Scar Laser
Laser treatment for scars
Laser therapy uses focused beams of light to treat damaged areas on the body. It can remove vascular lesions and other growths as well as improve the appearance of scars.
Laser treatment for scars is an office procedure. We use various lasers such as a Pulsed Dye Laser to treat skin and to remove damaged skin cells and diminish scars. These include:
- injury scars/traumatic scars
- burn marks
- acne scars
- dark spots, age spots, and other types of hyperpigmentation
How do laser treatments for scars work?
Laser scar treatments don’t make a scar disappear. Instead, they’re designed to make a scar appear less noticeable.
The body begins the process of repairing a wound after a skin injury. During this process, scars achieve a maturation period after initially showing signs of thickness and redness. However, depending on the depth and nature of the injury, a scar can heal more aggressively leading to keloids or hypertrophic scars.
These appear to be more red or raised than otherwise expected. When these become symptomatic or simply not cosmetically pleasing you may want to consider scar therapy.
Scar may fade or become lighter with time. When a scar becomes darker, redder or raised, laser treatments can be used to remove the outer layer of the damaged skin’s surface. They basically smooth the skin to improve tone and appearance, while removing redness at the same time.
These lasers are also used to target blood vessels in the scar tissue and reduce redness. They can also penetrate the skin’s surface to stimulate the production of new skin cells. This tends to reduce the thickness of scars along with symptoms such as itching, pain, or tenderness.
Treatment Information
Procedures for laser treatments for scars
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Ablative or laser resurfacing
This type of treatment improves the appearance of scars, warts, and wrinkles. Resurfacing removes the outer layer of skin and eliminates skin cells that have been damaged at the surface level. We may use a carbon dioxide (CO2) laser for deeper scars, or an erbium laser for surface scars. -
Fractionated laser resurfacing
A laser penetrates a deeper layer of the skin’s surface to remove dark pigmented cells. This procedure also stimulates collagen production and skin cell renewal, which can make your scars appear less noticeable. -
Non-ablative laser resurfacing
Lasers penetrate the inner layer of the skin. This also stimulates collagen production and cell renewal to replace damaged skin cells.
Laser treatments for scars are office procedure.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Generally, scars left behind from acne, accidents, surgeries, and even some wrinkles can be improved with laser treatments. Scars can not be completely removed, though they can be made to look less noticeable.
Our practice uses a pulsed dye laser for symptomatic or painful scars so that we can target the thickness and redness in the scar. This tends to improve symptomatic concerns as well as improve the appearance over time.
