Facial Rejuvenation - Repairing Photodamage!
The Face Care Center
A youthful face is a bright face. It reflects light and is smooth without surface or deeper imperfections. A damaged face has sunspots, raised "age" spots, fine wrinkles and other imperfections that scatter light or cause more of it to be absorbed, rather than reflected. The pictures of the children on this page illustrate this. The adults in the pictures have fairly normal appearing skin for their ages. But compare with the skin of the children. As you view these pictures squint your own eyes until their facial features disappear. This will demonstrate the difference in facial brightness. The effects of photo damage are readily apparent. Sun damage causes several changes, which result in an overall darkening of the face.
Sunspots
Sunspots are pigmented lesions, much like a freckle, that develop within the skin. They are darker than the surrounding skin and can be small, like freckles, or can be large, sometimes up to an inch in diameter or more. "Age" spots are rough, raised lesions almost like a flat mole. They are usually a dull color, often medium brown to grey or even dark brown. They have less to do with age than with prolonged and repeated sun exposure.
Wrinkles
Wrinkles are another imperfection that dulls the face. "Dynamic" wrinkles occur mainly in areas on the face where movement, such as smiling or squinting, causes the skin to be folded in the same spot over and over again. The fold eventually develops into a permanent wrinkle. "Static" wrinkles, on the other hand, occur in areas where the skin is not folded by movement. These wrinkles occur because of a loss of the collagen matrix that forms the building blocks of the skin. As the collagen is damaged by sun exposure and other factors, it reduces in amount. This loss of "volume" in the substance of the skin results in a "prune" effect and the development of fine wrinkles.
FotoFacial Treatments
From cosmetics and spa facials to expensive and risky chemical peels, there are many treatments that claim to work. However, these can usually be expensive or require a lot of upkeep. Plus, treatments such as laser resurfacing can have harmful side effects and complications.
Luckily, new technology has given us the FotoFacial. This is a revolutionary new treatment, which combines intense pulsed light with radiofrequency energy to cause a significant superficial peeling of damaged layers, and a penetrating treatment into the deeper skin layers to stimulate the production of new collagen! The FotoFacial is a treatment that has received FDA approval and therefore had to prove it actually accomplishes what it claims. In clinical trials, skin biopsies demonstrated the increased amount of collagen formed as a result of FotoFacial treatments.
The FotoFacial is a series of six treatments given over a twelve-week period of time. Each one is a simple 30-minute procedure done in our office with minimal discomfort and a prompt return to normal activity. It can even be performed during a lunch hour and you'll be back to work on time! Between treatments, a regimen of cosmeceutical agents is prescribed to be used on a daily basis to promote exfoliation of the superficially treated areas, to nurture the development of the new collagen that results from the deeper treatment, and to protect the skin from sun exposure during the treatment period. The results are as good as a laser resurfacing and are essentially permanent, although time and sun exposure may require touch up treatments.
A package of six treatments can be purchased for a very affordable price - less than half the cost of a laser resurfacing. Payments plans are available to help spread out payments.
