Am I a good candidate for skin resurfacing?

You may be a good candidate for skin resurfacing if you have one or more of the following conditions:

• Wrinkled or sun-damaged facial skin

• Vertical wrinkles around your mouth, such as those that cause lipstick "bleed"

• Crow's feet lines around your eyes and perhaps some skin laxity in your lower eyelid area

• Fine wrinkling of your upper eyelids

• Brown spots or blotchy skin coloring

• Certain precancerous skin growths

• Acne or chicken pox scars

• Superficial facial scars from a past injury

Patients may have their skin resurfaced at almost any age. You may have certain characteristics that make you a better candidate for one technique rather than another, or your surgeon may have a preference based on his or her personal experience with the different methods.

The amount of time you can allow for recovery also may be an important factor in selecting a particular resurfacing method or determining the extent of treatment. All skin resurfacing techniques can be performed to varying depths.

A more superficial treatment will require less healing time, but you may need to have the procedure repeated more than once to achieve the same results as a deeper treatment. If you are having aesthetic (cosmetic) surgery, such as a facelift or eyelid surgery, you may be able to have a skin resurfacing procedure performed at the same time.

back        next