Sydney cosmetic physician Dr Neal Hamilton has been performing resurfacing procedures for 18 years and acquired Portrait Plasma Skin Regeneration technology six months ago. He says plasma regeneration offers significant improvements over old methods. ‘In the past resurfacing procedures had a lot of troubles associated with them. These procedures included dermabrasion, carbon dioxide laser resurfacing, phenol peeling and erbium laser resurfacing. All of these will, at some stage, cause textural changes to patients’ skin, such as changes in texture, skin lightening and scarring.’

He says there was a clear need for a new procedure that took the risk element out of the treatment to deliver only positive results. In his opinion plasma regeneration does this. ‘Plasma skin regeneration allows us to achieve a more predictable, safe result in which all the elements of skin – complexion, texture, pores, fine lines, coarse lines and pigmentation – can be addressed with minimum risk.’

‘The regeneration process allows a person’s skin to have a fresh start, to make tired skin look more like the fresh skin behind the ears or on the inside of the forearms
and it does this within a very safe environment,’ he says.

The other key benefit for patients receiving treatment is that the level of pain or discomfort involved is considerably reduced. ‘Depending on the severity of their problem or the level of treatment required, patients may need no pain relief at all or topical anaesthetic only, while others may need light intravenous sedation or an injectable anaesthetic,’ he says. ‘But no general anaesthetic is required.’

Moreover he says that many of the older style resurfacing procedures required extensive healing, with many patients out of action for two to three weeks, while
associated redness of the treated skin could last for months after the procedure had been performed.

‘Plasma allows for a very quick healing period ranging between four and 10 days, depending on the strength of the treatment, with minimal redness afterwards.’ Dr
Hamilton says.

‘Women may need to cover up with makeup for a couple of days but the effect is minor compared to the old technologies. Basically the plasma technology has
rendered a major procedure very user-friendly.’

Dr Hamilton uses plasma technology for any type of sun damage as well as for loose skin, especially around the eyes, where he says it can achieve a 10 to 20 percent
tightening effect.

He is also impressed by the technology’s versatility. ‘Portrait Plasma is one of the few skin regenerating treatments that can be performed on the body as well as
the face, for example on the hands, arms, chest and neck, mainly to treat sun damage.’ acsm