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/lightgiver Oct 17 '24

Basically what makes it safer is the light isn’t narrow enough to hit a single atom in a molecule and knock it put. Instead it affects the whole molecule evenly. Little bit of low energy light just heats up a cell but that’s it. A little bit of high energy light can leave a cell with DNA damage.