UT Southwestern plastic surgeons deploy new carbon dioxide-based fractional laser

With more than 200 lasers on hand for various procedures, UT Southwestern is one of the world’s leaders in providing patients with laser treatment options. This latest model, made by California-based Lumenous Device Technologies, has a large arm and two heads and can be used on a variety of conditions, including wrinkle removal, acne scarring, alleviating dark pigmentation, and other conditions that the plastic surgery group is investigating.

Early carbon dioxide-based lasers were popular in the early 1990s, but faded from favor due to long recovery periods – sometimes spanning several months – and pigmentation inequities that resulted in loss of pigmentation in the patient’s skin after treatment.

The new laser treatments are office-based procedures done on an out-patient basis, but may require some local or regional anesthetic, with recovery time related to the type of procedure. In most instances recovery is between three and five days. Depending on what’s required, procedure costs can range from $500 to $3,000 and are usually considered cosmetic.

The popularity of out-patient, office-based laser procedures has been rising as lasers have improved.

“There are a lot of patients who would rather not have surgery and who are looking for things to improve their appearance without surgical down time,” Dr. Kenkel said. “In addition, there’s a whole group of younger patients who are looking for improvement who are not necessarily in need of surgery but perhaps would benefit from some of the lesser invasive procedures that we have to offer.”

Americans spent more than $12 billion last year on cosmetic procedures, involving 11.5 million surgical and nonsurgical procedures, according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. Nonsurgical procedures, which include laser treatments, accounted for about 83 percent of those procedures.

Visit http://www.utsouthwestern.org/patientcare/medicalservices/plastics.html to learn more about UT Southwestern’s clinical services in plastic surgery.

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Dr. Jeffrey Kenkel -- http://www.utsouthwestern.edu/findfac/professional/0,2356,18673,00.html