We stumbled upon an old (March 7, 2007) article in ABC News – Spa Left Woman With Skin ‘Like Raw Meat’ – a story about a 52-year-old stay-at-home mom who saw the ugly side of medical spas. She went to one in Panama City, Fla., for what she thought was a routine procedure – laser treatments to remove sunspots on her back and chest.

“They put a topical ointment on my skin called Leveline, which intensified the laser,” Miles said. “After it was over, I was already burning. During the treatment, it was very excruciating pain, but I was lead to believe that this was normal.”

The pain, which she said felt like someone pressing hot curling irons in to her back, was not normal. After leaving the spa, she said that her back was on fire and that she was vomiting from the severe pain. When she finally looked in a mirror, Miles was shocked at what she saw.

“It looked like raw meat. I had horrendous blisters all over it. It was in a zebra-stripe type pattern. It was scary,” she said.

See the graphic pictures of what an IPL machine can do in the hands of an untrained medical spa technician.

Why the newer fractional technologies are so popular?

The latest fractional laser technologies offer a better balance of efficacy, patient tolerance and lack of side effects compared to older lasers.

For better results the depth of the laser beam penetration and the depth of skin resurfacing are important. But even more important is an optimal combination of depth, microspot size, density, as well as the ratio of ablation to coagulation.

Depth is a simple term that indicates how deep the thermal damage extends into the skin tissue. It is the depth of the microcrater or hot cylinder.

Microspot size is the diameter of the microscopic wound.

Density is the percent coverage over the skin surface, e.g. 20 percent density means 20 percent of the skin surface is damaged.

The “ratio of ablation to coagulation” can be explained as follows: one pulse of laser beam produces a crater (coagulation area), which is 100 µm wide, and the lateral thermal damage (area of ablation) of 50 µm in radius (100 µm in diameter) ; therefore in this case, the total width of coagulation is 100 µm, and the total width of ablation is 100 µm, therefore 1:1. This ratio is an indication of the downtime. Coagulation is a type of thermal damage, which greatly influences wound healing.

The problem is that no one knows the precise best recipe among all of these variables to achieve the best ratio of cosmetic enhancement to days of “downtime.”

CO2 and Erbium laser skin resurfacing is a very efficient procedure to remove wrinkles, acne scars, blemishes, growths, and sun-damaged skin blemishes. The laser allows the body to produce new collagen and generate new skin. The result is usually “years younger” skin. Improvement continues as the aged and sun-damaged deep collagen areas continue to regenerate and repair for three to six months after treatment.

How long will the improvement last?

No one can say for sure, but many laser physicians believe that you can expect the results to last for several years. How long may depend on your unique skin type and upon your post-treatment skin care. Think of the laser as “turning back the clock” so to speak, so that your skin again resembles its fresher appearance of years past. Your new skin remains dynamic and alive and it should take many years before your skin appearance manages to catch up with where it was before your treatment. Much depends on how carefully you protect your new skin from damaging sun-exposure. You have a second chance at slowing down the sunlight-related aging process. Read the rest of this entry �