What are ablative & non-ablative skin treatments and what are the differences?

Healing time: Ablative procedures remove a layer of skin allowing new skin to grow in its place and involves healing time. This can be done via laser, chemical acid, or mechanical dermabrasion. Nonablative procedures do not remove the skin and do not involve downtime or healing time. These procedures include lasers, microdermabrasion and other procedures which are more gentle on the skin.