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Dallas - The verdict is in: nonablative laser facial therapy is more than just hocus-pocus.
A new study looking at a variety of objective measurements documented efficacy
in three areas of facial skin improvement.
"We have all of these cosmetically elegant nonablative treatments of the skin
in which clinical results are often difficult to see; yet, there is, for the most
part, high patient satisfaction. [Our] purpose ... was to look at and compare a
variety of objective measures and document efficacy after nonablative laser
treatment," said the study's lead author, David J. Goldberg, M.D., director
of Skin Laser & Surgery Specialists of New York and New Jersey and clinical
professor of dermatology and director of laser research and Mohs surgery at
Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York.
The researchers studied 12 women, ages 20 to 60. Each woman received five treatments,
a month apart, with the Cool Touch Laser II, a 1320-nm Nd: YAG laser. (Cool Touch
provided no funding for the study.) The full-face treatment included a first pass
with pretreatment dynamic spray cooling and fluences of 15 J/cm2 to 18 J/cm2. The
second pass utilized a fluence of 15 J/cm2 with post-treatment dynamic spray
cooling. The authors measured changes in skin firmness, skin texture and structural
protein changes in the skin.
They used a ballistometric analysis to measure skin firmness. Skin Textural changes
were measure with full face digital scanning, which picks up the curves textural
changes of the skin, and the Primos Optical 3D Profiler, which measure the peaks
and troughs of the skin. They measured structural analysis by looking at protein
changes.
The researchers found significant improvement in the depth of facial rhytides,
with individual improvement up to 60 percent; improvement in the length of rhytides
of up to 100 percent for individuals. There was change in the course wrinkles of
the nasolabial folds. They also found significant improvement in the depth
of the rhytides of up to 28 percent in individual patients, as well as improvement
in the microtexture of the cheek area, with individual improvement up to 22
percent.
The researchers looked at Promos results one month and four months after the last
treatments. Microtexture of the cheek and eye skin improved about four percent
a month after the last treatment and continued to improve up to 27 percent around
the eyes and 10 percent
on the cheeks after four months.
"Because we know that nonablative lasers work by creating a wound and prompting
collagen formation during wound repair, we also looked at three proteins associated
with new collagen formation: procollagen 1, filaggrin and proliferating cell
nuclear antigen," Dr. Goldberg said. "All three were increased significantly
after nonablative laser treatment, with continued improvement at four
months post-treatment."
The authors concluded that they were able to consistently show from objective measurements
that nonablative treatments are efficacious and that patients' impressions
are true, "even if we cannot well document that with photography," according to
Dr. Goldberg.
The next goal in research should be to improve existing therapies, according to
Dr. Goldberg. "There was a school of thought that said, 'Dump all these machines;
we need to find a new technology.' This study proves that these technologies work
- we just have to make them better." CST
Unilever Research and Development, Edgewater, N.J., partially funded
the study mentioned in this story.
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