a quick answer that I gave them:

Accutane is generally a contraindication to any laser resurfacing. However derma rolling is a form of fractionated type of resurfacing which may not have as significant risks.  This would be highly dependent on your surgeons experience. There are other ways to control your acne including hormonal control, antibiotics, chemical peels, directed skin care.

If you click on the picture below you can see a very informative laser resurfacing video:

co2 laser resurfacing

Hope that helps!

Thanks for reading, Dr Young

Dr Young specializes in Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and is located in Bellevue near Seattle, Washington

Prolonged redness can occur with Laser Resurfacing and Active Fx / Deep Fx / Total Fx / Max Fx

Wednesday, September 15th, 2010

Prolonged redness can occur with laser resurfacing.  Although with Active Fx and Deep Fx this should be much less common.  If there is some tenderness, itching, and the redness is persisting and it begins to become more raised, you could be developing some scarring and should be seen soon.  High dose steroids would be helpful in this case but be wary that this could impede collagen formation at a later date that is helpful in improving your skin.  Contact dermatitis can occur if you are starting some creams that could be irritating your skin at this crucial stage. I would then consider holding off on those topicals and stay with some gentler products.  The other possibility is that the doctor was more aggressive around your eyes which could lead to prolonged redness which is common after traditional resurfacing.  I would see your doctor to have him figure out this. He will know his settings to determine what is going on with the setting of your physical exam.

Click here to watch our video on laser resurfacing: