Light Makes Right

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The mad scientist stands over me with a laser pointed at my face. His fiendish helper claps goggles onto my eyes. I tense. A searing sensation rips into my face. As the laser traces tiny spider veins across my cheek, zapping them into oblivion, I hear a faint pop, pop, pop. It begins to sting. Yeow, I swear silently. Is that burning flesh I smell? Hey, Doc? Owww. Yeowww! DOC! Dr. Harold Lancer, my Beverly Hills dermatologist, is laughing. He had warned me to take some Valium before the procedure (or risk scaring off his celebrity clients, no doubt). I can't stand any more. "Ye-ooowww!!" I yell out loud. Then it's over. I leave with a red Etch A Sketch drawing on my cheek.

A few weeks later, the pain forgiven, my cheek peachy and clear, I'm back for more. This time Lancer zaps an ugly brown spot on my left cheek--the result of driving with the California sun constantly bombarding my face. (Seems my chic metal sunglasses had been channeling the sun onto one spot.) This time he uses a different, less powerful laser. Surprise--there's barely any pain! Within days there is also no sign of the stupid blotch that had been bothering me for years. I'm getting to like these lasers.

O.K., I'm like most baby boomers, a narcissist. In pursuit of the perfect body, we've tried spinning and step, aerobics and anaerobics, Pilates and Tae-Bo. But not even a hunky personal trainer and all those Kathy Smith exercise tapes can keep the lines, wrinkles and age spots away. No wonder plastic surgery is so big--with an estimated 4.9 million cosmetic procedures done last year, according to the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery, up more than 800% since 1990.

But baby boomers are squeamish too. Does trying to stay young mean having to subject your delicate face to the surgeon's knife? What we'd much rather have is a cosmetic "quick fix": fresher, firmer skin with no blood and gore, very little healing time--and cheaper too. Cue the laser.

Cosmetic lasers can now zap away everything from bikini hair and tattoos to spider veins and liver spots. They can eliminate crow's-feet around the eyes and fine lines around the mouth. Dentists even use lasers to brighten teeth. A projected 3.4 million aesthetic laser procedures will be performed next year, up from an estimated 1 million in 1996. And baby boomers brought up to admire the Bain de Soleil tan will doubtless be turning even more to lasers, as the years go on, to try to reverse the damaging effects of sun. "What we're facing in American health is the problem of longevity, women living into their 90s, men to their 80s," says cosmetic-dermatologic surgeon Dr. Edward Lack, a board member of the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery. Most of the 45-to-70-year-old laser-surgery patients Lack sees in his Des Plaines, Ill., office are seeking facial resurfacing, a laser procedure that can erase fine lines, sunspots and broken vessels while tightening the skin--all at once.

At least, that's the promise, and that's why lasers have become the hottest medical accoutrement since the stethoscope. Plastic surgeons who once spent their time doing nose jobs on teenagers are now turning their offices into decorator-chic "medical spas," where they perform laser "facial rejuvenations" and hair removal as well as cosmetic surgery. At least 50 different laser systems are currently being marketed for cosmetic purposes. The market in hair-removal laser machines alone has risen from $85 million in 1997 to a projected $185 million this year, says Jacob Golbitz, industry analyst at Fector, Detwiler & Co. Ads tout the latest in laser treatments with impossible results: "Made Me Look 20 Years Younger in Just Days!" or "Laser Hair Removal: 5 Year Guarantee!" "No one wants to undergo the knife, so they look at the laser as some sort of magic wand," says Joan Kron, 71, author of Lift: Wanting, Fearing and Having a Facelift, her 1998 primer on facial surgery. "It's a very exciting field. But it's a double-edged 'light' sword, because there's a lot of bamboozling out there."

Even setting aside the hucksterism, laser surgery is hardly a risk-free procedure. Lasers work by emitting a powerful beam of light that vaporizes skin. Though some newer lasers can skip the top layer, or epidermis, penetrating to the lower dermis to kill abnormalities and hair follicles, lasers "wound" the skin to some degree, and healing can have complications. Long-term effects can include pigmentation changes in the skin: patients with darker complexions, such as African Americans or those of Mediterranean origin, are especially susceptible to skin lightening. And everyone is vulnerable to doctors or technicians who do not handle the equipment properly, which can result in burning.

Don't tell any of this to Randee Bank, 38, who admits she's a cosmetic-surgery junkie. You name it and the suburban New York housewife has had it done: Botox injected in her forehead to paralyze the facial muscles and prevent wrinkles from forming, liposuction on her stomach and thighs, fat transferred from her behind to her face--and lots of laser work. She's had pulse lasers to erase broken blood vessels in her cheeks, diode lasers to remove the hair on her upper lip and an Erbium laser to zap the crow's-feet around her eyes. "It's unbelievable. It took 10 minutes, and then you go home," says Bank, whose husband David, a dermatologist, did the work. "No hospital, no anesthesia, no stitches. It's just a little beam of light and it's gone."