Annette, 57, gets Fraxel Repair laser treatment to reduce wrinkles and age spots. The 40-minute procedure vaporizes microscopic skin columns to trigger collagen. Ten days later, her age spots vanished, skin tightened, and she had only three days of downtime, no surgery required.
Hi, I'm medical reporter Suzanne Stevens for the Dermatologic Laser Center. Are you concerned about fine lines, maybe on your face or your neck? This area perhaps concerns you, or around your eyes? What about acne scars, or maybe you have age spots? Maybe you'd like to see your skin tightened or Maybe see smaller pores. There is a procedure that you can have done in the office in one sitting. It's called Fraxel Repair. It uses a laser, and we're about to watch it being done right here in this office. So, Annette, tell me how old you are.
I'm 57.
Okay. And when did you start thinking that you might want to do this?
Probably within the last year, I've been really considering it. I think that I need something to kind of diminish the fine lines around my mouth and this nasolabial fold area, and just a little pick-me-up I think I could use, a little refreshing.
What do you think the Fraxel repair is going to be able to do for your face?
I'm really hoping to diminish some of these lines around my mouth, and I'm hoping that I'm going to get just a, maybe a nice little lift from this. It's going to help to stimulate the production of collagen.
How did you choose Dr. Brown for this?
Well, first of all, I wouldn't choose anybody but Dr. Brown. I have total confidence in his ability. He's a true artist, and I wouldn't want anyone else doing it.
You did your research. How did you choose Fraxel repair versus some other kind of procedure?
There are other more extensive procedures that you could have done, but there's a lot more downtime involved, and I just feel like you get good benefits from this with less downtime. I believe that my initial downtime is going to be probably 3 days, but the end result I expect will be possibly 10 days.
So when this is all said and done, what are you hoping for?
At the end of 10 days, I'm expecting that I'm going to put my makeup on and I'm going to look fantastic. This is something that will help reverse time, basically.
This is a combination of lidocaine and tetracaine, and this will stay on her skin for about an hour just to numb it up. The risks of Fraxel repair are very small because the treatment only targets a very small portion of the surface of your skin, and the tiny wounds are sealed after just 2 days. How you doing?
I'm very relaxed.
Good, you look relaxed. Okay, so Annette is just gonna let this numbing cream work for about an hour, and then Dr. Brown will do the procedure. Now, the Fraxel works by vaporizing small columns of your skin. As it heals, this is where the magic happens. Your skin will tighten, it'll produce collagen, and at the end of your healing time, you will look fabulous. The Fraxel repair is approved by the FDA. It's approved for treatment of wrinkles, for fine lines, for any textural irregularities you may have, for furrows between your brows. You might have skin lesions that are slightly darker. Also, it can help you if you have broken capillaries and just general redness. So that was Fraxel repair. The whole procedure took about 40 minutes. Now we are very excited. We're going to check back with Annette in about 10 days to see how great she looks.
I've noticed that all of my age spots are gone. I was getting jowly here, and that's tightening up. And every day I have changes. Every day I get tighter and tighter. And my skin, the texture of my skin is so much better. And I just have that glow now that I had when I was in my 30s. I feel like I've taken 20 years off. I had some Glamour Shots made in '93. I was 38 years old, and I'm comparing my skin to what I see there, and It pretty much looks exactly the same. People are telling me that I have a glow about me. I went to my hairstylist on Friday, and when I walked in, one of the other stylists said, you've had a facelift! And I said, no, I had a Fraxel repair. It's like a facelift, but you don't have to have surgery. My eyes, I have a lift. It looks as though I've had a brow lift or a bleph. I was getting crepey around my eyes. They were drooping. My lids were drooping. And now all that's gone. I have no lines under my eyes. I'm smooth. I'm thrilled. I'm getting much tighter around the jawline. The laser itself helps to stimulate the production of collagen. It is like taking a youth pill. I can go run errands without makeup. I don't need makeup. I have no brown spots on my face now. I had all these age spots, they're all gone. It's about a third of the cost of a facelift. There's no downtime, you have 3 days downtime, and there are no scars. I'm seeing differences with my neck. My neck is firming up some. The texture is much better. It's much smoother. I'm thrilled with my neck. Bottom line, I would do it 100 times over. It's fantastic. No pain involved, little downtime. It's fabulous.
So have we inspired you now to take years off of your look? Please ask for more information about Fraxel repair here at the Dermatologic Laser Center. I'm medical reporter Suzanne Stevens.
