Erasing Birthmarks
Every year, thousands of people are born with facial birthmarks. Some of them are truly disfiguring. But with advances in laser technology and microsurgery, they don't have to be. The Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm explains.
had to learn to live with her less-than-perfect face. On one side of her nose was a birthmark, a collection of dilated blood vessels known as a port wine stain. But it looked more like a nasty bruise. So through winter and summer, marriage and motherhood, Marlene hid behind a mask of heavy makeup.
Her daughter, Carrie Wood says, "It was such a thick, pancake, pasty makeup, it would give her a ghostly complexion. It was so white."
Last May, during the Week of Wishes, The Early Show introduced Marlene to Dr. Milton Waner, a pioneer in treating birthmarks using laser technology. And last month, Marlene paid Dr. Waner a visit.
The laser is highly accurate and can target only the malformed vessels that cause the birthmark.
And after five minutes, the procedure was over.
The laser marks will soon disappear. And in another session or two, her port wine stain will be just a faded memory.
Marlene and I have a few things in common: I was also born with a port wine stain. It's just under my left eye, and I have also come to Dr. Waner for treatment.
All right -- I was a little nervous. But I truly had nothing to fear: After a local anesthesia took effect, the doctor taped my eyelids shut, just to be safe, and the laser process itself happened faster than I could blink.
There's no recovery time needed: My face smarted a little, but I could sit up after a minute. And I could laugh immediately.
Of course, not all of Dr. Waner's cases are so easy. Consider the case of Alexis Davis. By all accounts, she was born beautiful.
"She was perfect," her mom, Stacy Davis says. "Family members referred to her as a little China doll, because she was perfect in every way."
But within two weeks a birthmark began to appear. Like a port wine stain, it involved blood vessels, but was much more pronounced.
Stacy Davis says, "It was probably a month after that it started getting bigger, and bigger. And I thought, 'Oh, goodness. What is it? What is this?' "
It's called a hemangioma. Baby Alexis' misshapen mouth kept her from eating normally. And forming the word every mother wants to hear.
Stacy Davis says, "There are certain words she cannot say. And that's the most exciting part: The day I hear her say 'Mama,' I believe I'll cry. I'll be so excited."
Dr. Waner has made a career out of helping children with disfiguring birthmarks, and he was confident he could help Alexis. Her hemangioma was too big for laser treatment alone. Microsurgery was the first step.
And two hours later, when Dr. Waner went to see mom and dad, he had good news.
On Tuesday morning, the 1-year-old girl was sitted on the lap of grandma Linda Collier, next to her mom Stacy Davis, and looking just beautiful in The Early Show studio.
"I'm still in awe over it," Collier says, "I mean, we sent her pictures from Turkey, to California, to Florida. Every place I go, it's before and after pictures because you just can't believe it. We didn't even recognize that she had an upper lip; it had pulled down so much. And this morning, when I was looking at her, getting her dressed, she's got a little dimple on her chin. We hadn't even seen that before. And I'm just so thankful. We've had a lot of churches praying for her and praying for Dr. Waner to come along."
Dr. Waner tells parents who have a child with a birthmark that the most important thing to remember is to find accurate information.
He says, "The old-fashioned way of treating these was to actually leave them alone and then when the child was 10, 12 or 14 do some surgery to fix it up. But clearly that's not the way to go. There is a lot more we can do early. This child is going to grow up not even knowing that she had a birthmark. So the information, accurate information, is absolutely essential."
Unfortunatelly, Dr. Waner had to fight for the insurance company to cover the surgery for Alexis.
"That is changing," Dr. Waner says, "but very slowly. A lot of the insurance companies feel that this is cosmetic surgery, which it clearly isn't. So there is a lot of fighting that goes on, a lot of arguing. But most of them acquiesce."
Has Alexis said mama?
"She said nana," Stacy Davis with a big smile says. "She's working on it."