"Father Time eventually takes away what Mother Nature gives" goes the old saying. The soft full features of youth eventually give way to the aging signs of wrinkles, splotches of discoloration and the leathery texture of weathered skin.
Good basic skin care can forestall many signs of aging but of course Father Time will eventually win. Fortunately we have a weapon the laser.
Laser technology for the treatment of skin problems has exploded over the last five years. Conditions, which could not be treated in the past without the risk of scarring, such a birthmarks and pigmented lesions, can now be removed with little or no complications. A new generation of lasers are largely responsible for this breakthrough.
Laser is an acronym for the Light Amplification by the Stimulated Emission of Radiation. Laser light is distinguished from other forms of light by two characteristics:
The emitted light is columnated rather than scattered. All the light goes in one direction.
The wave lengths of light are parallel and in phase with one another.
It is the wave length of the emitted light which distinguishes one laser from another and the way they affect the skin. For example, the Alexandrite laser (a pigment removal laser) has a different wave length than the Variable Pulse Width (VPW) laser (a vascular removal laser) which explains why they target different colors in the skin. The wavelength is determined by the substance which generates the light, for example, a ruby crystal in a Q switched ruby laser, a red dye in a flashlamp, pumped pulsed dye laser, and a carbon dioxide gas in a CO, laser. An electric current, radio wave, or flashlamp passes through the light generating medium stimulating the molecules to produce the laser light.
Lasers have become increasingly complex and the variations in their wave length, pulse duration, intensity of light and other parameters are important to the engineers, physicists and laser surgeons. What is important to the patient is that the advances in this technology have significantly changed the way in which many skin conditions are treated and surgeries are performed.
Lasers in dermatology are used to:
* remove discoloration (pigment and blood vessels) from the skin,
*remove growths from the skin,
* resurface the skin, and
* cut the skin.
