What should you know about laser therapy for sun damaged skin?

Long-term ultraviolet exposure can leave skin with uneven tone, sun spots, rough texture, fine lines, and reduced elasticity. Laser devices vary: some target pigment, while others heat or resurface skin to improve texture. A clinician must distinguish cosmetic photoaging from sunburn, melasma, or a lesion that needs testing. Treating a suspicious mark with a cosmetic laser could alter its appearance and delay the right diagnosis.

Sun damage can also affect facial volume and firmness, so a laser may address only one part of what you notice. Your skin tone, tanning history, sensitivity, medicines, and tendency to develop pigment changes influence the treatment plan.

Have new or changing marks checked before booking a cosmetic procedure. Tell the clinician about recent sun exposure, sunburn, active rashes, cold sores, medicines, and previous scars. Follow instructions about skincare and avoid tanning. After treatment, use gentle care, leave peeling skin alone, and protect the area from sunlight as advised. Ongoing sun protection helps reduce new damage, although it cannot undo every change already present.

Arrange prompt assessment for a spot that changes, bleeds, crusts, becomes painful, or does not heal, including a mark on chronically sun-exposed skin. After laser treatment, contact the clinic for worsening pain, spreading redness, pus, fever, extensive blistering, or a new persistent colour change. Seek care for severe sunburn with blistering, dehydration symptoms, or significant illness.

Which sun-related changes are you treating? Have all unusual marks been examined? Which laser fits my skin tone and goal? What can worsen pigmentation? What should I use before and after treatment, and which symptoms need urgent review?