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Spider veins are damaged veins, typically small and twisty, that form close to the surface of the skin. They appear in colors of red, purple, or blue, and are most often found on the face or legs. They don’t necessarily indicate the presence of associated health issues, but they can create a cosmetic problem that many people find unsightly.

What Causes Spider Veins?

Spider veins occur when the normal blood flow within veins gets disrupted, and blood begins to pool instead of flowing smoothly.

This disruption is typically caused when the one-way valves inside our veins, which normally prevent blood flowing backward, become weak or damaged. When blood starts to collect instead of flow, the local blood pressure rises, which weakens the blood vessel walls and eventually causes the walls to bulge. The end result is blood vessels forming the twisty patterns that characterize spider veins.

The risk of developing spider veins increases with age, excessive weight, pregnancy, trauma, or even after some types of surgeries. Some people, especially women, are simply more likely to develop spider veins.

Other causes include spending a lot of time sitting or standing up. Even wearing high heels, which cause calf muscles to remain contracted for extended periods, can lead to spider veins. Facial spider veins may also be caused by excess sun exposure, or even something as simple as vigorous coughing or sneezing.

How to Prevent or Minimize the Appearance of Spider Veins?

Obviously trying to prevent or minimize the various potential causes of spider veins will reduce the chance of them developing. However, once you see veins start to develop, there are a few ways to treat them:

• Losing weight and exercising will improve blood circulation and may lower your risk of worsening of spider veins.

• Support pantyhose, compression stockings or socks can be used to apply pressure to the areas with spider veins. This compression helps improve blood flow and prevent spider veins from continuing to develop.

• Sclerotherapy is a non-invasive treatment that involves injecting a solution into damaged veins which causes them to collapse. Eventually, the treated vein will get absorbed by the body, resulting in the discolored areas fading or even disappearing. Sclerotherapy is a simple, virtually painless procedure that produces excellent results.

• Non-invasive laser vein therapy uses focused pulses of laser light to remove the broken or damaged blood vessels associated with spider veins. Laser vein therapy is a fast and effective way to treat spider veins, especially very fine veins. It is typically applied with anesthetic and/or cooling pads to reduce any discomfort.

Vein Therapy in Los Angeles

If you suffer from spider veins, contact Your Laser Skin Care at (323) 525-1516 or schedule a consultation online. We will be happy to explain how Sclerotherapy and laser vein therapy could help you resolve your vein problems.

CoolSculpting is our latest procedure for easily and quickly removing the stubborn folds of fat that have resisted attempts through dieting or exercise. CoolSculpting is rapidly gaining in popularity and has proven to be a safe and effective non-invasive way to lose unwanted fat with minimal to no downtime.

Before deciding to move ahead with the procedure, however, you should schedule a consultation with the provider you’ve chosen. You’ll need to establish that CoolSculpting is the appropriate treatment for you, taking into account your prior medical history, the areas of fat on your body that concern you, and the results that you hope to achieve.

Your practitioner will ask you many questions as they determine if you are a suitable candidate for this procedure. Here’s a checklist of topics that you might like to ask them about – this will help ensure that you take maximum advantage of your consultation and that you don’t forget to inquire about any important topics.

Questions About the CoolSculpting Procedure

• How does the CoolSculpting procedure actually work, and how safe is it?
• Can you predict how successful the procedure will be for a given patient?
• What kind of problems (and which parts of the body) is CoolSculpting best at treating?
• How does CoolSculpting compare to other body contouring procedures, such as liposuction?
• How long does each CoolSculpting procedure typically take, will more than one treatment be required, and how much time is needed between multiple procedures?
• How much discomfort should you expect during the procedure?
• Can other non-invasive procedures be combined with CoolSculpting?

Questions About the Practitioner

• What types of CoolSculpting equipment and accessories does the practitioner have available?
• Has the practitioner been formally trained and certified to perform CoolSculpting procedures?
• What medical experience does the practitioner have? If they’re a doctor, what board certifications do they have?
• What is the practitioner’s experience in performing non-invasive cosmetic procedures, and which other types of procedure are they also equipped to perform?

Questions About Preparing for Treatment

• Should you try to lose weight before starting CoolSculpting treatment?
• What preparations should you make before each treatment (such as avoiding direct sunlight), and what cosmetics and medications should be avoided leading up to each treatment?

Questions About Recovery After Treatment

• What kind of side-effects can occur, and how long do they typically last?
• Should you contact the practitioner if any other side effects become apparent?
• How long before you should see some results, and for how long will improvements continue to develop?
• Are the results permanent? 
• Should you expect to see any changes in weight after treatment?
• How important is it to exercise and eat properly after the procedure?

If you’d like to know if CoolSculpting can help you to tighten or improve the contours of your body, contact us to schedule your own consultation. And, bring this list of questions with you!

The benefits of IPL Photofacial treatments start to become apparent in the 24 hours following each procedure and continue to evolve in the days and weeks that follow.

Although IPL Photofacials require very little to no recovery time, there are definitely things you should (and should not) be doing to ensure you derive the maximum benefits from this facial, while minimizing the chance of negative side effects. We recommend that you pay careful attention to the following tips.

Keep Cool and Avoid the Sun

Avoid both direct and indirect sunlight as much as possible during the 30-day healing period. Sunlight can not only prevent your skin from healing properly but can more easily cause new damage during this time.

Your skin will be especially sensitive to sunlight following the treatment. To avoid sunburn during this vulnerable time, you must protect your skin for at least 30 days after each treatment by applying a broad-spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of at least 30.

Ensure that your skin remains protected and apply sunscreen as often as needed to maintain protection. Using broad (or full) spectrum sunscreen will give protection against both UVA and UVB rays and is necessary even if you avoid direct sunlight.

Too much heat is also bad for your skin as it tries to heal and regenerate. This means you must avoid hot baths or showers for several days after each treatment. You should also avoid strenuous exercise during this time, as excess sweat increases your chances of infection, while potentially delaying the healing process.

If you have any redness, swelling, itching, or burning following an IPL treatment, applying aloe vera gel or cold compresses can help. If these symptoms persist for more than 48 hours, you should contact your doctor.

Be Gentle on your Skin and Allow Time to Heal

Do not apply makeup immediately after an IPL facial treatment. It’s best to try and minimize (or completely avoid) using makeup for the next 12 hours.

Keep skin clean by using a gentle cleanser twice a day, only use cold or warm water, and gently pat your skin dry instead of rubbing it.

In addition to using sunscreen, ensure that you keep your skin protected at all times by using a gentle moisturizer.

During the week or so following an IPL facial treatment, any pigmented spots in the treated areas may darken in color before eventually peeling off.

Other blemishes may also become apparent before they eventually flake off. It is imperative not to scratch or pick at your skin during this time, or you will run the risk of infection, possibly resulting in new scars and imperfections.

Avoid Skin Irritants

As your skin heals, you should avoid any products with the risk of irritation, or which might interfere with the healing process. The list of potential irritants includes products high in Vitamin A, such as retinoic acid, Tretinoin (Retin-A), and alpha-hydroxy acid (AHA).

Skin exfoliants should also be avoided for at least a week after each treatment, whether chemical or mechanical.

If needed, an over-the-counter 1% hydrocortisone cream can be used once or twice a day on any irritated areas, as long as the skin surface is intact.

Learn More About Our IPL in Los Angeles

Your Laser Skin Care in Los Angeles specializes in Botox and Fillers injections, laser hair removal, vein therapy, chemical peels and IPL among many other services. Please call us at (323) 525-1516 or visit us online to schedule an appointment.

It’s a cruel irony that during summertime, a time when we have multiple opportunities to show more skin, and when we’d really like our complexions to be in peak condition, is also the time of year when many of us suffer from seasonal acne. Here are some of the main reasons for summer acne breakouts, along with some tips for avoiding (or minimizing) the problem.

Causes of Summertime Acne

High humidity levels in the summer stimulate the production of oil by the skin’s sebaceous glands, which can clog and become infected. Unfortunately, you are also more likely to sweat during the heat of the summer, and the heat opens your skin pores more than at other times of the year. The combination of these effects results in a greatly increased chance of clogged skin pores and acne.

The hotter summertime sun also exacerbates the problem – the sun’s UV rays can irritate and inflame your skin (even if you don’t burn), and many of the products we apply to protect our skin from the sun can also contribute to clogged pores, and subsequent infection. 

Sunscreen isn’t the only culprit. Tanning lotions and skincare products can have the same effect. Even if some of the products we use (including anti-acne medications) are antibacterial, they can dry the skin, which leads to increased oil production, which ultimately contributes to the same clogged pore problem.

We are also much more likely to encounter several other environmental skin irritants in the summertime – this list includes pool chemicals, bug sprays and food and drinks with high levels of sugar.

Ways to Combat the Problem

Given that you’re going to sweat more anyway, you can reduce the chance of acne breaking out by avoiding touching your face. Also, remove makeup before exposing yourself to the sun, or participating in activities that will result in your sweating more than usual. Spray-on antiperspirants can also aid in reducing body acne.

Skin cleansing and moisturizing remain essential during the summer, but you can reduce the potential for problems by cleansing your face using alcohol-free products, and substituting light mineral-based makeup for your heavy, oily products. “Comedogenic” refers to the acne that results from using skincare products that can cause oily skin, clog skin pores, and allow their subsequent infection by skin bacteria. We recommend switching to skin cleansers and moisturizers identified as “non-comedogenic.”

Although the link is less obvious, eating a healthy diet can keep your immune system working efficiently, which will lessen the chance of acne infections developing. Healthy diets include avoiding oily foods, red meat, refined carbohydrates, and especially sugar. It would help if you also tried to eat plenty of high-fiber fruits and vegetables and water-rich fruits.

This may seem obvious in the heat of the summer, but keeping properly hydrated will help. Not only by replacing the liquid that you lose by sweating, but also by allowing your body to more easily flush out toxins.

Vitamin and mineral supplements can also help reduce the intensity of acne breakouts – vitamins E, C, and B6 are often used, as well as Zinc and Selenium. Your doctor should be able to provide you with recommendations tailored to your particular situation, as well as with the best way to treat any acne infections that you have developed.

If you are having trouble with summer acne give Your Laser Skin Care a call at (323) 525-1516 to see how we can help you get back to clearer skin.

This week we want to focus on a lesser-known procedure that offers an effective way to tighten loose skin. And it’s easy, safe, non-invasive, and produces rapid results.

Our skin is a complex organ, consisting of several interconnected layers. The tone, elasticity, and resilience of our skin are primarily due to a layer of densely interwoven collagen fibers in the dermis layer, and it’s this layer that is largely responsible for how young your skin looks and feels. As we age, collagen begins to degrade, and the skin starts to lose its elasticity and resilience. This, in turn, leads to the sagging, lines, and wrinkles we try so hard to avoid. 

Surgical solutions (e.g., facelifts) are one way to try to address the problem, but too often result in unnaturally tight skin. Plus it’s an expensive, painful procedure with lengthy recovery times, and it carries the risk of serious side-effects. 

Laser skin tightening is accomplished by using focused laser light pulses to apply heat to the collagen fibers beneath the skin gently. This precise application of heat produces multiple benefits – existing collagen fibers are slowly redistributed and rearranged, resulting in improved skin tone. New collagen production is also stimulated, resulting in progressive improvements to the dermis layer, which continue for several months following each treatment. 

The laser technique can be used on virtually any part of the body but is most often used on the face, neck, and chin. Discomfort during the procedure is generally minimal and does not require any significant recovery time. Side effects are rare, mostly limited to very short-lasting local swelling. 

Depending on the area being treated and the degree of tightening desired, several treatments may be needed and are typically performed at monthly intervals. The best part is that improvements to skin tone will continue following each treatment, as the body is stimulated to create new collagen, and the results look completely natural.

The procedure also has a role in preventative skin care – stimulating the production of new collagen will also help to delay the treated area developing looseness in the future. So if you fear you might be prone to developing loose skin, you can even help ward off the problem before it becomes a problem. 

We offer a range of non-invasive cosmetic procedures, many of which can be combined with laser skin tightening. For more information or to schedule a free consultation, call us at (323) 525-1516 or visit us online at www.yourlaserskincare.com 

We typically use the various dermal fillers for lip and cheek augmentation, and to correct uneven or wrinkled skin, especially on the face and neck. However, Juvederm and Restylane offer many different product formulations, allowing them to be used in a wide variety of different situations. These range from the correction of small blemishes to larger-scale contour enhancement.

There are several lesser-known areas where these versatile dermal fillers can also be used – we’d like to highlight some of these in this post.

Facial Scarring

Permanent acne scars are a source of great concern to many. They’re hard to disguise using other techniques, but the depressed and pitted scars associated with moderate or severe acne can be treated effectively using dermal fillers. Fillers can be used to fill-in any depressed scars, resulting in a greatly improved complexion.

Hands 

Fillers are now routinely used to rejuvenate the loss of volume and thinning of the skin on the back of the hands.

Earlobes

Earlobes are quite prone to damage, which can include drooping as well as the loss of volume and wrinkles. Dermal fillers can provide effective relief for many of these problems.

Dynamic Facial Wrinkles 

Dermal fillers have been used successfully (along with other treatments) to restore a more balanced facial appearance. Although dermal fillers are typically used to address static wrinkles and volume loss, they can also help with dynamic wrinkles.

Noses

Dermal fillers have been successfully used to correct various nose problems, including uneven or unwanted contours. Although fillers won’t remove unwanted tissue, an unwanted bump can often be effectively straightened by adding filler to adjacent areas, such as the bridge of the nose.

In all of the above cases, dermal fillers provide a non-permanent solution – depending on the area being treated, and you can expect to need additional treatments six months to a year (or more) afterward. Dermal fillers can be applied progressively, allowing you to achieve your goals gradually, giving you a more natural improvement.

Give Your Laser Skin Care a call at (323) 525-1516 and we will be happy to help you schedule a visit in the Los Angeles area. We will be able to discuss the many available treatment options, and how they can be used to help address the areas you’re concerned about.

We recently came across descriptions of serious injuries caused when some people attempted to “freeze” parts of their own body, typically by applying ice packs for extended periods.  Needless to say, we’d very much like to dissuade anyone from trying to experiment on themselves this way – we’ll explain why “DIY CoolSculpting” is not only a particularly bad idea but potentially quite dangerous.

The Theory Behind CoolSculpting 

Medical research has demonstrated that fat cells are more sensitive to being damaged by low temperatures than surrounding tissue. By reducing the temperature of fat cells for specific periods of time, it’s possible to actually kill the fat cells, after which they will be naturally eliminated from the body over the days and weeks that follow. Fat cells expand or contract during your lifetime, but once killed they are not replaced. Hence any loss of damaged fat cells will be permanent. By targeting fat close to the skin, it’s possible to effectively remove fat deposits and cosmetically reshape parts of the body. 

Despite the fact that the technique is often referred to as “fat freezing,” fat cells are not in fact “frozen” when CoolSculpting is used. They are instead cooled to the precise temperature proven to be the most effective at damaging them.

What Equipment Is Used by Your Doctor?

Allergan produces the specialized equipment used in a CoolSculpting session. It uses a sophisticated control unit and applicators, which effectively cool the area being treated to a precise temperature while using suction to ensure that the skin stays in close contact with the cooling pads. The system ensures that fat beneath the skin is cooled to the temperature that’s the safest and most effective for fat removal. Several different applicators are available, depending on the part of the body that’s being treated. The process is designed to not only be effective at fat removal but also to protect your skin from damage during the process.

The Theory Behind DIY

If freezing fat cells kills them, why not just put on an ice pack and do it yourself? You can find “LipoBelts” online that claim to provide effective ways of eliminating fat. Regardless of how effective these seem, there is no medical evidence to suggest that they work, nor that they’re even safe to experiment with.

Potential Problems

The main problem with DIY methods is that you have to guess how cold your body needs to be, and for how long. To be both safe and effective, fat must be cooled to a specific temperature for a carefully controlled period. If incorrect temperatures are used (almost guaranteed to be the case when using ice-packs), you risk frostbite, pain, even serious skin burns. The risks of serious side effects greatly increase for those with circulatory problems or diabetes and could result in permanent tissue damage.

Ice packs also melt, making it impossible to maintain the precise constant temperature over time that’s needed for effective fat removal.

 There are other problems: ice packs are not adapted to the shape of the parts of the body that you’re trying to treat. So even if you manage to cool the area to the correct temperature and avoid any of the problems, you will not be effective at removing fat. You may also cause blisters if you allow your skin to warm up too quickly after cooling it. Finally, even if you do manage to kill fat cells effectively, you run a substantial risk of leaving your body misshapen and unnatural looking.

By using an experienced and qualified doctor to perform the CoolSculpting procedure, you will be maximizing the benefits you draw from the treatment while minimizing the possibility of undesired side effects. Your doctor will draw on their experience to ensure that you gain the most benefit from the smallest number of treatments, closely monitor the process to ensure you remain safe and tailor the process to ensure that your fat loss looks balanced and natural. 

We will be happy to answer any questions you have about CoolSculpting or any of the other non-invasive procedures we offer. If you are in the Los Angeles area, please visit us online or call us at (323) 525-1516 to schedule a free consultation.