VBeam is a pulsed dye laser tuned to the red of blood, used for facial redness, broken capillaries, the visible vessels of rosacea and red birthmarks. The light is absorbed by the vessel and leaves surrounding skin alone. Coastal Dermatology + Aesthetics performs it at its San Luis Obispo office. A typical course is two to four visits.
What VBeam does for your skin
Redness is not a stain on the surface. It is blood, sitting in vessels that have widened and stayed that way, close enough to the surface that you can see them. That is why no cream has ever touched it and why covering it with makeup is the only thing that has ever worked.
This laser is set to a color that blood absorbs strongly and that the rest of your skin barely notices. The energy lands inside the vessel, heats it, and seals it shut. Your body then spends the following weeks clearing the closed vessel away. The redness leaves because the thing making it is gone, not because something is sitting on top of it.
It is precise enough to take a single broken capillary off the side of your nose and broad enough to bring down the general flush across both cheeks. It is also the laser used on red birthmarks, including in infants, which is a medical conversation with its own assessment.
What VBeam is good at
- Clearing the visible vessels and background flush of rosacea
- Taking out fine red lines and veins around the nose, cheeks and chin
- Fading the red marks left behind by acne after the acne itself has cleared
- Softening red and raised scars, including surgical scars
- Treating red birthmarks, port wine stains and angiomas, in adults and in children
- Evening out the mottled redness on the neck and chest from years of sun
How much of the visible blood vessels most patients lose after one to three treatments. Some people clear completely. [1]
How treatment works
Cold, then light
A burst of cold spray hits your skin a split second before each pulse. You feel the cold and the snap almost together. The cold keeps the surface comfortable while the vessel underneath takes the heat.
The vessel closes
The light turns to heat inside the vessel and seals it shut. Nothing is cut, nothing is removed, and nothing comes off that day. Skin that has no blood vessel in it barely registers the pulse at all.
Your body clears it away
Over the following weeks your body breaks the closed vessel down and carries it off. That is why the result turns up after the appointment rather than during it, and why this is planned as a short course rather than one visit.
The laser is set to a color your blood soaks up strongly and your skin barely notices. The energy lands where the blood is and does very little to anything else. That is why creams never reached this and a laser does.
Bruise or no bruise. You get to choose.
Here is the thing no other page about this laser in our market will tell you. It can be run two ways, and the difference between them is the whole of your next two weeks.
| Gentler setting | Stronger setting | |
|---|---|---|
| What you look like afterward | Pink and a little swollen, settling over 3 to 4 days | A bruise-like mark, fading over 1 to 2 weeks |
| Covered by makeup | Yes | Yes |
| How much clears per visit | Less | More |
| Visits you will need | More | Fewer |
| Best for | A wedding in three weeks, a job that faces the public, a first treatment | Stubborn vessels, getting it over with, a quiet stretch on your calendar |
Neither one is the wrong answer and neither one is a complication. The bruise-like mark is the treatment working visibly, and on some vessels it is the setting that actually clears them. What matters is that you know which one you are getting before you sit down, because a patient who bruises without warning reasonably believes something went wrong.
We decide it with you at the consultation, against your calendar rather than against a protocol. If you have something in three weeks, say so and we will plan around it.
How long results tend to last. The vessels we treat do not come back. New ones can form, especially with rosacea and with more sun, which is what occasional touch-up visits are for. [1]
Areas we treat
Cheeks and nose
The general flush of rosacea and the individual broken capillaries that sit on top of it.
Chin
Fine visible vessels, usually a short appointment on their own.
Neck and chest
The mottled red and brown patterning that decades of Central Coast sun leave behind.
Legs
Small surface vessels, where they are the right size and depth for this laser.
Scars
Red, raised or recent scars, including surgical ones, where color is most of what bothers you.
Birthmarks
Port wine stains, angiomas and infantile hemangiomas, after a diagnosis rather than before one.
This is a great place to be going.
The Coastal difference
A red mark should be looked at before it is treated
Not everything red is a blood vessel, and not every red growth is harmless. A dermatology practice works out what a mark actually is before pointing a laser at it, and that matters more here than almost anywhere else, because the laser removes the mark along with the evidence a lab would need. Red birthmarks in infants are treated with this laser too, including port wine stains and infantile hemangiomas, and that is a medical assessment before it is ever a cosmetic one.
It also means your redness gets treated as the condition it belongs to. Rosacea is a long-term condition with a plan behind it, and the laser is one part of that plan rather than the whole of it. On the Central Coast, where a lifetime of sun sits on top of everything else, treating the vessels and ignoring the rosacea is exactly why some people find themselves back in a laser chair every single year.
Is it right for you?
VBeam is probably a good fit if:
- What bothers you is red rather than brown
- You have visible vessels, a flush that will not settle, or a red mark you have stopped photographing yourself next to
- You have rosacea that is managed and you want the visible part dealt with
- You can give it two to four visits a few weeks apart rather than expecting one
We will steer you somewhere else if:
- Brown spots and sun damage are the bigger part of the problem, in which case IPL covers both at once
- You have a tan, fresh or from a bottle, which needs to fade first
- You are taking something that makes your skin sensitive to light
- You have an active infection or broken skin in the area
- You are pregnant
Not sure which of these you are? That is what the consultation is for, and it is why a red mark gets looked at before anything is aimed at it.
What to expect afterward
On the gentler setting, expect redness, some swelling and tenderness that settles over three to four days. Treated spots often go darker before they fade. On the stronger setting, expect a bruise-like mark that fades over one to two weeks. Makeup covers all of it, and you will know which one you are getting before you sit down.
In the first week, do
- Use a cold compress in the first few hours if you want to take the swelling down
- Keep treated skin covered or out of the sun entirely
- Wear broad-spectrum sunscreen, SPF 30 or higher, every day from here on [2]
- Let anything that darkens or crusts come away on its own
In the first week, don’t
- Pick or scrub anything that darkens or flakes
- Go back to retinol, acids or scrubs until we clear you
- Sit in a sauna, take a very hot shower or do a hard workout for a day or two
- Book a beach day or anything that puts treated skin in direct sun
Call us about anything severe, worsening or surprising: blistering, real pain, signs of infection, or anything that does not match what we told you to expect. We would far rather hear from you early.
Concerns treated
If the thing bothering you is red rather than brown, this is usually the right tool. Pick a concern to see how we approach it.
What treatment costs
VBeam is priced per session and by the size of the area, so a single broken capillary beside the nose and a full face of rosacea redness are not the same appointment or the same number. Most people are planning two to four visits, so you get the cost of the course at your consultation rather than one number that grows later.
Some of what this laser treats is medical rather than cosmetic, particularly birthmarks and vascular lesions in children. Where that is the case we will tell you, because it changes how the visit is handled.
If a cheaper or lighter option would serve you better, that is the one you will be offered.
Treatment time
15 to 45 minutes
Downtime
3 to 4 days of redness and swelling, or a bruise-like mark for 1 to 2 weeks on the stronger setting
Results appear
Over the weeks after each visit, not in the chair
Results last
Treated vessels are gone for years. New ones can still form
VBeam frequently asked questions
New vessels arrive faster on skin that keeps getting sun, so sunscreen is doing real work here rather than being generic advice. Broad spectrum, SPF 30 or higher, water resistant, every day. [2]
Offered at
Ready to start? Request your consultation
Fill out the form below, book online in Santa Maria (opens online scheduler), or give us a call. Cosmetic and aesthetic appointments need no referral. For medical dermatology in San Luis Obispo, we are accepting new patients by referral from your primary care physician; send the referral across and then use the same form. In Santa Maria, medical appointments are available without a referral for PPO patients, and for HMO patients we are in-network with Santa Maria Physician's Choice.
A consultation fee of $125 is due at the time of booking.
Sources and medical review
1. American Academy of Dermatology Association. “Lasers and lights: How well do they treat rosacea?” Reports that most patients see a 50% to 75% reduction in visible blood vessels after 1 to 3 treatments, that treatments are usually spaced 3 to 4 weeks apart, and that results tend to last 3 to 5 years, with treated vessels not reappearing but new ones able to form. https://www.aad.org/public/diseases/rosacea/treatment/lasers-lights · Medical Organization
2. American Academy of Dermatology Association. “How to select a sunscreen.” Broad spectrum, SPF 30 or higher, water resistant. https://www.aad.org/public/everyday-care/sun-protection/shade-clothing-sunscreen/how-to-select-sunscreen · Medical Organization
3. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 510(k) Premarket Notification K230990, Candela Vbeam Family of Pulsed Dye Lasers, Candela Corporation, cleared 1 June 2023. Cleared indications include facial and leg telangiectasia, rosacea, port wine stains, hemangiomas, angioma, spider angioma, warts, scars, striae, wrinkles, inflammatory acne vulgaris, and, in children, cutaneous capillary malformations and infantile hemangiomas. https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cdrh_docs/pdf23/K230990.pdf · Regulatory
Content on this page is for educational purposes and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Vbeam® is a registered trademark of Candela Corporation. Redness, swelling and tenderness for three to four days are expected, and a bruise-like mark lasting one to two weeks is expected at the stronger settings. Blistering, crusting, infection and lasting light or dark patches are uncommon but possible, and the risk rises on skin that is tanned or sunburned at the time of treatment. Tell us about any medicine that makes your skin sensitive to light, about a strong acne pill taken now or in the past year, about anything affecting how your blood clots, and about a history of raised, thick scars. This treatment is not suitable during pregnancy or where there is an active infection or broken skin in the area. Individual results may vary. A consultation fee of $125 is due at the time of booking.