Mature skin can be difficult to take care of, especially if you are just starting with good skin care practice in your 40s, 50s, or even beyond. Luckily, there are treatments that can restore the vitality of your skin and make you look years younger. Laser skin tightening, for example, needs no injectables and no incision to work. The results of laser on your skin take a few weeks to show up, but are cheap, efficient, offer noticeable results and little to no downtime.
What Is Laser Skin Tightening Used for?
With all these benefits, laser skin tightening is used to treat skin damage in different layers of the skin. Different approaches and kinds of lasers (not all of them are lasers, to be honest) mean that different types of skin are targeted and collagen production increases. Laser skin treatments can also increase elastin production, although collagen should be the main focus, as it gives the skin its firmness and prevents sagging mature skin.
How Does Laser Skin Tightening Work?
Depending on the type of laser and the tissue it should address, lasers work in slightly different ways. As your skin has three distinctive layers, it takes different approaches and devices to tighten it. All of them, however, use one form of heat or another to create controlled damage to the skin and boost its natural healing mechanisms.
Laser Skin Tightening Before and After
With this in mind, it is necessary to notice that lasers increase your skin’s natural ability to defend itself against years of damage. Once youthful, thick and elastic, your skin may have grown to be thinner and more prone to damage. Skin sagginess, eyelid ptosis, discoloration, as well as sun spots (or liver spots) can all be seen on the skin as you age. Furthermore, skin texture changes, leaving you with bumps and enlarged pores, as well as fine lines and deeply-set wrinkles which add to how old and tired you look.
Once the laser skin treatment is finished, it takes a while to see the results. Depending on the type of treatment you’ve chosen, you can notice:
- Reduction in fine lines and deep wrinkles,
- Less eyelid ptosis,
- Less skin sagginess,
- Slightly reduced sagging jowls,
- A brighter complexion,
- A less-tired look on your face,
- Better skin texture, and
- A few years taken away from your face.
Types of Lasers for Skin Tightening
As we have said before, there are different types of skin devices (lasers and other kinds of devices with a similar approach to skin healing) that you can use. Which device or skin laser you will opt for depends on the type of damage that you would like to correct. While some people may only choose to resurface their skin and make it look tighter, others may choose going with deeper layers of the skin and correcting more damage. In general, the deeper the layer of the skin that you want to treat, the longer the time to first results.
Intense Pulsed Light Laser
Intense Pulsed Light Lasers are generally used to treat surface skin problems. They help deal with enlarged pores, fine lines, sun spots (liver spots) and other forms of minor damage to the surface of the skin. The treatment itself is short and effective, and your dermatologist may ask you to stay away from the sun for up to two weeks after the treatment. These lasers give results very quickly, but you may need several treatments to see the desired results.
Radiofrequency Devices
RF or Radio Frequency devices for skin target intermediate layers of the skin. These devices cannot remove skin complexion issues and tighten enlarged pores, but they may correct damage such as fine lines and reduce the appearance of deep wrinkles. As they target deeper layers of the skin, they can stimulate higher collagen production, unlike intense pulsed light lasers which focus on skin pigmentation and faster cellular turnover.
Ultrasound Therapy
Ultrasound therapy is yet another type of device that is used to treat mature skin. Ultrasound therapy does not use lasers of any kind, but rather ultrasound waves to heat up the deepest layers of the skin. Therefore, ultrasound therapy increases collagen production and can remove some skin sagging and improve the firmness and thickness of the skin. Ultrasound therapy results can take several weeks or even months to be seen, but are the widest in scope.
As all these approaches to mature skin tightening have different approaches, remove different signs of aging and treat different layers of the skin, it may be necessary to combine them. In this case, even skin that has suffered a lot of damage can be restored. In any case, patience and good skin care are very important.
Laser Skin Tightening Procedure
That being said, laser skin tightening procedure is very simple and requires very little of your time. This procedure can effectively remove years of aging and improve the look and texture of your skin. Laser skin tightening procedure consists of the following steps:
- Meeting up with your dermatologist, or a cosmetic or plastic surgeon,
- Having your skin assessed and getting recommendations for the appropriate treatment,
- Showing up at the scheduled time,
- Getting topical pain reliever applied and waiting for 15-60 minutes depending on the depth of the skin layer that you want to treat,
- Getting the procedure done, and
- Recovering from the laser skin tightening procedure.
Laser Skin Tightening Recovery
The recovery period with skin tightening treatment is usually very short. You will be instructed to use special hydrating lotions for a few days and to apply SPF (sun block) regularly. You will also need to take at least a day off and give your skin time to heal. It may take several day, weeks or even months to see the results, but the wait is worth it.
Depending on the layer of the skin that is treated, the recovery time can be quite different. While treating very shallow, surface skin layers gives almost immediate results, they also cause burn-like appearance of the skin and redness that will take a few days to heal. The deeper we move into the skin, the less apparent the side-effects and the shorter the recovery time. Ultrasound skin therapy, for example, leaves no burns, although your skin may be slightly swollen and sensitive to the touch.
How Long Does Laser Skin Tightening Last?
The procedure of laser skin tightening lasts very short – you will usually be able to leave the medical office or cosmetic clinic within one hour of arrival. This includes the time spent waiting for the numbing agent to work. The results of the procedure itself can last for a long time and may be seen for years to come. Understand that your skin keeps aging with each passing year, so that you may need to have more treatments in the future.
How Much Is Laser Skin Tightening?
Depending on your needs and the state of your skin, you will pay a different price. Generally, a single session of skin tightening will cost you anywhere between $600-$1,000. Bear in mind that you may need more than one session, often several weeks apart, so that your final cost may be much higher than a single session cost. Avoid suspiciously low-priced laser treatments, as they may use old lasers and cause more damage than harm.
Laser Skin Tightening FAQs
How Can I Tighten My 60-Year Old Skin?
There are both surgical and nonsurgical ways to tighten your 60-year old skin. Nonsurgical methods include laser treatments, radiofrequency treatments and ultrasound skin procedures. They all have limited results. If your skin has aged substantially, however, you may want to opt for surgical skin tightening methods, such as facelift, neck lift or eyelid surgery for both men and women.
What Is the Best Treatment for Sagging Skin?
The best surgical treatment for sagging skin is facelift. This surgical procedure will remove excess skin and fat tissue deposits from your face and improve your looks. On the other hand, if you only have moderately saggy skin, you may want to try non surgical ultrasound therapy as this procedure targets deep layers of the skin and underlying muscles to tighten the skin from inside out.
What Treatments Do Celebrities Use for Skin Tightening?
Celebrities use a variety of treatments to tighten their skin. Laser skin resurfacing, for example, is used mostly by younger celebrities, who would like to have a younger-looking skin with less bumps and tighter pores. Celebrities in their mid-age use mostly radiofrequency skin tightening to remove fine lines and first wrinkles. Older celebrities use ultrasound therapy for deep skin tightening treatments that give the longest-lasting results.
What Is the Best Laser Treatment for Anti-Aging?
The best laser treatment for anti-aging is ultrasound skin tightening. Although not laser per se, this procedure uses a similar approach to skin tightening. In this procedure, the ultrasound device delivers heat energy into the skin, causing some damage to it. The damage then forces the skin to initiate collagen production and refirm the skin from the deepest layers. It can effectively recontour the face, give it a smooth and sculpted appearance and remove several years from your face.
Final Considerations
You may notice that exercise and a good diet are sometimes not enough to treat signs of aging in mature skin. You may also not want to undergo a surgical procedure to restore the youthfulness of your skin. In this case, you may want to explore laser treatments for skin tightening. With three different, basic approaches to restoring the looks of your skin, these procedures can boost your skin collagen production and significantly improve the way your skin feels and reduce signs of aging.
