There are many factors that can contribute to sagging skin. The most obvious one is the natural aging process. As we get older our bodies make less of the components that keep skin strong, including collagen. However, diets that cause rapid weight loss, the weight loss that occurs after giving birth, and other factors like life-long cigarette smoking can also be causes of skin sags. But, regardless of the cause, laser skin tightening is one good potential solution.
Laser Treatments and Improved Collagen Production
Collagen is a material that helps to keep skin cells tightly held together. Sometimes collagen molecules separate too much, or levels of collagen in general drop off (usually naturally with age). You can think of that as being a bit like a jigsaw puzzle with missing pieces. The pieces that are there are loose because there aren’t enough surrounding puzzle pieces to hold them together.
Having a laser skin tightening treatment is a way to find those missing puzzle pieces. That is, the treatment can help to pull existing collagen molecules back together again. Also treatments with laser medical devices can actually trigger responses in the body, causing it to make more collagen. It’s a bit like having a tool that helps you find the missing pieces of your skin-shaped jigsaw puzzle.
The Cost of Laser Skin Tightening
When you are considering the cost of laser skin tightening you have to think about both the monetary cost and the time you will have to invest. One session of laser treatment is likely to cost a minimum of $500. At worst it may have a price tag of $3,500 or more. The costs vary based on the type of laser used and also the part of your body that you have treated. Some body parts are easier to treat than others. Some are also much larger than others.
As for the cost to you in time, each appointment can take as much as an 90 minutes or so. However, you also have to consider the fact that you may need several appointments. But the good news is that laser skin tightening rarely requires any sort of recovery time. So, the over all time you will spend at a few appointments is still a lot better than the time you would spend if you had an invasive surgery.
Potential Laser Skin Tightening Side Effects
The potential side effects of having your skin tightened with lasers are a lot less than if you had surgery. Among other things, you won’t have to deal with undergoing anesthesia and all of the risks involved with that. Surgery also has more of a risk of causing infections than laser treatment does.
Instead of those potentially health and life-threatening side effects, laser procedure side effects generally only consist of mild swelling and redness. That tends to subside after anywhere from a couple of hours to a day. The only thing that almost all laser treatment patients must deal with as a prolonged side effect is sun sensitivity for a while after treatment. It will be necessary for you to wear sunscreen anytime you are out in the sun for a while after the procedure. Your clinician will tell you exactly how long you will have to be extra vigilant about that before you can go back to your normal routine.