Rhytides, laxity, and photoaging treated with a combination of radiofrequency, diode laser, and pulsed light and assessed with a comprehensive grading scale

Abstract

Several classes of nonablative laser and light technologies have been developed to target laxity, rhytides, and the various aspects of photoaging. The combination of the 3 main classes of nonablative rejuvenation, infrared laser, intense pulsed light, and radiofrequency energy, are assessed in the current study. Using a comprehensive grading scale developed to evaluate the multiple categories of the aging skin, quantitative analysis of changes in each category as well as overall improvement and patient satisfaction were calculated. The combination technology resulted in a patient mean (95% CI) percent improvement per category of 10.9% (8.1% to 13.7%) per treatment and 26% (16.5% to 35.5%) overall following a mean (+/- SD) of 2.4 (+/- 1.2) treatments. In addition, the patient satisfaction was 71.4%, suggesting that combining nonablative technologies may maximize clinical results and patient detection of improvement.