Laser Treatment to Reduce Scars

Andrew: And in fact joining us is our friend and colleague, board certified dermatologist Dr. Ava Shamban from Laser Institute from dermatology in European skincare. Hi, there Ava.

Ava: Hi, how are you?

Andrew: So you're doing a little laser work. You know as I mentioned one of the best things we as doctors can do is laser resurfacing. Tell us about that.

Ava: In terms of scars, there are many types of scars. You can have just a red scar, a thick scar or a spread scar. And for Kim, she came in with a scar following skin cancer surgery. So what I'm doing now today is using the dual Frxel to remodel the scar tissue. It started off as red. We used another laser and now in order to blend the scar in, I'm using this dual Fraxel laser.

Andrew: So you're working not only the on the surface but also trying to get some of the pigmentation, color changes out of it.

Ava: That is exactly right, because the scar often has both things going on which is a pigmentary change, extra blood vessels making it look red as well as the texture of the skin looking like a scar. So in order tocompletely, you want to get rid of all of those things.

Andrew: And Dr. Shamban, you make such a good point. You know scars we can’t eliminate them completely. We can make then better and what you're doing there with the dual Fraxel is probably one of the best things we have now do to exactly that.

Lisa: If you're a person of color, you may want to use a different type of laser because that whole pigment and deep pigmentation especially you have color on your skin it can actually make it look worst if you use the wrong laser.

Ava: Yes, that’s true and you have to be very careful to your point about choice of lasers with skin color and ethnicities. But there out there and it's possible to treat any scar that you have now and it was not possible a few years ago.

Andrew: So let’s take a look at and how Kim did. Let’s take a look at her scars before and after her treatment. So this was a result of skin cancer. You can see on the before side and then following laser treatment flattened it significantly, lightened it. So that’s a big huge improvement.

Lisa: You know that’s great especially women with c-section scars or you know and some scars you want to remove and some scars you don’t.