Improved
6112 HealthChanged
3786 LivesSaved
3568 Lives1 lives impacted in the last 24 hrs Learn More
Listen, as Dr. Shaw describes laser resurfacing.
Dr. Shaw:
Laser resurfacing has gone through a development over the many years. In the past CO2 laser resurfacing was performed and quite frankly, it had a lot of disadvantages and a lot of people, when you say laser resurfacing, they think of the CO2 total ablation resurfacing which caused months of redness and deep pigmentation or whitening with demarcations.
The newer advances in laser resurfacing have gone towards the fractional resurfacing. The fractional resurfacing device that I use is by Cutera. It is the Pearl Fractional device and we also have a Pearl device. The Pearl Fractional uses what’s called YSGG wavelength. It is the right combination of ablation and heat.
To have skin rejuvenation you need to go into the dermis of the skin deeper and cause some microscopic destruction to allow the collagen to rebuild itself and cause rejuvenation of the skin. What the fractional laser does, if this is the skin surface, what it will do is create these columns of really, ablation but, they are not continuous, they are microns apart. So you have normal skin between these ablations and what the YSGG Pearl Fractional does is it creates a zone of injury around these ablated areas, so that causes some destruction of some of this tissue and heating of it, and what happens is that it’s this ablation and this amount of heat that causes healing and regeneration of the skin.
There are other wavelengths that sometimes cause other wider ablation areas and either no heat or narrower ablation areas with a lot of heat. So depending on the different device and the wavelength, depends on which one of these patterns you would have. The Pearl Fractional, in my mind, has the right combination between ablation and coagulation, or heat injury to some surrounding tissues.
These patients heal very fast. With the CO2 lasers would require many weeks of healing, the Pearl Fractional treatments are healed within five to seven days.
Dr. Shaw, M.D.:
Dr. Lawrence Shaw, M.D., was born on Long Island, New York in 1954 where he lived through High School. He did his undergraduate studies at Emory University and received his medical degree from New York Medical College in 1979. Dr. Shaw then completed a five-year General Surgery residency and was board certified by the American Board of Surgery.
Dr. Shaw is a double-boarded Plastic Surgeon, which required 7 years of surgical training alone. Since completing his plastic surgery residency training at the Phoenix Integrated Plastic Surgery Residency in 1986, Dr. Shaw has performed thousands of plastic surgery operations. He is certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery, the only board recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties to certify doctors in Plastic Surgery. Dr. Shaw is also certified by the American Board of Surgery. He is a member of regional and national medical societies including the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) and he American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.