Can you laser off birthmarks

Medical grade lasers are used to treat birthmarks through a series of laser treatments where the laser light is concentrated to target either blood vessels in the case of Vascular Birthmarks using Vascular Lasers or melanocytes in the case of Pigmented Birthmarks using Pigment Lasers.

Laser pulses are delivered to the site it feels like the snap of a rubber band. An anaesthetic cream or spray can be used to prevent discomfort and protect the skin.

The focused beams target the abnormal vessels or pigment, causing them to break up. The skin around the birthmark will not be affected or damaged in any way. In terms of vascular birthmarks, the most common is the Macular Stain.

Strawberry Naevi are benign tumours of newly formed blood vessels clustered together. They can be present at birth or form in the early weeks of life and tend to grow. Most disappear spontaneously by the time the child is nine.

Port Wine Stains generally appear on one side of the body and have a well-defined border. Most remain unchanged but can become darker and bumpy. Most childhood birthmarks are treated at paediatric hospitals. They won't feel any pain during the procedure and they won't remember it afterwards. After the laser therapy, the treated area may be sore, swollen, red or bruised. Before you go home, hospital staff will advise you what to do if this happens. Your child may need simple pain relief, such as ice packs and paracetamol.

See our fact sheet Pain relief for children. If the area blisters, it may need antibiotic ointment or a special dressing to accelerate healing. You will be given detailed information about this following the procedure.

The laser light is absorbed only by the cells containing extra amounts of pigment. It destroys the pigment granules called melanosomes but does not destroy the surrounding tissues or remove the skin's normal colour.

This laser selectively destroys the small blood vessels that cause a pink to red appearance on the skin surface, without damaging the surrounding tissue or outer layer epidermis of the skin. It is used to treat vascular lesions, such as port wine stains, spider veins of the face, flat strawberry haemangiomas in infants and the persistent facial redness sometimes seen in teenagers.

There is usually some bruising around the area after treatment. This lasts about seven to 10 days. This laser produces deeply penetrating infrared light. It is used to treat vascular birthmarks made up of blue-looking veins, or haemangiomas that do not flatten adequately before school age. There may be some temporary swelling around the area after GentleYAG treatment. This laser can also be used to manage excessive hair growth seen in medical conditions such as polycystic ovary syndrome.

Multiple treatments are usually required. The CO2 ablative laser gives out an intense beam of energy that vaporises tissue instantly. It is used to sculpt down abnormal tissues that are raised above the level of the skin's surface. It is often used at the RCH to treat facial lumps e. Raised scars are sometimes flattened down with this laser, and loose areas of scarring can be tightened. The CO2 laser leaves raw areas of skin that take up to 10 days to heal and require special dressings to prevent crusting and scabbing.

Some children may also develop light or dark spots in the area treated. The spots usually fade with time. Unless your doctor has given you different instructions, if blistering or scabbing occurs, apply petroleum jelly e. Similarly, light therapy will also require three to eight treatments in most cases, with each treatment scheduled from four to six weeks apart. For both laser resurfacing and light therapy procedures, periodic treatments may be required to maintain the desired results.

In most cases, treatments should be repeated on an annual basis. One side effect that all treatments for birthmark removal have in common is a pain. Though mild in all cases, there is a chance that your chosen procedure will cause minor pain during or after the procedure or both. Anesthesia is administered either topically laser resurfacing or IPL , or locally shave, punch, or surgical excision procedures to numb the area and keep patients comfortable during surgery.

If there is pain after the treatment, your doctor will recommend a pain reliever like Ibuprofen to manage the symptoms, though these should disappear completely within 48 hours. Patients having laser resurfacing treatments to remove birthmarks may notice mild temporary bruising or lightening of the skin hypopigmentation on the treated area.

This side effect is normal and can be a sign that the laser is working to lighten the color of the lesion. You may also experience swelling, redness and peeling for a short time after your procedure. Redness and swelling could last up to two days after treatment while peeling or flaky skin could last for approximately a week. Swelling, peeling, and a sunburn-like sting on your skin can be a common side effect of light therapy treatments.

Another side effect of an IPL treatment could be hypopigmentation or lightening of the skin. Shave, punch, and surgical excisions are all minor surgeries with various potential side effects and complications. For shave and punch excisions, the risks include scarring, hyperpigmentation, and a potential regrowth of the mole.

Surgical excisions can also leave scars, though the risk of scarring is low and will depend on your skin type and other factors. Recovery from birthmark removal treatments is an easy process, with minimal downtime and very little to no pain. Patients can expect to return to work and other normal activities the next day after having the procedure. Immediately after a laser resurfacing procedure, your skin will probably appear red and slightly swollen and might sting or burn.

These symptoms should completely disappear after one to three days. Light therapy patients may notice red and irritated skin for four to eight hours after treatment, and a slight stinging sensation similar to a mild sunburn in the treated area. The stinging sensation should subside within four to six hours and can be minimized with over-the-counter pain relievers like Ibuprofen. Cool packs or moist cloths may be applied to help reduce the sensation, and mild swelling in the treatment areas will usually dissipate within several days.

Healing after a mole removal by shave excision can take around one week. The site of excision on the skin must be kept dry for 24 hours. It is important to protect the excision site from sun exposure during the complete recovery period, which can last anywhere from one day to one week. For punch excisions and surgical excisions, patients can expect to feel comfortable in public about five or six days after facial mole excision. At that time, the non-absorbable sutures are removed from the skin surface, and the skin may have a slightly ridged appearance until it settles down throughout the next couple of months.

Since there are such a wide variety of birthmark types, there are a vast number of technologies that have been created to remove them. Laser resurfacing is a highly versatile procedure used for multiple procedures besides birthmark removal, including acne scar removal and skin rejuvenation. For birthmark removal, laser treatments improve and diminish both vascular and pigmented birthmarks with a fractional laser that can be either non-ablative or ablative.

Light Therapy IPL is another technique that is primarily used to remove unwanted acne, scars, freckles, age spots, and vascular birthmarks like port wine stains, though it can also work on flat, pigmented birthmarks as well. This method closes off the blood vessels underneath the skin that form the birthmark, which will eventually cause it to fade.

In a shave excision, your doctor will use a small blade, scalpel, or curved razor blade to scrape growths, including moles, from the surface of the skin. Shave excisions are preferred when the reason for the removal is cosmetic because the process is not as likely to leave a scar as more invasive methods of mole removal can. Shave excisions are also used to collect samples of growths for certain types of cancer cells, though this method is not recommended for detecting all types of cancer.

Raised moles less than 8mm in diameter can be extracted with punch excision or surgical excision for those measuring larger than 8mm. Both methods are used to remove birthmarks for cosmetic reasons, and to obtain a sample of the dermal or subcutaneous tissue around the lesion to be diagnosed for cancer cells.

It should be noted that a surgical excision, also known as a full-thickness excision, is the only method available that fully extracts the lesion in its entirety. If a mole that was previously removed with a punch excision grows back, surgical excision may be scheduled as the last resort. The purpose is to numb the area and prevent the patient from feeling any pain, ensuring their comfort throughout the procedure. For birthmark removal treatments, anesthesia may be required, depending on the treatment.