Available Non-Surgical Cosmetic Procedures

Today many people wanting to avoid surgical cosmetic procedures are increasingly opting for non surgical cosmetic procedures. Some of these procedures have a permanent effect whereas others last for just a few months involving recurring costs. Non surgical cosmetic procedures are being used for removing crow's feet, and frown lines on the face, removing thread veins from legs and face, for enhancing lips, and smoothing wrinkles and facial lines, for treatment of age spots, pigmentation marks, stretch marks and acne, for removal of acne and other scars, for hair removal, for youthful skin by facial rejuvenation and peels, etc.

The popular non surgical cosmetic procedures being used today are Botox injections, chemical facial peels, collagen injections and treatments, dermabrasion treatment, laser resurfacing procedures and micro-dermabrasion procedures. Before you actually opt for a particular procedure at a particular clinic you need to find out certain things. Who will carry out the procedure, whether they have been trained, how much experience they have in a particular procedure and are they properly accredited? Whether they have adequate professional indemnity insurance? How long does the treatment take and whether it is right for you? Whether the treatment is painful and what form of anesthesia will be used? Any other questions relevant to you like allergies, etc.

Earlier Botox was used for treating muscle diseases of the eyes. It works by paralyzing voluntary muscle. In non surgical cosmetic procedures it works by treating lines caused by muscle movement under the skin. Botox injections have been successfully used for many people and have produced quite satisfactory results in reducing lines of crow's feet, lines on forehead and frown lines in between eyes. They are now being used to reglaze lines all round the mouth and neck muscle bands. With Botox injections there is very little pain but the results are quite impressive. As Botox preparations have albumin in them, people with allergy to eggs must inform the cosmetic practitioner about it.

Three types of chemical facial peels are used for non surgical cosmetic procedures. They are the light peels, medium depth peels and the deep peels. They call the light peels lunchtime peels because they can be used very fast. In fact a physician can treat using light peels during the lunch break. The patient can return to normal work with a slight redness. However in the case of medium depth peel treatments the recovery period is a week or more. The treatment with deep peels takes several weeks for recovery and the patient should be made fully aware of the risks involved. Appropriate facial conditioning is necessary before applying the deeper peels.

For several years now collagen injections have been successfully used to improve acne scars and facial lines. It is estimated that about 3% of the population exhibit allergic reaction to collagen injections. As a precaution pre-tests are carried out over a period of several weeks. If no allergic reactions are found then collagen is injected into the facial lines. Proper administration of collagen injections gives very satisfactory results. However within 6 months the collagen is absorbed by the body and the procedure needs to be repeated.

Dermabrasion treatment is an old procedure that was introduced in the '40s. It uses a wire brush rotating at a very high speed. The brush is applied over the skin that is frozen through the application of a local refrigerant spray. Now-a-days laser resurfacing has replaced dermabrasion because some bleeding is produced in dermabrasion. It reduces the aging of skin and acne.

The application of different types of laser in medicine has been increasing rapidly and now laser is used in many surgical and non surgical medical procedures. Laser is also being increasingly used for resurfacing skin that has been damaged by exposure to the sun as well as wrinkled skin so that the unwanted lines around the mouth and eyes and other spots on the face are eliminated. Lasers are also used to remove and transplant hair. Freckles and tattoos are also removed from the skin. Patients must discuss the risks and benefits of laser skin resurfacing with the physician before taking up the procedure.

Micro-dermabrasion is a new non surgical cosmetic procedure that is becoming increasingly popular. It uses small particles of salt or aluminum oxide that are delivered under pressure on the skin for sanding its surface and the skin becomes smoother. The resurfacing of the skin with this procedure is more superficial than dermabrasion or laser resurfacing. As it is painless no anesthesia is required. The recovery period is minimal but being more superficial it cannot eliminate deep acne scars.

Source: http://www.perfectyourself.com/procedures/noninvasive.aspx