Using today's lasers, tattoos can be zapped off in several treatments, leaving behind normal, healthy skin. Still different lasers, similar to those used to take off tattoos, are used to remove port wine stains from newborns, spider veins and birthmarks. Look into the Light A laser once used to engrave computer chips may be a new boon to our country's legions of near-sighted people. The excimer laser is used to resculpt the cornea and treat both myopia and astigmatism, not by burning or ablating tissue but by separating molecules and vaporizing them. Microscopic close-ups of the excimer laser at work on the surface of the eye look like tiny atomic mushroom clouds.
Doctors say no.
They're expensive, but patients make up the cost at the back end by healing faster. They're delicate, requiring many hours of specialized training. Finally, laser technology is constantly changing and improving in some areas while others have been stable for a decade. We are coming to a day when having a laser in the practice will be no more exciting than an X-ray machine. All Rights Reserved.