The mildest, and often least expensive, treatment option is microdermabrasion. This involves a sort of “minisandblasting” technique using a carefully controlled stream of crystals to smooth your skin, reduce pore size, acne, and very fine wrinkles and to decrease pigment changes. Patients usually feel their skin is clearer and brighter.

The treatments take about ½ hour and patients usually leave with mild redness so they are able to return to work or go out that night. Most undergo 3 to 5 treatments about 1 to 3 weeks apart. They might then decide to have a maintenance treatment every 4 to 6 months. After the treatments it is helpful to use a good quality moisturizer and sunscreen to protect the skin. I do not feel it is worthwhile to spend a lot of money on these and we don’t sell them in our office as I feel that would be a conflict of interest as well as put undue pressure on patients to purchase them. Occasionally I will prescribe a special cream to help reduce pigmentation even more than the microdermabrasion alone.