Question: I am 66 years old and for years told my kids that I was proud of my wrinkles and that each one represented a successful survival of one of their pranks. The kids are gone off surviving their own kids and I want the wrinkles gone as well. Do you generally suggest a whole face treatment for a woman of my age? I have some very deep creases, especially around the eyes. What will my face look like afterwards? Will I need to remain home to recuperate for a period of time and is there any pain with this procedure?
Answer: Well at 66 years old and by what you describe, more than likely you will require a full face treatment of some sort. If you have associated laxity in and around the eyes, eyebrows, and lower face, we may want to discuss the option of comprehensive rejuvenation where we provide advance surgical techniques to provide lifting of the lax portions of the face and then we provide laser resurfacing on the skin itself to get rid of deep lines and wrinkling. The combination can provide an exceptionally natural youthful appearance without the look of surgery. You will; however, require a good 6 days of significant downtime due to the fact that the laser essentially creates a second degree burn on the face that requires about this length of time to heal. During this time you will have a greasy balm on the face and overall patients look pretty awful during this time period. Fortunately, after 6 days, the surface of the skin has healed and if they have significant pinkness. We can easily cover this with some makeup and at that time they really look quite good, but they usually require about 2 weeks before they are ready to have close social situations, though many of my patients will return to work in 1 week. Overall, in the far majority of patients the discomfort associated with these treatments is rather minimal and most describe it as a tension or pressure type sensation.
