Patent ID: 8246611

Claim:
A method for treating skin, the method comprising delivering a beam of radiation to a target region of the skin to cause a zone of thermal injury including a lateral pattern of varying depths of thermal injury distributed along the target region, the lateral pattern including at least one first sub-zone of a first depth of thermal injury laterally adjacent to at least one second sub-zone of a second depth of thermal injury, wherein (i) the first depth is greater than the second depth, (ii) the at least one first sub-zone of the first depth and the at least one second sub-zone of the second depth extend from a surface of the target region of the skin to form a substantially continuous surface thermal injury, and (iii) the at least one first sub-zone of the first depth and the at least one second sub-zone of the second depth are substantially heated to at least a critical temperature to cause the thermal injury.