Laser Skin Treatment Safety

Women who are considering laser treatments for skin conditions such as rosacea, acne, pigment changes, read spots, vessels around your nose, wrinkling or hair removal have concerns about the safety and the possibility of side effects. Laser light is electromagnetic radiation, when used in a specific beam length and in a focused way, can be designed to treat the conditions mentioned. Lasers make use of photothermal, photochemical and photoablative effects on the tissue and it's imporant to understand which therapy deployed is most likely to help you accomplish what you want to treat. Laser therapies when used properly are extremely safe, but it is still possible to have a side effect. Ablative lasers have more potential to treat severe conditions, but the non-ablative therapies can be extremely effective with less risk of side effects. One of the best ways to check this out is to first have your physician do a test spot treatment. In our practice it is standard to do some form of test spot. We just fire the laser and watch the effect over a few minutes. A more effective way to check this is to do a test spot and then recheck the skin’s response in 24 to 48 hours.  Since all skin types react differently to lasers, it is important to carefully monitor the test spot to see how your individual reaction may be. Most changes you will see are completely normal in the laser healing process including: a darkening of freckles or pigmented lesions, slight sunburn appearance 1-24 hours after treatment, minimal temporary swelling, and you may in addition have minor discomfort 1-2 hours after treatment. What you should not see if blistering, prolonged redness or moderate to severe swelling. Some time we use additional therapies to cool the skin or heal the skin after laser treatments. These aren’t really necessary after most spot treatments, but don’t forget to ask your individual provider if you need any special skin care after your test spot is done.