Question: I am 53 years old and would like to know which procedure is the best for crow’s feet and several age spots. I have been learning about microdermabrasion and laser skin resurfacing. Which one provides the best results? Which one is cheaper? Which one has a shorter recovery period?
Answer: As far as treatment options go for crow’s feet, there are several. One of the most common ways to treat the crow’s feet is through the use of Botox which allows the muscle that causes the crow’s feet to relax. Unfortunately, this is typically not a fully adequate way to treat the crow’s feet due to the fact that some of these lines form due to the cheek elevation as we smile and this is certainly something that we do not want to relax or affect with Botox. Another option for the crow’s feet would be a brow lift in patients with some low-set brows. By lifting the brows, we essentially stretch out the crow’s feet area and they are greatly improved. Third option, as you had mentioned would be laser resurfacing, but microdermabrasion in my opinion really will do very little for actual crow’s feet. Certainly when comparing microdermabrasion and laser resurfacing, microdermabrasion is going to be much less expensive, it will have no downtime as opposed to at least several days of downtime with a laser resurfacing, but the downside of the microdermabrasion is that it will do very little, if any, improvement in actual crow’s feet wrinkles. Frequently I will combine various modalities to give the patient the best result possible. In fact, frequently I will not only perform a brow lift with a laser resurfacing, but then also treat the patient with Botox for the first 6 months after the laser resurfacing to try to prevent some of these crow’s feet from returning. This in my opinion seems to be my personal gold-standard for facial rejuvenation I this region.