Laser Skin Treatment In Action
Today we’re not going to talk about the laser hair removal, but about laser skin treatment. One of my friends, who is also a laser treatment technician, just underwent a laser skin treatment on one of Cutera’s machines. The procedure, called “Pearl”, is designed to replace your top skin surface (also called epidermis) with a new and healthy layer. Think about this procedure as of “shaving off” your old paint and putting on a brand new one.
The picture below illustrates the layers of skin. You can easily see the top layer – that’s what is being replaced. In addition to that, the tissue just below gets heated up by laser, which makes it produce more collagen. This, in turn, makes the new skin looks younger and healthier.
The procedure is very uncomfortable, despite numbing gel or even local anesthesia. Patients usually feel the pinches or other unpleasant skin sensations nevertheless. What laser pulse does here is basically damages the top layer of skin forcing the body to rid of it and grow a new healthier layer. According to Cutera’s web site “The Pearl laser replaces the entire top sun-damaged layer of skin with new healthy skin. Simultaneously, it sends heat to deeper layers of the skin stimulating new collagen growth, filling out and decreasing fine lines and wrinkles. New collagen growth continues for 4 to 6 weeks post-treatment. The combination of new skin and decreased wrinkles results in a healthier, more youthful appearance.”
Usually, there’s only one or two laser skin treatments necessary to rejuvenate even very damaged skin. Since this treatment usually applied to face, extreme caution has to be taken in order to avoid sun exposure. Facial skin remains “damaged” for almost two weeks, so this type of laser skin treatment is best done during late fall, winter or early spring – to minimize time a patient will be exposed to sun rays.
While somewhat painful and expensive in terms of both money and time (you may need to stay home first few days and stay away from social events for about a week or two), this procedure is a tremendous help in rejuvenating your skin from vast majority of imperfections.
Hi: I work for Cutera and read that your Pearl experience was painful. That’s unfortunate because we generally hear that it is quite tolerable as a procedure. There are combination topical anesthetics doctors find effective. Sometimes the skin isn’t prepped properly (not suggesting that was your case) but mostly the thickness of the compound and length of time the anesthetic is on the skin dictate the level of discomfort. But I’m happy you that you are pleased with the results.
Thanks for responding. First thing – it wasn’t my experience, I am not talking about myself here, but about another very close and important person in my life
From what I hear is that this procedure (and consequential skin sensations) is discomforting, but bearable. However, please understand that this is coming from a female that would do anything to look young, healthy and beautiful (and I support this as hard as I can), so I estimated for a reasonable human being it would be painful 
Pretty nice post. I just came across your site and wanted to say
that I have really enjoyed reading your posts. Any way
I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon!
Hello, can you please post some more information on this topic? I would like to read more.