I am interested in getting the laser skin resurfacing

Question:
I love photography and I hike a lot to get good pictures of flowers, bugs and interesting rocks on the microscale. I have a great camera for close-ups. About a month ago I took a close-up of my face and it looked like the craters of the moon when I expanded it on my large screen monitor. My skin is not smooth at all. So I bought what are advertised as some of the best creams on the market and see very little difference. I am interested in getting the laser skin resurfacing procedure. Does this treatment smooth out the irregularities in my skin?

Answer:
Facial skin creams to correct skin irregularities is a billion dollar business.  The claims that some of the companies make is truly disconcerting.  No facial cream will correct moderate or deep skin irregularities such as the craters that you have described.  The only effective treatment for the correction of the deep skin irregularities that you have described is laser skin resurfacing or more aggressive chemical peels.  Laser skin resurfacing and deeper chemical peels treat the deeper layers of the skin where the stronger collagen of the skin lives.  By treating the collagen with lasers or chemical peels, the skin will remodel, tighten, and smooth out.  Unfortunately, there are limits to how much improvement can be experienced with any laser skin resurfacing procedure and during your consultation we will spend a great deal of time discussing reasonable expectations and outcomes from such a procedure.

Posted by Dr. Philip Schoenfeld