The dermabrasion of the skin's surface is a procedure that has been around for more than 100 years. It's done by manually sanding or abraiding the skin's surface and deeper layers to improve scarring, discoloration or sun damage. This type of treatment is good for deeper scarring but in recent years microdermabrasion has become widely used for improving the skins appearance without any "down-time".

Microdermabrasion removes only the top layer of skin improving the skin's texture, color and encouraging cellular turnover. This has been done primarily with crystals that are blown onto the skin and then vacuumed up with the removed skin cells. An improvement to this method is the diamond tipped wands that resurface the skin with out the loose particles which can cause irritation to the skin and respiratory tract of the patient and clinician.

While many spas offer microdermabraison the treatment patients receive in a medical office is a deeper version of the non-medical procedure and is called "medical microdermabrasion".. After the treatment-which is painless- the skin is usually flushed but will return to normal in an hour or two.