Laser Therapy for Spider Veins

Laser Therapy and Spider Veins

In most cases, laser therapy is considered the gold standard for spider vein treatment and elimination. Laser treatment’s focused beam of light is fast, non-invasive, efficient and requires no time-consuming hospital stays. It is performed in your vein specialist’s office, and with modern medical advances providing several different types of lasers with which to treat spider veins, you have multiple treatment options possible for your personalized spider vein treatment needs.

Here’s how laser treatment works overall: the laser directs a focused beam of light through the skin onto the vein, and the wavelength of that light is targeted to the pigment of the blood. The laser light heats up and coagulates the blood inside the ultra-small vein, causing the vein to collapse and seal itself. Laser technology has evolved to allow experienced physicians the ability to target only the small vein and does not target, nor damage, surrounding tissue. It then takes 4 to 6 weeks for the destroyed vein to be reabsorbed by the body and disappear.

The most common lasers used to treat spider veins are hand-held, intricate instruments, almost space-age in technology, and have cooling tips to minimize discomfort during the procedure. The best vein specialists work with top-of-the-line laser systems, for targeted vein treatment, using only the best and most current laser treatment systems available, for their patient’s utmost care and satisfaction with results.

Your doctor will assess your complete medical history to ensure that you are indeed a good candidate for laser therapy, and in addition to being in good physical health, doctors prefer that patients do not smoke. It’s also important that a good candidate have realistic expectations of what laser therapy can and cannot accomplish for spider vein issues, and be willing to follow all pre-treatment requirements such as avoiding sun exposure, not drinking alcohol, and not taking aspirin. If you are on an aspirin regimen for your heart health, your vein specialist must be advised as you’re assessed for safe and effective laser therapy for your spider vein treatment.

Laser therapy for spider veins takes place in your doctor’s office and usually takes just 10 to 20 minutes, depending on the size and complexity of your treatment areas. Anesthesia is not needed, but your doctor can make your treatments more tolerable by applying topical anesthetic cream 20 minutes before your procedure.

Be sure to follow all post-treatment care recommendations given to you by your doctor, such as avoiding sun exposure and perhaps taking OTC pain medication if needed. There is no downtime to laser therapy for spider veins. You can very well resume your normal activities right after treatment and enjoy watching your spider veins fade and disappear after 2 to 6 laser therapy sessions.