Your skin is the biggest organ in your body, and the biggest problem with it is that it isn't in your body at all. Instead, it forms a protective shell around your body. That means that things that happen inside and outside your body can impact the condition of it. Internal things that can cause a decline in skin health include smoking, diet choices and natural hormonal changes that come with age. External factors include chemicals found in products applied to the skin, exposure to environmental toxins and sun and weather-related damage. Luckily, there are several tools you can employ in the anti-aging battle. Among them are various laser and light procedures.

Clinical and At-Home Light Therapy Options

The first thing you must understand about laser and light therapies is that they can be two different things. For example, LED light therapy and intense pulsed light (IPL) light therapy both involve forms of light, but they do not involve the use of lasers. Lasers are highly concentrated beams of light that also produce a lot of heat. LED and IPL treatments often produce far less heat, if any at all. In fact, they are so mild that they can often be performed at home using store bought kits. However, that mildness means they are not effective at treating skin conditions unless those conditions are caught quite early. Also, clinical light therapies tend to be far more effective than at-home kits.

Using Clinical Laser Therapies for Anti-Aging Purposes

Clinical laser therapy is another anti-aging option available to you. It is generally most helpful for treating skin problems that fall at a midpoint between being controllable at home and requiring surgical intervention. For example, there are many medical-lasers for sale and used in skincare circles to treat moderate wrinkles for anti-aging purposes. But laser equipment specialties and intensities vary and must be explored carefully.

One type of laser is non-ablative. Typically non-ablative laser therapy has the least potential side effects because such lasers do no damage to the outer layer of skin. All the work they do takes place below the surface. As such, the results of non-ablative laser treatment are not immediately obvious, but the long-term effects may be quite beneficial. That's because such lasers stimulate an increase in collagen, which strengthens the bonds between skin cells over time. Such treatments are particularly effective at restoring some elasticity to the skin and reducing wrinkles.

As you may have guessed, the fact that there are non-ablative laser treatments means that there are also ablative treatments available. Ablative laser treatments are laser procedures that involve the outer layer of skin. Some focus mainly on that layer, such as laser peels. Others can impact multiple skin layers, but the outer layer is always included. The advantage of an ablative treatment is that some results can often be seen almost immediately. The disadvantage is that they can cause more temporary side effects, such as swelling and redness. They also present higher skin infection risks if the skin isn't kept clean after treatment.

What Happens During and After Laser and Light Therapies

Both laser and light therapies are fairly easy and take very little time. For example, a single laser treatment might only take an hour or so. However, it often takes many treatments before full results can be achieved. During clinical treatments technicians will often numb the skin before procedures and use cool air to soothe the skin. After treatment is over normal life can be resumed right away. You don't need to spend any time recovering as you would need after surgery.