Laser treatment for stretch marks
Stretch marks can be such a nuisance and cause you to become very self conscious of your body. Usually a person gets stretch marks after a substantial weight gain that has caused the skin to stretch farther than it should. This can happen at any time during your life. Most pregnant women suffer from stretch marks, whether extensive or very few, due to the body gaining weight very quickly and from the stretching of the skin to accommodate a growing baby. Weight lifters, teenagers, athletes, and people with disease that cause weight gain can also suffer. Stretch marks can be on the stomach, sides, hips, butt, thighs, calves or arms. They tend to start out very dark red, purple or brownish and will usually lighten with time, but they will never fully go away.
If you are a sufferer of stretch marks you may be looking for a solution. First, we must take a look at just what has happened to the skin to cause these stretch marks. A stretch mark is actually a scar. When your skin has been stretched farther than its capacity, its elasticity is broken down. The deepest layer of tissue under the skin becomes damaged causing the top layer to look thin and stretched. Also, the collagen is damaged and the blood vessels dilate causing discoloration.
One of the most recent and popular way of removing stretch marks has become with laser treatments. There is quite a debate on whether or not this method is as reliable as everyone is claiming. Some say it helps while others say there is no possible way that a laser can help eliminate stretch marks. Laser treatment may be able to help the appearance of a stretch mark, but there is no way to completely heal the deep tissue that has lost its elasticity. Laser treatment may be able to help the appearance by improving the collagen levels which lessen the dark coloring of the stretch mark. If you have stretch marks that are older and have already turned lighter in color, then it’s not advisable to even try the laser surgery, since the claim is that the treatment is most effective on new and darkly pigmented stretch marks. You would benefit from calling a few registered physicians that specialize in skin care and laser treatments to see pictures of the work they have performed. Without proof of improvement on prior patients, or seeing before and after pictures, I would be cautious. The price of laser treatments can be quite expensive so it is very important to discuss what the outcome of the treatments would be and if they are worth the repeat visits and the cost.
Although, you may feel embarrassed by your stretch marks and want to try the next best thing, you should give it thought and do your research. It would be advisable to see more than one skin care specialist and get different opinions and prices. If you have excess skin and a lot of stretch marks on your lower stomach due to pregnancy, then you may want to consider a tummy tuck. With a tummy tuck, a lot of the extra skin would be removed completely, therefore removing the stretch marks as well. Of course this is a major surgery and the cost of a tummy tuck is quite high, but the removal of the stretch marks would be permanent.
Just remember that although your stretch marks may be bothersome to you, they do not cause any harm to you other than to the outward appearance of your skin. They do not affect your health in any way, so you have time to do your research and to make the decision that is right for you.
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I’m pregnant now and one morning my husband says, “you should really make sure you put that cocoa butter all the way on the sides.”
I’m like “what?!?” and yes, sure enough, there were stretch marks radiatiing from my ribcage toward my belly, all the way around my front. It sort of looked like I got clawed by a tiger with about 40 toes, and each vertical mark was maybe 4 inches long. I went online that same day and bought the Dr Max Powers Stretch Mark Treatment, and applied it fatihfully several times a day to these new stretch marks for at least a week (now I remember only 2-3X/day). Now, about 4 weeks later, there is literally nothing there.
I’m choosing to buy this Max Powers Stretch Mark cream since it seems like the best price per ounce, and if I notice new marks, I want to be well-armed to treat them as soon as possible. Dr Max Powers does say their product works best on new marks, and I can certainly vouch for its effectiveness in my case. I’ve also been continuing to use cocoa butter cream mixed with pure vitamin E oil from the healthfood store ($5 for a small vial). After a friend’s doctor warned her not to use Vitamin E oil after varicose vein surgery, as the scars would heal too rapidly, I’ve been a believer in its powers.