During the consultation, you may be asked to look in a mirror and point out the specific areas of your face that you would like to see improved. This will help your surgeon to understand your expectations and determine whether they realistically can be achieved.

Am I a good candidate for skin resurfacing?

You may be a good candidate for skin resurfacing if you have one or more of the following conditions:

• wrinkled or sun-damaged facial skin
• vertical wrinkles around your mouth, such as those that cause lipstick "bleed"
• "crow's feet" lines around your eyes and perhaps some skin laxity in your lower eyelid area
• fine wrinkling of your upper eyelids
• brown spots or blotchy skin coloring
• certain precancerous skin growths
• acne or chicken pox scars
• superficial facial scars from a past injury

Patients may have their skin resurfaced at almost any age. You may have certain characteristics that make you a better candidate for one technique rather than another, or your surgeon may have a preference based on his or her personal experience with the different methods.

The amount of time you can allow for recovery also may be an important factor in selecting a particular resurfacing method or determining the extent of treatment. All resurfacing techniques can be performed to varying depths.

A more superficial treatment will require less healing time, but you may need to have the procedure repeated more than once to achieve the same results as a deeper treatment. If you are having aesthetic (cosmetic) surgery, such as a facelift or eyelid surgery, you may be able to have a skin resurfacing procedure performed at the same time.