Light-based skin therapy has been a huge advance in the aesthetic dermatology field. New applications and refinements seem to emerge regularly, so you can be forgiven if you find your options somewhat overwhelming.
At Rinnova Skin & Body, we get it. When your skin bears the marks of acne and photoaging (sun damage), we have a range of options to choose from to find the treatment that suits your skin.
Today, let’s look at three light-based therapies available at our Boulder, Colorado, office. These are by no means the only choices we offer to improve your complexion. We chose them to help illustrate the basic concepts of laser and light therapies.
Schedule a consultation with us for an in-depth analysis of your skin and how to achieve your aesthetic goals.
We know that light from the sun is beneficial (it helps make vitamin D) and harmful (excessive ultraviolet exposure causes sunburn and cancer). It’s important to recognize the broad range of light wavelengths while understanding that each has its own properties.
Just as a glass window is transparent to all the wavelengths of light we can see, your skin is transparent to narrower bands of wavelengths. That’s a powerful characteristic when we want to treat tissue under your skin’s surface without damaging the outer layer (epidermis).
In dermatology, we typically turn to lasers, which deliver selectable single wavelengths, or broadband devices, which deliver multiple wavelengths of therapeutic value. Techniques that leave the epidermis undamaged typically have little recovery time.
You can have treatment in the middle of the day and return to your regular activities without needing time to recover.
Halo®, BBL, and Moxi® are excellent choices for treating acne and photoaging skin damage resulting from sun exposure. Each condition causes multiple skin symptoms that break up the smooth and even texture usually associated with youthful-looking skin.
Halo is a laser-based treatment capable of ablative and nonablative skin treatments; it has the most aggressive capabilities of the three techniques.
Ablative skin resurfacing causes patterned, controlled damage to the epidermis. It’s a powerful exfoliating treatment requiring downtime, though it offers the most dramatic improvements.
Nonablative treatments could require multiple sessions to achieve the same level of skin improvement.
The controlled damage of a Halo treatment can, like the other two options, reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles and skin discoloration like redness or age spots. It also stimulates new growth of collagen and other proteins in your skin’s middle layer.
BBL stands for broadband light. Instead of a single wavelength, BBL delivers multiple strategically selected wavelengths. This range of wavelengths compensates for the lower power delivered by BBL’s non-laser pulsed light sources.
Moxi is, like Halo, a fractionated laser, meaning its laser source divides into multiple streams, much like a shower head might split the single water flow into many smaller bands.
Moxi isn’t ablative. Instead, it’s designed for quick, low-intensity treatments with very little downtime or discomfort. A 10-minute session treats the symptoms created by acne and sun damage, starting your skin’s revitalization process.
In addition, your provider may recommend to use a combination of these treatments at the same time to have a greater impact on the skin issues concerning you. Ask one of our knowledgeable staff if the Stax treatment (a combination of all three modalities) may be appropriate for you.
The right treatment for you depends on the unique conditions of your skin. Call our office at 303-900-4904 or click the schedule now link to book your consultation today.
