We have just placed our order for the Ultrapulse a fractional carbon dioxide laser made by the company Lumenis. It is the most powerful laser in its class and is at the cutting edge of new laser technologies.

It is a excellent treatment for the treatment of wrinkles, acne scars, pigmentation, and dull/sallow skin.

Downtime/recovery can be tailored to your specific needs, so you can have anywhere from as little as 4 days downtime.

We should be receiving the laser in the next few weeks. For those who are interested in having a consultation and being one of the first people to have this treatment done at The Victorian Cosmetic Institute, please call 88500655 (Templestowe clinic). We will only have the laser at our Templestowe clinic.

For more information the Lumenis Ultrapulse fractional carbon dioxide laser click here.

For more general information on skin resurfacing, click here.

The Lumenis Ultrapulse fractional carbon dioxide laser has arrived at The Victorian Cosmetic Institute. We have performed treatments on a few patients, and so far the results appear very promising. Fractional carbon dioxide lasers utilise new technology that fires small columns of laser into the skin, leaving the skin in between the laser columns intact. This aids with skin healing times and reduces the risk of the procedure. Post-laser care with the patients treated so far has been much easier and simpler than other forms of laser resurfacing that we have used so far.

There are two different hand pieces on the laser, the Active Fx and the Deep Fx. The Active Fx handpiece doesn’t penetrate as deeply as the Deep Fx handpiece, but has a greater density of coverage with the columns of laser fired into the skin. This hand pieces is used more for superficial or fine wrinkles and pigmentation problems. The Deep Fx fires smaller columns of laser energy into the skin than the Active Fx, and these columns penetrate much deeper – up to 2mm. The Deep Fx hand pieces induces significant skin tightening/contraction and its deeper penetration allows for the treatment of problems such as acne scarring or deeper wrinkles.

Overall, we are finding the fractional carbon dioxide very useful, and we are able to strike a good balance with this laser between recovery periods and results – something that has always been difficult to do.

For more information on the Lumenis Ultrapulse laser, click here.

We are also expecting delivery of a Candela Smoothbeam laser in late July. This machine targets the root of the problem of acne – the sebaceous gland. It helps to reduce activity in this gland and reduce its output and subsequently help reduce acne.

Due to a large demand for light/laser-based acne treatments, we have extended our armementarium of lasers to treat acne. Most patients with acne want a result as fast as possible, and although medical grade skin care and medications are the mainstay of treatment for acne, the results from these treatments takes some time to take proper effect. Laser and light based treatments can expidite the treatment of acne.

Currently, we have a few acne/light based therapies for acne. These include LED phototherapy, pulsed dye laser treatment and photodynamic therapy. These three treatments target the acne bacteria, proprionibacterium acnes (p.acnes).

P.acnes creates substances called porphyrins (a by-product of their metabolic processes) that is the main target of the above light/laser based therapies. LED phototherapy and pulsed dye laser treatments activate the porphyrins to produce an oxygen free radical that subsequently destroys the p.acnes. There is usually no downtime with these two treatments

Photodynamic dynamic therapy also does the same thing, except this requires the application of a substance called ALA which stimulates the p.acnes to produce more porphyrins and therefore more oxygen free radicals when activated by a LED light source or the pulsed dye laser. The downtime from this can be significant, but the number of treatments is reduced as a result.

Until now, we haven’t been able to target with laser the other cause of acne, the sebaceous gland. In the next fortnight, we will be receiving delivery of a Candela Smoothbeam laser, a laser which targets the sebaceous gland. We have trialled this laser previously, with good results for acne. The Smoothbeam laser has a wavelength that penetrates to the depth of the sebaceous gland and helps to regulate sebum/oil production this way.

So in the next few weeks, we will be able to treat our patients with the Smoothbeam laser in conjunction with other laser/light treatments and target all the potential causes for acne.

It’s been a long time in the making, but finally we have our online store open now. Click on the tab at the top of the page to enter.

We have Cosmedix, Rationale, ASAP, Osmosis, and Environ skin care products available, as well as Jane Iredale and Glo-minerals make-up.

For more information on these products click on the respective sub-headings in the left hand side menu.

Tattooed Face

I was shocked to read this story in the news of a Belgian teenager who was tattooed over her face whilst apparently sleeping through the procedure!

She alleges that she only wanted 3 stars, but ended up with many more.

She and her family are suing the tattoo artist for $18400, the apparent cost of removing the tattoos.

Laser tattoo removal can be performed on a case such as this, and fortunately, for this girl, there are a few things about these tattoos that make it favourable for laser removal;
- It is black – black is one of the better colours to remove as there is a good contrast between this colour and her normal skin. Also the lasers are highly attracted to black. Other colours such as white and green may be harder to remove . We usually use our Ruby laser to remove green tattoos and this works well. White ink on the other hand tends to oxidise and turn black initially, and then takes longer to remove.
- It is on her face - Believe it or not, but the face actually heals better and faster with a smaller chance of scarring than the body when it comes to laser. We find this to be true not only for laser tattoo removal, but also from laser skin resurfacing or laser freckle removal. I recently removed a tattoo from a man’s face, and it was amazing to see how ‘normal’ the skin appeared after it came off.

In the end, this tattoo is likely to take more than one year to remove, and over 10 sessions of laser treatment.

I wish this girl the best for her treatment.