Hello Dr. Irwin...
Thankfully my question isn\'t about treatments for my face. However I figured you may still be very well able to answer it. My skin problem is all over my abdomen. (stretchmarks) My stomach is for the most part-flat, so I really wouldn\'t need a \"Tummy -tuck\" but is there anything I can do besides surgery to remove these unsightly marks?
Signed,
Hopeful
Well – first of all, let me tell you what doesn’t work so you won’t waste your money! Don’t bother with body Thermage for stretchmarks. It’s even questionable in my mind whether body Thermage works well enough to justify the price for mildly loose abdomenal skin alone. Also, don’t bother with any sort of IPL, YAG, Erbium, or pulsed dye laser for these unless they are red (IPL & pulsed dye help with red) which most of them aren’t.
A series of Fraxel Restore treatments has been shown to help but you need a lot of them – think 5-10 to make a real difference. Most interesting, I think, are studies that are ongoing now with the fractionated CO2 like the “DOT” or “Deep Fx.” These two are the most likely to make a significant difference in stretchmarks but the studies aren’t completed yet to my knowledge. Dr. I