Question: Due to my ethnicity I have been warned that laser treatment will do more harm than help in evening my skin tone. Is there a therapy indicated for darker skin tones that still offers the benefits of other laser treatments?
Answer: Well, there are certainly various lasers that can treat darker skin tones and it really depends on what the problem is that you are concerned about as to what treatment option I would recommend. For patients that have pigmentary issues, we can still use intense pulsed light or broadband light on patients with darker skin tones and there are many pharmaceutical or medical grade skin care products that can be used to improve the discolorations as well. If the concern is more skin laxity and wrinkling, then we can perform fractionated laser resurfacing on patients with darker skin tones and we can improve the deeper collagen of the skin, which improves the skin tone and texture and improves wrinkling as well. Ultimately I would recommend seeking out someone who has experience with darker skin tones regarding laser resurfacing as if the wrong laser is chosen, you can certainly get into some rather major issues regarding pigmentary abnormalities from overaggressive treatment of darker skin tones.
