The DOT CO2 Fractional: The Next Step in Laser Skin Resurfacing

NORTH DALLAS and PLANO, Texas, March 1 Skin damage. If youare over 40, your skin may be telling some tales about you -- about your timeas a smoker (lip lines), those long, lazy sun-worshipping summers (dry, roughskin, wrinkles, freckles and age spots), or perhaps you're seeing a littlemore of Mom and Pop in the mirror each day than you'd care to. Yes, part ofwhat you're seeing is normal skin aging, but most of it is likely to be sunand other environmental damage. It's ugly -- and it's not just on the surface,either.

Good news: Two revolutionary medical technologies with diverse approachesto skin resurfacing are merging their strengths: fractional laser technologyand the CO2 laser. The two heavy-hitter beauty treatments are now beingcombined to provide a resurfacing and rejuvenating treatment that goes deeperinto the skin than current conventional fractional laser treatments, whileoffering a safer treatment with considerably less social downtime and recoverythan the traditional CO2 (carbon dioxide) ablation laser.

For the patient with deeper wrinkling and skin damage, the aestheticphysician's gold-standard, until recently, has been the CO2 laser, because ofits ability to vaporize the outermost layers of skin across a large surfacearea. After some recovery, the newly-generated skin is remarkably smoother andsuppler. The other side of the CO2 coin is that that reward generally comesafter 10 to 14 days or so of hiding away as a social pariah, the first fewdays of which one will likely benefit from a potent pain medication. The skintends to retain a pinkish/reddish hue for months afterward (the longer theredness, the better the final result), and there is, naturally, with anylarger, weeping and crusting open wound surface, risk of infection if anaftercare regimen is not carefully followed. Additionally, a small percentageof patients may experience permanent, delayed-onset skin whitening or excessskin pigmentation.

Now, enter fractional technology. The fractional scientific approach ispredicated upon the body's healing response to injury. By creating thousandsof tiny, microscopic laser wounds, spaced in an even pattern across the skin,but leaving areas of healthy, untreated skin between them, the lower collagenlayer of the dermis is stimulated to renew and repair. The surface of the skinnow contains only microscopic surface wounds, instead of one large, red,oozing burn. With the fractional treatment, the evidence of the ongoinghealing and rebuilding process is more subtle, taking place deep in the dermis(where there are less pain receptors), leaving the protective epidermalcovering much more intact. After a few days (instead of weeks) of your faceappearing sun-blistered, the skin will now gradually repair and rebuild itselffrom the inside outward, stimulated to produce a fresh, thicker and moreresilient layer of collagen, which over the next few months will fill out moreevenly, for a tighter, smoother and more uniform surface appearance. The DOT(Dermal Optical Thermolysis) CO2's longer wavelength, combined with fractionallaser technology takes the treatment deeper into the dermis than current,minimally-ablative fractional treatments can. The inherent risks of the CO2laser are reduced considerably by implementing the fractional delivery, whilethe fractional treatment results are improved. Additionally, there are noknown reports of any delayed skin whitening or excess skin pigmentationassociated with the DOT CO2 fractional laser treatment.

SKINTASTIC(TM) Medical and Surgical Skin Rejuvenation Center, a medicalspa serving the North Dallas/Plano region currently offers the Fraxel(TM)SR1500, an advanced non-ablative fractional laser, for correction of moderatesun damage, wrinkles and skin pigment irregularities. A patient generallyreceives 4 to 5 treatments with the current Fraxel technology. JeffreyAdelglass, M.D., F.A.C.S., Medical Director and C