New skin treatments faster, easier

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New skin treatments faster, easier
November 3, 2007
By COLIN STEWART
Bradenton Herald

Like teachers erasing a blackboard to get a clean slate, dermatologists can wipe away skin defects on patients' faces by destroying a layer of old cells.

The process lets patients start fresh with newly grown skin cells, but only after enduring a week - or more - with a raw, swollen, oozing face.

Nice, huh?

Whether the old cells are wiped out by chemicals, by friction or by a laser, it's strong medicine that makes doctors and patients squirm. So for years, doctors and medical-device makers have been seeking less drastic remedies for acne scars, wrinkles and discoloration - mostly with mixed results.

Now, experts are cautiously optimistic that some newer skin treatment machines - devices that peel away skin cells via radio-frequency waves, electrical charges, intense pulses of non-laser light and less-invasive lasers - may provide an easier answer.

Syneron Medical of Israel and Irvine, Calif., makes some of those devices.

Learning what works

So far, the new techniques used in skin removal have been only partially successful.

"We're trying devices that are not quite as scary to patients, or to us, but the results are not as good," says Dr. Mark Rubin, assistant clinical professor of dermatology at UC San Diego.

In contrast to the broad impact of older devices such as carbon dioxide lasers, most of the new treatments spur new cell growth by destroying old cells selectively. Others, such as photofacial machines, use heat or light to stimulate the skin without destroying cells.

"Skin resurfacing (with full-face carbon dioxide lasers) is clinically proven to increase collagen," which gives the new skin a more youthful appearance, says Dr. E. Victor Ross, director of the Laser and Cosmetic Dermatology Unit at Scripps Clinic in San Diego.

"Nobody has yet achieved results like that" with photofacial devices, he says, adding that fractional lasers also fall short, but not by as much.

Fractional lasers

Ross says fractional lasers, such as the Affirm system from Cynosure of Westford, Mass., are promising.

Instead of flooding the skin with laser light, they are computer-controlled to create a pattern of hundreds of microscopic holes, which the body repairs with new skin cells.

He likens the process to aerating a lawn.

"We can create very deep, but very small, wounds," Ross says.

Newport Beach, Calif., dermatologist Dore Gilbert is similarly impressed by two new fractional lasers, the Fraxel from Reliant Technologies of Mountain View, Calif., and the ActiveFX from Lumenis of Santa Clara, Calif.

"They offer patients an opportunity for resurfacing your skin with minimal, or practically no, downtime," he says. "ActiveFX, which is a (fractional) carbon-dioxide laser, is particularly helpful around the eyes and around the mouth. The Fraxel laser is very useful in treating the cheeks and the rest of the face, acne scarring and photo damage."

Both lasers remove the top layer of the skin, but they treat only about 20 percent of the skin at a time, boring tiny holes at regular intervals.