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A complimentary book will be provided with your
initial consultation with a physician at the Washington Institute
of Dermatologic Laser Surgery. -- FOREWORD (by Tina Alster, M.D.)
Most of us have something or other on our skin we would just as
soon be without--a mole, a pockmark or a crop of freckles.
Some people feel self-conscious about little red spots or networks
of tiny spider veins. Others regret an impulsively acquired tattoo,
or live with prominent scars from surgery or a painful injury.
Many people are burdened with birthmarks. And, or course, everyone
eventually gets wrinkles--inexorably acquiring the tracery of
fine lines and ever deepening furrows that tell of advancing age.
Until very recently, almost all of these marks, from the least
noticable to the grossly disfiguring, had one thing in common.
They were virtually impossible to remove without creating some
other kind of mark--a scar, a change in skin texture or a patch
of unnatural color.
Dermatologic cosmetic lasers--a group of highly specialized surgical
tools developed at the end of the twentieth century--have changed
that. These extraordinary medical instruments have revolutionized
the practice of dermatology, leading to innovative treatments
for a host of skin conditions that not long ago were regarded
as all but intractable. Today there are lasers that can smooth
a complexion pitted by acne or chickenpox. Others can remove spider
veins, cherry spots, age spots or unwanted hair. We no can erase
tattoos or restore burned or scarred skin to a more normal appearance.
Lasers that literally evaporate skin cells can bloodlessly peel
away lined, age-mottled skin. Unsightly moles that once could
only be cut out with a scalpel are now vaporized in a burst of
laser light. There is a laser that eradicates port-wine stains--the
dark purplish blotches recognized through the centuries as among
the most emotionally ravaging of common birth defects. And on
the horizon are laser treatments that one day may erase stretch
marks, eliminate psoriasis and excise dangerous skin cancers with
minimal complications. This frontier has expanded with breathtaking
speed.
Two decades ago, the use of medical lasers ind ermatology was
limited to a few innovative physicians and university research
facilities. My personal interest was sparked during my post-graduate
residency at Yale when a woman with a disfiguring port-wine stain
consulted me regarding its removal. My search for a treatment
for that patient led me to a specialized training fellowship in
Boston, where I was privileged to join the doctors conducting
early clinical trials of the revolutionary new laser invented
to treat those stigmatizing birthmarks. When I opened my Washington,
DC practice in 1990, I was one of only a handful of board-certified
dermatologists or cosmetic surgeons in the United States who owned
dermatologic lasers and used them on a ...
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