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If you have a tattoo or permanent make-up, you may be surprised to learn that a laser can remove either. In fact, the same type of laser (q-switched lasers) can tackle the job of removing tattoos or permanent makeup.
Even though permanent makeup and tattoos are similar, the removal process is often different. Even though the same laser can be used to remove them, a critical understanding of these two different treatments is necessary if you are going to have successful and safe removal.
The first difference between tattoos and permanent makeup is the ink that is used. Tattoo ink is much higher quality and heartier than that used in permanent makeup. It might sound backwards, but think of it this way: a tattoo is meant to last your whole life; permanent makeup, on the other hand, can fade significantly through the years. Most permanent makeup artists will tell you that you can expect an average of five years before further work is needed. This is because the ink that’s used is inherently more fragile and a lower quality. For this reason, permanent makeup is generally easier to remove with a laser.
Next, consider the tattooing process. Many layers of ink are deposited into the skin to create a design, picture or word. Permanent makeup may involve a bit of layering, but nothing compared to a tattoo. How does this relate to laser removal? Well, the thicker the ink, the more laser passes (and treatments) it takes to break it up. Again, permanent makeup usually fades faster and with fewer treatments than a tattoo.
The last major difference is the way the two behave during the laser removal treatment process. Because of the nature of the ink that’s used in permanent makeup, it can (and sometimes does) “oxidize” after laser treatment. This makes it turn different colors. Tattoos don’t do this.
This fact can change the number of laser treatments you will need to get rid of your permanent makeup. Usually, it will make the entire process longer. It may also cause you to hide the permanent makeup. Which can change new shades of orange, pale blue or dark grey. While penciling over eyebrows to hide the ink might be a pain in the short term, rest assured the ink will completely fade away with laser treatments no matter what color it turns!
In summary, it’s important that you don’t expect the process of tattoo removal to be the same for your permanent makeup and vice versa. While the differences between the two are subtle, it’s important for your overall success that you understand them fully.
It’s often said that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. This is especially true when it comes to our health. However, this idea becomes even more critical when you have a family history of a condition.
While spider veins aren’t especially dangerous, they can have a severe impact on your quality of life, and they often tend to run “in the family”. Spider veins (and varicose veins) can be painful—both physically and psychologically. They can affect your activities and your self-esteem. But there are things that you can do to prevent spider veins. Before we discuss specific strategies, it’s important to review why spider veins happen in the first place.
Spider Vein Treatment Before and After Picture
Our leg veins are designed to take blood back up to the heart by using a series of valves that channel the blood in a one-way direction. When some of these valves fail, blood moves backward in the wrong direction. This causes the small surface veins to dilate with blood and makes them visible as blue, purple or reddish vessels or mats of fine vessels. Factors such as weight, pregnancy, blood pressure and overall general health can contribute to developing faulty valves, but most of the time the tendency to have faulty valves comes down to hereditary factors.
Now, how can we prevent them? First, spider veins tend to be worse and occur more often if you have a job that requires you to sit or stand for extended periods of time. While you might think there’s no way of changing your working conditions, there are things that you can do while you’re sitting or standing to help keep the blood flow moving in the right direction. Ankle pumps are as simple as flexing the foot up towards the shin and then back down towards the floor. This heel-toe action stimulates the calf muscles, helping to keep the blood in the leg veins moving in and up.
If you stand on the job, do some tip-toe raises every so often to stimulate the calf muscles. Remember your movements affect the proper movement of blood in the venous system. The more sedentary or still you are, the more likely those leaky valves will leak!
Next, consider wearing support hose. These are constrictive “socks” that can reinforce and enhance the work of the muscles in the lower legs. It’s important to note that these are so much more than just “tight” socks. They are specially designed with graded levels of support. They are considered medical devices by some insurance companies and will sometimes be covered by or paid in part by your insurance if prescribed by your practitioner. Never wear restrictive clothing in place of support hose. This can do more harm than good and trigger more types of problems. Also remember not to wear your support hose when sleeping unless you’re directed to do so by your practitioner.
Third, if you sleep with a pillow under your knees to help your lower back, consider turning it from horizontal to vertical. While sleeping, the edge of a firm pillow may place pressure on the larger vein in the back of the thigh and cause congestion in the lower leg veins. Turning the pillow the other way helps take the pressure off the middle part of the back of your thigh.
Next, ask your primary practitioner if there are any medications that you’re taking that may predispose you to developing spider veins. Some prescriptions like oral contraceptives can contribute to the formation of spider veins, so make sure to ask if this is a concern for you.
Last, but not least, exercise every day. This is so important to your overall health. Stimulating your muscles and heart with regular exercise will keep your body functioning at its very best. It also greatly improves the blood flow in the legs which helps dramatically lower your risk of developing varicose and spider veins.
If you’ve grown out of your freckles and wish there was a way to get rid of them, we have good news for you: there is! Class IV medical lasers can safely and effectively remove freckles for anyone with any skin type (color).
Freckles typically develop in response to sun exposure. This is because ultraviolet light (UV) stimulates the pigment cells in your skin to make more pigment, or melanin. A freckle is essentially a little, concentrated spot of melanin. Q-switched lasers are highly effective at targeting melanin. Because the freckle is a concentrated target, almost all the laser energy is focused right where we want it, and freckles usually disappear quickly—even after a single treatment!
Remember, you should protect your skin with sunscreen after you’ve had q-switched laser treatment for freckles, otherwise you’ll just get more! This means using a good quality, broad spectrum sunscreen on all sun exposed skin each and every day!
If your eyes are “seeing” their age, it may be time to consider doing something to give yourself a more youthful, rested and refreshed appearance. Eye surgery? Not always. If you’re a good candidate, laser resurfacing can take years off your appearance with minimal downtime.
The answer is a procedure known as fractional laser resurfacing. Fractional resurfacing means that only a “fraction” of the skin is treated with the laser. Hundreds or thousands of precise perforations in the skin are produced during the procedure. Resurfacing a fraction of the skin allows it to heal more quickly than with traditional full field resurfacing. Fractional resurfacing also reduces the risk of scarring, color changes (hypo or hyperpigmentation) and infections.
The brilliance of fractional laser resurfacing is that compared to full field (100%) resurfacing, the results are similar and offer dramatic reduction in wrinkles, scarring, pigmentation and pore size over a series of treatments. This all happens due to the production of new collagen. After fractional resurfacing, your skin looks tighter, firmer and more radiant.
Recent advances in fractional technology have given us a few options to choose from when considering which laser to use for this procedure. Today’s devices can create thermal or heat energy, referred to as “coagulation”, which can reach the deepest layers of the dermis during fractional resurfacing.
Before fractional resurfacing, only those with lighter skin types could undergo these procedures. Now, thanks to new lasers, anyone can enjoy the benefits of fractional laser resurfacing—even African-Americans.
Sounds too good to be true? Look at the amazing before and after photos below. This patient saw an incredible transformation from fractional laser resurfacing around the eyes. At Celibre Medical, we use the latest technology that encompasses coagulation and customization of the fractional pattern (amount of treated skin) to give you the most significant improvements in the fewest number of treatments.
If you’d like to learn more, please call us to schedule your free consultation.
If you’re thinking about getting laser hair removal, we’re excited for you! It’s a great procedure that will literally change your life on a day-to-day basis! Being free from the embarrassment of unwanted hair and the time constraints that go along with constantly getting rid of it is liberating.
Laser hair removal is extremely popular and here at Celibre Medical, we are often asked why we don’t join in the daily barrage of “specials” or “coupons for groups” that so many other med spas and offices promote incessantly. The reason we don’t is that the laser hair removal treatments we provide our patients don’t have any gimmicks and they work. We don’t sell packages force “packages” on patients so when you are new, you can go one treatment at a time. The figure that we charge is based on many factors including three different state-of-the-art lasers, highly skilled, trained and licensed nurses, an excellent safety record, exceptional results (75% – 95% permanent hair removal), and our unparalleled ability to treat any skin type (color). All these figure into how we price our laser hair removal treatments.
We take the time to evaluate and educate our patients up front about the laser hair removal process, in addition to why a certain type of laser technology will work better for them than another and how many total treatments they will need to see full and permanent results. We meticulously maintain our laser equipment and use only devices that have been proven to be effective and are FDA-approved for laser hair removal. We invest in the latest and most up-to-date training for our laser practitioners so that they consistently provide the highest quality treatments that yield impressive results.
For all these reasons, we can’t offer “$29 laser hair removal”. This price is cheaper than waxing so there’s always a catch. We don’t compromise on the quality of patient care or the results we deliver; so, we also don’t compromise on the price of our services. There’s always a trade-off for a lower price, and unfortunately, that is usually poor results. Is that really worth saving a few extra dollars when you’re talking about your skin, your time and your results? You don’t want to have to pay twice for the same service.
* Laser Hair Removal Before and After Pictures
Q-switched lasers are very precise and effective in removing sun (liver, age) spots. The question as to how many laser treatments does it usually require to remove age spots is contingent on whether or not the patient is able and/or willing to have what is referred to as “social downtime.” This term refers to a change in one’s appearance that may hinder them from wanting to return to their usual activities like work or social occasions and can involve light bruising or a dramatic darkening and flaking off of the age spots. In addition to the question of social downtime, the patient’s skin type is extremely important when determining how aggressive laser treatments should be in treating sun or age spots.
For those patients who prefer more aggressive laser treatments (with quicker results), most sun or age spots may be either permanently resolved or dramatically faded in as little as 2-3 treatments. For those that are unable to have more aggressive treatments, sun or age spots will gradually resolve in approximately 6-8 treatments.
Age spot removal before and after pictures
Do you have a wart that keeps coming back no matter what you do? If you’re losing the battle using wart treatments like liquid nitrogen freezing, burning and acid treatments. We want to tell you about a secret weapon—laser treatments!
Warts are caused by a virus. Normally, your immune system is able to control viruses. But for some reason, many people like you struggle to get rid of warts. They just seem to fly under the radar, getting bigger, spreading to other areas and causing pain and embarrassment.
Lasers assist your body’s immune system in keeping warts at bay. It’s believed that laser work by using light and heat to kill the wart virus, but no one is exactly sure how. We do know that laser treatments are a safe and effective alternative to traditional treatments. But for reasons related to cost. We encourage patients that have not tried traditional treatments to attempt to get rid of warts using those first before trying lasers. Take a look at the photos below to see how effectively laser treatment worked to get rid of a very large and painful plantar wart. These results were obtained after several laser treatments.
The answer is that no one is sure. If you have keloids, then we do know that there’s a good probability that someone else in your family does too because there seems to be a genetic link involved. Maybe you had surgery, suffered an injury or some other sort of trauma that left you with a keloid scar? Interestingly, keloids can also form from little things like vaccinations, acne, piercings and even bug bites. Rarely, spontaneous keloids can appear on your skin for no reason at all!
Scar removal before and after photos
Remember, keloid scars are larger than the original wound, injury or other skin trauma that was there in the first place. If you simply have a firm, raised scar that’s still within the original borders of the injury, that’s not a keloid. And if you have a keloid, it’s important to think about your increased risk and discuss this with your doctor when planning surgeries or other procedures that could potentially make more. We do know that keloids are much more common in those with darker skin as opposed to lighter-skinned individuals.
There is no one, perfect treatment for keloid scars. Since each scar is a bit different, you will need a thorough evaluation to determine which one might work best for you. What worked for a friend or family member may not be your best bet! But know that there are effective treatments out there. The key is finding a practice and practitioner who specializes in the treatment of keloids.
Tired of seeing those little red and purple lines on your cheeks, nose or legs? There’s never been a better time to consider vascular laser treatment to get rid of your unwanted spider veins. Treatment with class IV medical lasers is effective for this problem and has no downtime. Your treatment sessions are quick, easy and your results are instantly noticeable.
Vascular lasers work by targeting hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying component of red blood cells. They use light energy that is specifically absorbed by hemoglobin and converted into heat energy. This heats up the blood and the vessel walls containing it. The laser energy collapses the blood vessel eliminating it’s appearance at the surface of the skin. Over time, your body breaks down the treated vessels and clears them away naturally. Because spider veins are small, dilated blood vessels on the surface of the skin, removing them is harmless to your circulatory system.
At Celibre Medical, we recommend vascular laser treatments for spider veins be spaced six weeks apart. Though you often see drastic improvement after just a single treatment, more than one treatment may be necessary to obtain best results. We have an array of vascular lasers that are safe to use on any skin type (color) and our laser practitioners are experts at providing safe and effective vein removal treatments.
Cherry or spider hemangiomas are also referred to as “blood freckles.” They are benign vascular lesions (blood vessels) that usually begin to appear on the trunk (torso) of the body and then spread to the extremities. Although not usually a cause for health concern, they usually represent a cosmetic concern to patients.
Spider hemangiomas are effectively treated with several types of medical lasers, and cherry hemangiomas are usually resolved with 1 to 2 laser treatments. Some of the larger blood vessels may only shrink in size after 1 or 2 laser treatments and will require additional treatments to completely resolve them. In any event, most patients are pleased to see dramatic improvement with each and every treatment. There is no downtime involved for treatment of cherry hemangiomas and treatments are spaced four to six weeks apart.
How many acne laser treatments are required is a difficult question to answer because there are many factors involved. Much of the answer depends on the type of acne, severity of the acne, degree of the acne scarring, skin type, and whether or not the patient is able and willing to have downtime. For example, if a patient has moderate inflammatory acne papules without scarring – the treatment plan may consist of 6 acne laser treatments. On the other hand, if the patient comes in with papules lots of whiteheads and cystic acne combined with red, brown or textured acne scarring, the recommended treatment plan may consist of 6 to 9 treatments spaced between 2 and 4 weeks apart.
We believe that a good acne practitioner will tailor the treatment plan to the patient’s acne condition, goals, skin type, lifestyle, and budget. From there, setting realistic expectations for our acne patients and involving them in the treatment plan is a good starting point. Acne treatment plans should be individualized and open to modification as needed.
Since 2004, we’ve met many patients from Long Beach, CA, and from surrounding areas, who come to us to discuss laser tattoo removal because they’ve been swindled with other tattoo removal gimmicks. There are two in particular that we hear all the time, so we thought we’d set the record straight on these for you here.
First, let us say that as tattoos have become more popular, more and more removal gimmicks have come out targeting those who just don’t want their tattoo anymore. And trust us, we get it. When you’re over a tattoo, you want it gone and you don’t want to spend a lot to get rid of it. If this sounds familiar, then this page is for you. Understanding what’s effective and what isn’t in terms of tattoo removal will ultimately save you two of your most precious resources: your time and money.
The first of these two gimmicks is called “Wrecking Balm”. It is a two-step, mail order system that claims to be a safe and effective alternative to laser tattoo removal. It is based on hydroquinone, a “bleaching” agent for the skin combined with a microdermabrasion-like mechanism. You need to understand that hydroquinone is a medication that slows down the production of melanin, the skin’s natural pigment, which gives it color. Hydroquinone cannot “remove” tattoo ink. It has no ability to “break-up” ink particles and cannot even penetrate the skin to the level where the tattoo ink is. The same is true for the “microdermabrasion”. While this may exfoliate the top few cell layers, there is no capability of this product reaching the deeper epidermis and dermis where tattoo ink is deposited. In short, “Wrecking Balm” is at best misrepresenting it’s capability to remove tattoos, and at worst, flat-out fraudulent claiming it can permanently remove tattoos.
Another treatment that you may have heard of is TCA peeling for tattoo removal. TCA stands for trichloroacetic acid, a powerful chemical skin-peeling agent. While TCA peeling can be very useful for numerous skin conditions, unwanted tattoos are not one of them. Because TCA exfoliates only the outermost layers of skin, it is simply incapable of reaching the levels of the epidermis and dermis where the tattoo ink is.
Also, aggressive TCA peels can produce unwanted side effects such as darkening or lightening of the skin (hyperpigmentation or hypopigmentation) and scarring if not used properly or by inexperienced hands.
Again, we understand that you want your tattoo gone and you don’t want to spend a fortune. But by taking your time, educating yourself and doing your homework, we think you’ll find that laser tattoo removal is the safest, most cost effective option to get rid of your tattoo once and for all. We urge you to learn more about this option and don’t get caught up in the hype of hydroquinone and/or TCA-based tattoo “removal” gimmicks—because they really are just that!
Depressed acne scars affect the smoothness or texture of the skin. These scars can also be referred to as “atrophic acne scars” or “boxcar acne scars” due to their shape. They may have sharp cliff-like edges or have a scooped out appearance. These acne scars can be difficult scars to treat due to their size and fibrous nature.
We have found that non-ablative laser treatments (those that have no downtime and are non-invasive) are not the best choice for these types of acne scars. Instead, we believe that laser resurfacing is a good option for depressed acne scars.
There are many newer technologies for laser resurfacing and the best treatment option is determined based on the the degree of your scarring and your skin type. In some situations where scarring is profound, punch excision may be a better option.
This is a technique wherein the physician excises (cuts out) the damaged scar area and sutures it closed to form a clean, discrete scar.
Evaluating these are options for improvement is a good first step in treating depressed acne scars.
You can find laser hair removal in almost every city in America. Dermatologists, plastic surgeons, OB/Gyns and family practice offices offer it? But who’s qualified to do laser hair removal and how can you ensure you’re getting an effective treatment?
You may not be surprised to learn that price isn’t the most important factor! Understanding the available devices and which one is right for you is really the first thing you need to consider when choosing your laser hair removal provider.
Laser Hair Removal before and after pictures
Let us explain a bit more. First, you need to know what your skin type (color) is. There are six different skin types: type I to type VI. We’ve listed them along with a description below for you:
Now that you understand your skin type, let’s talk about the different laser hair removal devices. Each of these is specific for a certain range of skin types. This should help you decide which class IV medical laser is the right choice for laser hair removal. There are three, different devices currently available:
The diode laser is the most common laser hair removal device used today. The Lumenis LightSheer is a brand of diode laser considered the “gold standard” for laser hair removal among medical laser professionals. It is ideal for skin types I through IV. And although the manufacturer advises that it may be used on higher skin types (with certain models), our experience has not shown this to be true. We would strongly caution those with a skin type V or VI against having laser hair removal with this device.
The Alexandrite laser is a less commonly used device, but still very effective for laser hair removal in skin types I through III. We generally would not recommend its use in anyone over a skin type III due to the risk of hyperpigmentation or darkening of the skin and blistering. There are several brands of Alexandrite lasers, but the Cynosure Apogee is the most widely used device in this category.
Lastly, the Nd:Yag laser is the type of device that is most commonly used laser hair removal device for darker skin types (type V and VI). What makes this device safe for dark skin? Remember that laser hair removal works by damaging the follicle with heat (or light) energy. All the lasers listed above target melanin which is the pigment that lines the hair follicle and gives the hair color. Since people with black skin have a lot of melanin in their skin and hair, special laser technology must be used to properly target the melanin in the follicle while avoiding it in the skin. At Celibre, we use a device called the Sciton Profile.
The Sciton Profile is a long-pulsed Nd:Yag laser that uses a greater penetrating wavelength of light that can get to the deeper melanin in the follicle and bypass the melanin closer to the skin’s surface that gives it color. This device is extremely safe for all dark skin types and works very well for laser hair removal in black skin.
Before you consider laser hair removal, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the most common types of lasers. This will help ensure a better outcome with more permanent hair removal for you.
Generally speaking, yes, laser hair removal is uncomfortable. But if that’s what’s keeping you from considering having treatment, then perhaps you should reconsider? Everyone’s perception of pain is different, and we feel like we have identified a few factors that are correlated with an increased amount of pain with laser hair removal. If you don’t fall into one of these groups, maybe it is something that you should think about doing! If you are in one of them, we suggest you try at least a single treatment. Often patients will tell us that the pain of laser hair removal was more a figment of their imagination than a reality after they’ve gone through a treatment or two.
Through our unofficial research, we’ve found the following factors generally point to increased pain with laser hair removal: thick, dark or coarse hair; young age; and male gender. Let’s go into each of these briefly:
Thick, dark, coarse hair is a “target rich” environment for the laser. These follicles are larger and they contain more melanin or pigment, which is what the laser’s energy is drawn to and absorbed by. So naturally, people with this type of hair will feel the laser more. But on the flip side, that sensation tells you that the laser is working! This type of hair responds the best to laser hair removal.
Why the pain? Because the follicle must heat up to the point where it becomes structurally damaged and can no longer grow hair. The larger the follicle and the more “target”, the more heat absorption which produces the sensation or pain, but the better the results too!
The good news is that thick, dark hair disappears quickly, so pain typically diminishes with each subsequent laser hair removal treatment.
Younger patients tend to tell us that laser hair removal is more painful. Why? We aren’t totally sure, but maybe it has something to do with not having experienced much pain previously in life (those reading who are older can appreciate this). If you’ve gone through childbirth, a surgery or injury, then you have some experience with pain. Younger folks maybe just haven’t gotten in on all the fun yet! We also wonder if older patients are more committed to getting rid of their unwanted hair. They’ve shaved, waxed, tweezed and plucked to the point where they don’t care how much it hurts; they just never want to have to groom themselves again!
Men seem to tolerate the discomfort of laser hair removal less than women. We again can only speculate as to why, but possibly it’s because they tend to have thicker hair than women, so perhaps they really do feel it more? Or perhaps the societal pressure on women not to be hairy is so much greater for a woman than a man, that again, women don’t care how much it hurts—they just want the hair gone once and for all!
Remember, not everyone struggles with discomfort during laser hair removal. Pain is a highly individualized sensation, so you really don’t know how it will feel to you until you try it! At Celibre, we treat everyone with the same respect; and we take all measures we can to ensure that you are comfortable and can tolerate your laser hair removal procedure. We use topical numbing creams, ice packs and cold air to help ease your discomfort and get you through the procedure.
As the leader in laser hair removal in Southern California since 2004, we will tell you that during that time only a few patients have opted out of having laser hair removal with us because of pain. We encourage you to give it a try and see how it goes! We know you won’t be disappointed with your results!
* View Some of our Laser Hair Removal Before and After Pictures
