Freckle Surgery
Is Freckle Surgery For You?
When we were young, freckle surgery was usually far from our mind as in most cases people thought we looked cute with them. We'd been told that they will go away, and unless one was a redhead, they usually did. Even most redheads left their freckles behind by the time they were in the upper grade school classes.
For some of us though, the freckles either never left, we have an overabundance of them, or they tend to come and go, usually as a result of sun exposure. Freckles can be attractive, even on adults, though most who have them tend to think otherwise. Fairly large amounts of money are invested annually in freckle reducing or elimination cremes and lotions, though these cosmetic concoctions do little other than temporarily mask freckles. They are by and large ineffective as far as making freckles go away.
If you're one of those who has tried freckle lotions and seen little if any effect, your thoughts might well be turning to freckle surgery. Before the advent of laser techniques there basically was no such thing as freckle surgery. If you have a few hundred freckles, and mainly on your face, the last thing you wanted was to have a surgeon go after them one at a time with a scalpel, no matter how careful he might have been. A scalpel just won't do it.
What is going to happen if we undergo freckle surgery, using laser technology? Freckles reside on the outer layer of the skin. Our skin contains pigment-producing cells that produce melanin pigments which are in turn absorbed in other outer-skin cells called keratinocytes. The melanin pigment functions to protect us from the harmful rays of the sun. If the cells producing melanin are damaged by the sun however, an overabundance of the melanin pigment is produced, which when it collects, forms a freckle.
Freckle Surgery - Freckle surgery can be expensive. It depends somewhat on the services available where you live, the demand from those services, and of course, how many freckles we're talking about. The great thing about laser surgery is that freckles readily absorb almost any color or type of laser light, so special laser technology is not required. A laser wavelength corresponding to yellow light is most commonly used, regarded as being the most effective, and least likely to result in scarring or other skin damage. In addition, since freckles sit on the top layer of the skin, the surgeon does not have to go through the other skin layers to remove them.
Examination Before Surgery - Before undergoing freckle surgery it is a good idea to be examined by a dermatologist on the off chance that a cancerous growth may be present that is masquerading as a freckle. A dermatologist can rapidly tell the difference between tumors and freckles and will deal with the cancerous tissue separately. This is not a time consuming examination and well worth the time and effort.
Treatment And Side Effects - Laser treatments usually last only a few minutes, and are painless. It may take 2 or 3 sessions to completely remove the freckles. The action of the laser is no different than the sun's rays as far as the skin is concerned, and there may be some post-operative swelling or redness, similar to what a sunburn would cause. This is a very temporary condition. Another side effect of freckle surgery done by a laser is some bruising of skin tissue, which may cause mild discomfort for a few days.
They're B-a-a-c-k! - Freckles can return, even though laser surgery effectively eliminates them. How can this be? The simple answer is this. If you get freckles again, they are a different set of freckles, and not a reemergence of the freckles you had removed. Laser surgery removes freckles, and removes them permanently, but does not affect the skin's ability to create new ones. If this happens, the best recourse is to use plenty of sunscreen and stay out of the sun during the middle part of the day. The sun is the culprit.