Dermabrasion - Procedure, Treatment Cost and Side effects of Dermabrasion
The following cosmetic defects may be amenable to dermabrasion method:
- Pitted scars - Smallpox, acne vulgaris.
- Pigmentation - Chloasma and freckles
- Tattoo
- Miscellaneous - Post-traumatic scars, port wine, naevus, epidermal naevus, keratoses, verrucae, enlarged pores, rhinophyma, milia, wrinkled skin due to old age, hypertrophic lichen simplex.
Procedure for dermabrasion
The affected part is washed' with soap and water and then cleansed with alcohol. under anaesthesia, general or local, the part is peeled with a special steel or local, the part is peeled with a special steel or diamond brush revolving at the rate of about 12,000 revolutions per minute. This procedure requires dexterity and experience for best results. At one sitting the whole face or the affected area should be completed. Capillary bleeding is controlled with pressure gauze. It takes about 20 to 30 minutes to control bleeding. The affected part is dressed with a mild antiseptic cream, and a bandage is applied only for the first day and then discarded. Patients can use soap and water between the fifth and seventh day. Erythema takes about 3 or 4 weeks to disappear completely.
Most patients can attend to their normal duties after 7 days or so; no hospitalization is ever necessary. A second planing is usually required; third and a fourth, only in cases with deep scars.
Sequelae are minor; only rarely are they serious. Eythema is seldom normal type; it usually disappears within 3 or 4 weeks. Bleeding can be a problem in patients with haemorrhagic disease; so when this history is available, due precautions should be taken. In susceptible individuals, hyper- or hypo-pigmentation may be produced, which is a great disadvantage in Indian patients; they must be warned about it. Complete healing of the operation area usually takes a short time.
No new scarring is produced in properly done cases. It does not cause loss of facial hair, an important consideration in male patients. Friction and infection are to be strictly I avoided during healing of the planed area. There is an important side-consideration in acne patients; since planing tends to remove the pilo-sebaceous apparatus to a considerable extent, acne lesions usually do not develop on the planed areas. So it is a useful procedure in acne patients for therapeutic reasons.
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