Laser For Birthmarks

Hi,

I am Dr PK Talwar, cosmetic surgeon, I have been doing cosmetic surgery for last 28 years and we were among the first ones who introduced Laser hair removal in India and then Laser for birthmarks in India.

When we talk about the birthmarks, the laser for birthmarks there are basically commonest two kinds of birthmarks one is black birthmark like you seen Nevus of Ota or Becker’s Nevus and second is vascular birthmarks, like port wine stains or then port wine stains that is very common it is also known as hemangioma, hemangioma are different kinds and different kinds of hemangiomas are treated by different laser-like pulsed dye laser, long pulsed ND-YAG etc. Now coming to the first part that is the black birthmarks, so commonest which we are getting is Nevus of Ota in this there is pigment on one side or both side of faces in certain cases and even in the conjunctiva. This can be very disheartening to a patient, when I introduced this laser initially I tried in 2003 I had a young beautiful lady who had the birthmark on the face one side of the face and she has around 30 years of age but by the time she came to me she was already divorced because of the problem of the birthmark. We gave her 10 to 12 sittings and the birthmark Nevus of Ota 95% or you can be gone and she was very happy, only regret she has was Dr. Talwar I should have come to you earlier, but I told her it is not possible because the laser has come recently so even she had come to me earlier we could not her done anything. So that is one of the cases which is still I remember because it was my one of the first cases and I think best possible results the patient is very very grateful and now we have been treating this kind of problem very commonly Nevus of Ota the results have been very good. The same lasers actually this is Q switch laser, the black pigmentation, now the same laser can be used for freckles, for removal of the tattoos and this Becker’s Nevus etc. So the other birthmarks are vascular birthmarks which we call it Port wine stain and the pulsed dye laser is used for that, 2 sittings for black pigments pulsed dye laser is for the vascular or the red birthmarks. Now the difference between these lasers is that the wavelength is different pulsed dye laser is one of the most expensive lasers to buy and the most expensive lasers to maintain, but the results are very rewarding with pulsed dye laser, other modalities are not good as that but pulsed dye laser is the treatment for port wine stain and red birthmarks and we can expect in such cases 70% improvement. We had many patients who have got it done and they are very grateful, we can do Rosacea, Rinofima or facial veins, spider veins etc. we can treat them and patients are really very very happy. So I think the medical science is evolving and the day will come, we will be able to treat 100% of such patients and I suggest strongly that don't go to coeliac because I had a patient with the red birthmark and she went to a coeliac and he applied some sort of acid or what and they burnt the skin. Go to a qualified plastic surgeon or a qualified Dermatologist who is having pulsed dye laser then only you get it done otherwise no and the best wavelength for that is pulsed dye laser is 595 nanometers.

Thank you very much.