Coming and Going

MORE EFFECTIVE AND LESS PAINFUL TATTOO REMOVAL LASER: PICOSECOND ALEXANDRITE LASER

In the past, tattoo removal has been painful and often not entirely successful. It has required an average of 8.5 to 8.9 laser treatments with a Q-switched nanosecond alexandrite laser to obtain 95 percent clearance.

The new PicoSureTM laser from Cynosure is a picosecond 755nm alexandrite laser that is more effective, with one study showing a 4.25 average treatment number for greater than 75 percent clearance, with 58 percent of subjects acheiving complete clearance. In another study on recalcitrant tattoos that were mainly green, blue, or turquoise, the PicoSure laser achieved greater than 75 percent clearance on 11 of 12 patients with one treatment. It was also rated an average of 1.08 out of 10 on pain of treatment.

The PicoSure laser relies on PressureWave technology with ultrashort picosecond pulses to disrupt the target ink into tiny particles, as opposed to nanosecond laser technology, which uses more photothermal disruption. This has led to much improvement in treatment of especially blue and green tattoos. The laser is less painful, more effective, and requires many fewer treatment sessions.

CO₂ FULL FACE ABLATIVE LASER RESURFACING

Indicated in patients with heavily wrinkled faces, especially in combination with fat grafting or other volumizers, full-face ablative CO₂ laser rejuvenation nonetheless appears to be waning. Despite remaining the gold standard for deep, perioral rhytides, patients are increasingly favoring other options. Results are improving with non-ablative treatments combined with less aggressive ablative technologies. For example, combining fracfractionated laser treatments with skin tightening and other non-ablative therapies (BBL, IPL, Erbium, RF, US) with less downtime and post-treatment erythema has seen an upsurge of late in replacing more aggressive CO₂ resurfacing. These may not offer the long-term results of more aggressive CO₂ resurfacing, but patients are leaning more toward treatments with less down time… because time is money.