I
Erasing The Past
ctress Merle
Oberon, one of
the most glam-
orous stars of
the 1940s, was
said to have had
Aso many facelifts
that, toward the end of her life,
she found it difficult to make any
facial expressions.
These days, of course, wrinkles
are in. Every actress 40 and old-
er is positively ecstatic about those
little lines. Wrinkles "show char-
acter."
There has to be a happy medi-
um.
Inside his Rochester Hills of-
fice, Dr. Joseph Mark is utilizing
a new technology that sounds a
little like something out of Star
Wars. It's called laser skin resur-
facing, and it offers patients the
opportunity to rid themselves of
wrinkles with virtually no pain
and no incisions into the skin.
The procedure itself is fairly
simple. A physician uses a laser,
which produces a high-energy
wavelength, to penetrate the skin,
"erasing" wrinkles and other
blemishes. (In addition to wrin-
kles, different lasers can be used
to treat some birthmarks, warts,
scars and even those ghastly strai
distensae, also known as stretch
marks.)
There is no scarring, though pa-
tients can expect redness for up
to several weeks after the proce-
dure. And while laser resurfacing
is still too new for physicians to be
able to guarantee longtime re-
sults, the changes are likely per-
manent.
Dr. Mark, a plastic and recon-
structive surgeon who heads the
Plastic Surgery Arts clinic, says
laser treatment offers benefits
over other, more traditional meth-
ods of altering the skin's surface,
such as dermabrasion, facelifts
and chemical peels.
"Dermabrasion causes bleed-
ing, which means the surgeon
can't always see exactly what he's
doing," Dr. Mark explains. "The
problem with chemical peels is
that there can be a variation
to the depth of the burn." And
while facelifts pose neither of
these problems, they do con-
stitute major surgery, which
some prefer to avoid.
There's no bleeding during
laser surgery (which is per-
formed in the physician's of-
fice). And, unlike chemical
peels, lasers are so precise
the surgeon always will
know exactly where and how
far he is working. This is vi-
tal, because he's dealing with
a matter of millimeters.
Lasers also can be useful
on some blemishes, such as
lines above the lip, that have
generally responded poorly
to previous treatments. They
also have proven successful
on heavy eyelids and telang-
iectasia, those tiny red lines most
recognize as the "W.C. Fields'
nose."
The first laser surgery to erase
facial wrinkles was performed
about two years ago, though the
use of lasers in medical care is
anything but new. For years,
physicians have been treating
cataracts and kidney stones with
lasers, but these were not nearly
strong enough to tackle wrinkles.
Lasers are not for everyone, Dr.
Mark cautions. This is especial-
ly true for those with herpes.
"We've found that the laser
stimulates the growth of herpes,"
he explains. "So it shouldn't be
used on anyone with a significant
history of cold sores."
Patients also should be pre-
pared to go pink for up to several
weeks after the surgery. Areas
treated by the laser will show a
reddish color, which can be cov-
ered with make-up after 10 days.
"So a school teacher who has to
be back at work right away may
not be comfortable with this," Dr.
Mark says. "It's not the kind of
procedure you have done on Fri-
day and by Monday you're com-
pletely back to normal."
Sun worshippers also are ad-
vised to consider another proce-
dure, "unless they're
Top Left:
prepared to be
Before
wearing a sun block
Surgery.
all the time."
A third consider-
Bottom Left:
ation is age. At 37, After Surgery.
you may find your
Right:
wrinkles only slight-
Dr. Joseph
ly more appealing
Mark: A little
than the skin of
tightness, a
Tyrannosaurus
little redness
Rex. But until you
and then,
get into your fourth voila, wrinkles
are gone.
decade, laser skin
resurfacing proba-
bly isn't for you.
"If you're still under 40, the
changes you're going to see may
not last as long as what you're
looking for," Dr. Mark says.
The issue is the skin's elastici-
ty, which begins to greatly reduce
after age 40. Until then, skin prob-
ably will bounce back from a tight-
ening or nipping or tucking or
zapping, which means wrinkles
may well reappear.
The laser equipment looks, at
first glance, like something you
might see in a dentist's office. The
laser itself, which appears as a
strong, bright light, is emitted
from a small metal tube that is at-
tached to a long, flexible arm con-
trolled by the physician. The
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM ASSOCIATE EDITOR
PHOTO BY GLENN TRIEST
There's a new way to get rid of wrinkles, scars and even stretchmarks.
sound it makes while doing its vi-
tal wrinkle-erasing work is a
slight popping or snapping.
This high-tech alternative ("an-
other option," Dr. Mark calls it) is
receiving a lot of attention. It
sounds good, "but exactly what,"
you ask, "will I look like after-
ward?"
Dr. Mark has the answer.
Thanks to computer imaging, pa-
tients now are able to see a before
and after vision of themselves.
On the day of the surgery, pa-
tients come in with a completely
clean face. They then receive lo-
cal anaesthesia and are mildly se-
dated with a drug that also helps
patients virtually forget the en-
tire experience, Dr. Mark says.
How long the procedure takes
is, of course, dependent on how ex-
tensive the work will be. Eyelids,
one of the most popular treat-
ments, generally requires about
an hour.
After the surgery patients may
experience a slight feeling of tight-
ness, and a very few will have dis-
comfort that requires medication,
Dr. Mark says. But for the most
part, aftercare consists only of
washing with an anti-bacterial
soap, applying vaseline and
changing bandages for about 10
days-two weeks.
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