Painless Laser Therapy Gives New Hope to Sufferers of Embarrassing Skin Diseases

For the first time in their lives, patients who suffer from some of the most frustrating and embarrassing skin diseases including psoriasis, vitiligo, and atopic dermatitis have real hope for effectively, conveniently, and painlessly treating their conditions.

Here in Milpitas Dermatology, Dr. Katherine Do is proud to be the first physician to offer the PHAROS excimer laser, a gentle and painless phototherapy laser shown to be effective in treating these difficult-to-treat conditions.

The PHAROS excimer laser is different from cosmetic lasers that are usually associated with pain during treatment and post-treatment downtime for the patient.  Instead, the PHAROS delivers a highly energetic but painless beam of UVB light directly to the psoriasis, vitiligo, and atopic dermatitis patches through a handpiece that rests directly on the patient’s skin.  It features the most advanced optical technology on the market, including an adjustable spot size and guiding aiming beam, to precisely target only the affected skin and spare the surrounding healthy tissue from exposure.  There is no downtime for the patients.

Psoriasis is a non-contagious, lifelong skin disease that affects an estimated 7 million Americans. The most common form, plaque psoriasis, appears as raised, red patches or lesions covered with a silvery white buildup of dead skin cells, called scale.  In addition to discomfort and itching, psoriasis patients commonly suffer from social embarrassment and depression.  Even worse for patients, the usual treatments are messy, time-consuming, and costly.  Topical creams and ointments have to be applied several times a day, conventional phototherapy requires 30-40 treatments and thrice weekly office visits, and the newer biological treatments usually cost the patient $2000-$3000 out of pocket each year.

At Dr. Katherine Do, the PHAROS excimer laser is changing the way patients manage their psoriasis and is helping them achieve rapid clearing and long remissions.  Patients come in twice each week for an average of 6 weeks, and each quick treatment session that usually takes only 5-10 minutes.  Patients usually enjoy several months of treatment-free remission.

Equally exciting for psoriasis patients, the targeted high-dose laser therapy can effectively treat stubborn plaques including knees, elbows, palms, soles, and scalp, even those that have not responded to other treatments.