• 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.

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.

• 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.

The Fraxel system will be used to reduce the appearance of scarring caused by traumatic thermal damage. The Burn Center is a worldwide leader in innovative treatment and care for burn patients and their families.

The Fraxel laser treatment is specifically designed to resurface damaged skin to uncover the healthier, smoother skin beneath. It works by penetrating the outer layers of damaged skin (epidermis) to reach the deeper layers of skin beneath the surface where collagen and elastin are located. This stimulates a natural healing process that not only produces new collagen, but literally replaces the damaged tissue with new, healthy skin cells.

“The goal of restorative burn care is to return the patient to as close to pre-injury status as possible…” said Rebecca Grossman, the Chair of the Grossman Burn Foundation. “We plan to use the cutting-edge Fraxel technology to restore our burn-injured patients and play a key role in providing better and faster patient outcomes.”

Skin resurfacing is a part of a growing trend in the medical aesthetics field as well. In fact, the same Fraxel technology being put to use in the Burn Center has been FDA-cleared to treat a wide-range of skin conditions including: age spots, acne scars, surgical scars, actinic keratoses, sunspots, melasma, and even wrinkles around the eyes. And, as the technology gets better, so do the results.

Today’s lasers are a gentler and safer alternative than those used in the past. As usual, however, there are a number of variables and options to consider when it comes to laser skin resurfacing and the type of treatment that may be right for each patient. Always consult with a surgeon who has performed a wide range of these procedures and is familiar with the many choices that are available.

• Read more about Fraxel laser treatment in Minneapolis/St. Paul.