What is laser skin rejuvenation?
Laser skin rejuvenation is a procedure that uses the Diolite KTP Laser, a small laser for treating capillaries on the face and the redness of rosacea. It is also very good for treating brown spots (aka sun spots, age spots, liver spots, and solar lenitigines) due to sun damage on the face, hands, and chest, and for simple freckles.

How does it work?
Like all lasers in the cosmetic field, it works by simply heating a target, in this case the blood in the capillaries or melanin in the brown spots, and closing off the capillary or killing the melanin-producing cells. It has nothing to do with the sort of radiation treatment used to kill tumor cells by destroying the DNA so the cell can’t survive.

Who are the best candidates?
Those with facial capillaries, rosacea and small dark facial spots are the best candidates.

Does it hurt?
It’s more annoying than painful. Around the nose it can feel like a small rubber band being snapped on the skin. Occasionally a patient will use a topical anesthetic medicine before the treatment.

Is there downtime?
Almost never. Most just go back to work right after the treatment. It will look like a mild sunburn in the treated area for a few hours to a day. Brown spots look a little darker for a couple of weeks as the melanin works it’s way out of the skin. Occasionally there is light scabbing for 3 to 4 days.

Are there risks? 
We’ve been treating patients with this laser since 2004 and have never had a problem. There is a risk of a small area being lighter or darker than the surrounding skin, or even a small scar, although we’ve never seen this in over thousands of treatments.