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Varicose veins are visible symptoms of poorly functioning valves that allow blood to circulate in the “wrong” direction. The immediate result is increased pressure on blood vessels walls, leading to damage and weakening of the blood vessels, resulting in the twisty and enlarged veins that characterize the condition.

Common Causes 

Varicose veins can be caused by a variety of different medical conditions that can affect blood circulation, including genetic predisposition in some families, obesity, pregnancy, extended periods of sitting or standing, and even smoking.

Minor Complications

Poor blood circulation can increase the pressure on the skin, often resulting in local bleeding, and in some cases, the formation of sores. These are known as venous or varicose ulcers and typically form on the sides of the lower leg. Sores in this area are often slow to heal and can also become infected if left untreated.

Potentially Serious Complications

Although severe complications from varicose veins are rare, they can lead to some potentially far more unpleasant problems. 

The first complication is the development of blood clots in veins close to the skin surface. The chance of developing blood clots significantly increases when blood circulation is disrupted, and blood starts to pool. 

If blood clots are allowed to develop in deep veins, typically in the thighs or lower legs, the result can be deep vein thrombosis. This can result in leg pain or swelling, but may not be associated with any symptoms. It’s a far more serious condition, however.

Ultimately, if left untreated, blood clots can become dislodged and travel through the body. If they migrate to the lungs, they can result in blocked arteries, known as pulmonary embolism. This is a severe condition that can result in chest pain and shortness of breath.

Treatment

The above should have convinced you to take the development of varicose veins seriously. The good news is that treatments are available to help address varicose veins’ development, even in their early stages. You should start by consulting a qualified doctor to establish if your varicose veins are merely cosmetic, or if they’re the result of a more serious condition.

When no serious underlying medical conditions exist, there are non-invasive or minimally-invasive treatment options, including Sclerotherapy and Laser Vein Therapy. Early treatment will also greatly reduce your chances of developing more serious complications afterward.

Your Laser Skin Care

Your Laser Skin Care is medically qualified and experienced – we can provide you with a full range of services, including a complete diagnosis of your varicose veins’ cause and advice on the best ways to treat the condition. We have extensive experience providing both Laser Vein Therapy and Sclerotherapy treatments and a host of other non-invasive cosmetic procedures. Call us at (323) 525-1516 to schedule a free consultation or visit us online for more information.

Collagen is found in the body’s various types of connective tissue, including skin, cartilage, tendons, and ligaments. Collagen forms dense fibers that provide support, strength, and cushioning – the collagen within our skin is mainly responsible for the elasticity, resiliency, smoothness, and volume of our skin. Collagen production starts to slow down as we age, starting in our early 30’s. As collagen levels decrease, we can begin to develop fine lines and wrinkles; as levels decrease further, we may start to see loose, sagging, and even shriveled looking skin. 

Natural vs Artificial Collagen

Unsurprisingly many cosmetic procedures attempt to rejuvenate the skin’s appearance by trying to compensate for lost collagen. But there’s a difference between the collagen that’s naturally produced by your body, and externally applied collagen that’s somehow added to the body. It’s difficult for the body to absorb applied collagen effectively, and it’s also not possible to replace all the body’s missing collagen this way. Naturally produced collagen is by far the most effective substance for maintaining the skin’s firmness and resiliency. 

Stimulating Natural Collagen Production

Having established that simply applying collagen to the skin using creams (or even injections) is less effective than persuading the body to create more collagen naturally, the question becomes what’s the most effective way to reverse the natural reduction in collagen production as we age?

Injectable fillers bypass one problem – they are directly injected into the optimum skin layer and don’t need to first be absorbed by the outer skin layers. Injectable fillers typically contain primarily hyaluronic acid, which provides immediate benefits by increasing the skin’s retention of moisture, but more significantly has recently been proven to stimulate the body’s natural collagen production over significant periods. 

Benefits of Hyaluronic Acid Dermal Fillers

The use of hyaluronic acid thereby provides a double-benefit – injection of the filler will resolve several age-related cosmetic issues immediately, and the long-term stimulation of collagen production allows benefits to be seen even after the body eventually starts to absorb the filler over time.

Your Laser Skin Care

Your Laser Skin Care can provide you with advice on the best ways to use and combine different dermal fillers, giving you the most effective and cost-effective way to achieve your cosmetic goals, tailored to your specific needs. We have extensive experience providing dermal fillers, as well as a host of other non-invasive cosmetic procedures. Call us at (323) 525-1516 to schedule a free consultation, or visit us online for more information.

Injectable dermal fillers are relatively well-known as effective ways to address lost facial volume and lines or wrinkles. Laser skin tightening is a more recent technique that can be used in several situations to achieve similar results. This blog post discusses the circumstances when each technique is recommended. 

Which situations are best handled by laser skin tightening?

Laser skin tightening is an effective way to reduce or remove fine lines and wrinkles and tighten sagging skin. The non-invasive procedure uses focused laser light pulses to gently heat and stimulate moisture inside the collagen fibers that are primarily responsible for the elasticity and resiliency of our skin – the procedure results in a realignment of the collagen fibers, tightening the skin, as well as stimulating the body’s continued natural production of collagen long after the actual procedure. The procedure is relatively painless, low-risk, and typically does not result in any downtime after treatment.

Which situations are best handled by dermal fillers?

While laser skin tightening stimulates the body’s natural collagen, injectable dermal fillers primarily replace lost collagen and hyaluronic acid in the skin. This can help restore the skin’s resiliency and plumpness and help reduce or eliminate lines and wrinkles, as well as compensate for lost volume caused by loss of subcutaneous fat. They are more effective at rejuvenating the appearance of parts of the face that have become hollow, for example, beneath the eyes or the lower cheeks. They are also especially effective at smoothing out fine lines around the eyes or lips and reducing skin folds between the sides of the nose and the mouth.

When used to tighten loose skin, dermal fillers that compensate for lost volume can give a more natural-looking result than simple laser skin tightening can – this is because merely tightening loose skin without compensating for lost volume beneath can result in an unnatural stretched appearance to the skin’s surface.

How to choose between different dermal fillers?

There are a considerable number of different dermal filler products available – we’ve covered the first available options in other blog posts. Your practitioner should be ready to help you choose the best product (or combination of products) to help address your particular situation. Different products are available with a range of different characteristics, suitable for treating problems ranging from fine lines to moderate wrinkles, all the way to deep lines and skin folds. Specialized filters are available to help address more extensive areas of lost volume and provide “lift” to areas that have suffered from sagging over time. Some fillers are also designed to stimulate collagen production over extended periods, much like laser skin tightening.

Dermal fillers share one other useful characteristic – their effect can be reversed, fully or partially, if needed.

Your Laser Skin Care

Your primary concern should be to find a practitioner who can not only suggest ways to solve your cosmetic concerns effectively, but also ensure that changes to your appearance remain natural-looking. The best way to achieve this is to consult with a medically-trained and certified practitioner with extensive experience. Your Laser Skin Care has many years of experience in assisting our clients in achieving their cosmetic goals in the most effective way – call us at (323) 525-1516 to schedule a free consultation, or visit us online for more information.

Our specialty is performing non-invasive cosmetic procedures, and we have extensive experience over a wide variety of different procedures. Non-invasive procedures share significant advantages over traditional cosmetic surgery procedures – they don’t require cutting into the skin. They avoid conventional surgical techniques that imply hospitalization, anesthetic, and considerable recovery times, to say nothing of pain and discomfort.

Here’s a summary of our most popular non-invasive facial cosmetic procedures, with particular attention to those that can deliver rapid results, with little to no recovery time.

Dermal Filler Injections

Under-skin filler injections can be used to resolve many problems, ranging from restoring lost facial volume, filling in fine or deep lines, to changing the contours of the lips, cheekbones, or jaw. They can also stimulate natural collagen production by the body, creating on-going benefits long after treatment. Recovery time following application is minimal.

Botox Injections

Botox, when applied by a qualified practitioner, is a safe and effective way to lessen or remove wrinkles and frown lines quickly. The effects are seen relatively quickly and don’t require recovery time.

Chemical Peels

Chemical peels come in many different forms; mild chemical peels (used to remove only the top-most skin layer) can be an effective way to rejuvenate one’s appearance, and typically don’t require any significant recovery time. Deeper chemical peels, however, may require a short recovery period.

Laser and IPL Therapy

Laser and IPL treatments can help to improve overall skin tone and can be used to tighten the skin, as well as to remove or reduce pigmentation problems, and spider veins. Recovery time is minimal, following treatment, although avoiding sunlight afterward is typically recommended. 

Your Laser Skin Care

Your Laser Skin Care can help you decide on the most effective treatment (or treatments) for your particular situation. We can schedule treatments to fit in with your schedule and help you look your best, whether you’re trying to improve your general appearance or whether you’re trying to look your best for a special occasion. 

We have extensive experience over many years, and will be happy to answer your questions – just call us at (323) 525-1516 to schedule a free consultation, or visit us online for more information.

We’ve written several blog pieces covering the many advantages that CoolSculpting offers as a safe and effective way to remove fat selectively. Some readers have expressed concerns about how safe the CoolSculpting procedure is, so we’re concentrating on that subject today.

Non-Invasive

The most significant advantage that CoolSculpting offers is that it is entirely non-invasive, meaning that CoolSculpting is not a surgical procedure. It doesn’t require that patients are anesthetized, and consequently, no recovery period is needed after treatment before one can resume normal activities. 

Intrinsically Safe

CoolSculpting removes fat by selectively cooling fat cells to the specific temperature at which they begin to freeze. As fat cells start to solidify, they are damaged, causing them to die, after which they are naturally eliminated from the body over the days and weeks following treatment.

The cooling process is carefully designed to avoid damaging any other cells in the body – this is possible because fat cells are particularly sensitive to temperature, and because they are affected by temperatures that other body cells can tolerate without damage. 

Careful Monitoring

The CoolSculpting procedure uses carefully designed propriety equipment that ensures that the fat cells are targeted quickly and efficiently, minimizing your exposure to cold temperatures, and reducing discomfort to the bare minimum.

The CoolSculpting practitioner is responsible for carefully monitoring the process, and ensuring that the body’s skin, nerves, and muscles are unaffected by the cold temperature used during CoolSculpting procedures. 

Natural Fat Elimination

After the fat cells are killed by cooling, they collapse and are removed from the body through the natural processes that the body uses to remove dead cells. The CoolSculpting procedure “leverages” the normal functioning of the body, and avoids introducing any foreign substances into the body.

This dramatically reduces the chance of patients developing adverse side effects during or after CoolSculpting treatment and results in it being classified as one of the safest cosmetic procedures. 

FDA Cleared

The FDA has officially cleared CoolSculpting for treating excess fat under the chin and jawline, on the thighs, abdomen, and love handles, as well as on the upper arms, beneath the buttocks, on the back, and between the armpits and bra. It’s also approved for use in reducing the appearance of lax skin around the jaw and neck.

Your Laser Skin Care

Your Laser Skin Care can provide you with expert advice on how best to use CoolSculpting to address your particular concerns, and will be happy to answer any questions or concerns you may have about the procedure. We have extensive experience with a wide variety of non-invasive cosmetic procedures.

We can help you choose the safest, most effective, and most cost-effective way to achieve your goals, combining different procedures when appropriate. Call us at (323) 525-1516 to schedule a free consultation, or visit us online for more information.

Chemical peels are one of the top three most popular non-invasive cosmetic procedures and provide a very effective way to reduce fine lines and wrinkles, eliminate acne, and resolve hyperpigmentation. However, they require a great deal of skill and experience on the part of the practitioner who performs the procedure, and they are capable of producing poor results when used by unqualified or careless hands.

Chemical peels come in three primary categories, depending on how deep they penetrate the skin’s surface – mild, moderate, and deep. All chemical peels are based on acidic or caustic compounds of varying strengths, applied under highly controlled conditions. Generally speaking, mild and moderate peels are the safest, while deep peels carry the potential for more unwanted side-effects and require correspondingly greater care and oversight in their application. 

Here’s a summary of the various problems that chemical peels can address, as well as applications for which they are not best suited.

Wrinkles and Fine Lines Reduction

Mild chemical peels are used to stimulate the replacement of the outer skin layer and can result in the lessening (or elimination) of fine lines and wrinkles. They can also help improve general skin tone and texture.

Treating Acne-Prone Skin

Salicylic acid-based mild peels are an effective and safe way to treat acne-prone skin by reducing inflammation and are effective for treating oily skin, as well as rosacea. Chemical peels are also useful as a way to treat mild acne scars, once the acne infection has been cleared up. Scar treatment requires a more aggressive chemical peel than acne treatment does.

Treating Discolored or Sun-Damaged Skin

Chemical peels can help to even out irregular skin tone resulting from sun damage.

Having covered the areas where chemical peels can help, here’s a list of situations in which they should not be used, or used only after careful consideration:

Reducing Visibility of Blood Vessels 

Chemical peels will not help address visible blood vessels or capillaries.

Reducing Raised Scar Tissue

Chemical peels cannot help to reduce the visibility of any raised keloid scar tissue.

Tighten Sagging Skin

Another area where chemical peels cannot help – they won’t help to tighten up any loose or sagging skin. They can, however, help to address rough skin texture, as well as to reduce pigmentation imbalances, so they’ll certainly help to improve the look of your skin.

Your Laser Skin Care

Your Laser Skin Care can provide you with the expert advice that is needed before deciding on any treatment using chemical peels. We have extensive experience using chemical peels, as well as many other non-invasive cosmetic procedures. We can help you choose the safest, most effective, and most cost-effective way to achieve your cosmetic goals, including how best to combine different procedures when appropriate. Call us at (323) 525-1516 to schedule a free consultation, or visit us online for more information.

Choosing the best dermal filler can be difficult – there’s considerable overlap between the various products, and this isn’t helped by somewhat confusing marketing messages. 

Available fillers fall into three leading product families – Restylane, Juvederm, and Sculptra Aesthetic. Each family contains several different products, each optimized for use in a particular situation.

Here’s a summary of the problems that can be addressed using dermal fillers, and our recommendation on the best dermal filler to use in each situation. 

Fine Line Removal

Fine lines require subtle correction – The thin hyaluronic acid-based fillers are specifically designed to help address these superficial lines, particularly Restylane Silk and Juvederm Volbella. Restylane Silk is particularly adapted to smoothing fine lines around the mouth.

Deeper Line and Fold Removal

Several alternatives are available to address deeper lines or skin folds (particularly those around the nose). Restylane family products include Restylane, Restylane Lyft, Restylane Refyne, and Restylane Defyne; Juvederm family products include Juvederm XC, Juvederm Ultra XC, and Juvederm Vollure XC.

In addition to these products, variants are also available that include Lidocaine, especially useful when treating the extra-sensitive areas around the nose.

Lip Augmentation

Depending on whether you’re looking for a subtle enhancement to your lips’ size or shape, or if you’re going for more aggressive changes, there are several available products. Juvederm is suitable for adding volume, while Juvederm Volbella and Restylane Silk can be used to crispen and add definition around the edges of the lips. 

Juvederm Ultra XC can be used to achieve more substantial changes, while Restylane and Restylane-L (with Lidocaine) are also available when additional support is needed.

The recently-approved Restylane Kysse product has the potential to be a cost-effective way to add lip volume while also remaining flexible and natural-looking. 

Restoring Lost Volume

Compensating for lost volume requires the use of a thicker filler, perhaps also including the ability to stimulate the natural production of collagen by the body to augment the filler’s effect. 

Restylane Lyft and Juvederm Voluma XC are intended for deep injection in the cheek area and are the go-to solutions for age-related volume loss and sagging tissue. 

Sculptra Aesthetic also provides an effective solution to hollowed-out facial areas and is especially effective at stimulating collagen production over the long-term. 

Correcting Saggy Skin

Although it depends on the degree and amount that your skin is sagging, Juvederm Voluma and Juvederm Ultra Plus XC can be used to compensate for missing volume while also providing lift.

Improving Facial Definition

For cases where the loss of cheek volume is the problem, Restylane, Restylane, Lyft, Juvederm Ultra Plus, or Juvederm Voluma can add needed definition. 

Your Laser Skin Care

Your Laser Skin Care can provide you with advice on the best ways to use and combine different dermal filler products, giving you the most effective and cost-effective way to achieve your cosmetic goals. We have extensive experience providing dermal fillers, as well as a host of other non-invasive cosmetic procedures. Call us at (323) 525-1516 to schedule a free consultation, or visit us online for more information.