Feel Great in Your own Skin

Rejuvenate and renew at the Institute for Laser and Aesthetic Medicine
By Angelina Sciolla

There are literally thousands of promises of youth and beauty out there. You can find them on artfully designed jars on your local department store counter or during infomercials for luxury skin-care lines that are marketed as fountains of youth from inside a tiny tube of cream. Numerous at-home skin care devices can set you back considerable amounts of money. Often after a few uses, those devices find a new home in the back of your closet.

But what does work to help reverse the damage of stress, sun, environment and aging? How can you tighten and refresh your skin so that it actually begins to appear more youthful and healthy and stays that way for a significant period of time?

You can start by quitting smoking, avoiding the sun and hoping for the good genes in your family. Then, while you’re at it, go visit Dr. Glenn DeBias.

Dr. DeBias, founder of the Institute for Laser and Aesthetic Medicine is renowned for his aesthetic procedures that include anti-aging treatments, therapeutic skin resurfacing, and laser hair removal. He has performed nearly 80,000 procedures in 11 years at the Institute. Dr. DeBias has three offices—in Doylestown, where he began his practice at the Institute 11 years ago; Bethlehem and King of Prussia. By listening to the concerns of his patients and remaining committed to advancing state-of-the-art aesthetic therapies, he has developed pioneering techniques for reversing the effects of aging, and has become the world’s expert on fractional CO2 laser skin resurfacing/tightening. Dr. DeBias maintains a greater than 96% satisfaction rating among his patients. That is simply because Dr. DeBias has consistently sought the feedback of his patients to learn what was most important to them when it came to anti-aging solutions for the skin.

“It was five things,” he says. “Of course it had to produce effective and consistent results. It had to be comfortable, safe. There should be minimal recovery time and it should be cost effective.”

In 2004, while exploring new techniques for using fractional CO2 laser technology, Dr. DeBias created a new protocol that soon became known as ActiveFXTM. This laser skin resurfacing/tightening solution has attracted worldwide renown for offering patients the ability to achieve long-term improvement in skin tone, texture, and tightness.

Moreover, the procedure stimulates the production of collagen, which actually helps improve the skin’s appearance for months after the procedure. Collagen is the main protein of connective tissue, including skin, bone, and muscle. Collagen is the most abundant protein we have, making up about 30% of our whole body protein content. Unfortunately, as we age, we lose it. The loss of collagen is what contributes to the formation of lines and wrinkles. As we lose collagen our skin loses elasticity.

We usually reach our peak collagen producing years by the time we hit our late 20s. By our 30s, we begin to lose more collagen than we produce. “Visualize it like this,” explains Dr. DeBias. “It’s like you have a bucket of collagen and there’s a small hole in it where the collagen starts to seep out. As you get older, that hole gets bigger.”

The ActiveFXTM procedure is the most popular among the aesthetic therapies Dr. DeBias offers. Patients range in age from the teens to early 90s. Younger patients are often looking to reduce the appearance of acne scars or uneven skin pigmentation, while patients in their thirties and forties are starting to notice the signs of aging, such as enlarged pores, eyelid laxity, and loss of elasticity in the cheeks. They’re looking for a quick, comfortable and noninvasive procedure that, compared to the money wasted over the course of a year on moisturizers and spa treatments, is worth the cost given the remarkable results and therapeutic benefits to the skin.

The 12-minute procedure, in which a Lumenis C02 laser resurfacing/tightening device is used, is relatively painless. “It feels a little like hot sand on your face,” says Dr. DeBias. He uses a topical numbing cream to minimize any discomfort for the patient. One of the most profound benefits to Dr. DeBias’ technique is that there is next to no recovery time. Since no drugs are administered during the procedure and there are no incisions or wounds to care for, patients can drive home. For about 3 days afterwards patients feel a mild sunburn sensation with some redness. During that time the outer skin will slough off like dirt. Once healed, the patient sees an instant rejuvenation and will notice it even more so over the next 3 to 4 months as collagen is produced.

After the initial treatment, Dr. DeBias advises patients to come back once or twice a year for maintenance. Maintenance treatments are less expensive than the first treatment, and certainly more cost effective than pricey topical skin therapies that may be minimally effective.

Such a quick and relatively pain free procedure, as the one Dr. DeBias has developed, has truly taken laser skin therapy out of a previous era where patients often required anesthesia during procedures that lasted up to an hour or longer. And then there was the soreness and risk of infection. “The results were great,” Dr. DeBias remembers, “but there was more hand holding and down time for the patient, sometimes up to 3 months.”

Despite the economic downturn, Dr. DeBias still sees many patients for ActiveFXTM procedures. They do it, he says, because it makes them feel good—confident and refreshed. In upcoming issues we’ll learn more about this procedure along with the dozens of other services Dr. DeBias and his staff at the Institute for Laser and Aesthetic Medicine provide. Solutions for every age and concern will be discussed—from skin rejuvenation to getting the body swimwear-ready. Aesthetic medicine now reaches across demographics and continues to advance rapidly. Stay tuned to read more about the many treatments designed to help you look and feel your best.

The Institute for Laser and Aesthetic Medicine is located at 110 Hyde Park in Doylestown; 1030 Continental Drive (3rd Floor) in King of Prussia; and 1655 Valley Center Parkway (Suite 100) in Bethlehem. For more information, visit www.ilamed.com or call (866) 485-2737.

Angelina Sciolla lives in Philadelphia, PA.