4 cosmetic dermatology procedures get you ready to face summer fun

By Donna Shryer

Summer is about lightening up, and that includes stowing away heavy makeup in favor of barely there colors. But brisk spring breezes and several months’ worth of drying indoor air can leave you with parched, tight and rough skin. Add brown or red patches that naturally occur with age or from unprotected fun in the sun, and it’s not the best show-me-off situation. Quick, non-wounding cosmetic dermatology procedures freshen up your skin—so you look naturally lovely in time for the season’s first picnic.

“These procedures deliver a pearly look to your skin,” says UAB cosmetic dermatologic surgeon Sarah M. Boyce, M.D. “They give the skin a more uniform color and smoother texture.”

Non-ablative lasers adeptly tackle skin tone, and since they do not wound or remove skin, there is minimal recovery or downtime. Laser treatments do, however, often require a series of applications in order to achieve maximum results.

The Alexandrite laser, for example, greatly diminishes and often removes benign, unwanted brown pigment from the skin. As Dr. Boyce explains, “Heat generated from the laser destroys just the unwanted melanin—pigment in the skin.

“On the other side,” she says, “there are hemoglobin-specific lasers that target blood vessels in the skin. If a patient wants to remove red blotches, the pulsed-dye laser is a good choice.”

As for freshening up the skin’s surface texture, a superficial chemical peel performed by a dermatologist achieves that coveted healthy pink glow by removing the top layer of skin. The procedure is relatively painless, with minimal stinging when the chemical is first applied. Afterward, you’ll experience a brief 48 to 72 hours of mild peeling.

Microdermabrasion provides similar but slightly less intense results. This procedure, offered by many dermatologists as well as spas, involves mechanically removing the top layer of skin with crystal exfoliants. “The premise is like a Buf-Puf^®,” Dr. Boyce says. “It gives your skin a glow by removing dead skin cells, but it’s more of a refresher.”

While these procedures do not produce startling results, they are ideal for anyone who wants a fresher, more pure skin tone and texture that prompt friends to ask, “What are you doing differently?” How you respond is entirely up to you.