The study found that fractional carbon laser treatment for surgical scars was effective, significantly improving the appearance of scars, reported Reuters Health. The laser procedure also allows for the scar to be treated immediately, rather than having to wait several months to have the scar resurfaced.

The study had ten patients who had Mohs surgery for skin cancers, with wounds that were from 3 to 9 centimeters long. Four of the wounds were on the face; three were on the neck; and three were on arms.

Half the wound was treated with a fractional carbon dioxide laser; the other half was not treated with the laser. The entire wound was closed with sutures, a liquid adhesive and Steri-Strips.

Nine of the ten patients said the side of the wound treated with the laser looked better than the untreated side at a two- to three-month follow-up visit. They also felt the laser-treated sides were “significantly better with regard to elevation, discoloration and erythema” (redness of the skin).

Three dermatologists who didn’t know which side of the wound had been treated with the laser reviewed photos of the scars and found the laser-treated side to be cosmetically superior in each case.

The authors are planning a multi-center study to confirm the results. “More importantly,” author Dr. David Ozog said, “we want to see if this technique will improve long-term outcomes of some of the most problematic scars such as sternotomy after cardiac surgery and large abdominal scars.”

For those without access to a doctor with a fractional laser, “dermabrasion still works, with a good safety profile,” said Dr. Kishwer S. Nehal, director of Mohs surgery at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

Learn more about Fraxel laser treatments in the Twin Cities.

Dermatologists and cosmetic surgeons are now using many facial rejuvenation techniques as anti-aging hand treatments. The techniques are approved by the FDA to treat the face, but can be used as off-label treatments for other areas of the body, including the hands.

“As we age, our hands tend to lose their firmness and volume and the veins and tendons become more pronounced,” said Dr. Dee Anna Glaser, a dermatologist and fellow in the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery. “In addition, changes in texture where the skin appears crinkled or is marked with spots, commonly called ‘liver spots’ or ‘age spots,’ are the hallmarks of an aging hand.”

Anti-Aging Hand Treatments

Fillers have long been used to restore volume to the face. Now they’re also being used to re-establish fullness to the hands. Adding volume to the hands helps to diminish the appearance of veins and tendons.

Popular fillers for the hands include Restylane and Juvederm. Some patients may experience bruising, and results last about a year, according to Dr. Glaser.

Lasers can also be an effective anti-aging procedure for the hands. They are great for treating uneven skin tone and texture and pigmentation and discoloration on the face, and they can be used to treat the same problems on the hands.

“The hands are often overlooked because we put so much emphasis on our face, but our hands can be even more susceptible to the effects of aging,” said Dr. Glaser.

Talk to your dermatologist about the available options to treat aging hands. Meanwhile, don’t forget that prevention is best, so wear sunscreen and be sure to cover all exposed areas of skin, including the backs of your hands.

Sources: AAD.org, WebMD

The New York Times recently asked several dermatologists about at-home lasers skin treatments. While these at-home lasers may be cheaper than procedures at a dermatologist’s office, they may put you at risk of damaging your skin, according to the experts.

For instance, Dr. Sandra Lee, a dermatologist in Upland, Calif., worries about people misusing the product, for instance, using it more often than recommended. “If it says, don’t use more than once a day, but if you’re a teen and you use it more than once a day, are you then at risk for scarring?” Dr. Lee said.

New York City dermatologist Dr. Neil Sadick told the Times that there’s the “slight potential” for squamous or basal skin cancers from the ultraviolet light sources, though he said that at-home laser devices used less energy than the machines in doctors’ offices.

There’s also the question of whether these products have been vetted. Because they are beauty devices, not medical devices, they do not have to be reviewed by the FDA, although some are peer-reviewed by medical experts.

“There may be unforeseen uses and unforeseen consequences that may arise,” even with effective devices, according to Dr. Mathew M. Avram in Boston. These include the possibility of scarring, soreness, redness and hyperpigmentation, and potential product malfunctions.

Patient compliance is usually a large problem with at-home lasers, according to doctors. For instance, one product requires the patient to beam a laser on her legs for 20 minutes a day. Doctors report that many people just stop using them because it’s too time consuming.

Because of these drawbacks, if you are looking for a laser treatment to rejuvenate your skin, to smooth and tighten your skin or to remove unwanted body hair, visiting your dermatologist may be your best and safest choice.

Vein treatment options

Researchers said both treatments equally improved the severity of the disease and the patient’s quality of life. In addition, patients were satisfied with both treatments.

“Our opinion is that both procedures can be equally offered to the patients with great saphenous vein insufficiency,” said lead researcher Dr. Knuth Rass, from Saarland University Hospital in Homburg, Germany.

The study included 346 patients who were assigned to undergo either a surgical procedure or a laser treatment to remove veins.

During the surgery, the vein is tied off through a small incision at the hip; during the laser procedure, the laser’s burst of light causes the vein to disappear.

The researchers did two years of follow-up with patients, looking for recurrence, blood flow in the vein and other side effects, as well as evaluating patient satisfaction.

Minor Differences in Varicose Vein Treatment Options

The study did find minor differences between the laser and surgical treatment options for varicose veins.

For those who had laser treatment, recurrence was 16.2 percent compared to 23.1 percent of those who had surgery. Researchers said the difference may have been due to chance.

Ultrasound showed that more patients who had the laser treatment developed one form of the condition in which the blood flows backward through the vein (17.8 percent of laser treatment patients compared to 1.3 percent of surgical patients). There were also more minor side effects with the laser treatment.

Some benefits associated with laser vein treatment compared to surgery included better blood flow in the legs, a faster recovery and a better cosmetic outcome.

Overall, patients were happy with the vein procedure they underwent. “Ninety-eight percent of the study population would undergo each treatment once again, when asked two years after treatment,” Rass said.

Check out this slideshow of CoolSculpting before and after photos, posted to YouTube by Dr. Young Cho, a Houston plastic surgeon.

Read more about CoolSculpting in the Twin Cities, at Skin Speaks Spa MD.

• Port wine stains
• Broken capillaries
• Rosacea
• Fine wrinkles
• Age spots
• Uneven pigmentation

A recent study published in the journal Dermatology Surgery compared IPL treatments to non-ablative Q-switched laser treatments for skin rejuvenation in Asian patients and found that the IPL treatment was as effective as the non-ablative laser for improving several skin problems, including skin texture and pore size.

Twelve female patients received five sessions of treatments, every two weeks. IPL was applied to the left side of the face and the non-ablative laser to the right.

Significant skin rejuvenation was shown for all the assessments. Similar efficiency from both procedures was observed for skin texture, pore size and sebum secretion (a cause of acne).

IPL was more efficient than the laser for lightening the skin tone after the first treatment, but there was no further improvement after three treatments. On the other hand, the laser gradually lightened the skin tone and was ultimately more efficient than the IPL after five treatments.

According to 2009 statistics from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, IPL was performed about 429,700 times last year and laser skin resurfacing with a non-ablative laser, such as Fraxel, was performed about 323,900 times.

The study also illustrates that there are many techniques that  doctors can use to improve various skin conditions; your doctor can help you choose the best procedure(s) to meet your needs.

Skin Speaks Spa MD offers several non-surgical skin rejuvenation procedures, including IPL, Fraxel, and microdermabrasion.

The market for botulinum toxin-A drugs, which currently includes  Botox and Dysport in the U.S., is estimated to grow to $543 million by 2017, and the aesthetic laser and light therapy markets for skin resurfacing, hair removal, and laser lipolysis are expected to be the fastest growing cosmetic procedure markets.

The report was done by iData Research, which specializes in medical device and pharmaceutical market research. Dr. Kamran Zamanian, CEO of iData, commented, “Allergan has had a monopoly on botulinum toxin A drugs since 2002 [with Botox], but now faces competition from Dysport by Medicis as well as other new competitors expected to enter the market. Allergan and Medicis have been fierce rivals, as their Juvederm and Restylane facial dermal fillers compete in the lucrative dermal filler market.”

The report also speculated that competition will intensify with the expected entry into the market of another botulinum toxin—PurTox by Mentor. According to Mentor, PurTox is in Phase III clinical trials in the U.S.

The use of botulinum toxins is also expected to increase due to a growing number of therapeutic treatments that go beyond filling wrinkles; for example, the FDA is currently evaluating Botox as a treatment for severe migraines.

At present, the U.S. market for injectables is valued at almost $860 million, according to the report, which is titled “Markets for Cosmetic Surgery, Facial Aesthetics and Medical Laser Devices 2011.” The three-report series includes data, analyses and competitor profiles for botulinum toxins, dermal fillers, breast augmentation implants, liposuction aspirators, laser/light devices, and microdermabrasion.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Jill, a 40-something with years of skin damage from the sun, received Fraxel restore treatment. Dr. Chapas, a dermatologist in New York City, explained to Meredith Vieira that Fraxel gives energy that stimulates new skin cells to grow and makes skin look refreshed  and more youthful.

“I’m thrilled. It really got rid of so much of the sun damage that I could see. It just makes me feel like I have fresh, new skin,” Jill said of the treatment.

Dr. Chapas said it usually takes 1 to 3 treatments to see results. After treatment, patients may have a few days of redness and a little dryness, according to the doctor.

Thermage is a treatment to tighten, “lift”, and contour skin, with improvements in tone, shape, and texture.

Lisa, a mom of two, received Thermage on her stomach. She says that Thermage tightened her belly and helps her fit better in her clothes.

Lisa B. received a combination of Thermage and Fraxel on her face. She was suffering from skin discoloration, breakouts and blotches, and looseness. She received Thermage to tighten her skin and build collagen, followed by Fraxel the next week to help even out her skin tone.

Dr. Carney offers Fraxel, Thermage, and ThermaFrax, which is a combination treatment, offering a skin tightening procedure, followed by a fractional resurfacing treatment to attack the skin laxity, fine lines and wrinkles, pigmentation and surface imperfections at once. Advancements in Dermatology has five locations in the Twin Cities—in Edina, Burnsville, Coon Rapids, Woodbury, and Crystal.

Both cosmetic treatments have similar goals: to correct facial skin laxity.  To measure the results and compare the two treatments, a randomized, blinded, comparative trial was designed.  Doctors mixed photos of patients who underwent both facelift surgery and fractional radiofrequency treatment, then graded them on a 4-point skin laxity scale.

Two findings are especially useful in comparing the two treatments:

• Mean skin laxity improvement of the RF treatment was 37 percent of the surgical facelift
• Patients in the RF group returned to normal activities 24 hours after treatment, while those in the facelift group did the same after 7 to 10 days.

Read more about this study on PubMed.gov

• The Fraxel laser is FDA approved to treat conditions such as sun spots, acne scarring, melasma and eye wrinkles.

• Only a small fraction of your skin is treated with each session.  The surrounding area is not affected.  This way, the skin can heal much faster than if the entire area were treated at once.

• The laser penetrates through skin like light through glass, reaching into the dermis below to create thousands of tiny, microscopic areas of thermal damage. Your body’s own wound healing response is stimulated to produce new collagen production and replace damaged skin layers.

• Performed under topical anesthesia, we typically need about 30-45 minutes for a facial treatment.

Melasma

• Pregnancy can take a toll on your skin. With stretch marks, melasma and hormonal changes, it can leave some lasting reminders that most women would prefer to erase.

• Melasma is a common disorder estimated to affect about 6 million women in the United States. Melasma typically appears as brown spots and darkened pigmentation on sun-exposed facial areas, notably the cheeks, forehead, upper lip and nose.  Melasma is most common in women of childbearing age and among male and female adults of dark-skinned races.

• Fraxel is effective in treating persistent melasma that has been unresponsive to treatments like bleaching creams, microdermabrasion, selective photothermolysis laser and light therapies, and laser ablation.

• Think of your skin as a wall made up of tiny tiles. If you have melasma, every third tile on this wall would be brown in color. With Fraxel fractional resurfacing, every brown tile is “zapped” and eliminated making your skin more uniform.

Wrinkles around the Eyes

• Your wrinkles may signify a life rich with laughter and experience, but most people would prefer to keep the memories and lose the crow’s feet! With Fraxel, we can naturally rebuild and restore your skin in this area, reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.

• The skin around your eyes is much more delicate than other areas of the body and tends to age more rapidly. The tiny wrinkles that develop (crow’s feet) develop from years of contracting the muscles that display our emotions when we smile, squint, contemplate, show surprise or laugh.

• There are many other strategies for reducing crow’s feet, including Botox, chemical peels, injectable fillers, collagen, dermabrasion or traditional laser treatment.  If Fraxel is not an ideal treatment for you, one of these alternatives may be recommended.

Age/Sun Spots

• It’s hard to escape the damage caused by decades of harmful sun exposure. To reduce the appearance of sun spots, Fraxel treatment awakens and revitalizes the subsurface cells in your skin.

• Sun spots (also known as age spots or liver spots) are flat, uneven patches that appear on sun-exposed parts of your body.  The most common areas are the face, chest, hands, shoulders and arms.

• Your skin reacts to sun exposure by producing pigment called melanin.  The purpose of the melanin is to shield your skin from UV rays. This increased pigmentation can cause darkened spots – making you look much older than you really are.

Acne Scarring

• Acne scarring can make a negative impact on one’s self-image, particularly if you are entering adult life while carrying these outward symbols of your teenage years. Fortunately, a Fraxel treatment can reduce or soften the appearance of acne scars and improve your appearance significantly.

• Scars happen when acne advances to the point of injuring the tissue.  This discolored fibrous tissue has abnormal collagen function.  It may appear as a red raised area or indented mark. For treatment, the top layer of skin must be removed and the production of new collagen must be stimulated.

• Traditional acne scar treatments blended topical agents, abrasion therapies, surgery and conventional lasers. Most of these treatments get moderate results and can be aggressive, resulting in a long, painful recovery period.

• Once research showed that Fraxel could be more effective than traditional acne scar treatments, the FDA cleared Fraxel for treating acne scars. The powerful, yet precise laser effectively encourages the skin to create new collagen to replace the scarred epidermis.