Certain scars can provide a colorful history of feats of recklessness or daring, but some are just reminders of times we’d rather forget, like acne or chickenpox breakouts. If you’d like to restore your skin to a blank, smooth surface, we offer laser resurfacing to clear away scarring.
At McHugh Plastic Surgery, under the experienced guidance of Dr. Thomas P. McHugh, we provide the latest laser tools to help our clients in The Woodlands, Texas, turn back the clock on aging skin, as well as scarring and other skin blemishes.
The bottom line is that scars aren’t forever thanks to our laser skin resurfacing — here’s how it works.
When we researched the many options for scar removal, we settled on the UltraPulse® laser system because of its precision and versatility. The UltraPulse is an ablative CO2 system that works on surface issues as well as deeper problems, such as thick and complex lesions.
The UltraPulse features two fractional modes — DeepFX™ and ActiveFX™ — which allows us to adjust the treatments to your specific skin concerns. The system also features CoolScan™ technology, making your laser resurfacing as comfortable as possible.
To remove your scar, we send in laser energy that destroys the top layer of your skin in your treatment area in order to encourage healthier new growth underneath. The pulses of energy can penetrate up to four millimeters for deeper scarring, or we can adjust the depth for surface problems like light acne scarring.
On top of addressing the top layer of damaged skin, the laser energy we deliver also works to promote collagen and elastin synthesis in your tissue, which helps your body create healthier skin.
The interesting thing about this treatment is that we’re calling upon the same resources that created your scarring in the first place. When you injure the surface of your skin, collagen floods in to plug up the breach in an effort to keep your body safe from foreign substances. With protection as the primary goal, your body’s collagen response pays little regard to how it will look afterward.
With our UltraPulse laser skin resurfacing, we clear away the old skin and then spur a milder healing response, which comes in a gentler flow of collagen that leads to smoother, healthy skin.
Our UltraPulse laser system is an ideal tool because of its versatility, allowing us to tackle a number of problems. From pock marks leftover from acne or chickenpox to thicker adhesions, we can break up the tough scar tissue with this ablative technology to allow unblemished skin to take its place.
There’s no single timeline when it comes to laser skin resurfacing. For example, if you want to address a small area of shallow scarring, it may take us only minutes to take care of the problem. For more extensive or deeper scarring, you should count on a series of treatments which we space apart by several weeks to allow time for your body to respond.
There’s no downtime after each treatment, allowing you to get on with your day. You can expect that the treatment area may be red, and it will start to slough or flake off within a week.
If you’d rather your scars didn’t take up permanent residence on your skin, please give us a call to book your laser resurfacing appointment. Or you can use the online scheduling tool.
