Treatments

Here you will find various types of medical laser treatments.

Minor Surgery

In minor surgery, ablative lasers – mainly CO2 lasers – are used. They can vaporize or cut tissue. Due to the superpulse, in which the energy is built up and broken down in fractions of a second, skin can be vaporized painlessly thanks to less tissue heating. Parts of the skin can be safely removed without damaging the surrounding tissues and with minimal bleeding only. Collagen fibers contract and rearrange through the heat produced by the laser beam, which ultimately results in firming of the skin. Ablative lasers can be used to treat benign skin tumors such as fibroids, warts/age warts or fatty deposits on the eyelids, photodamage, keratinization, etc. Moles are not allowed to be lasered. In this case, a classic surgical removal, where a histology is obtained, is the method of choice. In order to distinguish whether or not a pigmentary lesion may be lasered, a dermatoscopic examination by a dermatologist is required.

Reduction of Rhytides, Skin Firming and Scar Removal

For the treatment of wrinkles, various methods are often used in combination. Classic skin resurfacing has been almost completely replaced by fractional laser techniques in recent years. This means that only small fractions of the skin are treated, usually a series of tiny punctures only 1/10 mm in diameter.  These holes stimulate a surface skin renewal. Since most of the skin remains intact, the healing process is very fast, usually over a weekend. The regeneration process that takes place under the epidermis last for weeks to months and causes a continuous improvement in the appearance of the skin surface through the formation of fresh collagen. For deeper wrinkles, fillers (usually hyaluronic acid) are used in conjunction with lasers as well as botulinum toxin.

Epilation

For hair removal, lasers and intense pulsed light (IPL) are sometimes used in combination with radio frequency. All of these systems have been tried and tested for years and lead to a sustained hair reduction. What they all have in common is that, for biological reasons, only a maximum of 20% of the hair can ever be destroyed per session and dark hair responds best. Birthmarks should be avoided during these treatments.

Vascular Lesions

For vascular changes, various laser systems are used. Telangiectasia (dilated veins), hemangiomas (blood sponges) and couperose respond particularly well to treatment. The treatment of spider veins proves to be more difficult, since unrecognized afferent veins often hamper the results. The laser treatment of spider veins can be a useful complement to a sclerotherapy. The removal of moles with laser or IPL is forbidden! Also the removal of permanent make-up and tattoos with flash lamps is not allowed.

Pigmentary Lesions

The treatment of pigmented changes, especially birthmarks, is problematic. The removal of endogenous pigments by laser is reserved exclusively for dermatologists.

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