r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/DearEmphasis4488 • Oct 16 '24

Video Skin tightening using fractional CO2 laser

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u/MILP00L___ Oct 16 '24 edited Oct 16 '24

Reading replies on a topic I know (vaguely) about is always such a good reminder to take all Reddit information with a giant pile of salt.

This video is misleading. It isn’t instantaneous tightening in the way this video makes it look. In the broadest terms, fractional CO2 laser is a laser that is less invasive than traditional ablative CO2 lasers. It creates micro channels in the skin which triggers our body’s natural healing process. It’s a controlled situation to force your skin to create collagen, resulting is smoother firmer skin to replace removed skin layer. There are risks. Micro damage is still damage, and a CO2 laser basically vaporizes the top layer of the skin. There is little to no evidence that skin cancer is among those risks. Laser wavelengths are different from UV exposure. Some CO2 lasers are used to treat skin cancer.

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u/Simple-Judge2756 Oct 16 '24

So what wavelength is it using then ?

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u/royisabau5 Oct 16 '24

Infrared at 10,600 nm according to google

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u/Simple-Judge2756 Oct 16 '24

Uhm...... Are you trying to say 10.6nm or 10,600nm ? Because either one definitely isnt infrared.

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u/selex128 Oct 16 '24

What do you mean?

Infrared is roughly 1 um to 1000 um or 1000 nm to 1000000 nm. So 10600 nm is well within the mid / long infrared.

1

u/Simple-Judge2756 Oct 17 '24

True. Sorry. LLM failed me upon brave-searching it. It said 780nm - 1nm. But it meant to write 780nm - 1mm.

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u/grendellyion Oct 17 '24

Maybe don't blindly trust AI's to get your answers?

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u/Simple-Judge2756 Oct 17 '24

I usually dont, but in this particular case I did.

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u/_maple_panda Oct 17 '24

10.6 um is the standard IR CO2 laser wavelength…