Stimulated emission described
Einstein described stimulated emission, the principle behind the laser. Dermatologists, Leon Goldman foremost, later took part in developing medical lasers.[1]
Home / Procedures / Laser Skin Resurfacing / History
History
From selective photothermolysis in 1983 to fractional and hybrid lasers: the steps that changed the treatment.
Timeline
Einstein described stimulated emission, the principle behind the laser. Dermatologists, Leon Goldman foremost, later took part in developing medical lasers.[1]
Brief pulses of a wavelength absorbed by one target damaged that target and spared nearby tissue. Pulses of 577 nm hit small vessels and 351 nm hit pigment granules.[1]
The 2,940 nm erbium:YAG laser made clean, precise skin lesions with minimal injury nearby, in excised human skin and pig skin.[1]
FDA cleared the UltraPulse carbon dioxide surgical laser on August 13, 1991.[1]
CO2 laser resurfacing of photoaged facial skin began in late 1993. Patients treated from 1993 to 1996 kept their wrinkle improvement an average of 24 months later.[1]
High-energy pulsed CO2 treatment of 111 perioral and periorbital areas cut wrinkle scores by more than 2 points on a 9-point scale and tightened loose skin.[1]
A review of 500 CO2 patients found redness in all, darkening in 37%, herpes simplex in 7.4%, and scarring or lightening in under 1%.[1]
Serial full-face intense pulsed light treatments improved sun damage in more than 90% of 49 people with minimal downtime.[1]
FDA cleared the Reliant Laser System on November 10, 2003, and the Sciton Profile BBL on November 13, 2003.[1][2]
A 1.5 micron laser placed microscopic columns of heat in the skin with healthy skin between them. The surface healed within 1 day.[1]
A 30 W fractional CO2 prototype made ablative columns in human skin, about 350 microns wide and 1 mm deep.[1]
FDA cleared Clear + Brilliant on May 3, 2011, at preset energies at the low end of the Fraxel IV SR range.[1]
FDA cleared PicoSure with the Focus array for acne scars and wrinkles in skin types I to IV on September 22, 2014.[1][2]
A multi-center trial tested a laser that pairs 1,470 nm coagulation with 2,940 nm ablation in one treatment.[1]
People
Their papers set the methods in use today.
Co-author of selective photothermolysis (1983) and of the first fractional photothermolysis report (2004).[1][2]
Co-author of the 1983 selective photothermolysis paper in Science.[1]
First author of the 2004 fractional photothermolysis paper.[1]
Showed in 1989 that the erbium:YAG laser ablates skin with minimal nearby injury.[1]
Published pulsed CO2 resurfacing results in 1996 and long-term follow-up in 1999.[1][2]
Co-author of the 1996 pulsed CO2 study and the 1999 long-term follow-up.[1][2]
Reported complications in 500 CO2 patients (1998) and in 961 fractional 1,550 nm treatments (2008).[1][2]
First author of the first study of an ablative fractional CO2 device (2007).[1]
Published serial full-face IPL photorejuvenation in 2000; co-author of the 2013 BBL gene-expression study.[1][2]
Published the picosecond laser with diffractive lens array for acne scars (2015) and its safety in skin types IV to VI (2016).[1][2]