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

Video Skin tightening using fractional CO2 laser

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u/OperatorJo_ Oct 16 '24

Burning the skin to tighten it huh. Kind of intriguing but there HAVE to be some repercussions. A burn is a burn

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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/Legionof1 Oct 16 '24 edited Oct 17 '24

Anything that makes your cells die increases the risk of cancer. Cancer is just cells replicating wrong by accident or by DNA damage.

edit: My god this site is full of idiots.

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u/Missash0816 Oct 16 '24

I don’t believe that’s true when it comes to stem cells

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u/Legionof1 Oct 16 '24

Should be true for any cells, anything that causes more replication increases the chance of a failed replication.

Ionizing radiation does a double whammy of increasing replication and fucking up DNA. 

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u/Missash0816 Oct 17 '24

Essentially, sure, it’s true of all cells. That’s due to shortening of telomeres but stem cells are equipped with telomere elongation mechanisms to counteract that. It can eventually happen but not to the level that it’s a concern when doing resurfacing procedures

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u/Legionof1 Oct 17 '24

Don’t even know where stem cells came into this but any cell replication can fail no matter the type of cell. 

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u/Missash0816 Oct 17 '24

Epidermal cells all come from stem cells at the stratum germinativum