Two Laser Procedures with Few Reported Side Effects

Skin surgery and skin peels are old and well-developed procedures that most dermatologists know well. Two laser procedures, however, are in high demand.

Laser Hair Removal

Most women and some men spend a great deal of time removing hair from places where it shouldn't pop up. Hair removal can be very low-tech. You can simply shave it off , over and over again.

Or you can use chemical depillatories . The problem with chemical hair removal products is that they sometimes remove skin as well as hair. That's also the problem with waxing and threading . There are home and professional electrolysis systems, but they don't guarantee removal of hair.

The easiest way to get rid of unwanted hair for good is laser hair removal. Laser treatment only kills hair that is actively growing, in its anagen stage . Rapidly growing hairs contain the maximum amount of pigment, and it's the pigment that is heated by laser light. Laser treatment of growing hairs heats the hair shaft much more than laser treatment of hairs that are dormant, in their telogen stage.

Laser treatment won't work on hairs in their telogen stage . Hair on the face may stay in its telogen stage for 1 to 3 months. Hair on the lower body may stay in its telogen stage for as long as a year. For this reason, it may take treatments spread out over 1 to 3 months to remove unwanted facial hair and treatments spread out over a year to remove unwanted hair on the lower body. Once all the growing hairs have been treated with laser, however, they are permanently gone .

New laser treatment techniques allow doctors to offer laser hair removal to patients who have dark brown or black skin, although it is important to use the products the doctor prescribes to limit inflammation. Dark skin fights inflammation with pigmentation, and ignoring the doctors orders can result in hairs being replaced with dark spots in the skin. Each laser treatment session costs $300 to $500 in the USA .

Laser Acne Scar Revision

Laser treatments for acne scars have been available since 1995. At first dermatologists used carbon dioxide (CO2) lasers to burn away scarred skin so new, smooth skin could emerge. The problem with treating acne scars with CO2 lasers was that the treatment usually left a red or pale patch of skin where the scar had been. And since CO2 lasers worked by heating up pigments in the skin, the technique could damage dark brown or black skin.

In recent years, more and more dermatologists have adopted a procedure known as the Plasma Portrait Laser . This instrument heats an entire layer of skin just below the surface rather than heating pigments in the skin. Destroying this sub-surface layer of skin can cause immediate improvement in a scar. The destruction of this layer of the skin also stimulates the production of collagen beneath the skin that makes the new skin smoother and stronger.


With this form of laser acne scar treatment, the topmost layers of skin are unaffected. They act as a natural bandage. There is complete healing of the skin in just 7 to 10 days, although the scar may continue to fill in for as long as six months .

The main drawback of the Plasma Portrait Laser is that there it cannot be used at minimal power . Low-power lasers destroy the top layer of skin and leave it vulnerable to infection and the formation of new scars. If there is a concern that this treatment (or any other treatment) might cause the formation of pigmentation in the skin, as is usually the case in treating black skin, then the doctor may schedule a series of appointments for small doses of laser treatment several weeks apart over the course of several months. Unlike most other methods of acne scar treatment, however, Plasma Portrait Laser is usually safe for brown and black skin .