Dr. Anne Chapas, a dermatologist in New York City, explained to Meredith Vieira how she used Fraxel, Thermage, and Isolaz to help the patients with a variety of skin problems, including skin laxity, acne, and sun spots—all without going under the knife.
Jill, a 40-something with years of skin damage from the sun, received Fraxel restore treatment. Dr. Chapas explains that Fraxel gives energy that stimulates new skin cells to grow and gives a refreshed appearance to skin, making it look more youthful and healthy.
Of the treatment, Jill says, “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.”
Dr. Chapas estimates that 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.
Lisa, a new mom, received Thermage treatment on her stomach. She says she had a lot of extra flab in her mid section after her second child. Thermage tightened her belly and helps her fit better in her clothes.
Thermage can also be used to tighten the face. Lisa B. was suffering from skin discoloration, breakouts and blotches, and looseness. She first received Thermage treatment, which helped tighten her skin and build collagen, followed by Fraxel the next week to help even out her skin tone.
Thermage and Fraxel treatments are available at Dr. Stacy’s Bellevue, Washington office. She is the number one Thermage provider in the state of Washington and patients frequently travel from southwest and eastern Washington, Alaska, Idaho, and Oregon for Thermage treatment. Learn more about travel accomodations.
Everything from facials to laser treatments can help you look your best, but don’t forget to be proactive about taking care of yourself between procedures. One habit that may help fight the effects of aging over the long-term is flossing.
Dr. Eugene Antenucci explained to MSNBC for a recent article that you leave 40 percent of your teeth dirty with bacteria if you’re not flossing, which causes staining and yellowing between and around teeth.
Too much plaque can lead to gingivitis, the first stage of gum disease. Gum disease symptoms include red, swollen, or bleeding gums, receding gums, and the formation of deep pockets between teeth and gums, according to WebMD. If left untreated, gum disease can end with tooth loss due to destruction of the tissue that surrounds your teeth.
“You register an older look because you see more spaces, less and uneven gum tissue,” according to Antenucci, a spokesperson for the Academy of General Dentistry.
Eventually gum disease can cause the bones underneath to dissolve away, explains Dr. Donald Clem, a dentist in Fullerton, Calif. “In later stages of periodontal disease we would see disfigurement in terms of caving in of the lips and cheek and wrinkles around the lips and cheeks.”
A range of cosmetic services, from Botox to a chemical peel, can help your skin look its best—and so can habits that you do every day, such as flossing and wearing sunscreen.
While women make up the majority of cosmetic procedure patients, men see the benefits as well. Men received 13 percent of all cosmetic surgical procedures and 9 percent of all cosmetic minimally-invasive procedures performed last year in the United States, according to statistics from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).
Bill Neville, 52, recently shared his cosmetic surgery story with reporter Elise Morgan of WHNT NEWS 19 in Huntsville, Alabama. Neville, who has a four-year-old son, began to worry about looking old: “He’s [his son] going to start t-ball, swimming, and I don’t want to be out there with the rest of the dads and have them looking at me like, ‘Hey! Grandpa is out here to watch his grandson!’”
Neville changed his diet and exercise but decided to get plastic surgery as well. “Just rolling back the clock a bit on this turkey gobbler and possibly getting the skin off my eyelids would be great,” he said before he had surgery.
His procedures included a facelift, a neck lift, laser resurfacing of his skin, and injections to fill in wrinkles. “I was hoping not to look real “plasticky” and stretched, and I don’t think I do,” said Neville. “I think it looks real natural and everyone I’ve talked to thinks it looks great.”
ASPS statistics show that the top 5 minimally-invasive cosmetic procedures for men last year were:
Botox is famous for its ability to smooth wrinkles in the face, and now Johns Hopkins researchers may have found another use that goes beyond the cosmetic.
The researchers gave patients with thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS), a debilitating nerve compression disorder, one low-dose injection of Botox in a neck muscle. After the Botox, the patients reported a significant reduction in their short-term pain.
The study suggests that Botox could be a less-invasive alternative to the syndrome’s treatment of last resort—surgery to remove a rib.
“There haven’t been many alternatives to the use of surgery to treat this syndrome,” says the study’s lead author, Paul J. Christo, M.D., M.B.A., an assistant professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “Botox seems to be an effective treatment that avoids surgery’s obvious drawbacks, such as its invasive nature and long recovery time.”
The effect from Botox lasts only a few months, so repeated injections would be necessary to maintain the results. However, repeated treatments could lead to the development of antibodies to the compound in patients; as a result Botox would no longer block the pain. Dr. Christo says that means that not all patients with TOS are candidates for Botox.
Botox’s use as a cosmetic procedure remains very popular, even as more therapeutic uses are discovered. The American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery reported that it was the number one less-invasive cosmetic procedure in the United States in their 2009 cosmetic surgery statistics. Botox is one of the services Dr. Stacy offers at her Bellevue, Washington office and is the most popular cosmetic treatment in Bellevue and Seattle, according to her website.
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.
Correction of facial skin laxity was the goal with both cosmetic treatments. To measure the results and compare the two, 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.
2 findings from the study are especially useful in comparing these 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.
Thermage and Fraxel just announced the “Best Friends Forever” contest on Facebook. You and your BFF can submit a story and photo to win four available treatment packages worth $5,000.
Are you and your BFF local celebs? Write your own version of True Hollywood Story, explain why the two of you are best friends, and enter it with a photo for a chance to win. Four pairs of BFFs will walk away with complimentary VIP Fraxel and Thermage treatment packages.
Scientists believe that Brooke Greenberg, a 17-year old girl whose cognitive and physical growth never moved beyond the state of a toddler, can give us insight about the aging process.
Although she has experienced many health problems, her body has changed very little over the years, an oddity that has piqued the interest of medical researchers at the University of South Florida.
Because her body is seemingly “frozen in time,” they believe that Brooke has some kind of gene mutation that could potentially be used for anti-aging purposes. Research on her condition was presented last week at The Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of science.
Dr. Richard Walker, who is leading the research, says he hopes the team can “compare her genome to the normal version” so they can find and study certain genes that affect aging and possibly control them.
Today begins National Women’s Health Week, a time when we should “recommit to breaking existing barriers and improving the health of American women for generations to come.”
A proclamation by Barack Obama issued in this press release recommends several steps to help achieve these goals:
Lead healthy lives and set an example for your children.
Take advantage of preventive care with routine screenings and checkups.
Practice simple everyday activities like using sunscreen, exercising regularly, and eating healthy.
Emphasize the role of women in promoting the vitality of our children and communities.
Environmental hazards and lifestyle habits can gradually damage your skin. Fortunately, we can use Fraxel laser treatment to actually awaken your skin cells, so they can naturally revitalize themselves.
Fraxel 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.
Most treatments use topical anesthesia. At Dr. Stacy’s Maple Valley office we need about 30-45 minutes to perform a typical facial treatment.
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.
The FDA approved Fraxel for treating acne scars once research showed that Fraxel could be more effective than traditional acne scar treatments. The powerful, yet precise laser effectively encourages the skin to create new collagen to replace the scarred epidermis.
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 several therapies 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 therapies may be a better solution.
