NBC’s Today Show profiled four women on July 2 who received noninvasive treatments, including Fraxel and Thermage, to treat a variety of skin problems, such as skin laxity, acne, and sun spots.
Jill, a 40-something with years of skin damage from the sun, received Fraxel restore treatment. Dr. Chapas, a dermatologist in New York City, explained to Meredith Vieira that Fraxel gives energy that stimulates new skin cells to grow and makes skin look refreshed and more youthful.
“I’m thrilled. It really got rid of so much of the sun damage that I could see. It just makes me feel like I have fresh, new skin,” Jill said of the treatment.
Dr. Chapas said it usually takes 1 to 3 treatments to see results. After treatment, patients may have a few days of redness and a little dryness, according to the doctor.
Thermage is a treatment to tighten, “lift”, and contour skin, with improvements in tone, shape, and texture.
Lisa, a mom of two, received Thermage on her stomach. She says that Thermage tightened her belly and helps her fit better in her clothes.
Lisa B. received a combination of Thermage and Fraxel on her face. She was suffering from skin discoloration, breakouts and blotches, and looseness. She received Thermage to tighten her skin and build collagen, followed by Fraxel the next week to help even out her skin tone.
Dr. Carney offers Fraxel, Thermage, and ThermaFrax, which is a combination treatment, offering a skin tightening procedure, followed by a fractional resurfacing treatment to attack the skin laxity, fine lines and wrinkles, pigmentation and surface imperfections at once. Advancements in Dermatology has five locations in the Twin Cities—in Edina, Burnsville, Coon Rapids, Woodbury, and Crystal.
Dermatologists from Yale University School of Medicine recently published a study that attempts to objectively assess the skin tightening results of both cosmetic facelift surgery and fractional radiofrequency treatment.
Both cosmetic treatments have similar goals: to correct facial skin laxity. To measure the results and compare the two treatments, a randomized, blinded, comparative trial was designed. Doctors mixed photos of patients who underwent both facelift surgery and fractional radiofrequency treatment, then graded them on a 4-point skin laxity scale.
Two findings are especially useful in comparing the two treatments:
Mean skin laxity improvement of the RF treatment was 37 percent of the surgical facelift
Patients in the RF group returned to normal activities 24 hours after treatment, while those in the facelift group did the same after 7 to 10 days.
Fraxel laser treatment awakens your skin cells so they can revitalize themselves naturally. If environmental hazards, lifestyle habits or age-related factors have taken a toll on your skin, Fraxel is an excellent solution.
The Fraxel laser is FDA approved to treat conditions such as sun spots, acne scarring, melasma and eye wrinkles.
Only a small fraction of your skin is treated with each session. The surrounding area is not affected. This way, the skin can heal much faster than if the entire area were treated at once.
The laser penetrates through skin like light through glass, reaching into the dermis below to create thousands of tiny, microscopic areas of thermal damage. Your body’s own wound healing response is stimulated to produce new collagen production and replace damaged skin layers.
Performed under topical anesthesia, we typically need about 30-45 minutes for a facial treatment.
Melasma
Pregnancy can take a toll on your skin. With stretch marks, melasma and hormonal changes, it can leave some lasting reminders that most women would prefer to erase.
Melasma is a common disorder estimated to affect about 6 million women in the United States. Melasma typically appears as brown spots and darkened pigmentation on sun-exposed facial areas, notably the cheeks, forehead, upper lip and nose. Melasma is most common in women of childbearing age and among male and female adults of dark-skinned races.
Fraxel is effective in treating persistent melasma that has been unresponsive to treatments like bleaching creams, microdermabrasion, selective photothermolysis laser and light therapies, and laser ablation.
Think of your skin as a wall made up of tiny tiles. If you have melasma, every third tile on this wall would be brown in color. With Fraxel fractional resurfacing, every brown tile is “zapped” and eliminated making your skin more uniform.
Wrinkles around the Eyes
Your wrinkles may signify a life rich with laughter and experience, but most people would prefer to keep the memories and lose the crow’s feet! With Fraxel, we can naturally rebuild and restore your skin in this area, reducing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.
The skin around your eyes is much more delicate than other areas of the body and tends to age more rapidly. The tiny wrinkles that develop (crow’s feet) develop from years of contracting the muscles that display our emotions when we smile, squint, contemplate, show surprise or laugh.
There are many other strategies for reducing crow’s feet, including Botox, chemical peels, injectable fillers, collagen, dermabrasion or traditional laser treatment. If Fraxel is not an ideal treatment for you, one of these alternatives may be recommended.
Age/Sun Spots
It’s hard to escape the damage caused by decades of harmful sun exposure. To reduce the appearance of sun spots, Fraxel treatment awakens and revitalizes the subsurface cells in your skin.
Sun spots (also known as age spots or liver spots) are flat, uneven patches that appear on sun-exposed parts of your body. The most common areas are the face, chest, hands, shoulders and arms.
Your skin reacts to sun exposure by producing pigment called melanin. The purpose of the melanin is to shield your skin from UV rays. This increased pigmentation can cause darkened spots – making you look much older than you really are.
Acne Scarring
Acne scarring can make a negative impact on one’s self-image, particularly if you are entering adult life while carrying these outward symbols of your teenage years. Fortunately, a Fraxel treatment can reduce or soften the appearance of acne scars and improve your appearance significantly.
Scars happen when acne advances to the point of injuring the tissue. This discolored fibrous tissue has abnormal collagen function. It may appear as a red raised area or indented mark. For treatment, the top layer of skin must be removed and the production of new collagen must be stimulated.
Traditional acne scar treatments blended topical agents, abrasion therapies, surgery and conventional lasers. Most of these treatments get moderate results and can be aggressive, resulting in a long, painful recovery period.
Once research showed that Fraxel could be more effective than traditional acne scar treatments, the FDA cleared Fraxel for treating acne scars. The powerful, yet precise laser effectively encourages the skin to create new collagen to replace the scarred epidermis.
For the patients who will be treated at the Grossman Burn Center, the world just got a little brighter. The Grossman Burn Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Burn Center, has this week announced that Solta Medical Inc. has donated a Fraxel re:store laser system to the Burn Center, offering immediate benefits to Burn Center patients.
The Fraxel system will be used to reduce the appearance of scarring caused by traumatic thermal damage. The Burn Center is a worldwide leader in innovative treatment and care for burn patients and their families.
The Fraxel laser treatment is specifically designed to resurface damaged skin to uncover the healthier, smoother skin beneath. It works by penetrating the outer layers of damaged skin (epidermis) to reach the deeper layers of skin beneath the surface where collagen and elastin are located. This stimulates a natural healing process that not only produces new collagen, but literally replaces the damaged tissue with new, healthy skin cells.
“The goal of restorative burn care is to return the patient to as close to pre-injury status as possible…” said Rebecca Grossman, the Chair of the Grossman Burn Foundation. “We plan to use the cutting-edge Fraxel technology to restore our burn-injured patients and play a key role in providing better and faster patient outcomes.”
The change of seasons may bring a fancy new laser to dermatologists in the United States and Europe: the Fraxel re:store dual is being introduced by Solta Medical this fall during the Fraxel illumiNATION tour (no, there won’t be a rock concert – but there will be lasers!).
The new system is reportedly equipped with a novel 1927 nm wavelength Thulium laser that offers a few key advantages for patients and physicians. Those who have had the opportunity to test the dual say that it offers excellent versatility and greater ease of use when treating areas other than the face. The new Fraxel re:store dual also offers benefits listed below:
Single laser system / Dual fiber technology
Thulium laser provides quick removal of undesirable pigmentation
Improved comfort and easier operation
Handpiece incorporated focal cooling
Procedure speed may increase by 25 percent
To inquire about fraxel laser skin resurfacing in Minnesota, contact one of our offices in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.
In late August, Solta Medical announced the launch of their new Thermage CPT system, an advancement that’s sure to improve the Thermage skin tightening experience here in Minneapolis and everywhere else.
Photo courtest of R. Krueger MD
Thermage with “Comfort Pulse Technology” allows the physician to deliver therapeutic heat more effectively across the treated area, which has increased efficiency and comfort simultaneously. The new CPT advances also include a special vibrating hand piece for added comfort.
Physicians like Robert Weiss, MD, at the Maryland Laser, Skin and Vein Institute say the improvements brought by the CPT system allow more energy delivery with greater comfort, which in turn allows physicians to “provide a more efficacious treatment and increase overall patient satisfaction.”
Solta Medical spokespersons say the technology is “a leap forward.” CEO Stephen J. Fanning says, “[CPT] is not just an incremental improvement – it is a step change in non-surgical anti-aging technology, allowing physicians to achieve better patient outcomes in less time and with more comfort than ever before.”
Hair is definitely sexy‚ when it resides on top of your head. Anywhere else is anything but! But don’t fret – there are many ways to remove body hair these days.
To remove unwanted body hair from your face, legs, back, arms and even underarms, you might shave or pluck hair, or you might use electronic tweezers, radiofrequency tweezers, waxing, depilatories, or electrolysis.
The problem is, those methods are temporary, outdated and tedious.  The ideal way to do it is with laser hair removal. Lasers send a low-energy beam through the skin. The dark pigment (melanin) present in the shaft of the hair follicles absorbs the laser beam. Initial hair reduction is seen immediately after treatment. To get permanent results, you just go through a series of repeated treatments.
There are different types of lasers that can be used to remove unwanted hair. The first lasers approved for hair reduction by FDA were the ruby, alexandrite and diode lasers. But these could only be used on select individuals – not those with tans or ethnic skin.
The newest lasers have increased wavelengths and the ability to treat darker skin types, including African-American skin, Asian skin, or just those with a tan. One of the biggest benefits is the convenience; immediately following your hair removal treatment you can return to work, school or any of your regular activities. Contact Skin Speaks for more information on laser hair removal.
Solta Medical Inc. recently announced plans to open an Aesthetic Center in California that will function as an R&D hub and a physician training facility with an in-house clinic.
The activities within the center will focus on all of the innovative AED technologies (of Fraxel and Thermage) that have been brought together under the Solta Medical name.
According to one participating dermatologist (quoted in the press release), the center “will allow the company’s optics and biomedical engineers to share data and receive immediate clinical feedback about their work in new product development and existing product enhancement.”
The facility’s grand opening will coincide with the 67th annual meeting of the American Academy of Dermatology in San Francisco, which will feature in-depth discussions and presentations on laser resurfacing and skin tightening.
With all of these new developments and collaborations in the field, it is not unreasonable to expect some exciting new technological advancements in the cosmetic surgery and dermatology industry.
In a combined stock and cash deal valued at $66.2 million, Thermage Inc. purchased California based Reliant Technologies.
Reliant has become very popular in the aesthetic surgery market for Fraxel, which we offer in our Burnsville medical spa along with all types of Thermage.
Thermage Inc., which is also out of California, bought the company for approximately 23 million in stock shares, $25 million cash and will assume $7 million of Reliant’s debt.¬† Shares of Reliant stock have dropped since the deal was made public in July.
Reliant Technologies has been highly profitable, largely due to the effectiveness of Fraxel laser technology.¬† Fraxel treatments resurface skin and stimulate collagen growth by penetrating the dermis with ‘fractional’ microscopic laser columns.¬† The body’s natural healing process then promotes skin rejuvenation and collagen building.
Thermage is known for marketing a unique, non-invasive cosmetic treatment that utilizes radiofrequency technology to heat and thus, tighten skin.  The treatment is also said to improve skin tone and texture.
just got a little brighter. The 
The change of seasons may bring a fancy new laser to dermatologists in the United States and Europe: the Fraxel re:store dual is being introduced by Solta Medical this fall during the Fraxel illumiNATION tour (no, there won’t be a rock concert – but there will be lasers!).
Hair is definitely sexy‚ when it resides on top of your head. Anywhere else is anything but! But don’t fret – there are many ways to remove body hair these days.
Solta Medical Inc. recently announced plans to open an Aesthetic Center in California that will function as an R&D hub and a physician training facility with an in-house clinic.
In a combined stock and cash deal valued at $66.2 million, Thermage Inc. purchased California based Reliant Technologies.