Laser Medicine
Laser medicine is an exciting and evolving field that holds real promise for recapturing and maintaining our youth and physical stamina. I have learned that when people look better, they not only feel better, but they are better—mentally, physically, and sexually.
What are medical lasers and what can they do?
During her years as a robotic surgeon, Dr. Prewitt routinely used the CO2 laser in the operating room. For decades, surgeons have been treating endometriosis, infertility, even gynecologic cancers and removing ovarian masses using lasers. Today, we are witnessing a wellspring of advances in energy-based medicine and science. A laser is a focused beam of light with a wide range of wavelengths commensurate with its purpose. Most people have probably heard about using lasers to improve aging skin on the face and the body. Lasers have revolutionized the field of medical aesthetics to such a degree that noninvasive procedures such as laser skin resurfacing, body contouring, and skin tightening are performed daily in doctor’s offices and medical spas across the country.
However, the role of the laser in modern medicine goes well beyond simply aesthetic concerns to include applications in physical therapy, wound and post-surgical recovery, sexual wellness, and weight management. In fact, the definition of a “laser” itself is evolving all of the time to include not only light-based therapies but also radio-frequency devices to treat conditions such as scar revision and fat reduction and acoustic sound wave therapy for kidney stones and enhanced male sexual performance.
The laser has replaced the knife
In conventional surgery, the surgeon makes incisions using a knife, which means blood loss, stitches, and oftentimes, a hospital stay. The precision, accuracy, and convenience of the laser render all of these inconveniences obsolete. Take the example of traditional pelvic floor rejuvenation—a procedure that involved blood loss, stitches, and great discomfort. Today, this entire process can be done with a laser. Using lasers, we make microscopic holes in the skin through heat to create controlled damage, causing microscopic injury. Dr. Prewitt uses the FemiLift laser to treat incontinence and for Vaginal Rejuvenation. Not only does this eliminate loss of blood and stitches, this method accelerates cell turnover of the skin as it regenerates and makes new collagen.
Some lasers, like the CO2 vaporize their target entirely. In the same manner that she once used the CO2 laser in gynecologic surgeries to treat endometriosis and remove ovarian cysts, Dr. Prewitt now employs the laser for less dramatic, however no less invaluable, procedures at skinFIT MedSpa. She is thrilled to help patients with laser scar revision, for the removal of skin tags and moles, even to vaporize painful hemorrhoids for patients who never thought they could find relief. Laser medicine is no longer limited to operating rooms and complex surgical conditions but has found its way to practices serving ordinary patients every day. The laser has truly replaced the knife.
