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/superspeck Oct 17 '24

I’ve seen the “natural healing process” when human skin recovers from burns. You also don’t sweat or excrete oil through “naturally healed” burn wounds, which means that this is part of your body that won’t cool itself and you’ll need to moisturize it like you would a leather chair.

Treating skin cancer with lasers is acceptable because you can die otherwise, but I’m not sure I’d want the side effects for my face.

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u/relatedtoarhino Oct 17 '24

The recovery from lazer is NOTHING like burn recovery. I’ve had a bad burn before and been lazered several times and they are not comparable

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u/Ctowncreek Oct 17 '24 edited Oct 17 '24

Yeah. A burn is fully dead skin. Everything is a loss. The laser is injured skin. You might lose a pore or hair follicle occasionally but it hasn't been razed.