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Dr. Steven Davis

Davis Cosmetic Plastic Surgery

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Preparing the Skin for Laser Treatments

August 20, 2021 by Davis

One of the most important things to do after scheduling a laser treatment or chemical peels is to begin preparing the skin. When the skin gets injured, pigment cells come to rescue the area, resulting in an elongated healing process. By applying Retin-A, you can prepare your skin for treatment which will make all the difference.

As quoted from Dr. Steven Davis, “If we were going to wax the floor, we would first wanna strip off the old wax so that the new wax is actually going to be applied to the surface we wanted. Very similarly, when we use this special compounding cream, it’s going to have a combination of some of this bleaching effect and also some of this Retin-A purposefully so that we’re actually peeling off or flaking off that old, dead, dried skin surface so that when we finally do the laser, it’s going after the proper surface.”

The next time you find yourself heading into the office for laser treatments, make sure you prepare your skin as much as you can. After seeing your results, you’ll understand why!


[Transcript]

Hi, everyone, I wanted to talk to you about something I actually say at least four or five times every single office hours session, and that’s about preparing the skin before any kind of a laser procedure that I do. And this is really the concept behind it.

Whenever your skin gets injured, and it could be purposeful with a laser or a chemical peel or anything like that, there are certain cells in our body that come to the rescue of that burn or that injury, and those cells are pigment cells.

We call those melanocytes, and what’s very, very important is, prior to having any type of laser procedure, a deep chemical peel, or almost anything that’s really gonna purposefully try to restructure the skin by burning it or injuring it, we wanna make sure that those melanocytes are pushed down deep in the basement of the dermis, or the basement of the skin, so that they can’t jump to the surface to try to help from having a burn, and you know this happens all the time when you get a sunburn.

You’re gonna get this tanning that happens, but it can become a spotted type of thing, or a hyperpigmentation. So the first reason why we usually start everyone on a special cream is to push those melanocytes away from the surface of the skin. The second reason is we mix some of this cream with a Retin-A product, and the reason why we love using Retin-A is because it helps exfoliate or get the top layer of skin to actually peel off or flake off so that when we actually are hitting that skin with the laser or the chemical peel, we’re actually going after the proper surface.

So think of it this way. If we were gonna wax the floor, we would first wanna strip off the old wax so that the new wax is actually gonna be applied to the surface we wanted. Very similarly, when we use this special compounding cream, it’s gonna have a combination of some of this bleaching effect and also some of this Retin-A purposefully so that we’re actually peeling off or flaking off that old, dead, dried skin surface so that when we finally do the laser, it’s going after the proper surface. Nice talking to you, I hope you enjoyed that.


Dr. Steven Davis of Davis Cosmetic Plastic Surgery in Cherry Hill, New Jersey wants to ensure the comfort of all patients, which begins with education. We hope our video series can provide useful information for those with upcoming appointments or interested in the behind-the-scenes action of plastic surgery.

If you want more content in audio format, please check out The Plastic Surgery Revolution. Also, check out Dr. Steven Davis on Instagram, Facebook & Twitter!

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About Dr. Steven L. Davis

Dr. Steven L. Davis is Board Certified in Cosmetic Plastic Surgery, a Fellow in both The American College of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons and the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery.

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