A Poll on Facial Wrinkles, from Dr. Ronald Schuster, Board Certified Plastic Surgeon, Baltimore, Maryland

 Hope everyone had a good weekend. I have a poll I'd like you to take. Here's the story:

The heat got me thinking about the sun. The sun got me thinking about my skin and the damage that it was doing. The skin got me thinking about wrinkles (not that I have any of course). And the wrinkles got me thinking of the ways we have of treating them. There are actually quite a few ways to treat facial wrinkles right here in Baltimore, Maryland. You can have the wrinkles treated surgically with operations like facelifts. Or you can have wrinkles treated  non-surgically with things like Botulinum Toxin (Botox and Dysport) or with fillers (Restylane, Juvederm, Radiesse, etc.). But what if there were another way to treat them? Well there is. In fact, you can treat many wrinkles with the power of light. For all you braniacs I am of course referring to lasers. Traditionally lasers such as the CO2 and Erbium lasers have been used very successfully to treat wrinkles. i was in fact one of the earliest to use them way back in '94. The drawback from them was the longish recovery, the redness that followed, and the lightening of the skin that would sometimes occur. Over the past few years there has been some changes to these lasers in what is called fractionating the energy. By delivering the same energy in a bunch of tiny pinpoint spots close to the same results can be achieved with less downtime, redness and risk. However, the results are not quite as good and there is still a period of 4-5 days where you cannot apply make-up. Now, there is some other technology that can treat wrinkles with essentially no downtime (a little red for 1-2 days but can be covered up with make-up). So what's the catch? It's a very gradual process and could take 3-4 treatments (spaced 3-4 weeks apart) to get a good result.

So here's my question. Kindly answer the following:

Given the choice of getting rid of wrinkles with either

A) a week of downtime but quicker results 

 or

B) no downtime but a longer time to see results

which would you prefer?

Send this to your friends. I need to know. Thanks.

Dr. S

Ronald H Schuster, MD. - Board Certified Plastic Surgeon - Chief, Division of Plastic Surgery Northwest Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland: Clinical Instructor Johns Hopkins Hospital Division of Plastic Surgery - Specializing in cosmetic surgery of the face and body. Procedures include Composite Facelift, Midface Lift, Eyelid surgery (Blepharoplasty), Brow lift, Endoscopic facial surgery, Laser resurfacing, Nasal surgery (Rhinoplasty), Non-surgical Nose Job, Breast augmentation / lift (Mastopexy), Breast reduction, Liposuction, Ultrasonic Assisted Liposuction, Tummy Tuck (Abdominoplasty), Plastic Surgery after Weight Loss from Bariatric Surgery (Body Lift surgery), Correction of Gynecomastia. Non-surgical facial rejuvenation procedures are performed daily. These include fillers (Restylane, Perlane, Juvederm, Radiesse and Sculptra), Botox and Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) for photofacial rejuvenation. Also available is a full service aestheticians for comprehensive skin care, including Obagi, Procyte, Skin Medica, Results Rx.