ABC 12 – WJRT – Flint, MILaser takes years off of your face

(11/04/11) - A simple laser can turn back the hands of time on your face.

The laser targets "festoons," the saggy, swollen skin that falls under your eye down to the top of your cheekbone. They make you look tired and older.

Hair stylist Donna Mart was tired of her festoons making her looking tired. The eye bags and swollen, puffy skin were dragging her down.

"I would get that comment frequently. Did you not rest? Are you tired? Which isn't good. You don't want your clients thinking you're working on them tired," Mart said.

Her festoons were primarily caused by sun damage. The swelling in her eyelids and upper cheek made her look years older than she is.

Dr. Adam Scheiner has perfected a laser technique that can literally wipe away the unsightly bags and festoons.

It worked for Mart. "The results since and the comments from my clients and everybody have just been phenomenal."

Mindy Walley Dietterick's decided to give the laser a try, too. "I can't wait to get this done and then look in the mirror and not have these things staring back at me."

"So what we can do is take swollen, sun damaged skin and make it smooth, tight and younger looking," Scheiner, of Tampa Eye, said.

First, he zaps away the top layer of Mindy's skin. A second pass with the laser tightens it.

"This is like a reset button on the skin, they're actually going to grow their skin all over again and they are going to get brand new skin, almost like baby skin," Scheiner said.

Two weeks after Mindy's procedure, there is a big difference, one that will last, Scheiner says, if she stays out of the sun.

Scheiner is one of the only plastic surgeons in the country doing this procedure for festoons and has patients fly in from all over the world. The laser treatment costs start at $5,000.