Episode 21 - How Celebrities Stay Young and Wrinkle Free with the Fraxel Laser with Dr. Steven Struck

How Celebrities Stay Young and Wrinkle Free with the Fraxel Laser

Announcer: This program is brought to you by personallifemedia.com.

[Intro Music]

Teri Hausman:  I'm Teri Struck, host of Beauty Now, a weekly pod cast that brings you the latest in the three L's:  laser, lypo, and lifts, plus much more.

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Dr.  Steven Struck:  Fraxel works on both men and women.  It's a laser that burns little micro thermal zones that are called into the skin, which are pinpoint microscopic burns that you can't see with the naked eye.  Actually, those burns are what enable it to rejuvenate the skin, but, interestingly, I've seen men sometimes respond even better than women.  Fraxel treats pore size, fine lines, photo damage; it's very effective with photo damage, which is kind of the dullness of your skin and how the skin doesn't glow anymore and doesn't look as healthy.  It treats brown spots, fine lines, but mainly pore size issues. 

Hausman:  Today we're getting latest on the Fraxel laser, a laser with very little down-time and very big results.  They have a new, even more-improved Fraxel, and we have an expert today, Dr. Steven Struck.  Welcome, Dr. Struck.

Dr. Struck:  Thank you.

Hausman:  Dr. Struck is a leading plastic and reconstructive surgeon.  So, can you tell us, for our listeners who have never even heard about Fraxel, tell us about Fraxel.

Dr. Struck:  Fraxel is a laser that falls in the "no down-time" group of lasers, which a lot of people have heard of, and what that really means is that these are lasers that are designed to rejuvenate your skin in a number of ways without requiring much down time at all.  I think the problem that you can get into, sometimes, is that some of them have no down time whatsoever; however, often, those don't really deliver.  As a consumer, you have to do a little research on these things, so hopefully today we'll be able to do that.  The Fraxel laser has about overnight healing time with some redness and swelling, perhaps the next day, so that's why we describe it as a no down time laser, because many of the lasers have a 10-day healing period.  I think the way to look at it is:  Fraxel is a laser that will rejuvenate your skin, make your skin look younger, with an overnight-type healing period. 

Hausman:  This Fraxel works on both men and women.

Dr. Struck:  Fraxel works on both men and women.  It's a laser that burns little micro thermal zones that are called into the skin, which are pinpoint microscopic burns that you can't see with the naked eye.  Actually, those burns are what enable it to rejuvenate the skin, but, interestingly, I've seen men sometimes respond even better than women, and I've never really figured out why that is.  It's either because they don't do much to their skin, so that when they do do something, they really respond, or they have a thicker type of skin, so that the skin has more target for the laser to treat.

Hausman:  If a man or woman were looking in the mirror, and they were saying, "My skin doesn't actually look very good," they'd call into you for consultation.  Walk us through a consultation for Fraxel.

Dr. Struck:  I usually, what I do is I have the patient, the first thing I ask them is what they mainly want to work on.  Sometimes people will come in and say, "I want to do 'X'."  I think it's better to determine what they want to work on, because with ads in the media and Allure magazines and all these things that the laser companies have paid for, sometimes people don't know exactly what they do need but they know what they want.  Usually, they'll describe some areas of photo damage, brown spots, fine lines, or some pigmentary issues with Melasma; they'll usually point those things out to me.  I describe to them how this laser will work on that treatment, or if a different laser will work for them, or if a surgical procedure would perhaps be better.  I let them guide me to where they want to go, and I try to pick a plan that will work best for them with their lifestyle and what they want to achieve.

Hausman:  For our listeners who don't understand what Melasma is, could you explain melasma?

Dr. Struck:  Melasma is one of the harder problems that we see.  Most people know it as the mask of pregnancy.  It's hyper-pigmentation or darkness around the jaw line that almost looks like a mask.  It's pretty hard to treat, and Fraxel is effective at treating that to some extent, which most machines aren't.  Melasma is known mainly as the mask of pregnancy, often after pregnancy, or when people are taking hormones or birth-control pills.

Hausman:  When you say "treat", what exactly does Fraxel treat?

Dr. Struck:  Fraxel treats pore size, fine lines, photo damage; it's very effective with photo damage, which is kind of the dullness of your skin and how the skin doesn't glow anymore and doesn't look as healthy.  It treats brown spots, fine lines, but mainly pore size issues. 

Hausman:  How many treatments does the average patient need?

Dr. Struck:  That depends on the patient; if you get into someone who is over 45 with some significant photo damage, I recommend around four treatments.  Some of the younger patients who have skin that is in pretty good shape, sometimes I'll tell them just one or two treatments.  I think that's what's nice about Fraxel; some of the original no down-time lasers, it took a good four or five treatments before the patients even saw anything, and it was kind of hard to get the patients to follow through on the procedure.  When we'd go to the scientific meetings, a lot of doctors would question whether or not the devices were working, and that was probably as recent as two or three years ago.  With Fraxel, on the other hand, there are many patients who will come in, and within two treatments, will say that they are satisfied with their results.  I think that's one of the nicer points of Fraxel; you can count on a consistent result within two treatments.  If you need a little more work, you'll get up to three or four treatments.

Hausman:  Our listeners often hear the words "ablative, non-ablative, fractional"; can you explain all those terms for us?

Dr. Struck:  The main terms are probably "ablative" and "non-ablative".  A non-ablative treatment is something that doesn't destroy anything.  Ablation means to destroy or vaporize the skin.  A non-ablative treatment is a treatment that mainly heats the skin.  The upside to a non-ablative treatment is since you're only heating the skin, you're really going to have zero down time.  That was where the early machines, about eight years ago, started out.  They were mainly heating the skin, hoping to stimulate collagen growth.  As I said, the problem with those was they frequently didn't deliver; as high as 50% of the patients would really see nothing. 

A non-ablative process is one that doesn't burn the skin at all, it only heats it, which is a little bit inconsistent.  An ablative process is one that vaporizes the skin or burns the skin.  The classic for that is the CO2 laser, which was the original laser.  That's the one that most people are scared of; it's the one that completely burns your skin.  You have the raw skin and the redness and the scariness, and usually, when someone has a friend who's done that, they'll say, "I don't ever want to do that".  That is the gold standard of laser resurfacing because it does tighten the skin the most, but since it's completely ablating or destroying the skin, it has a ten-day healing period.  You're comparing a zero-day healing period to a 10-day healing period; obviously the 10-day healing period isn't very attractive, but it does deliver in every patient. 

When you get into fractional resurfacing, which is Fraxel's main area, what they decided to do was, instead of going non-ablative, they did minimally-ablative.  They only burn 20% of your skin's surface with the little microscopic burns that you can't even see.  The upside to fractional resurfacing is: you're going to deliver, you're going to see something, because your skin is being ablated and it is going to tighten.  The other upside to it is we're leaving 80% of your skin completely alone so that your skin will look normal and you'll be able to go out and do things while it is healing.  Also, if you do three or four treatments, then you get up to 80% of your skin being treatments.  You've minimized healing time, you've minimized risk, and you've maximized results.

Hausman:  So, when you say "no down time", you actually can go to work the next day; it's just that you might be swollen or...

Dr. Struck:  Yeah, I tell patients that it depends on them and how willing they are to go out, because you clearly look sun-tanned or red or puffy.  People who want no one to know about it probably shouldn't go to work the next day because they're going to be puffy and red.  Most people aren't really bothered by that amount of redness and puffiness and they do go.  I would say that if you're not puffy and red the next day, you probably didn't have a strong-enough treatment.

Hausman:  What type of skin problems are treated by Fraxel other than Melasma?

Dr. Struck:  I think the main thing that people like is the photo damage treatment because it really works for that.  Most people have some photo damage on their skin; they have brown spots, they have dullness of the skin, they have some fine lines.  Fraxel will consistently treat that. I think the number point is what people will see after one treatment.  I have treated probably 1000 or 2000 people.  I can only think of one or two where someone didn't comment on their skin looking better, so I think that's the main thing.  They're going to go out- they're going to come in with dull, sun-damaged skin, and within a week, someone's going to comment, "Gee, your skin looks better; what are you doing?"  That's the photo damage treatment.  When you get into the fine lines, it's tougher, but it does also treat fine lines and pore size.

Hausman:  I'm sorry, what about wrinkles?

Dr. Struck:  That's where your fine lines are.  I think, with wrinkles, as long as you're dealing with fine lines around the eyes, forehead, cheeks, you're going to see improvement in that.  It's not going to eliminate wrinkles, but it's definitely going to improve upon them.  The lines around the mouth are even a little bit tougher, but you can turn the energy up high and get those.  Or, the future machine, which will come out probably next year, will be a little better at treating actual wrinkles.

Hausman:  I have a lot of women ask me about the lines around their mouth, so let's talk about that right now.  That's actually a good topic to touch on.

Dr. Struck:  Lines around the mouth are probably the hardest lines in plastic surgery because Botox around the mouth is very difficult to do; I'll do a limited amount of Botox around the mouth just to kind of blunt those lines.  Fillers are probably the mainstay of treatment of lines around the mouth because they are effective and they do work.  A laser, any laser, when you compare CO2 or Fraxel, which are the two strongest lasers out there, they'll reduce those wrinkles by 50%.  What I recommend to people is, if you want a permanent reduction or at least a five-year reduction, do a laser, and expect 50% reduction in those lines.  If you want 100% reduction, then you should add some fillers to your treatment.

Hausman:  So, you're talking about doing, can women do the Fraxel laser three or four times and fillers, or are you talking that they need to go in for the CO2?

Dr. Struck:  I think that the best treatment is to do four Fraxels, and then with the fourth Fraxel I like to do the filler, because then we've seen what the Fraxel's going to do.  The patients are also numb from the Fraxel treatment, so the fillers around the mouth don't hurt as much because they've had numbing medicine on for an hour or so.  I think the best treatment is Fraxel resurfacing four times around the mouth and then follow that with the filler.

Hausman:  What type of filler do you prefer around the mouth?

Dr. Struck:  I think Restylane is the best filler, usually, around the mouth, unless the wrinkles are very superficial.  If they're very superficial, the Fraxel will probably treat them itself.

Hausman:  And Restylane is?  Tell us about Restylane really quick.

Dr. Struck:  Restylane is a hyaluronic acid product.  Hyaluronic acid is very prevalent in your skin and your body.  It's a human product created in a lab, which is a natural filler, which people like; they don't have to be skin tested for it.  It's very good at filling lines around the mouth, cheeks, even around the eyes we'll use it to fill in some spots around the eyes.

Hausman:  Hyaluronic acid- that's another show we need to do.  We need to do fillers, too, because when you do the Fraxel and your lifts and lasers and everything, the fillers really add everything, fill in your lines.

Dr. Struck:  Yeah, I think a nice treatment for your average 30- to 40- year old patient with moderate skin damage is to do a Fraxel series followed by fillers.  I think that will dramatically change their appearance and rejuvenate them without having any surgical down time or anything that will affect their lifestyle.

Hausman:  Well, thank you for talking with us.  We're going to need to take a quick break to thank our sponsors.  We're going to be right back with Dr. Struck and the Fraxel laser.

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Hausman:  I'm Teri Struck, host of Beauty Now.  So, we've been talking about the Fraxel laser, what it can and can't do.  Tell us more about the down time and about coming in and treating your skin.  What other problems might a stronger laser be better at treating?

Dr. Struck:  I think, when you're looking at the down time part of the question, there's the immediate down time, which is the time right after the procedure.   The upside to that is, once we're done with the treatment, there really isn't any residual pain.  A lot of people ask about pain.  You're skin's just going to feel warm.  When we get done with the treatment, you'll numb for an hour, we'll do the treatment which will take about 10 minutes, so you're an hour and 10 minutes in, and your skin will feel warm. 

You won't have any bleeding or oozing; those are all things that people worry about that they've seen pictures of.  So you'll just look sunburned right afterwards and feel warm; a lot of people use a fan that night or take a shower that night.  You can wear makeup that night, you can do all your normal things that night- you're just going to feel a bit warm.  The next morning, you should feel a little bit puffy and swollen, but not too bad.  You should be able to do most things that you do during the day, except maybe a major social event: you might want to lay low as far as that goes. 

Then, you look at the long-term things.  I have all these people that are worried about big hats and how much sunscreen they need to wear and activities, and with the Fractional CO2, we're treating such a minimal part of your skin that as long as you're not actively sun tanning, I think you're fine.  So basically, a normal sunscreen would be fine.  Here in California, that's nice, because a lot of people are very active.  They spend a lot of time outside, either running or exercising, and they can continue to do all those things almost immediately after the treatment.

Hausman:  So, you brought up a couple of good things.  You were just talking about the pain.  Let's just break this down, because I hate pain, and I know a lot of women do.  What can we do to minimize the pain of the laser?

Dr. Struck:  There are a few ways to minimize it.  As far as how do you look at the pain level of the treatment, I would say that one to two patients out of 10 will think it hurts.  I would say that eight patients think it's just annoying, and two patients won't feel anything.  Usually, that gives the patient a barometer, because they usually know whether they're going to be one of the ones who think it hurts, doesn't hurt, or are in the middle. 

How do we minimize that pain for every patient?  We use a numbing cream.  There are no shots; a lot of people are afraid we're going to numb them with injections.  We don't give any injections.  We put some numbing cream on the skin- the entire face if we're treating the face; we can treat other areas of the body as well.  We numb that area with a numbing cream that's about five times as strong as the normal numbing cream.  We let that work for an hour.  We then begin the treatment.  We also can use a Zimmer, it's called, which is like an air conditioner unit that blows spray directly on your skin.  I don't think every patient needs that, but in some patients, I use that as well, to minimize the pain.  So, those are the two ways:  numbing cream and cooling spray.

Hausman:  So the cooling spray blows directly on your skin?

Dr. Struck:  Yeah.

Hausman:  To minimize the pain.  And you do that as you're doing the treatment or after?

Dr. Struck:  You do it as you are doing it.  You can do it after as well, but mainly you do it during the treatment.  Because afterwards, it really doesn't, hardly anyone thinks it hurts afterwards.

Hausman:  How do you feel afterwards?  Pretty hot?

Dr. Struck:  Yeah. You just feel sunburned and a little bit red.

Hausman:  Then you were talking about going in the sun after that.  You're saying people need to use sunscreen?  What do they need to do?

Dr. Struck:  People definitely need to use sunscreen if they're going to be outside to minimize any pigmentary issues.  The main reasons we want you to use sunscreen is to stop the laser to stop pigmenting afterwards.  Since we're fractionally resurfacing, you usually don't see those same pigmentary issues which are normally associated with CO2 laser or the stronger lasers.  A little normal sunscreen should be adequate.

Hausman:  What's the negative about the Fraxel?

Dr. Struck:  Well, I think what we're always striving for with all these lasers is to get the most maximal results, and I think the move from the first-generation Fraxels to the upcoming second-generation Fraxel is more designed for wrinkles.  The average patient who isn't completely satisfied with the laser treatment is because it doesn't treat wrinkles aggressively enough.  The second-generation machine will, I think, be more effective with that.  Other than that, there really aren't any significant downsides that I've seen with the Fraxel machines.

Hausman:  Do you think that's because the average patient is not realistic about what lasers can actually do for you and they don't understand that they might have to do a filler as well?

Dr. Struck:  I think that's definitely true.  I think that you see that a lot also with patients who probably need a surgical procedure and either opt for a non-surgical procedure or maybe the physician doing the treatment doesn't do any surgical procedures, so they'll oversell a laser treatment in hopes of retaining the patient.  I think that if the patients are properly educated on what to expect, they should be happy. 

That's why I say, "Your wrinkle's going to be reduced 30%.  If you look in the mirror, you're going to see the same wrinkle, but if it's a significant wrinkle, it's just going to be blunted by 30%."  If they will be happy with the fact that someone's going to notice that their skin looks better so clearly; their skin does look better.  Their lines will be reduced by 30% and their brown spots will be reduced by 80%, those people should be happy.

Hausman:  Which, most people would be happy if they were reduced 30%, don't you think?

Dr. Struck:  I think so, but I think, what I see the most of, is I see people who want their neck tighter, and they'll say, "Can you tighten my neck up with this?".  Since I do face lifts and the whole gamut of treatments, I tell them, "no" and I say, "You should do a face lift or neck lift if that's really what you want to treat.  The odds are, if you go through a Fraxel series to tighten your neck up, you're going to spend a fair amount of money and time and really not be completely happy."

Hausman:  Usually, by the time somebody's neck is sagging, they just need to have skin removed, right?  And then you could tighten it up later with Fraxel?

Dr. Struck:  What I like, about eight years ago, I bought my first laser and back then there weren't as many plastic surgeons doing lasers; it was more of a derm phenomenon.  The reason I bought it was exactly that reason: I bought it as something to make my surgical results better, because some people clearly need a facelift or a neck lift to tighten their structural features, to tighten their skin, remove their jowls, do all that; however, surgery, or deep procedures is what I tell the patients, they deal with deep issues.  Surgical procedure does nothing for your skin quality, really, so if you combine a surgical procedure with a laser procedure, you're then treating the deep stuff to get the foundation set right, and you're creating nice, healthy-looking skin over the top.

Hausman:  What's the oldest patient you've had?

Dr. Struck:  For a Fraxel?

Hausman:  For a Fraxel.

Dr. Struck:  Oh, I've had people in their 70s and 80s.

Hausman:  And they've had good results?

Dr. Struck:  They have had good results.  I mean, you have to, first of all, you get a whole variety of skin damage at that age.  As long as you know what to expect, I think they're happy.  A lot of those patients are people who know they're never going to do a surgical procedure, and they're happy with an injection and a laser treatment.  You can achieve quite a bit, even in a 70-year-old, if you do injections along with Fraxel or another laser.

Hausman:  I also read that Fraxel treats acne scars.  How effective is it with the acne?

Dr. Struck:  I think that Fraxel's pretty effective with acne.  I think the percentage on that would be more like a 20% reduction.  Some of the pictures we have are pretty impressive.  There are those outlier patients who respond extremely well, but I think the acne patients are happy.  The main reason is, even with CO2, even with going through that 10-day healing period and the mask, and ten days off work, and four weeks of pigmentary issues, I think, when you compare Fraxel with that treatment three months later or six months later, I don't think you can tell a definitive difference of which one the person did.  I think as long as they know they're going to see a 20-30% improvement and no down time, as opposed to a lot of down time, they're happy.  I also think you can really improve your results, in this case, with filler in the deeper acne scars.  So that's what I like to do: combine Fraxel with fillers for acne scars.

Hausman:  I also want to say that you can treat hands and chest.  So many women hate their chest skin from years of sun damage.  Tell us about how you could treat the chest.

Dr. Struck:  Well, that's another nice thing about this technology, is that you can use it, essentially, anywhere on the body that the patient wants to treat.  The good thing is that there really aren't any good options as far as chest skin, neck skin, and arm and hand skin.  The CO2 laser's too strong; none of the ablative procedures can be used on the neck, chest, or body, because there's too much risk of scar formation and complication.  As you look at the whole gamut of treatments, comparing microdermabrasion to Fraxel to CO2, Fraxel is the strongest technology that works on the body that will actually deliver, so that's why I like using it on the neck, chest, and arms.

Hausman:  So you think Fraxel is the best treatment for reducing sun damage on your chest?

Dr. Struck:  Yep.

Hausman:  And what about hands?

Dr. Struck:  I think it does a very good job on hands, too.

Hausman:  And do you use it on any other parts of the body?

Dr. Struck:  Yep.  People like their knees treated, elbows, all kinds of various...

Hausman:  So you can treat all those different parts.  That's great.

Dr. Struck:  You can.  You can't do them all at once, because the local's too strong, and if you put that much local on someone's body you could have a complication.

Hausman:  Is there anyone who's been allergic to the local?

Dr. Struck:  I haven't seen that, but the local's definitely strong enough that if you weren't in the proper setting and you weren't being watched by someone who had a lot of experience with the local, you could have some complications.

Hausman:  Because I've read in Florida and other places that people get into trouble if they do too much of this numbing cream.  Is this the same type of numbing cream that they're talking about?

Dr. Struck:  It is similar.  Those patients, I read about those, and my understanding is that they were sent home with numbing cream.  When you send someone home with something that strong, they're going to think, usually, people think more is better, so they keep putting more on, and some people do a lot of Internet research, and they find out that if you put Saran Wrap or some kind of cover over it, it will even be more effective, so they put more on, they leave it on for longer than an hour, and then they put Saran Wrap over the top.  There have actually been a couple patients who had seizures and even died from that.  You need to do it in the office.  If you treat a face, neck, and chest with a thin layer of topical, and leave it on for one hour, you're not going to have any problems.

Hausman:  Well, I also, on every show, with every expert that I have, I like to stress that you do want to go to somebody qualified.  How can someone find a qualified technician for Fraxel?

Dr. Struck:  Well, the Fraxel website has a physician finder that will tell you everyone that has a machine.  Those people are usually tracked and trained by Fraxel.  The good thing about a heavier machine like this is it's pretty expensive.  It's probably three to four times, for the physician, the cost of less-expensive machines.  I think that often weeds out people who are just trying to dabble in lasers, because if they're trying to create a little shop and make a little extra money, they're going to go with a cheaper laser. 

Hausman:  How can people be sure that they have the actual Fraxel laser?  I've also heard of physicians claiming that it's a Fraxel and it's actually a Photofacial or something else. 

Dr. Struck:  I think that that, again, you could probably do with their website, because they do list their physicians.  That's the main way.  It's hard to tell that, that's a good question, but normally, Photofacial, which is a different machine, it's just a flash of bright light.  A light-based treatment you'd be able to tell because it's just a flash of light.

Hausman:  And what does Photofacial treat?  That's also a very good product, but I wanted to know what the difference is.

Dr. Struck:  I have both Photofacial and Fraxel because I think they do different things.  I think Photofacial is very good at redness and rosacea.  The people who have a lot of redness in their skin, I will often direct them towards Photofacial as opposed to Fraxel.  I think people who have very youthful skin and really don't need the aggressiveness of a Fraxel treatment, I will also push them towards the Photofacial machine.  Those are my main groups: redness, rosacea, and minimal sun damage.

Hausman:  So younger patients actually could do the Photofacial as opposed to the Fraxel if they have really good skin.

Dr. Struck:  Yeah, I think they can, and still get very good results with a little less expense.  It's probably half as expensive, definitely a little less down time.  Right when they walk out of the office, they normally look fine.

Hausman:  And that's the last thing we have to talk about.  How much does this cost?  How much do lasers cost?  Break that all down for us.

Dr. Struck:  Some of it depends on your geographic location.  Where I am, in California, the average Fraxel patient, for a face, it's $1000, and that's per treatment. If you're going to do, the younger patients do two, so they're looking at $2000.  They usually do their treatments about two weeks apart.  If you're doing four, you're obviously at $4000.  When you get into face, neck, and chest, which is very common, it gets up to about $1400.  Usually, you get a little break for the extra procedures.  So anywhere from $1000- $1400 for Fraxel.  Photofacial, originally, was fairly expensive, back seven years ago.  At this time, I'd say Photofacials run about $400 per treatment.  Usually, you have to do four or five of those, though, so you're looking at about $2000 for a whole series of a Photofacial.

Hausman:  And most physicians will try to offer you a package, if you buy four treatments together.  Is that correct?

Dr. Struck:  Yeah.  That's correct.  I think you saw that more with the Photofacials because we wanted to make sure that people completed the series because they usually didn't see a lot with their first or second.  We wanted to get people to pay up front so they would complete the series and actually see the full benefit.  Usually, with Fraxels, I just let people pay per treatment because some people will want to do four and some people will want to do one.

Hausman:  And what about follow-up?  If you've done your four treatments and you think your skin looks great, but it's been six months and you start to look a little dull.  Would you get a touch-up?

Dr. Struck:  I have people that do it once every six months; I have people that do it once a year.  Just one treatment, though, on the follow-ups.

Hausman:  Just to renew your skin and feel good?

Dr. Struck:  Right.

Hausman:  Well, we're running out of time, so I wanted to know if there's anything you wanted to add about Fraxel?

Dr. Struck:  I think, with Fraxel, one interesting thing is the new machine that's going to come out.  The new machine is more of an ablative process.  As we talked about, it completely vaporizes the areas that are treated.  It still treats only 20% of the skin, but since you're actually removing the skin, it will allow the skin to shrink.  You can almost visualize that if you just envision removing small points of skin, the skin is then going to actively shrink to fill those holes, and that's why it's going to be much better at shrinking skin.  One treatment will actually remove about 7cc's of skin, which is about seven blueberries.  A lot of patients think in terms of blueberries.  If you remove seven blueberries' worth of skin from your facial skin, it's going to shrink and tighten.

Hausman:  So, is that going to have way more down-time?

Dr. Struck:  It will have in-between the level of the present Fraxel and the CO2.  The present Fraxel is one day; this will be about four days, and the CO2 is ten days.

Hausman:  Will your skin scab up?

Dr. Struck:  There will be little pinpoint bleeding but not the true, big scabs.  There'll just be little, pinpoint bleeding sites with this process.  The other upside to it as opposed to, this is definitely getting up to the level of CO2, which is the strongest machine.  The other upside is, in addition to being half the healing time, it has way less complications.  You're not going to see the pigmentary issues that you see with the full CO2, so it's a little bit safer and a little bit faster.

Hausman:  For our patients and listeners that would like to have a Fraxel treatment, they can go to the Fraxel website and find a physician near them.

Dr. Struck:  Yeah, that's through Reliant Technologies.

Hausman:  Reliant Technologies or Fraxel.com?

Dr. Struck:  Right.

Hausman:  Well, thank you for joining us today, and we're out of time, so we'll have to have you back to have a follow-up on the new Fraxel laser as well.  If anyone would like to submit ideas for our show or other lasers, please email me at: [email protected].  If you would like transcripts for today's show or any of our past shows, on hormones, lypo, Dr. Perricone, and many more, go to: personallifemedia.com.  Thanks again for being our guest, Dr. Struck.

Dr. Struck:  Thank you.

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