Laser Age Spot Removal

Is Laser Age Spot Removal Effective?

If you talk to an aestetician, a dermatologist, or medical laser tech, they’ll tell you, “yes, absolutely” it is almost always effective. However, if you listen to patients that have had the treatments the reviews are decidedly more mixed — at least amongst those that are willing and able to offer a review on their experiences.

If you go to the site agespots.net and look at the patient offered reviews, not all patients were thrilled with the results — especially given the cost. So, was this just a matter of the patient being disappointed due to inflated expectations? Well, it’s hard to say for certain without seeing all of the before and after pictures of the various patients, the advanced state of their age spots, or hyperpigmentation, and ‘knowing’ what was promised the patient during the sales pitch to go under the laser.

In addtion, the results of course vary with the type of laser being used and most importantly perhaps, the practitioner of the laser device.

Will My Age Spots Stay Away After Laser Surgery?

If done properly, and the age spots you had treated disappear (meaning you had a positive result), it is *possible* that the age spots will not reappear — in the same spot they appeared previously.

However, many women (and men!) are disappointed in the results of their laser treatment here again because they are not educated in the root cause of their sun spots before receiving the surgery.

Without getting overly technical, age spots are ‘fed’ by some called a melanocyte which lives deep under the skin’s surface. The melanocyte acts as a kind of ‘root system’ that feeds melanin up to the higher levels of the skin — still below the skin’s surface. The laser treatment, if done properly, attempts to ‘cook’ the cells which are presenting the age spot, and also create a micro scar to break the connection between the melanocyte and the age spot location.

However, since liver spots and age spots happen primarily because of overexposure to the sun, or hormonal changes in the body, the chances are, there are other melanocytes which are lurking, undetected ready, willing and able to start feeding the next batch of age spots under your skin. Since these were not presenting age spots they obviously will not be treated until they have a visible effect.

Why Not Just Kill All the Melanocytes?

Melanin production is not a bad thing. We need it. In fact, melanin is what gives our skin it’s color. Age spots, while not dangerous are only undesirable in that they are left over pools, or overproduction of melanin, if you will. An attempt to treat a large area of the skin would probably be disastrous, and in fact, many doctors warn about the dangers of trying to use a laser to treat ‘melasma’ — a condition where larger portions of the skin get hyperpigmented, often due to pregnancy, post pardem hormonal changes, oral contraceptives, or menopause which has given it the nickname the “mask of pregnancy”.

Apparently, trying to treat a larger area of skin with a laser increases the likelihood of severe scarring or unsatisfactory results on the part of the patient.

How Many Laser Treatments are Necessary to Remove My Spots?

While laser treatments are usually quite efficacious at removing age, liver, sun or brown spots on the skin, it often takes two or more treatment sessions to ‘completely’ remove the visible signs of spotting. This of course will vary based on how severe the spotting is, where they are located, and the length of time the spot has been present increasing in color and size.

Is Removing Sun Spots with a Laser Painful

Doctors generally believe that the pain their patients incur during laser age spot removal is ‘minimal’. Patients on the other hand alternatively describe the pain as mild to moderate. A lot of this obviously depends on the topical anesthesia used (if any), the patients threshold or tolerance for pain, the severity of the spots, and the location since some areas of the skin are much more sensitive to pain then other (like the thin skin on the neck area).

How Long will Laser Treatment Take?

One session of laser treatment for age spot removal can take anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes. The time to treat of course again depends on the size of the area being treated and the severity of the spots. If a session were to take any more than 45 minutes, doctors and laser practitioners will generally break the session up into multiple visits for the patient due to the discomfort of receiving the treatments.

After treatment, the patient can expect a recovery time to take anywhere from a week to a month. The skin will have the appearance and the feel of having a sunburn. Patients can return to work in a couple of days, but those with highly public jobs, or those who require more privacy will probably need to take at least a week off.

Patients are advised to wear protective clothing a sunscreen with sufficient SPF after their treatment — especially while healing — as the micro trauma that the laser creates to encourage new, unspotted skin to regenerate can leave the skin photo sensitive for a period of time.