Anti-Aging Laser Treatment: What Is It and How Does It Work?

Humans have tried to fight the signs of aging since the beginning of time. Even stories like the quest for the fountain of youth reflect our innate desire to halt the biological clock and retain our youthful skin and appearance for as long as possible.

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While we haven’t quite discovered immortality just yet, anti-aging laser treatments are a good substitute for now. These scientifically proven, noninvasive, and nonsurgical procedures can improve the look of your skin, change its texture, and even help you remove unwanted body hair, all without permanently damaging your skin.

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Don’t know what anti-aging laser treatments are or how they work? This page will answer all of your concerns.

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What Are Anti-Aging Laser Treatments?

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Anti-aging laser treatments, which can also be called laser skin resurfacing, are topical therapies that can only be performed by physicians or dermatologists with the requisite experience and tools. Though they use light and heat to accomplish your goals, laser treatments aren’t quite the same as infrared or sauna treatments.

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In a nutshell, these treatments use special laser light that can come in a few different forms in order to:

• Boost skin texture and appearance
• Reduce the signs of aging, like wrinkle lines and dark spots
• Remove hair and other skin imperfections
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Most people pursue anti-aging laser treatments in order to make their skin look and feel younger, more beautiful, and healthier. Others may simply want permanent hair removal so they don't have to constantly shave around hard-to-reach areas.

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There are two main types of anti-aging laser treatments:

• Ablative lasers use erbium or CO2 laser tools that physically peel or burn away a top layer of skin to remove imperfections and get rid of other superficial skin issues
• Nonablative lasers don’t remove skin layers and instead use pulsed laser light and fractional layers to treat other types of skin conditions

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Both types of anti-aging laser treatments can be effective and helpful depending on your needs.

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How Do Anti-Aging Laser Treatments Work?

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All anti-aging laser treatments work in essentially the same way.

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A doctor or physician will use a targeted laser tool that shines high-intensity laser light deep into your skin. Depending on the quality and heat of the laser, the tool will provide different effects.

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For instance, some targeted laser peel tools will smooth and tighten your skin by removing the outermost layers of dead or damaged skin cells. It’s actually somewhat like exfoliation, and it results in a much more youthful appearance, making it a potentially effective anti-aging procedure.

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Alternatively, some lasers are designed to beam light directly into certain hair follicles. As the follicles absorb the hair, individual hair strands are destroyed semi-permanently. This results in long-term hair removal.

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• CO2 lasers are ablative and can treat scars, wrinkles, and other signs of aging.
• Erbium lasers are ablative and nonablative depending on the tool. They help your skin produce more collagen and can treat aging spots and wrinkles.
• Fractional lasers break up the laser of the tool into a multitude of smaller beams that can result in a very fast laser treatment session. These are good for treating various blemishes.
• IPL or intense pulsed light lasers are great for reducing the appearance of hyperpigmentation, sun damage, and some acne symptoms.

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What are the Benefits?

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Most folks look at nonsurgical or noninvasive anti-aging laser treatments. These treatments provide a number of benefits to one’s skin:

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• For starters, these noninvasive treatments are usually discrete and don’t often require any significant downtime. Thus, people can stop in for an anti-aging laser treatment and go about the rest of their day without having to recuperate the same as they would with a more invasive treatment
• Noninvasive laser treatments can also enhance your natural features without fully changing or harming your skin. These treatments can be effective for those who aren’t sure if they want to permanently remove body hair, for instance
• These laser treatments are usually cost-effective since surgical laser treatments usually incur a higher price tag and come with permanent results. Noninvasive anti-aging laser treatments are more affordable by far, especially if you want to try out a treatment before moving to a more permanent surgical procedure
• They’re not very painful, either. Noninvasive anti-aging laser treatments are usually comfortable, especially those provided by skilled health experts and wellness professionals
• Beyond all these other benefits, anti-aging laser treatments can restore confidence to one’s appearance. It’s easy to feel disheartened when you see the signs of aging start to encroach all across your skin. But anti-aging laser treatments can remove many of those aging signs and let you look and feel a lot younger than before

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It’s no wonder that so many people are looking into these noninvasive laser treatments nowadays. They provide tons of benefits and any side effects are usually mild.

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Are There Side Effects to Laser Treatments?

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While noninvasive anti-aging laser treatments are generally much safer than longer-term surgical procedures, there are a number of side effects that you may experience:

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• It's not uncommon for mild burning, bumps, or rashes to be associated with the lasered skin area. This is normally quite minor, however, and should go away within a few hours to a day, particularly if you have a soothing cream on hand.
• In some cases, one’s skin could react negatively to the laser treatment and develop hyperpigmentation or long-term redness. A dermatologist or physician will likely test their laser tools before performing an entire procedure to check you for this possibility.
• In even rare cases, infections can crop up as a result of breaks in the skin. But when the lasered area is properly taken care of and the physician is sufficiently skilled, these aren't normally an issue.

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How to Get Anti-Aging Laser Treatments

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Your best bet at receiving an excellent anti-aging laser treatment is the visit a specialized vitality center like Next Health. This ensures that your laser treatments are provided by well-trained professionals who know how to use their tools effectively and with a minimum of discomfort.

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You can expect your laser treatment procedure to go something like this:

• Your skin will be prepared, either through topical treatments a few weeks before the procedure or once you step into the office.
• Your doctor will also apply a topical anesthetic to the treated area to reduce pain.
• Your skin will be cleansed to get rid of dirt, bacteria, and excess oil.
• Then your doctor will start the treatment and use the selected laser based on your goals. The laser will be moved around slowly and precisely around the area of skin you have designated.
• Lastly, your doctor may dress the treated area in wraps to prevent infection and inflammation.

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It’s important to consider aftercare and recover, as well. You can leave your doctor’s office right after these nonsurgical procedures, but there are still things you should do to make sure your skin heals correctly. This will minimize the likelihood of the above possible side effects.

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• Most anti-aging laser treatments require your skin to heal between 3 and 10 days. The bigger the treatment area, and the deeper the laser penetrates into your skin, the more recovery time you’ll have to deal with.
• This may result in red skin or slight scabs/peeling. You can easily use ice packs to help soothe these reactions
• You should also clean your treated area a few times every day. Your doctor may provide a saline or vinegar-based solution you can use to ensure the area remains uninfected

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Examples of Anti-Aging Laser Treatments

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At health optimization centers like Next Health, you can find plenty of different anti-aging laser treatments depending on your goals or needs.

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Laser Hair Removal

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One of the most popular laser treatments involves the removal of body hair through targeted laser application. It's incredibly effective and can be used multiple times to get rid of unwanted hair from your face, underarms, legs, bikini lines, or anywhere else. The more treatments you sign up for, the more effective the hair removal will be and the lighter your hair will grow in the future.

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Microlaserpeel

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Next Health’s microlaserpeel treatment is a one-of-a-kind nonsurgical procedure that can smooth and tighten your skin, as well as diminishing any surface irregularities like aging spots, fine lines, and even large pores.

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Forever Young BBL

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NEXT|HEALTH also provides this unique treatment, utilizing a special type of broadband light or BBL therapy to rejuvenate your skin. It’s particularly great for treating the symptoms of hyperpigmentation, like big freckles or sunspots, and certain acne symptoms.

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More importantly, it boosts collagen production – since your skin naturally produces less collagen as you get older, this helps your skin look and stay youthful for longer.

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Summary

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Ultimately, anti-aging laser treatments are a great way to recapture some of the youthful vigor and vitality your skin held years back. Even better, many of these nonsurgical treatments are comfortable and easy to sign up for without completely changing your schedule for weeks on end.

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Be sure to contact Next Health if you have more questions about these noninvasive laser treatments and whether or not they’ll be a good pick for your skin!

Sources

https://www.healthline.com/health/beauty-skin-care/laser-skin-resurfacing

https://www.americanboardcosmeticsurgery.org/skin-resurfacing/the-top-8-things-you-need-to-know-about-laser-skin-resurfacing/

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/collagen