ADAS Dermatology

By David T. Harvey, MD, FAAD, FACP

Fractional CO2 Technology

Recently, I had the pleasure of lecturing to fellow colleagues at the Advances in Dermatologic Surgery  Meeting in West Palm Beach and demonstrating what I  believe to be one of the greatest advancements in cosmetic laser surgery…..Fractional CO2 Laser Technology.

CO2 Laser has been around for many years. In fact, I remember that the technique was just coming out as I was  finishing my dermatology residency in 1995. It was a revolutionary laser but had many problems. First off, patients would complain of the pain and downtime. they had to have IV or general anesthesia. Another issue was that these patients would look disfigured and red for up to 14 days. Then we saw the complications (and did we!).  Poor utilization and technique as well as “off label” uses lead to unintended scarring and in some instances permanent disfigurement.

I have over 10 years experience with the CO2 laser and what I love about the fractional CO2 technology is that it finally offers us some unique advantages over traditional CO2 laser including…predictable results, off face uses, less downtime, requires topical anesthesia only, is minimally painful and very affordable. I can report from my own personal experience that this technology is pretty painless. I had my eyelids treated at low settings and found the experience to be very tolerable (reporting a 1 to 3 out of 10 pain scale.. in some areas I did not even require a topical anesthetic).

Fractional CO2 laser makes use of tiny dots which penetrate the skin and cause a disruption of the middle portion of the skin known as the dermis. Through a combination of selective tissue evaporation and heating, the dermis remodels and tightens.. This treatment is excellent for acne scars, wrinkles, oil gland enlargement, neck and hand laxity and much more. We can even use this laser in a unique way for our eyelid surgery cases. It is quite an awesome tool!

In short, I am blogging the Fractional CO2 laser because I am truly a believer of the technology. If you don’t believe me, check out our before and after pics and research the technology on your own. I am sure that you will be amazed like I was… in short order.

Tags: Blepharoplasty, CO2 Laser, Cosmetic Surgery, Eyelid Surgery, florida, Fractional CO2 Laser, Jacksonville, laser surgery

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 11th, 2008 at 10:00 pm and is filed under Acne Scars, Actinic Keratosis, Basal Cell Cancer, Cosmetic Dermatology, Cosmetic Surgery, Dermatology, Eyelid Surgery, Laser Treatments, Skin Cancer, Skin Laxity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.