[...]... thus minimizing the risk of damage and scarring Another application of lasers to cosmetic surgery is the use of incisional or cutting lasers instead of scalpels A major advantage of lasers over scalpels is that the laser can seal off blood vessels as it cuts through tissue Bloodless surgery in many instances is safer than conventional surgery and results in faster healing with less swelling and bruising... differentiate lasers from all other surgical instruments Skin is one of the few human tissues that can regenerate and be made young again In the past few years, it has been the deployment of new surgical cosmetic lasers that has really captured people’s imagination Laser resurfacing performed by a skilled cosmetic laser surgeon can erase a generation of skin aging from the face Although laser resurfacing... skin is essential to understanding how and why lasers are useful tools for cosmetic improvement Skin has several layers and is composed of cells and extracellular elements The targets that cutaneous lasers are directed at vary from subcellular components such as melanosomes (pigment granules) to entire layers of skin Because certain components of skin, as well as many types of lasers, possess precise... patients with severe sun damage and wrinkling Laser resurfacing alters the skin’s structure and is thus a surgical technique It replaces aged, wrinkled facial skin with a new layer of regenerated skin Resurfacing lasers were developed using some of the same principles used in nonsurgical lasers, enabling precise ablation (removal) of thin layers of skin without imparting excessive heat to the skin, thus... characteristic colors, preferential absorption of laser energy can selectively affect such specific elements as blood vessels or hair follicles or tattoo ink, leaving everything else undamaged The laser is designed to affect only a specific colored target, or chromophore (chromo ϭ color, phore ϭ carrier) We will examine the major chromophores in the skin and the lasers that target them . series) ISBN 1- 5 780 6-5 8 6-0 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 1- 5 780 6-5 8 7-9 (paper: alk. paper) 1. Surgery, Plastic. 2. Lasers in surgery. I. Title. II. Series. RD 119 .L34 2004 617 .9Ј52—dc22 2003 018 609 British. by Alan Estridge 12 111 0090807060504 43 21 ϱ Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Langdon, Robert. Understanding cosmetic laser surgery / Robert Langdon. p.cm. — (Understanding health. class="bi x0 y0 w0 h0" alt="" Understanding Cosmetic Laser Surgery Understanding Health and Sickness Series Miriam Bloom, Ph.D. General Editor Understanding Cosmetic Laser Surgery Robert Langdon,