Laser Skin Treatments
Laser skin changes that can wait and ones that cannot
After a laser skin treatment, the job is sorting which skin changes can wait for a follow-up and which mean calling your physician. The person who treats your skin makes that call. Below are the questions for the consultation and the ones to check against in the days after. The pages are written with Long Island City readers in mind, and no laser clinic is reviewed.
Skin, aftercare and after-hours contact at a laser consultation
- How should my skin look on the first day, and how should it look a week later?
- Which kinds of redness, blistering or oozing do you want a same-day call about?
- What should I keep off the skin, and for how long?
- Which number do I ring if my skin reacts at night or on a weekend?
- Is there anything about my medicines or supplements you need to know before you treat me?
Questions 2 and 4 are the urgent ones. Questions 1, 3 and 5 are best settled at the consultation.
One laser question per page
For more on a single laser question, open its page:
- Is laser resurfacing a fit for my skin?
- Will lasers clear acne scars?
- What should I do to prepare for a laser treatment?
- Does laser take out every kind of tattoo?
- Laser resurfacing explained
- How many laser sessions to plan for
- Healing after laser resurfacing
Your clinician's laser instructions come first
Laser guidance from professional societies has not yet been set against regulator advisories here, so follow the written instructions from your own clinician.
If sun-damaged skin is what you want resurfaced, read a dermatologic surgery society's page on laser resurfacing for sun-damaged skin. If you want to know more about the devices themselves, read the FDA page on medical lasers. If a scar is the target, read the dermatology academy's 10 things to know before laser treatment for a scar.